Dragon Boat Festival
Lukang, June 22, 2004
journal post
It all started with the invasion of rice dumplings all over the place. Everyone is giving us rice dumplings, and though we love them, I think we're getting a little dumpling'd out.
Then, this morning the familiar aroma of burning plastic filled our apartment, as families went outside to burn money for the gods.
I knew I couldn't spend my only day off since January in bed, so we got up and headed for the ocean, hoping to find the popular annual Dragon Boat Festival. The small highway was so nice. Who would have thought you can find such peace and quiet under a superhighway?
Lukang's Dragon Boat Festival is held out of town in a huge industrial park. I've seen the industrial park from an airplane and it's amazing. It's a man-made island, that is perfectly square in shape. I loved driving through it and seeing all the huge industries- after all, what product isn't born in Taiwan?
The roads were 4 lanes wide so Mark and I couldn't resist having a race, full throttle! We both thought for sure that I would win because my scooter seems a bit more powerful, but to our surprise Mark's took off faster than mine. His kept ahead and I could see smoke coming from his. We both had the pedal to the metal and finally mine caught up and passed him just in time before we reached the finish line- at an impressive 115km/h! We were both a little surprised at how much fun that was- uh oh!
We found the Dragon Boat race site and settled in. Out came my little camera in hopes of some good photos on this hot overcast day.
I must admit that after seeing the races in Kaohsiung last year and Lukang this year, they aren't that exciting. Still though, the boats are pretty and everyone is happy and having a good time. The races consist of two boats racing at once, and whoever pulls the flag first wins. There are 16 people rowing, one drummer, one steerer, and one flag grabber. Here's one of the races:
Until next year!