Sadly I did not go on a 15h hike to a river in the mountains in Canada to pan for gold but I will be keeping my ear to the ground to see if I can try it.

I tried panning for gold in a famous goldmine exhibition in Taiwan in a place called Jeu fen it is a  beautiful and idyllic town in on the island of Taiwan.

In Canada it’s illegal to mine for gold in the rivers without permission, I really hope to try it for real one-day but I’m happy I got To try and plan for gold.

Even though it was one of the things you do as a tourist (IE pay 30 $ and get pushed from one place to another) where there are little kids next to you crying that Peppa pig is not playing on loop 24-7 with the parents seeking something more than just milk in to there coffee to take the edge off life.

This is the story

There is a slight cool breeze passing through us as are a little group of people are standing at the entrance of the Jeu fen gold mine museum and camp. we are chatting and making dumb jokes

– or at least I am-

We start in one of the main buildings an old processing plant, turned in to a showroom and I am not going to lie there is a fuck ton of gold, there is gold jewellery, gold cutlery, gold art and there’s even a huge million dollar gold bar.

This place is Absolutely amazing. Gold finger would have the biggest hard-on.

After going through that we go to another building, this one has the history of the mine and some old artifacts from the miners.

One thing that got me was an old ID of one of the chines workers. Have you ever look at a photo and see yourself or an old friend. This photo reminds me of a guy that I worked with in a bar in Calgary. They had a similar smile a similar glint in the eye. And I had a pang of sadness thinking that my friend if he was born at the wrong time or place, might have been thrown into slave work where he would die with nothing to show for it. But I put that thought away and continue my trip.

It is cool I saw a lot of things like some old C4 and some of the old blueprints of the mine. I love history it makes you think. But after all that, we have seen we start to get hungry.  I think it is time for a coffee   

Were sitting down on a random coffee shop called alchemy cafe.  The sun is out in full force shining through the window making a long column of light that is reflecting off the fake gold paint. It is a nice cafe with good coffee. I am happy that they did not play off the gold theme to much there was not a single thing with gold leaf in it and I can say I am proud of them for that.

  We are the with are coffees shooting the shit. Thinking about how we would steal that bar of gold, making an exit and entry plan. All I can see in my mind is us in a prison with a big guy named BuBu that thinks I have a “ pretty mouth”

But we still joke and plan.for the fun of it. Over time our coffee gets cold and the room is getting hotter and hotter. So we plan to go and wonder and see what other trouble we can get up to.

we step out into the heat strangely us. It seems as if the cool breeze leaves when we most need it Our little group is wondering around the park when out of the corner of my eye I see “try panning for gold” on a sight. Now if that is not a sigh form god I do not know what is.

I remembered that itis on my bucket list. I started to scream like a little girl and my other friends look at me confused but they agree there be a cool experience. So we all wait in line. Happily waiting in the heat, me bouncing up and down, like a 5-year-old waiting for Santa in a discount mall. Eventually, a nice Taiwanese woman opens up the door.

There is children screaming for excitement (and me)  hoping to find are riches  And there is an old man just curious about how it works. My friends are somewhere in the middle curious and some of u

We make are way into a huge area with huge rows of running water. Like a man-made river. A really nice kind girl hands everybody this small ball of sand and a little glass jar she proceeds to tell us how to To pan for gold in Mandarin Chinese…….

Now my Mandarin is not that bad but to understand the intricate nature of panning for gold I understood 0% of what she was saying. But we got to where we needed through basic signs and smiles.

we shake are plates slowly taking the dirt out keeping the heavier denser gold at the bottom, eventually, we all got a cute little jar with a couple of pieces of gold. Not the pay off I was thinking but still cool as hell.

All in all, it was a good day out and about in an old gold mine.