The Hillside Town of JiuFen

Jeremy and I took Michael to school again today. That avoids some of the craziness in trying to get him and Trina both out the door by 7:30. However, I forgot Michael's backpack... again. This time it had his lunch in it and so Jeremy and I had a taxi drive back up to our apartment, then back to the school. I hope Michael really enjoyed that lunch!

After that, Jeremy and I walked to ZhongXiao FuXing intersection to take the bus to JiuFen. Trina didn't seem really interested in coming and taking both boys is not easy. Taking Jeremy wouldn't be easy, but I wanted to visit. JiuFen is like the Banff of Taipei in that it's scenic and it's a tourist destination, even for the locals. We found the bus stop on the north east side of the intersection (after walking half-way around), then waited about 15 minutes for the bus. It's just like a city bus and it runs every 20 minutes. It's only 90 NT (less than $3) for a 90 minute bus ride. The bus was totally full and we got the very last seat. Fortunately, Jeremy fell asleep fairly early into the ride, because otherwise he doesn't stay still. While on the bus, I realised that just about everyone else is from Hong Kong. They look a little different from Taiwanese people, they almost all wear blue jeans and they speak Cantonese. And a little English, so I spoke for a couple minutes with the girl Jeremy had been playing with.

The ride was quite scenic, but the view of the Pacific Ocean, when we arrived, was spectacular. Then we started down the street with the attractions. There were shops with toys and nick knacks and art and food and snacks. Some of the time Jeremy walked, but much of the time I needed to hold him, because a lot of the stuff was breakable. Even if it's not very expensive, I didn't want to pay for broken stuff. Jeremy found a massager that he thought was a hammer (and which tickled his back), so I bought that for him.

JiuFen

Click above for the album.

Even though it was packed, we only saw four or five other white people. There were a few tour groups from Hong Kong, though. Part of the reason may have been that it was a weekday. We stayed for two and a half hours, which was how much I enjoyed it.

We went to grab the bus home... along with a whole crowd of people. They just crammed us all in the bus, but fortunately someone gave up his seat for us. That was great, because Jeremy went to sleep almost immediately. It was a Taiwanese boy, who had been sitting with his girlfriend, and I've found that Taiwanese people are very helpful. I wonder if Hong Kong people are not helpful, since none of them even looked tempted to give up their seats. The first stop was pretty close and enough people got off that a seat opened up for the boyfriend. A few minutes later, he used his cell phone to phone his girlfriend (beside me) and tell her to ask me to switch spots with him. Jeremy was fast asleep, so it was tricky, but he had given up his seat for me, so I made the effort.

Jeremy woke up as we pulled into the bus stop and we walked back to Michael's school. We bumped into our friend Linda, who invited us out for dinner. Jeremy, Michael and I played at a nearby playground until Trina was done work, then we went to a fancy Thai restaurant at the top of Sogo. Linda used her VIP membership (with the mall?) to get the next available table, and we enjoyed great service and delicious food. Trina says the boys were better behaved, but I think we were just more calm with them, because of the atmosphere in the restaurant. Imagine eating out like that all the time... but in Calgary that would be not only expensive, but inconvenient because everything is spread so far apart and the food takes so long to arrive.