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| Relevant street art |
More wandering through laneways led me to this excellent bit of street art, along with many tattoo parlours that had me thinking for a minute (but no, I don't think ink is in the budget right now). Speaking of tattoos, the young people of Taipei are well and truly inked! I'm not exactly a novelty here, having green hair and visible tattoos. (And if you've ever found yourself saying "You don't see Chinese people walking around with English words tattooed on them!" you are wrong.)
I treated myself to a taro milk iced drink while I continued to wander in search of food. I eventually decided that venture was in the too hard basket and went to the bakery near my hotel to get a couple savoury pastries, then called it a night.
This morning I went to the canteen for breakfast, where the ladies pretty much insisted on me having a tuna sandwich. Why not? My plan was to do some work this morning, but I figured a stop off at the nearby temple I've been walking passed every day would be an even better way to start the day. And it was! The Tien-Ho Temple is beautiful and made for an excellent subject to play around with on my new camera (pics will be uploaded after my trip). People were stopping in to say their prayers before heading off on their day, the sun was shining through the humid haze, and the smell of incense was in the air. I spent some time giggling at the koi as they gulped at me, and tried not to get in anyone's way. One of the women gave me a pamphlet on the temple and told me I was most welcome to wander around and take pictures. It was really lovely and serene and I left a small donation before heading off.
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| Strange but delicious bed fellows |
I don't exactly know what happened to my plan to do some work, but I soon found myself wandering through laneways again. This time I stopped at a little convenience store and bought myself a roasted sweet potato. It was amazing! Wandering back to my hotel, I decided to stop in at the coffee place I'd wanted to go to yesterday and get something to take away. They sell these croissants with a fish on them, how could I say no? I ended up ordering a rose iced latte and a peanut butter and mashed potato croissant to take back to my hotel. They were both delicious!
The coffee left me a bit too wired to really settle into reading and focusing on stuff (or so I tell myself), but I somehow managed to do my taxes (!!!) so at least got some adulting out of the way. Then I decided to head off to another nearby temple and have a wander around the old herb market and historical streets in that part of Wanhua District. I got on the metro and took it one stop to the LungShan Temple. This is a much bigger, more tourist oriented temple. Everyone was taking selfies, and I ended up posing in some stranger's pictures because I thought she was asking me to take a picture of her and her partner, but nope, she wanted a pic with me (I can't blame her, really). The highlight of this temple for me was the cats! First I saw a black cat scurry passed. I tried to befriend him but he was too busy catting to pay me any mind. Then I saw another cat sneaking around on the temple roof. Tifa and the kittens would love to explore that roof!
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| Herb Alley |
The temple was quite busy, with tour groups going through it along with people coming to pray. I didn't stick around very long, instead opting to wander around the area and check out the small laneway known as Herb Alley. It smelled divine! I suspect the market was much bigger than the bit that I saw, but there was a small tour group at one end of it and I didn't feel like trying to push passed them. Instead I opted for a walk around the block. The surrounding area is much less touristy and made for a pleasant stroll, getting a sense of life in Taipei for an older population than the one around where I'm staying. There were quite a few karaoke bars with women working as entertainers, and men belting out the tunes. It was an interesting part of the city to see that just got interestinger!
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| There's a brothel behind me |
I eventually made it back around to the herb market and decided to get myself an iced tea. OMG it was so good! A bit minty, very refreshing on a hot day. My tea and I then set off to find Bopilao Old Street, getting pleasantly lost in the process. I decided to have a wander down a quiet picturesque laneway, take some selfies, see where I ended up. There were lots of scooters parked on the street, and a couple women milling about out the front of a house. I continued wandering down the laneway as men on scooters kept zipping passed. And then I realised: I'd stumbled into a red light district. I wasn't entirely sure, but, my sexual subculture senses were tingling, and had been for awhile. Then I saw a woman leading a man into a building and I knew. I would have loved to have talked to the women but going up to someone and being like "hey, are you a sex worker?" isn't exactly an acceptable thing to do.
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| Grumpus cat |
Instead, we bonded over me trying to pat a very grumpy cat. I went up making cooing noises while it was bathing and it glared at me and then took a few swipes at me before storming off. The women and I had a good laugh over it. I then noticed some kittens further down, who were also not interested in me. So, after my cat spotting I bid farewell to the sex workers and made my way over to Bopilao Old Street.
As the name implies, Bopilao Old Street is an old street, kind of. It's actually a very new revival of an alley from the Qing dynasty. So new that, despite the architecture clearly being quite old, it felt very modern. Apparently the city hasn't quite worked out what to do with the street yet, as there are lots of empty buildings waiting to be turned into things. Empty buildings aside from the air conditioning, which by this stage in the day was much appreciated! So after having a little look around I walked back to my hotel to have a bit of a rest before heading out to some more markets.
The Red House is an artist market/hub for fashionistas/central beacon for the whitewashing of Taipei's queer scene. (I shit you not, there was a white person selling t-shirts with popular fictional characters reimagined as bananas.) It didn't quite live up to my expectations as per the guide book (though, really, that's not a surprise). That being said, the market inside the Red House was really lovely/exactly like being in an upscale artist market in Melbourne. I may have bought a few things.
Put off by the touristy vibe/actual tourists at the cafes surrounding the Red House, I again set off on a wander, this time determined to have a proper sit down meal instead of getting a snack thing from a stall to eat back at my hotel. Turns out there's about a billion restaurants in the opposite direction from the one I usually wander in, so, that's good to know on my last night at this hotel.
Eventually I found a place where I could sit down, relax, and get some sort of Asian food. Or so I thought. I am not entirely sure how to classify the dish I was served, aside from as yummy and nourishing. My meal came with a small glass of the most amazing fruit juice as well. I'm not entirely sure what kind of fruit juice, but possibly pear. Ok, ok, I may have chosen this place because they had a cat sign. They had a donation box for I'm going to assume animal rescue, which I emptied my coins into.
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| Somebody's dinner, but not mine |
After dinner my plan was to wander around some more and enjoy observing the night life. It had started to rain, but I had my umbrella and was not going to be put off by a bit of spitting. But then the spitting turned into pouring, which then turned into a thunderstorm and I learned my lesson about wandering around in the rain yesterday!
On my way back to the hotel I passed by this street food stall, which caught my eye. I hadn't seen any with so many fish before, and I certainly hadn't seen any with frogs!! I've also never seen frogs the size of these and am now left wondering whereabouts in Taiwan I need to go to see some giant ass frogs!
Tonight is my last night in Wanhua/Ximending. I feel like there's lots more to do and see in this part of the city, but, other adventures await. Tomorrow I embark on my Hello Kitty train adventure to Taitung, where I'll spend a couple days before heading into the mountains for a couple of days at the Zhiben Hot Springs (where I splurged and booked myself a room in one of the fancier resorts). After that, it's back to Taipei for 3 days, and then back to Melbourne (just in time to miss my first class of the semester, oops!)
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