Date with Gulangyu continues...

Cafes, Cafes and more Cafes.

And yes of course if you're into seafood (that which I ain't), there's a whole rand of sea creatures from massive lobsters to pearl giving clams.

The pearls were replaced with something say..more edible?

They were on the grill so yeah, no one picked them up to hear for waves

Onto what we really accomplished today. Well...

We traversed some steep slopes, me in my flip flops and on lotsa Chinese women  in their platforms and on rarer occasions, stilettos!

We went all the way up just to climb down again for no apparent reason. The number of times I actually lost myself in this tiny island is beyond me.

On the way down, we visited 'ZhengCheng Gong', some awesome (according to Jan) official's memorial who played a significant role in China-Taiwan politics.

Zhieng xiansheng himself!

His memorial involved intricately designed murals, that I can only describe to the best of my ability for even a quick, discreet shot was conspicuous to the guards eyes. We were told off not once but twice "NO PHOTOS PLEASE".

Sigh!

We exited or you could say we sensed his potential move to chase us out.

While soaking in the sights and learning about new stuff is great and exciting, the stomach should never be neglected. Hunger should be taken care off immediately. Especially for a vegetarian. 

For the most part we tend to skip meals or eat random junk food to satiate our hunger since meat-less dishes can no where be found. And explaining to someone that sea creatures were once alive and so I don't eat them; can be a tedious task, I'd rather chew on my apple.

Fried Tofu with Chilli powder and pepper

Nevertheless there were a few dishes in Gulangyu that were vegan friendly. Breakfast thankfully have always been vegan friendly. Despite the overwhelming availability of seafood, they have yet to be accustomed with tuna bread pao or any other fish for that matter as breakfast. Which of course, worked well for me. 

Dough/Bao fusion with mushrooms and soy meat

I have been filling my tummy with lotsa noodles, bubble tea, vegan snacks and Mochi. Talking about mochi, there was this particular stall run by an old couple and man they make amazing mochi. It WAS THE BEST I have come across. I actually went "hmmm.." which made quite a few uneasy but that's not the point. It was so good I went back to get more. The sugar and the peanut butter combination was done perfectly to complement each other with having to taste uber sweet.

It has been in existence since 1987, as the small cut outs, and news paper articles on the mini mobile stall testified.

We boarded a what-should-have-been a short cable car ride but was instead very long, for it was moving slower than my granny's jog. And when the number of cars increased on a single cable, and the ones before us were yet to reach the end, our car stops mid air.

Yes, for about 10 seconds, we were suspended in mid air.

Jan who is afraid of heights started singing Church songs.

Having been suspended in air, made her feel closer to God I think. 


Hallelujiah!