Let's go back... September 23... Tea Museum and Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

On September 23, the day we left Taiwan, we still manged to squeeze in an entire day's worth of touring! Mr. Yeh picked us up at 9:30 am which meant that we needed to be ready for the day, packed, go for breakfast, check out, and have our bags checked until later tht day all before 9:30 am! Somehow, it all worked out and we had 5 minutes to spare!




























Jill and Ian were already in the van waiting for us and we were on wisked away to the Tea Museum. I have to admit that the museum itself wa a bit on the boring side... I mean how many signs can you read about the growing and processing tea and how to claen your teapot??? But tour guides Shasha and Ian made the Tea Tour interesting! Shasha would just look at the pictures on the signs or in the display case and then tell all of us HER version of the Tea makeing process... and Ian... he would create characters like Bob and Chris and then tell us something that "might" have happened which may or may not have concerned tea! We all had to laugh at the display portraying the Tea Game! What seemed to happen is that someone would have scalding hot tea in a cup on a saucer and people in the crowd would just attempt to catch the tea cup filled with burning liquid in a netlike basket. Hmmmm... sounds like hours of fun!
Shasha kept telling us that a lady was going to give us a Tea Show and we just kept telling her that there wasn't a show here to watch. But after feeding the fish (AGAIN) and posing for many pictures in front of the tEa Museum's backdrop, believe it or not THERE WAS A TEA SHOW! We all sat down on little stools and a woman showed us how to prepare tea in the teapot. We sampled 2 kinds of tea and it was very good. Shasha loved that she had her own cup and was able to taste her very own samples! We also tasted Tea Cookies??? Shasha loved them and of course, Mr. Yeh bought her some! Then we were going to buy some tea but Mr. Yeh told us not to buy any here. He took us to a small family run tea shop where we bought our tea. I hope I have the courage to make it one day in the teapot that Mr. Yeh bought us! Lipton... in the the tea bags is just easy to make!





































Then we dropped Jill and Ian off at their hotel with well wishes for Friday when they would be united with their son, Alec. We exchanged info and vowed to stay in contact!
We went to the Handicraft Center to pick up our chops that we ordered for Po. They came out very nice! Mr. Yeh disappeared with Shasha around the corner at the Handicraft and of course whe came back with an orange juice! He also brought me back a grape juice and it was suprisingly different than what we are used to here in the States and it was super yummy! There were still grapes in it, so you had to chew before you swallowed your drink!

On the way to the airport we toured the Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. When the Communists ousted the Nationalist government in Mainland China in 1949, Chiang Kai-Shek headed the Nationalists as they fled to Taiwan. This memorial honors him. It was very hot and there were many steps to climb. We didn't hang out for more than half and hour. It was a beautiful place to visit though.