D84 -- Look like an Egyptian

The girls were in school and Margaret had Mandarin class, but Damon was able to take the day off to show us Longshan Temple. It was very beautiful, with an ornately carved main entrance leading to a series of courtyards. The first courtyard contained a garden area with three little waterfalls ending in a carp-filled pond. As you continued on inside there were ornate and colorful carvings everywhere. The music playing and incense burning was very relaxing – it kind of made you want to just zone out. We watched people lighting incense and oil lanterns, prostrating themselves, and making flower offerings. It's so interesting to see how other people worship.

We met Margaret and the girls at school and picked them up so we could drive through Yangmingshan Park to Yeliou, where there are interesting rock formations. They say the drive is beautiful, but today it was hidden by misty fog. We did get to see a couple of fumaroles – places where steam and gases escape from the earth. As we drove on it started drizzling pretty heavily, and by the time we got near Yeliou it was full-on raining. Part of the drive was along the coast, and I could tell that it was probably a very pretty area when the sun is out. We finally made it to the parking lot of the rock formations, but by now the wind was compounding the problems of the steady rain. We wandered around looking for the entrance, and finally found the way to the “mushroom rocks” that have been formed by erosion. One of them looks like the head of an Egyptian queen, and another like the tale of a whale. It's the kind of place where I'd normally take lots of pictures. We'd brought our camera with us and Thomas was trying to hold an umbrella over me while I shot, but the umbrella kept getting turned inside out because of the wind. It was just crazy...what is the deal with us and storms?!? We weren't the only ones crazy enough to be out in that weather, though. There was a BIG group of Japanese tourists there, too.

After all the weather drama we were happy to stay in and have Chinese take-out. I struggled much less than yesterday with getting food into my mouth as Emma was kind enough to offer me some chopstick guidance. I'm sure her tips will come in handy in Vietnam!

-Elva