Uncle wanted to take me to Lukang today so OK let's go....!
It's about a 45 min drive. First we stopped at Wenwu Temple - a 3-in-1. The first worships Guangong and Red Hare. Second, Wenchang Dijun. Together they are Wenwu. The third is Wenkai Academy. A lot of plaques asking for good grades and academic success. This is what the temple's deities are known for! There's a little Lukang govt cultural assoc. office on the side in between Wenchang and Wenkai, and they sold some merchandise. I purchased a Not-Lego kit of the Wenwu temple, it's really cute. It's a gift for a friend. $890! Worth it though.
Next, Longshan-shi. It's another temple known for the inner roof awning architecture, but it was under maintenane and fenced off. I think I recall the back yard. It has a pond with a waterfall, koi fish, and HEAPS of turtles!! Some of them are reall big!! And have algae on their shells!! They're sooooo cute. A lot of them were sunbathing on the rocks, but several were in the water. 🥰 It's quieter at this temple compared to others. And the inside isn't smoked black (yet). When we were leaving I saw a bicycle vendor lady selling maiyabing, barley malt biscuits. Ohhh yess please.... I got one without coriander. Yum yum. The sad thing about the passage of time is, now the malt, when it gets stuck on my gumline, hurts from sensitivity. :') This didn't happen when I was a kid. There's a set-up outside where you throw coins into the gongs and try and hit it to acheive what you'd like to pray for (written on there). Kinda a neat way to get donations. I didn't manage to hit the antivirus one though.
We looped back to Wenwu Temple for me to purchase the not-Lego kit as my friend has responded yes, so that happened. Uncle dropped me off and I went in, and did the paperwork, and then went back to the carpark.
Next stop is Tianhou Gong, worshipping Mazu. One of the oldest ones. It's located within the Old Street. First we found a park next to the 100+ year old Primary School (lucky!), and then ate lunch at a roadside shop. It's a triangle shape and both sides were open doors, so it's not the worst open in terms of clean air. The noodles were quite good! But there's no bone broth. The side dishes weren't bad too. One fo the staff accidentally split some hot liquid over a customer and they were so sorry and apologetic. I hope the customer wasn't too badly hurt, I saw the staff applying some salve dressing to a lady's waist. The staff was understandably in a sad mood, and I felt really sorry. I hope they're both OK.
Once done, a short walk to Mazu miao. Uncle wanted to take a photo of me... he always tells me to unmask... it's outdoors so not as bad, but there is a lot of people. I held my breathe where I can and put my mask back on. Make him happy I guess. The smell of incense is really strong. The carvings/statues of the various deities were really awesome. There's a side room with a row of them, and it's so pretty. But I saw how slow the incense smoke dissapated so I tried to make it really quick as the room has really stagant air. The little statues on the bottom are really cute. They are doing various activities. The carvings and architeture is awesome as usually. There's a small part of the inner roof which is similar to the Longshan-shi one, so I got to see what it is like. It's assembled in a hexagon shape like a jigsaw. Amazing. There's also a small pond with fish, and a dragon spouting water in the middle.
I was done with photos and had enough of the people and the incense, I went out. We started exploring down the Old Street. There's so many people... on a Saturday, of course, but ya'know. I stopped by a shop that looks souveniry and managed to find postcards. Yusss. $40 for these special ones, they have a transparent cut out fo Taiwan with photos printed on it. So, $200 for the 5.
They had heaps of old houses still pretty much in the same design, and lots of vendors selling various foods and toys/souvenirs. Lot of them were traditional snacks and eats, and traditional kids toys. I bought a wooden comb in the shape of Taiwan. $80. The vendor let me pick from a bacg, so I picked one with the wood grain as parallel to the teeth as possible. I only realised after I came back home (cause I was wearing my hat) that the teeth are kinda sharp so I will sand it down when I get back to NZ and make it nicer. Eh. It was a cheapie. It's cute.
I also saw 3 vendors selling Babu - well, first I saw one vendor as we came back having walked in a circle, selling Babu, and I picked taro. It was kinda creamy. A big ball though. $30.
And then we kept walking, to the old Govt building, with a courtyard, and I saw 2 more. LOL. Okay I will go have them both. The second vendor had really small balls, so I got 2 balls for $20. I picked lemon and peanut. This vendor's one is heavier on the tapioca so it leaves a bit of a starchy taste. Not the best IMO. The last vendor, had the horn, babu babuuu, and I picked plum, passionfruit, and combo (cause it could be a bit of a surprise). $30 for 3 balls. The vendor asked me where I was from - I saw NZ. He was interested in knowing how much the salary and living costs is like there compared to Taiwan. I tried to convert the numbers and my brain not working, sorry... I also had to explain that it's a 3 hr plane ride from Aus, it's not that close, lol. He thought we have alligators - I said that's Aus, our animals aren't that scary. Lots of sheep and cow for agriculture. He then got more customers coming so I left and said bye~ The babu started melting as I was talking to him so I had to lick it up. I chose a wafer cone. This one had better flavour! The passonfruit was really nice. I still think the one I got on Jazz night was the best so far.
We sat in the courtyard as I ate my 3 babus. Then headed off to explore the rest of the old street. There's some really cool pottery and replica swords. And a cute little alley - gueihua alley. No gueihua tree 桂花 in the alley but there was a painting of one on the wall. Maybe there used to be one. I loved the old houses, the door frames, and architecture is all just, tasteful. And the door frames on the floor where you can trip over. Yeeeaaah. Near the end we saw a vendor doing blow-candy, with malt - ahhh!! So cool! The malt is pulled until it's got the shiny strings, and then moulded/balled with a dip? and placed into the wooden moulds, with some starch powder, I think, and the artisan gets the kid/customer to blow gently and fill up the mould. He them cuts the blowing tube and seals off the hole (tail of the animal) and puts it onto a stick. It's sooo coool. I wanted to try but I didn't really wanna line up or unmask. Ahh.... well.... still neat as to see. He had so man moulds. They would be hard to replace, I reckon. I hope this art form continues and never dies. That said, I wonder where the Turkish icecream vendor is at, the one that used to go around Fengchia nightmarket?
We finished browsing the Old Street and it's around time to go home. Back to the 100+ year old plus primary school, and car ride home. Wrote my postcards, dinner, and clean up.
Then I tried to organise some of my luggage into a box so it'll be easier when I come back. I will have to organise the rest tomorrow, what I'm taking with me.
三舅媽 asked me to send photos. She then called me and said she wanted to take me to another Mazu temple up northern Taichung when I'm back from my round-island trip. I felt a bit stressed cause of my covid cautiousness, so I had to make it clear that I won't eat indoors. Hopefully we stick to roadside places and outdoor. I will worry about it when I get back. Set a reminder in my calendar to contact her about it.
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