\Houtong and a day around town

It's a series of public holidays right now, so everyone is taking a vacation. Monday is children's day, Tuesday is a day to visit the ancestors tombs.

Sunday, Lily grabbed a high school classmate and we took a train up to Houtong, a place known for its cats. Being that it is a public holiday long weekend, the train was beyond jam packed. We had to stand for the entire one hour ride.

We arrived in Houtong and i was surprised to see cat artwork everywhere. The town itself was clearly old and hadn't seen much renovation in recent years. There was an old, broken down coal refinery in the center. It seems that, like many towns across the world, this place's entire economy had rested on the coal refinery. When that shut down, so did the town. The town is full of old Taiwanese houses that are abandoned and broken down. There are very few places that are actually inhabited, and even those are very run down.

But there are cats. Plenty of cats.

In the beginning, it was just a few cats, but the locals who stayed behind started feeding them, and before long there were more and more cats. Now the town is famous almost solely for the cats. The cats, like all cats, ignore the visitors who flock around to take photographs.

After playing with cats and getting lunch, we headed back to Taipei, another difficult journey due to crowds and a very late train, but we did make it back!

In the evening, I was invited by a Rinpoche from Derge, who is also the uncle of a friend of mine, to attend some teachings, so I did that. We then chatted for a while about life in Tibet and India and Taiwan.

Today, the weather took a turn for the worse. Icky and misting rain. In the morning, Lily and I were lazy, which was nice. At lunch we visited Lily's parents who had a special treat! I have no idea what it was called, but it was a crepe filled with shaved peanuts, sugar, and different cooked vegetables. It was very delicious! I also now know one word of Taiwanese: Todaohu. Peanut. Lily's Grandma (who only speaks Taiwanese) was very happy with me!

In the afternoon, a friend picked me up to show me around town. We drove to some different places, then got Shabu Shabu for dinner followed by a foot massage. The foot massage was awesome, but those ladies who do it should be in the military or something. SO strong. Ow...

Worth it.