(note: the server is down again. so no pictures until it is back up).
friday and saturday i spent in tainan with most of peter's family for his youngest sister's wedding. i'd never been to tainnan before. after arriving, we were driven around to see some of the sites. the first stop after eating was this place called salt mountain.
it was pretty much what you would expect of the name. a big giant hill of salt for you to climb on and take pictures. in the picture above you can see the tip of a house, that's santa's house. outside of it is a figure of santa and some reindeer for children to have their picture taken with. i didn't get a shot of that though.
on one of the other salt hills there are some interesting salt sculptures:
after salt mountain we headed to the night market where you can buy cactus drinks:
or punk rock t-shirts:
after this we went back to the motel we had been booked into. this is the first time i'd stayed in a motel in taiwan, and this was certainly unlike any motel i'd ever stayed in before. each room had it's own tiny garage(with a shutting door!). there was a door in the garage that would lead to your room above the garage. our room contained two giant beds, a living room area, a big screen tv, and a giant bathroom with a shower room as well as a big jacuzzi bath tub. an odd thing is that the bathroom didn't lock, and the windows could be seen through quite well if you went up to look through the glass. not a big deal if you are wanting a romantic getaway, but if you are staying with friends or relatives, you may end up seeing more than you baragained for...
the next day was the official banquet day. peter's sister had to get all dressed up and sit around looking pretty while people came to wish her well and she handed out hong bao(red envelopes with money). she sits in her and her fiance's room. the bed in this room no female is allowed to sit on. only men can. as if men sit on the bed that means they can have a boy. they also encourage boys to jump on the bed.
after visiting awhile, peter, his younger brother and i headed out to explore tainan. we went to several temples. taninan has the oldest confucius temple in taiwan. all of the temples we went to in tainan we had to pay to enter. i don't think i've ever had to pay to enter a temple in taipei, but the fee for entering is usually under one u.s. dollar so not a big deal.
while walking around we came upon this christian church that i thought was pretty funny as it almost looks like a buddhist temple.
in the evening was the actual wedding banquet. this was a big deal. 50 tables(each seating around 10 people), a big stage with a live band and a hostess. as dinner was served, there were various forms of entertainment. a young woman singing old taiwanese songs, a drag queen(apparently from the most famous drag group in taiwan), a male stripper, etc.
the drag queen had a dress that turned into a giant fan, and she came out into the audience and did some sort of lap dance on one rather embarrassed young man. she then went back on stage and did a pole dance which was a little strange...
the male stripper was just plain bad. looked like someone had just come off the street and stripped. the routine just wasn't very interesting. definately not a threat to the chippendales.
later the bride , groom, and various family members went up on stage while people toasted them and gave speeches.
after this a few people went up on stage to sing some songs. one was an old song that had a certain spaghetti western vibe to it.
at the end of the evening we weren't allowed to say goodbye to the bride(it's like saying we won't see you again) and in fact we didn't see her at all, except from a distance. i was told it's better this way. technically she is part of the groom's family now. i know she's a little nervous about this, and has been trying to get peter and i to move to tainan. but i don't think that'll be happening.
