What we didn't do this weekend

We had many wonderful plans for this past weekend. Wanted to climb up the Qixingshan, the highest mountain of Yangmingshan, a decent-sized hills just north of Taipei. The weather was bad though, so we gave up on the mountain and looked for other activities instead. First, play some billiards, which is available freely at the university. One just has to borrow the equipment from the staff at the information counter. However, there was noone at the counter, and the cues and balls were locked up. No billiards. Then we decided to go ice-skating. Upon arriving at the Taipei Arena, probably the only place to go skating in Taipei, we found the ice-rink hopelessly crowded. It shouldn't come as any surprise, really, as every type of leisure activity gets hopelessly crowded on weekends. So we decided to come back on a weekday instead.

One thing that turned out well and dissolved all the sorrows was preparing and eating home-made mashed potatoes. That might seem like a too common of a thing to result in such a joy, but consider the Taiwanese environment. When eating out, potatoes are rarely seen, other than few bits in their curry meals. After 7 months of rice (6 times a week), noodles (5 times a week) and noodles made of rice several more times a week, it is natural to start looking for other options. Our local supermarket usually sells only sweet potatoes, which just don't cut it. At last, a more knowledgeable friends directed me to a nearby street market that actually sells proper potatoes at reasonable prices.

The days prior were equally interesting. One weekend before, a professor took about half of IMICS students on a "mentoring trip" to La La Shan (the Lala mountain). In a typical Taiwanese fashion, we spent about 3 hours on the bus driving there (one hour on the freeway, followed by two hours climbing up the mountains in the Taiwanese inland on narrow, winding roads high up over canyons and valleys), then had a lunch, followed by a short walk, then got back on the bus for the trip home, 3 more hours. The trip was only interrupted by dinner break and a short stop at a strawberry farm. See some pics at the end of the post.

On Wednesday, an Octoberfest took place at the university. For a small fee, we got to indulge ourselves in a fine selection of German and Taiwanese beers. The German beer was fine, except for the huge lines and the fact the beer was called Le ble d'or. No way that is a German beer. There were no lines for the Taiwanese beer, which was warm and bad. (though normally the local brews are pretty decent). Seeing how terms and words are used rather liberally here, it should come as no surprise that Octoberfest in Taiwan means drinking Belgian beer in March.

Pics from Lalashan:

A collapsed dam. During typhoons, the little innocent stream actually turns into a big river, fills up the entire river bed and has enough power to break a concrete dam like this.



A trail in Lalashan.



The main tourist attraction are these huge, old trees. Some of them are up to 2800 years old. Our group was however more interest in the centipedes, which were swarming the area.



Some random bridge.



On a side note, I didn't win anything in the receipt lottery.