Today we had an earlier start than most days. Out the door by 7:30am to catch a train to Ruifang in the northeast.
A few hours later we reached our first destination: Houtong Cat Village! The small town is littered with cats everywhere you look. You can buy cat food if you want to feed them and the shops are full of cat-themed merch and food.
Back on the local train to continue on to Shifen Old Street. The tracks follow the Keelung River and it was really pretty.
First thing to do was select a Sky Lantern. Your choice of colors on your lantern determines the type of good fortune you are seeking: career, love, health, study, luck, happiness, etc. The selection process took a while 🙂
Once selected, they hang the lantern up so you can paint all 4 panels with your wishes and messages for the year.
Once fully painted we were ready for launch. They attached what smelled like a kerosene-soaked wad of paper to the underside of the lantern and fired it up!
They launch all the lanterns from the railroad tracks that go right down the middle of the village. The train only runs once an hour but when they start whistling everyone has to jump off the tracks for a minute.
After eating lunch here we had JUST enough time to squeeze in a quick 20-minute hike to a waterfall nearby. The kids were all troopers to hike so quickly. I think only a few of us really wanted to see the falls but we all made it.
We hustled back into town in time to catch the hourly train back towards Taipei. It was the most crowded train we’ve experienced the whole trip. 40 minutes of sweating, packed in tight against your neighbor.
Tonight Kojo has a surprise in store for us. He hasn’t told anyone, not even the adults, where we’re going. Everyone is supposed to dress up fancy so the girls are all doing makeovers and picking out their outfits. We’ll see what’s in store!