Tuesday on our own in Taipei!

There was a 40% chance of rain today - and 10 degrees colder than yesterday - but cooler was better and it did not rain!  So out we went to catch all the things that we missed seeing so far in the west side of Taipei.  We started at one of the most famous temples - Lungshan.  Truly beautiful.

 A lone monk in the courtyard.  No one spoke to him - and he didn't speak to anyone.

This woman is picking up the two pieces of the Jiaobei blocks or Moon blocks used in a lot of temples.  You ask the god a yes or no question, toss the two moon shaped pieces to the floor to get your answer.  The pieces are moon shaped on one side and flat on the other.  Your answer depends on which side faces up.  If you don't like the answer you can rephrase the question and try again or if your answers are conflicting use the best 2 out of tries.  The woman above has gotten a "no" answer. In another temple I saw a women go at it for over 10 times.  Either she didn't like the answer or she had a lot of questions!

So many beautiful etchings and paintings - I really enjoyed them.

Behind the Lungshan Temple is the Herbal Medicine lane.  You can still buy a lot of medical herbs here.

Walking to the Qingshui Temple we passed several houses/buildings like this.  I don't think these can be renovated!

Next stop was the Bopiliao Historical District.  These are buildings dating back to the Qing dynasty.
Some have been renovated and are  in use.

Last stop of the day was at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Home.  I got the impression from the two guides yesterday that the Taiwanese are very proud of him.

I don't think Sun Yat-sen actually stayed here all that often, but the landscaping was very peaceful.  There were three men photographing a young Japanese girl dressed in a kimono in the house - even though there were signs saying "no photographs".  One presumes they had special permission!