The Last Night Market

After a rest, we hit our last night market in Taichung.  It was very cool and we had snacks for dinner from various kiosks.  Lots of things to see and buy and eat.  It was an experience.

The best helmets I have seen - too bad I didn't need one.

Guava and huge avocados.

Bitter melon - not my favorite ever.

Chicken Feet - first with bones and then without bones.

Grilled squid shish-kabob and fried squid and batter fried squid.

I tried grilled ostrich which was pretty tasty.

And these little rice noodle cakes.

I stayed away from the pigs feet.

There was also mongolian bbq.

And fresh seafood.

And of course - weed.

Bought some small souvenirs for family and friends and headed back to sleep and pack for the return to Taipei.

The End of the Taiwan Trip

I sort of got side tracked on blogging about my vacation from last fall.  I had a few more days in Taiwan which rounded out a great trip overall.  The last day in TaiChung had us going to the Confucius Temple.  There were great rooms where you could view a re-enactment of the pageantry of what the olden times were like.

The Temple also is used for classes.  The day we visited, there were music lessons and painting lessons.  The grounds are great for community events.

On our way back, we stopped for lunch at Fish Noodle.

And on the walk back to our temporary home, we got a boba tea to go.

The coolest thing here is they have a machine that seals the cups so no spilling and all you need to do is poke a hole through with a straw.

National Museum of Natural Science

On the first day, we headed out to National Museum of Natural Science which encompassed multiple buildings.  We hit the life science halls - gateway to the living world, the origin of life, the evolution of plants, life takes to land, the age of dinosaurs, flight, extinction, the evolution and adaptability of mammals, the story of man, the journey of human life, numbers, and forms, color in nature and sounds in nature.  We then moved through the human cultures hall - chinese medicine and herb garden, chinese science and technology, agricultural ecology, ancient chinese, the spiritual life of han people, the culture of taiwan austronesian, and the oceania.

Here is a movie of most of the journey plus excerpts from the tropical rainforest and greenhouse.

I did see this monstrosity of a loom which two people wove on at the same time.  I just could not figure it out, but the results are beautiful.

Full view of the loom.

Heddles.

Cloth beam.

This is the middle of the loom.  See that person sitting up on top?

Back of the loom.

View from the other side.  You can see the person on top.

This the cloth this loom produced.

Breakfast and Then Onto TaiChung

The next morning, we decided to take the train to TaiChung.  I spent quite a bit of time in TaiChung in the 80s at TaiChung University.  I remember it as a quaint town with lots of trees.  I also remember taking the bus which was a very long ride.

Before the trip, we headed out on foot to the corner for some breakfast.  They have these bakeries where you go in and take a tray and a pair of tongs and just pick up the items you want.  Once you are done, you head to the cashier to pay and they pack each item in a little bag.  I was in heaven.

We then headed to the bus stop and took the subway to the train station.  We boarded the high speed train and it was awesome.  More room than Amtrak and super fast.  I took a little nap and before I knew it, we were there.

After disembarking, we took the bus to where my aunt's friend had another studio/apartment.  

This is really a dream property and I wish I could have something like it back home.  There was gallery space in the basement, studio space on the ground level, and 4 more floors of "dorm" rooms and classrooms.

After dropping off our stuff, we headed out to explore the neighborhood and to look for a place for lunch.

There was a 7-11 on the corner and I stopped in to see what it was like.

The food selection is definitely different.

We stopped for lunch at this tiny place.

I ordered an eel boxed lunch and it literally came in a box.

You got a little bowl of soup with and you scoop it out yourself right on the sidewalk.

Right along the side of the place was a long counter on the wall where you could sit and eat.

We headed back for a little rest and then headed out again looking for food.  We stopped by a grocery store and looked over the offerings.  Interesting stuff - one was these individually wrapped eggs and another was this bread with holes in the middle.

We then went to a shabu-shabu place for dinner.

We had our own little dining room.

Great food but it did take some time to eat.  We were told shabu-shabu is very popular here.