winter break trip part 4

we sat for a few more minutes on the side of the road. most everyone had left, but i noticed there was a woman and a man a little ways in the distance sort of keeping an eye on us in case we passed out or something like that. it was decided that amanda was in no shape, physically or mentally, to drive, so it was up to me to get us back. i had lost one of my contacts during the crash, but fortunately, my eyeglasses were in my bag and still in one piece.

i tested out the scooter a bit by myself, getting comfortable with it and making sure the lights and brakes were working, then amanda got on and we were off. for the first few minutes i was shivering uncontrollably. i'm not sure if it was the cooler night air, the shock from our accident, or both. getting back to kenting was pretty straightforward. as soon as we got near though, there were a lot more hazards... like people walking on the side of the road, cars and scooters pulling out, buses passing by us. at one point, i had a big bus on my left, an old man half an arm's length to my right, and a stopped car fifty yards in front of us. i had to speed up to pass the bus, praying the old man wouldn't move at all and that my spatial sense was accurate enough to keep us from colliding with anything.

we got back and sat on the balcony recounting the accident and the other details of the day, sort of reassuring ourselves that everything was okay. we had a good dinner at another thai food restaurant and turned in early.

the next morning, we checked out of our hotel, ate breakfast, and went down to the nearby chateau resort beach. it was a nice sandy beach, much like the one where we had beers two nights before. amanda pointed out and caught a few ghost crabs, so named because their shells are transparent. she told me one of her colleagues at academica sineca was renowned for having devised an effective trap for catching these guys. however, she clearly demonstrated bare hands and tenacity were really all that was needed.

after the beach, we went back towards our hotel and arranged to catch a bus to donggang, a town famous for its seafood. an hour and a half later, we got off the bus near the center of donggang. the town was only mentioned in passing in my guidebook, and as such, we had no maps to navigate by. we spent about thirty minutes searching for a street that was supposed to have a lot of seafood restaurants on it. later we found out it was pretty close to where the bus had dropped us off.

we walked into the first open restaurant we found at about 1:30. much like kenting, there didn't seem to be a lot of restaurant business outside of normal eating hours. the one we went into looked pretty nice, but had only one other table with people eating. i asked about their bluefin tuna sashimi and found out it cost an incredible $2000NT for seven pieces. instead, the waitress recommend we have some other sashimi, shrimp fried rice, and crabs, all of which were delicious. the shrimp fried rice is a specialty of this town. after our lunch, we found a visitor center that was selling pouches of these little shrimp as souvenirs.

we weren't in any hurry to get back on another bus, so we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around donggang. we went to a handful of interesting temples. the second one we went to was donglong temple, famous for its boat-burning ceremony as part of an offering to ask for the protection of the fisherman of the town.





it was a really nice place and full of life. what surprises me is how these temples are at once places full of tradition and yet firmly rooted in the daily activities of the town. just outside the entrance of the temple hung an led message board, scrolling what i guessed to be a calendar of upcoming events. meanwhile, between the temple and the main gate, a work crew was busy setting up a stage and testing a sound system in preparation for a concert. inside the temple, people were busy visiting each god and leaving burning sticks of incense. it was a nice place to rest a little until we were scared away by a hostile taiwanese man chewing betel nut, upset that i couldn't speak chinese or taiwanese.





we continued in a circle, hoping to see more sights before returning back to the bus station to arrange to get to kaohsiung. by the river we saw another temple, named dongxi temple, brilliantly lit by the setting sun. inside was a lot more peaceful and was a nice way to end our temple visiting after the encounter at donglong temple. we got a little lost on the way back, walking along roads that didn't seem very heavily frequented by visitors. on the way, we passed by a big set of the mysterious fish farms we had seen on the bus rides before. determined to find out what they were, i followed amanda into one where she asked the farmer what was in the ponds. it turns out that these ponds aren't fish farms but shrimp farms, one of which was the previous home of the shrimp we had for lunch that day.

we were a bit worn out from walking around all afternoon carrying all our bags, but we made it back to the bus station and arranged a ride to kaohsiung. after arriving in kaohsiung, we had a quick dinner at mos burger before getting on a train to tainan.