Sunday, July 15th
This morning Jackie #2’s mom met us at our hotel to take us to the Holiday Jade Market. The market was a huge warehouse like building with rows and rows of vendors selling their wares. We had a great time shopping for jade, coral and gold. Jackie #2’s mom is excellent at bargaining and helped us all secure great deals. I learned a lot about to bargain and hope to use more of my new found skill during the rest of my time in Asia. The funniest thing about the market is that because it can be hard to communicate price back and forth and to ease the negotiation process, the vendor would hand a calculator over to you with the price and then I would put the price I was willing to pay (usually, they would laugh because it was low) and we would go back and forth like that until a price was mutually agreeable. I really wish you could negotiate prices at home. Maybe I should try it and see what happens!
I attempted to try on a jade bracelet and the vendor almost broke my hand! He put a plastic bag on my hand in an attempt to get the bracelet on, but it wasn’t budging. The expression on my face is priceless as he attempts to put this bracelet on.
I also got a jade ring stuck on my finger! Thankfully Jackie #2 had some lotion so that I could get it off.
After the Jade Market we headed over to East Taipei to the Eslite Bookstore and had plans to go see Taipei 101 but torrential downpour foiled our plans so we thought getting our nails done would be a great rainy day activity. It took awhile to find a nail place near our hotel but we finally did. We all got polka dot toenails and enjoyed our relaxing afternoon. I even got flowers put on my big toes! (Sorry if you don't like pictures of feet!)
We met Jim for dinner in Yongkang for the famous Yongkang Beef Noodles that I had with Jennifer and Jocelin. I am so glad that I got to eat their beef noodles again. I have never had beef that tender!
After dinner, we walked the streets of Yongkang and did some more shopping. We came back to the hotel for some blogging and laundry and felt like we were hanging out like college students in the dorms. I am so happy to have clean clothes to finish out the rest of my trip in Asia!
Hopefully, the weather is good tomorrow so we can go to Taipei 101 for some great views and sightseeing.
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