A Wonderful Day! Chris, Neot and Maya's First Day with Us in Kaohsiung!

Chris, Neot and Maya arrived LATE (back at villa and to bed by 1:30 to 2 am) last night (delayed plane; you know the story; and they were the LAST to get through customs because ,of course, they accidentally chose the line with a new guy in training!!) but they are here at last!

Maya was delighted with the panda stuffed bear from Nanaby and Granddad! Inside it is another head of the 2009 Kaohsiung World Games mascot!

Today, the idea was twofold: to see as much as they could given their short stay here; and to stay awake as long as they could, so as to adjust to the twelve-hour time difference!

In keeping with that spirit, we jauntily headed out, with Maya skipping along, for the twenty plus minute walk from our villa, down the hill, through the tunnel, along the streets on this end of the city and to the nearest subway for a 25 minute ride to the site of the old Sugar Factory! There, we found our way through a sugar cane stalk maze (Maya did great!) Then we headed to a one-room Museum on the history of sugar cane production in Taiwan, from over 300 years ago through the Japanese occupation during WWII years and to the end of its use in modern times.

Next we had a Taiwanese lunch of unnamed things that were, typically, a bit bland, a bit rubbery, a bit weird smelling (maybe fried squid balls again, a sweet sort of hot dog thing (not too bad), fried tofu (aided greatly by drowning it in ketchup) and some sweet but rubberized corn on the cob. We had wisely brought mac n cheese for Maya; (she had the best part of the deal!)

Then we went to the ice cream store there, but basically bought just some of their little kid toys, because we were not so in the mood to eat more nor did we want to take any chances on ice cream with egg in it!



After that, we took the little train ride they have there that wound through the sugar cane and corn fields. But, too late, we discovered it was only ONE WAY!!! So, we ended up having to walk a mile to the nearest subway entrance, instead of no walk if we had punted the train ride. Oh well, as you have heard us "say" before, what do we know???! Then we were thinking we would head home. It was about 2pm.

BUT, Maya got a second wind, and we all decided to try going to the Dream Mall as a fun place for kids (arcades, ferris wheel ride, bumper boat rides (totally cool!) bouncy castles for little ones to jump in, a carousel,etc).









Maya was delighted and had a ball, as we adults watched her with smiles on our faces at her happiness, and drooping eyes at our exhaustion!!

By the time we got home, Maya had zonked out (we hope for the night) and we had a nice scallops supper!