still relaxed from the springs the final night offered something a little different. we returned to the shop, ordered our noodles, retreated to the stools, sipped a cold beer, lit a cigarette and chatted to christian (the german guy) who had come with us. between noodles, sips and tugs another german man invited himself into our company and so followed his life story in glorious detail with countless mentions of money and success........
after a while a group of locals arrived and invited us to sit with them. conversations followed as one of them spoke excellent english, and the others looked on and laughed. the locals drank a mixture of rice wine, milk and coffee which they poured liberally into our cups. the night passed slowly between politely refusing more drink, them still finding a way to pour more in when we were not watching, questions and answers, and then the jokes.
first of all we were treated to a guy who could place a 100NT note on top of a beer bottle, place a glass of drink on top of the note and remove it with a quick snap of a chopstick! then another guy who attempted to blow out the bottom of a beer bottle by tapping the top sharply with his hand. we heard a smash of glass but knew not whether he succeeded or the bottle fell to the ground.
i then took the opportunity to create boner man ( a trick i learn't in the himalayas from an american guy) which was creating a small paper man from an empty cigarette packet.. and then name suggests the rest. it went down well, all the locals wanting to play with it and try it numerous times... i even taught one of them how to make one and tom and I joked that in five years we will return to find everyone making boner men.. what have i done?
the clock kept ticking and finally we decided it time to break off this wonderful evening and get some rest before the early start to taipei next morning.
alot of handshakes, many smiles and a short bike ride later we were asleep again to the sound of the fan whirring in the distance and the smell of jasmine intoxicating us with joy.
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