During Chinese New Year, I decided to take a trip around Taiwan for everything that I could not find here in Kaohsiung. Peace & quiet, namely. F. and I took a midwinter trip to Penghu--always a windy proposition--and enjoyed the solitude for 6 days. I liked it enough that I thought about staying a few more days, so I extended by 2 days. On F.'s suggestion, I fly to Taipei instead of Kaohsiung, where I could get a little more time in Taipei. Every time I have gone there in the past has been for either a quick trip or for business, so not much time to play. After spending time in Taipei, I decided to take the train down to Kaohsiung via the beautiful East coast.
When we were in Penghu, we stayed in F.'s grandparents' old house. They passed away two years ago, 
so the house is quite empty now. It stands about 300 meters from the ocean, so there is a nice ocean breeze rustling around the place. Really not much happening out there. It is about a 5 minute scooter drive (we borrowed one from F.'s aunt--"A-ee" in Taiwanese) to the nearest town, but there isn't much there anyway. A few breakfast places, a pharmacy, a grocery, a shop with vegetables and meat. Oh, and a 7-11. There wasn't any need for vegetables, however, as we were told to walk out to A-ee's farm and grab whatever we wanted. For anything other than necessities, there was the trip to MaGong, the capital of Penghu.
When you live out that far, there isn't a supermarket nearby--none on
Penghu at all, in fact. The good news is that they come to you with
the food. The biggest happening every day out where we were staying on the eastern end of the island was the morning announcement at 9:30 that told us what goods were being sold at the local temple. Most of Taiwan is hooked up to a PA system 
that broadcasts various messages--often about what is being sold at the local temple courtyard that morning. The martial law years in Taiwan may in fact be responsible for the establishment of such a public announcement system, but now they often play music over the speaker near my house. Of course, being on Penghu, all announcements were in Taiwanese--Penghu Taiwanese at that. Even F., who speaks Taiwanese, could not decipher exactly what was being sold. So we usually took the opportunity to take the 3 minute walk to the MiaoKou "temple mouth" to see what we could buy. Sometimes groceries, sometime fresh-caught fish, sometimes dumplings or squid.
The weather was not too bad, all considered. It was sunny for 2 days, cloudy with not 
much wind for 2 or 3, and cloudy and very windy for 2 days. No rain, though, so it wasn't too bad. I am surprised at how little it rains here. Considering the size of some of the produce that we collected --huge cabbages twice the size of my head--it is strange how they can survive the soil, which seems to an Iowa boy to be almost sand. I manged to snap a photo of one of A-ee's neighbors out plowing the field with one of the numerous cows that roam around the wind-swept fields.
One of the windy days I went out to take photos of the old Fukkien-style houses here on
Penghu. There are so many here that are basically in ruins, but are so beautiful. There are some rumors around that out on Er-kan (on the western edge of the island) there are some people looking for someone to live in their old houses and keep the ancestors happy. Er-kan might be a bit far out for me, though, unless there was a ferry into MaGong. At any rate, I would love to buy one of these old houses and restore them--with some modernizations, of course. But not too many. I love the old flavor, and the big wood (or peanut-vine)-fired kitchen woks.
One day while in Penghu, we took a trip up to the Penghu Aquarium. It was VERY windy that day, and it was a bit of a struggle to keep the scooter upright on the bridges. But once we got there, it was a nice, quiet afternoon, just lookin' at fishes. I managed to get a nice photo of the area just outside the aquarium as the sun was starting to go down and the wind picked up....
Among other nice moments on Penghu--sorting peanuts with A-ee, dressed in true Penghu garb. Not an inch of skin exposed to the sun or wind! She is quite hard-working. Farming the field for sweet potatoes, collecting seafood on the shore, and going out shrimp fishing in the evening until late. In what is, frankly, rather wild seas. Her husband? Oh, he does some work out in the field, but mostly gambles, I gather. No comment. Penghu is famous for its peanuts, many of which are eaten plain or made into peanut candy. Here we are helping A-ee sort out the seed peanuts which will be sold to the man who comes by to pick up the harvested nuts from people out in the small towns.
After F. left for Kaohsiung, I moved to MaGong for two more days.
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