March 12, 2011

Our friends Mavis and AC wanted to take us out and about today so we met up with them near their house for breakfast first. Finally good egg crepe!

Good rice milk and good soy bean milk.

Ron’s favorite petal bun with fried dough stick.

Come here, highly recommended. They also have delicious green onion bread.

We visited their home briefly since their son was staying home sick and to borrow some warmer clothes for Simon. Most of his clothes were dirty and he only had clothes left for warmer weather (for when we go to Singapore) so Mavis let us borrow some of her son’s old clothes.

We went for lunch at Smoky Inn Restaurant, a German restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Amazing sausages with that nice snap! when you bite into them. Also an interesting duck breast dish with red cabbage, a bit tough but tasty.

After lunch, they took us for a drive to Ju Ming Museum, a famous Taiwanese sculptor. If you can find your way there, it’s worth a visit. He has some pretty interested pieces, many carved from styrofoam then bronzed. He has quite a few sculptures related to the military. These are paratroopers.

A soldier in a cage.

Attention! (There is actually an empty slot on the other end for you to insert yourself for a photo).

There is also a Children’s Play Area. Inside there is this map you can draw on… unfortunately I did not write dark enough but the green arrow to the right is from me and it says “Simon from California”.

Outside the children’s play area is this water painting wall. You use water to draw and as it evaporates, it disappears. Their daughter Jasmine drew the fish. I forget why we made Simon = the fish…

Ron as a paratrooper!

There is also a garden of tai chi statues.

The sculptor seems to have a sense of humor as he created this piece with spaces for you to join in the line-up.

Hmm… marriage = prison?

Simon was pointing at this plane.

We went for a tea break and had an egg custard. Simon was curious.

He really enjoyed eating it.

Watch him munching away.

I had a lavender milk tea to wash down the custard.

We then checked out other parts of the museum. We came across Albert Einstein and kept ourselves dry underneath his umbrella.

Then there was some random wall art.

Then inside the lobby before heading out.

A little nap on the way to Danshui.

We had a light dinner of pork buns and soup with wonton and stuffed fish balls.

Simon liked the broth but not the stuffed fish balls.

We walked around and played some of the games, did some shopping, and had more snacks. This is chinese sausage stuffed with green onions.

This is ba wan using a reddish tint seasoning and only meat, no mushrooms and very finely diced bamboo.

Deep fried mushrooms.

Last dessert of the night: Japanese pancake with green tea ice cream and red bean.

Mavis and AC dropped us off back at our hotel to get some rest. Thank you for taking us all around today and showing us some new things. It was lots of fun and now we were exhausted and ready to rest of the night.