Stages of Life - Humans and Trees

The day began with a visit to a Child Care Centre and Kindergarten run by the YMCA. This is a fantastic facility, with two floors of themed rooms (20 in all), including a library, an exercise room, a room divided in to countries, a sensory deprivation room for children to experience disabilities, a pretend shopping centre, and much more. It is very well attended during the weekends, by both adults and children.

The second visit was to an Aged Care facility, also run by the YMCA. It is very new, and has very modern facilities, and a great design. Some extra care regarding trip and fall hazards may have been appropriate, but it was a pleasure to meet and speak to some of the people who lived there.

Lunch was next - this was in a house which was 135 years old, and filled with all kinds of bric-a-brac and antiques. It was a pleasant lunch, served on beautiful china.

Change of hosts - Allan (who we met early in the exchange) and Nick proved to be very obliging and interesting companions. AnPing was set as the destination for the afternoon.

The historic fort of Anping was first crated by the dutch in the 1600's. Only one original wall remains today as the rest had been removed, rebuilt, changed etc by the Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese over the following 400 years. The 6 story walk up the main tower was invigorating. After a walk through the local market stalls the next stop beckoned.

From there to the tree house. An abandoned warehouse from the old port days that now has a fully grown tree growing through it. Next door was a wax museum for a quick history lesson. The journey to what was Taiwan's largest department store, for a quick look, finished the afternoon where we headed to dinner.

Dinner was at a Taiwanese restaurant, where the food was very fresh and a variety from the regional areas. One last stop on the way home was made at the Tainan night markets for a last spot of shopping as the next two nights have plans already made for us.