Master of the Mountain

Well I guess it's always a good thing when you are so busy you have no time or energy to sit on your computer. So I will try my best with this week in review:
Dave and I did a walking tour of Cijin Island which runs parallel to the city; it was a fantastic day with sun and rain. We walked up to the old battery which is a historic site, used to be an old fort on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean to protect the city. We made our way up to the lighthouse (also a historic site) and then down to the beach and out onto the pier. Kinda of a magical day really.
Russ and Ang were running a week behind so Dave went off to Kenting alone and I stayed and started to paint and relax. Went to KTV with some locals one night and sang a couple of songs - KTV for those that don't know is a private room for karaoke - but they kept my wine glass full so I didn't mind all the Chinese singing. The next evening we had a party at the apartment - actually we had friends over to play a board game (cranium) and our neighbours got really mad at us and called the landlord - even though it was only 10:30pm on a Saturday night - so we took the party to the streets and sat on the sidewalk a couple blocks away and had a few more drinks until 3am.
Russ and Ang finally arrived on Sunday and they have been doing pretty well adjusting to the time change. Dave took Andrea, Shanwen and I out to the 85 building for a fantastic buffet dinner on his last night.
On Monday Russ, Ang 1, Ang 2 and I went to Lotus Lake, there are all sorts of beautiful temples around the lake - it was a great first day experience for people eager to take pictures. Some temples are confusing as to what religion - it would be like going to a church where Jewish, Catholic and Baptist all share the building and in different sections are different sculptures to worship depending on your belief. I enjoyed the Confucius temple because it was simple. There were no sculptures just a nice serene courtyard.
Yesterday was more relaxed - Andrea treated us to an afternoon at the spa. It was really amazing, it is all water but there is all sorts of jets that you can turn on to massage different areas of your body - I will definitely be going back there.
Last night we went shopping at a night market - Russ and Ang were too tired and overwhelmed to process the experience I think - plus the polluted air has been a big shock to their system. But we did buy a few things.
Today was Angela's birthday so I planned a nice walking tour away from the over crowed city. This morning we went to Monkey Mountain, we were confused about where the park began - than a kind old man asked "do you want to see monkeys? There are many many - follow me!" So we did and he took us on a 2.5 hour hike. He walks the mountain everyday and is 75 years old - he knows everyone that we came across and we stopped at the top of the mountain at this jungle gym type thingy and shared some hot tea with some kind strangers. One told us that we had met the master of the mountain.
We continued our tour onto a Buddhist temple and over to the Former British consulate which is a historic site that sits on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean. In the basement of the building is a dungeon maze. We finished the tour at the north gate which is another historic site on the ocean where there were once cannons protecting the city.
Friday we embark on a journey up to coast through the mountains back to Taipei. And on the following week I head off to Hong Kong for a few days - currently I am going alone but my fingers are crossed that I find a friend to come along.
That's it from the east.