Taitung to Bunun Leisure farm(Taoyuan village) 30km

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Short ride(STILL into the wind) to Taoyuan village area near Luye to meet up with Yedda who Chris had met snowboarding in B.C last winter. She is Taiwanese and lives near Taichung but has done volunteering with the Bunun tribe in Taoyuan village and wanted us to check out the area and meet some of her friends there! We stayed at Bunun leisure farm and took in some traditional song and dance as well as met some of Yedda's friends there. We went to the village and hung out with the elementary school kids for a while who were practicing high jump and baseball for an upcoming sports competition. We did the introductions and the kids enjoyed using a few English words. Luckily Yedda was able to translate all the questions they were asking such as why Chris' eyes were blue, were they real, and didn't it hurt? We also biked/walked up to Hong Yeh village with Yedda and Elan-the fiesty 'almost' 9yr old(as he put it) youngest of the family Yedda was staying with. Hong Ye actually means maple leaf! We visited a local baseball diamond where the local kids team was also practicing for the upcoming competition. We also visited the baseball museum commemorating the 1968 team that beat Japan in a big match and put Taiwanese little league on the map. They take their baseball seriously in the village. So much so that apparently a lot of the kids on the team are now 'ringers' brought in from other areas! We had a couple of good meals at the same little village restaurant where there's no menu, they just tell you what's available that day/meal and then later hung out watching some local girls practice some dancing and the guys preparing to practice for tug-of-war, complete with coach! Unfortunately the rope had gone missing so we only witnessed the 'limbering up' and instead we hung out chatting with the kids again while Chris gave them all rides on his bike. One of the men also gave Chris some betel nut to chew so he gave it a whirl! Here's a link with some info. on the betel nut chewing here in Taiwan: http://www.travelsinasia.com/Taiwan/betel-nut.htm Coincidentally(very) the night after we left this area Taiwan had one of the strongest earthquakes(6.6)they've had in a long time and the place where it was felt the most was " a remote mountain village in southwest of Hualian " ---it was Hong Yeh. Luckily there were no casualties and no major damage reported.

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Photos

Longtian
This shot is taken from the main rd. We stayed just outside of Longtian. Just out of view on the left up higher is Hong Ye(or Hung Yeh).

Banana Flower
The banana themselves are covered

Hilarious
We were a little late getting the photograph but this lady had just put on Chris' helmet and posed for a pic. We had a little chuckle because it would have been sweaty and gross, I would never have put his helmet on!!

Riding through the banana fields
This was between the leisure farm and Longtian village

New bridge
There is always a lot of roadwork due to typhoons etc. This area had been rebuilt a few times apparently so they decided to really beef it up with this new bridge, and lots of slope stabilization.....

Look closely
If you look closely there is an old tire grown right into the side of this tree in Hong Yeh. It's been there about fifty yrs. it was used for some sort of batting practice.

Bike rides
Notice the betel wad in Chris' cheek?