J-Team: DC: Happy Tomb Sweeping Day!!!!

Well this past weekend was a national holiday, "Tomb Sweeping Day"! We had a couple of days off so we decided to go on a trip. Our destination you ask? Alishan (pronounced like the name Alison but with an 'sh') National Forest. We had read and heard some good things about the place so we thought about it and took the plunge. It's well over half-way down the island so we thought we might be in for a haul, however, the high-speed train got us there in around an hour. That was pretty nice. We were going to spend a night in the city that is just outside the "Forest Area" called Jiayi. Jiayi welcomed us with what Jess called "the best bathroom ever". She immediately took a bath and I went on to find out where to purchase our bus tickets to the famed Alishan ('shan' means mountain so the name is literally Ali mountain). Got our tickets for the next day and then we went to the local night market for some festive goodies (no bread/guns though).

Saturdays bus took us to Alishan, once we checked in we found out where to buy our train tickets for the famed 'sunrise' on another mountain called Zhushan (pronounced Joo, so Joo mountain). We were promptly notified that the train will depart at 3:40am. Excuse me? Yes. Crap! So we went on a little nature hike that made Jason wonder why God made mountains so high and steep then off to bed to watch 'Animal ER' until we dazed off. (Hey, we get three Chinese channels at home, so when there's Animal Planet available we watch it baby!) We got up at 2:45 to get on the train with what seemed like the rest of Taiwan. There were so many people it was unbelievable. The sunrise was beautiful, except for the man on the loudspeaker who was apparently giving some vital information b/c everyone seemed fixated on him. Jessie kept asking me what he was saying and I would act like I was thinking about how to translate the complex meaning but then would say, "I have absolutely no idea". That way she thinks for a brief moment that I'm really smart.

The ride back to our departure city was quite a ride. The bus driver felt it necessary to go about what I would say was 50mph down the mountain. Which immediately made Jessie the most sick she's been in years. We got off and decided to go to a local "pub" for "pub food" because we had had enough of tofu and shredded pork! The pub was closed unfortunately. We were bummed but when we got back to Taipei's train station we saw a beacon of light shinning on a provision from the Lord, that manna from heaven.......a Lebanese restaurant! In Taipei you inquire? Yes I say, and it was wonderful. Food courts here are actually nice. All in all a good trip for the Mannings. By the way, did you sweep out your tomb?

So these are a few samplings from our picture collection:

The Mannings on the high-speed rail. If you look in the window you'll notice....nothing, we're in a tunnel. (You looked anyway didn't you?)

We got lost in Jiayi, so I went inside a store to ask directions. The lady said it's really far so she closed her shop and gave us our first ever scooter ride to our destination. We were shocked by her generosity, the Taiwanese will often surprise you. It was also funny because when Jason was on the back of the scooter he could actually see over the head of the driver quite nicely. Jason felt like Shaquille O'Neil.

This youngster at the night market literally throws and catches your drink (milk tea) from cup to cup in order to mix it. This picture doesn't do it justice but at one point her arms were spread as far apart as they could go as she tossed it. Then she poured your tea in a.......