first a birthday shoutout to my favorite korean, bo-ra! happy barfday! and thank friendster, because god knows i cant remember anyones birthday on my own!
CHRISTMAS, YAY!
christmas day was our last day in kaohsiung. we set out in the morning towards the crazy motherfucking mountain roads that lead to my mothers hometown of kuang-fu. we tried to warn dave ahead of time…”dave, the roads…they are like crazy shit.” and he goes “nah, ive been thru the cali mountains. this wont be any different.” whereby we reply ominously, “you are not ready.” or something. but whatever, we set out onto the eastern highway leading north. before we hit the mountains tho, we made a road-side stop at a fruit stand, where my parents picked up a bucket (literally) full of some native fruit they didnt even know the english name for. it was good tho, but super-delicate. if you pressed it too hard, it opened right up.
wikipedia break
hmm, guess wiki says theyre called sweetsop, or sugar-apple. sure, im down with that. theyre pretty delicate, but sweet and good. we had to pack them lightly in our van tho…the slightest pressure opened them up. then they get all gooey and sticky and blech. i think thats all thats worth noting for this day, besides the fact that the mountain roads had dave crying in the back. we drove for a really long time thru the mountains til we finally hit kuang-fu in the evening. we paid a visit to various relatives who still lived in the village, ate at my grandfathers restaurant, then headed out to catch some tribal amei cultural village. it was (literally) in the middle of nowhere, and we needed aunt number four(?) to come with us to show us the way. apparently the place is more of a stop for tour buses than it is for locals driving up. the show was packed with numerous japanese tourists who piled out of i think three giant buses…word. the show was interesting and entertaining. it also didnt hurt that a good half of the amei performers were obscenely cute. where do they find these girls?? wow, thumbs up.
* full set of taiwan06 pics on flickr.
thanks, !h~! too bad we can’t get together and grab drinks! soon! i tell you, soon! 😀