back to the blog

busy travels and no internet have kept the blog quiet this past week, but ani and i arrived back in tainan this afternoon so i find myself now, feet up on the coffee table, computer on lap, ready to recount our adventures.

i've been keeping a little travel journal, making it possible to go all the way back to last monday and fill in the details... after posting my last blog entry, andrea and i took a walking tour of some of tainan's temples. there are so many temples here, confucian, taoist, buddhist, and most all of them are incredibly ornate and colorful. of all the temples we visited that day, we spent the most time at the large temple honoring the sea goddess matsu. we wandered the multiple chambers of the temple, filled with rich woods, gold statues, and ancient plaster reliefs left over from the temple's previous life as a king's palace. because of the proximity to the new year, the temple was bustling with neighborhood patrons, painting signs and hanging decorations. many people were also lighting incense, saying prayers for the year ahead; fortune-seekers tossed small crescent-shaped wood pieces on the ground (the clink-clank of the wood was the predominant noise inside), looking for answers in the patterns.

a highlight of the day was that we successfully ordered our own meal at one of the small menu-less restaurants on our path. the owner of the restaurant humored our pointing and poor pronunciation, and we were presented with a perfectly simple meal of sweet potato greens (we're addicted!), baked tofu, and baifan (white rice). especially exciting for me was the addition of a sliced tea egg, basically a hard-boiled egg stewed in tea and five-spice broth. mmm. better tasting than the description allows.

after lunch, we happened upon a wiry old man hand-making tatami mats and were mesmerized by his speed, the strength of his hands, and the precision of his work as he sliced and wove. his wife, noticing our interest, brought chairs out for us to sit on. we sat quietly in the city dusk, completly absorbed in the rhythm of his work. a few more temples after that, a big seafood dinner, and then the first of our introductory buddhism courses preparing us for the upcoming meditation retreat to close the day.