This blog will contain some introspective and wishy washy nonsense, so if that's not your bag, I understand.

Right so, after the crazy fireworks in Xinzhu, comes a day off that resumes the time honored tradition of me hiking. This time it was that giant mountain you see on the way to Danshui. Guanyi Mountain is pretty remote, maybe the most remote mountain I've been to. The length of the trail was about 8km, so it took quite a while. At the end it let me be stranded in Bali. I had intended to take the boat from there back to Danshui, but they don't run on Tuesday afternoons - so I had to bus it back. Before leaving I did find a little bit of excitement in Bali, but there's really no reason to go there when Danshui is so much closer and better. On the way home I stopped at Beitou to see a few touristy things I never got the chance to do before - Thermal Valley and the Hot Springs Museum. Both are actually pretty cool, but you can do each in under 10 minutes. Thermal Valley is one of the 3 sources of hot water for the springs, and the whole place is covered with a sulfur fog. It's pretty much hell if you stay near it too long.

I'm also pleased to report, at long last, I have visited the Toilet Restaurant. Yes, this is a thing. An entire restaurant, where all the decor is toilet themed. Surprisingly (or not), this place isn't super popular with the locals. It's really not that expensive, comparable to like an Applebees. But the food is kind of... meh. Or at least my chicken curry was meh. A bit bland, I prefer the microwave version at 7. You can't deny the presentation is awesome though - I'm a big fan. So Lindsay, I'm sorry we weren't able to go when you were here, but you're really not missing that much.

So that's about it for life event stuff. Now for me, more wishy washy and personal, I've been having a bit of a quarter life crisis (shut up, I'm making it to 120). Nothing too extreme I assure you, but it was kind of started by a salary issue at work, which thankfully has been cleared up. But the result was that for a while, there was a chance I would be very broke for a few months. Thankfully I won't be, but taking more careful look at my finances caused me to realize I'm really not saving as much here as I did in China. I mean, it's a lot better than being in the negative for sure. Dan has frequently told me that I worry about money too much. He's right, I've always known he's right, but only recently I'm trying mentally to overcome that worry. I'm also trying to think about what really makes me happy. It sounds trivial, but it can be a surprisingly tough question to answer. The best I can come up with is that I like to feel unique. I like being able to say I've done something nobody or few people have done before, which I guess is a large part of the impetus to move to Asia. Anyway in short I went and got a crazy new hairstyle, which I'm trying to convince myself is "New Weg" - the guy who doesn't worry about anything, and is a better friend.

Seriously.. I have product in my hair now. I don't know if this will last long.