We had breakfast at the Munching Kitchen again. Our taxi driver arrived promptly at 8:00am. She was a lovely middle-aged woman who spoke only a limited amount of English. Her cab was like new and spotless - it even had a satellite TV built into the dashboard, which was tuned to a TV station playing Chinese pop music videos.
Our first stop of the day was the Penghu Wind Farm, located just north of Magong City. We were able to drive right up to the turbines and take pictures from below. They were so quiet and the movement of the turbine arms was mesmerizing.
From there we drove north a short distance. Our driver pulled off the main road and stopped in a village next to a small kitchen garden. She instructed us to get out of the taxi, and she took us to the "rock" wall surrounding the garden. It was actually made from large pieces of coral!
I won't go into huge amounts of detail about the day's tour. The highlights were the Erkan Village, the Matsu Temple with the underground turtle sanctuary, the West Fort tunnels, and Whale Cave Park. At lunchtime our driver asked if we wanted "xiao chi" or "canting" - we totally wanted canting, or a sit-down air-conditioned restaurant. She took us to Ching Shin Seafood in Xihu, which I'm guessing is quite famous for its food and funky seafood-themed decor. The menu was partially translated into English - probably why our driver took us there - and I was able to order two or three dishes for us. We were the only "whiteys" there and I'm willing to bet that Westerners didn't frequent the place.
Sadly, we had to be back at the hotel by 4:00pm. We said goodbye to our driver, Lily, and headed to our room to wash off the day's sweat. Mom and I had massage appointments at 5:00pm and Simone's appointment was 6:00pm. The "spa" itself was on the 9th floor of the hotel, in some repurposed hotel rooms. The owner of the spa was my masseue, and I should have guessed I was in for a pummeling when she told me she was quite powerful. An hour and a half later I was sore, bruised, and definitely not "relaxed" from my "relaxation massage." Hah. We compared experiences afterwards and I guess we all had the same treatment.
One thing that is culturally different about Taiwanese spa massages is ... where they massage you. We were all quite shocked when our masseuses pulled down our knickers and gave our bottoms a good rub-down. The masseuses also massaged our bellies and breasts. It was a little bit too intimate for my liking but I guess it's standard practice.
After a day of adventure and our "relaxation" massages, we were completely tapped out. It was an early night for us again.
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