Tainan

On Monday morning we took the train from Jiayi to Tainan.  Sofi said hello to Mr. Lin who runs a business that rents scooters at the train station.  Mr. Lin says hello to all the missionaries who come through the train station.  He almost didn't recognize Sofi without her name tag.

Once we were in Tainan, we took a bus to the old part of town.  Sofi saw a bing shop across the street from the bus stop and decided it was time to introduce us to the miracle of bing.

Here is a photo as we enjoy our first bowl of bing.  This bowl has mango, strawberries and bananas on top.

Other kinds of bing are nice, but mango bing is the best.

Abe and Gibson bought layered smoothies to take with us.

Tainan was the capital of Taiwan from 1683 when the Chinese general Koxinga invaded Taiwan and kicked out the Dutch until 1885 when the Japanese invaded and displaced the Chinese rulers.  The oldest part of the city is called Anping.  This symbol of a lion with a sword in his mouth decorates many buildings in Anping.  Koxinga's soldiers used shields shaped like lion heads.  When the soldiers were at home, they would hang their shields on the doors of their houses and slide their swords into the lion's mouth like the drawing.  The shield and sword were a warning to thieves that a soldier lived inside and they should pick a different house to rob. 

We went shopping at stone lion square.

Colorful lion statues made of stone guard the entrance to the market.  This lion doesn't look like he is a effective guard.

And this lion looks hopeless.  His sword is too decorative to be of any use.

We walked from Anping to the beach.  Sofi had only ridden her bike to the beach before and it took longer than she remembered.  The kids loved the warm water.

Gibson dug a large hole in the sand.  He's just getting started in this photo.

Small crabs were also digging in the sand.

We took a taxi from the beach to a restaurant to meet Susan and Eric.  Susan is the nurse practitioner who made sure Sofi got good medical care when Sofi got sick while serving in Tainan.  She also emailed us detailed daily updates while Sofi was recovering, providing all the medical information Brandan needed to assess Sofi's condition.  We were happy to meet Susan and thank her for helping Sofi through a rough spot.  Susan and Eric both spoke excellent English, and also spoke Chinese with Sofi.  They are expecting their first baby next month.

Eric sells computer stuff to customers throughout Asia and this hot pot restaurant is one he often brings clients to.  The menu was half an inch thick.

Hot pot is called hot pot because there is literally a pot of simmering soup in the middle of your table.  This table had an electric hot plate under the pot to keep the broth cooking.  Eric ordered for us and did a good job balancing Western and Taiwanese tastes.  Waiters brought us plates of thinly sliced beef and pork along with lots of side dishes.

You cook the meat by holding it in the broth using small tongs.  Susan and Eric said 8 seconds was the perfect amount of time to cook it.  You can also use the tongs to pull out some of the delicious vegetables that are cooking in the broth or use a ladle to serve yourself some of the broth.  

Occasionally a waiter would pour more broth into our pot or dump in more vegetables.  Besides the meat and vegetables of the hot pot, we tried a variety a new dishes including tripe, seaweed cooked with scrambled eggs and fresh bamboo shoots.  The tripe and seaweed wasn't as bad as we thought it would be.  The bamboo shoots were delicious.  We tried a glass of dried plum juice which tasted like barbecue sauce.  Helen's favorite dish was the beef.  We're proud of all our kids (and ourselves!) for trying so many new foods.  We had a great evening getting to know Susan and Eric and trying out a Taiwanese specialty.

Tuesday morning we left our apartment in Jiayi for the last time.  Brandan stopped at a cafe for breakfast-- lettuce and tomato served with rice shaped like a bun-- a Taiwanese breakfast sandwich.

Becky always intended to write in her journal during train rides, but it was more interesting to look out the window at the passing scenery.  This was our third trip heading south of Jiayi so she made a few quick notes.

We stored our luggage at the train station and walked to a soup dumpling restaurant to meet Sister Chen for lunch.  Sister Chen's husband was the bishop when Sofi served in the Tainan ward.  Sister Chen ordered for us and went over the menu carefully with one of the cooks to make sure she ordered enough gluten free food along with the dumplings.

Soup dumplings are an amazing creation.  Along with the filling, the cooks put a piece of jellied broth into the dumpling wrapper.  When the dumpling cooks, the broth melts into liquid.  Eating a dumpling is like eating beef noodle soup with a soup spoon in your left hand and chopsticks in your right.

Abe and Helen had meatballs covered in rice instead of dumplings, along with some side dishes.

Sister Chen also invited two sets of missionaries serving in her ward to lunch so we made quite a large party.  Clockwise from Sofi are Brandan, Gibson, Helen, Abe, Sister Graham, Sister Galer, Elder Nelson, Elder Muhlstein, Ammon and Sister Chen.  Sister Graham and Sister Galer were on their missions while Sofi was here and she was an STL to both of them.  She knew Elder Nelson, but hadn't met Elder Muhlstein.

Our large lunch didn't stop us from getting smoothies soon after.  This time we tried avocado milk and watermelon juice.  They were good, but mango smoothies are still the best.

So far our photos haven't reflected all the time we spent shopping for clothes.  Clothing is very inexpensive in Taiwan and Sofi, Abe and Helen all bought lots of clothes.  We stopped at a couple of department stores on our way back to the train station.  Gibson isn't very interested in clothes and didn't buy any.  Which was a good thing as his suitcase was filled with Gudetama.