TIME FOR BUDAIXI MUSUEM!!! I say, and planned to get there just after opening. But the bus was about 30 mins late so by the time I arrived it was almost 11am. Ok I guess I'll have a look at the park with the old trees and have an early lunch. But first!! The bus passed the roundabout with the big puppet statue. Ohhhh of course I had to go and grab a photo. The bus went by too fast and my camera took to long to load up for me to snap a pic whilst on the bus. Awww yeaaaah bruh so good!!
Okay, once that's done I looked at the old water tower next to the park. Omg there are black goats inside!!! Nice!!! Aww no, look at that Japanese style building, so pretty. Oh, I think it's open to the public?? Ohhh went inside and there are heaps of traditional watercolour paintings done by the same teacher. The staff at the house got me to sign a guestbook (lol my kids handwriting) and then gifted me a bookmark once the staff that went to print it came back. The artist teacher was so nice and one of the staff commented how they had a relative in Auckland (lol I don't know them though) and then teh teacher had someone living in Melbourne.
I had a look around and the house whilst waiting for the bookmark, the house had a really good vibe. I didn't take photos of the artwork cause I'm not sure if that's okay as they are for sale too. They had an outdoors area with seats but since the house has only been open to public shortly, they haven't found a suitable caterer yet. I would've loved to dine there. Just about when I'm done the staff came back with teh bookmarks and I got gifted one. Thank you very much. I said m goodbye and then headed out to look for lunch.
Cool, let's go grab some lunch shall we? I found a place next block down that sold goose meat meals. Okay! Let's try. Takeaway and eat at the park. It wasn't bad. I sat in a pagoda that was ereted in 1984 by the 14th president of something? and the sign had a Rotary logo. Coolios. It was really lovely if not for the older men down by the pond smoking. The park had really old and lovely trees, wished I could stay longer and enjoy their presence.
Once done, (where are the bins?? Seriously I can't find any), I headed to the puppet museum. Entry is free. In the courtyard there's a stall with heaps of clay figurines. Soooo cute, and awe at the craftwork.
Into the museum! Bruuuuhhhh This is great!! I just wish I could read Mandarin as fast though. The building is an old historical police station from Japanese colonisation period. They have a detention room and a toilet for the police in the corner, lol. What about the prisoners? I guess they pissed on the floor or in a potty. xD The jail cells were empty (no inbuilt toilet). The permanent exhibition area had an interactive photo booth, haha, I took 2 for fun. And a small puppet theatre which I took some selfie photos (and 1 far away) since only Lang could stand independently without much fuss.
There are documentaries there and I wish I had time to watch the whole thing. The building was kinda stuffy cause old and no ventilation. Fingers crossed I'm OK, it was way too humid to swap to an N95. So KF94 ear saver, come through for me pls. Nasal sprayed in the courtyard when I had a break too.
The feature exhibition area had a really cool series displayed by a troupe from Taichung. Shinergy Puppet Show. Long story short, after the troupe leader's father passed away, a lot of the clients didn't use them anymore. So they had to find a way to innovate, and I guess they ended up using projector stage imagery as part of it. The puppets were so cool though. Ahhhhhhhh.
Outside, they had a little courtyard. One side had a shop just like Laolao's Gammy/odd goods shop. With the childhood candy and toys. Even the lotto! I wanted to do a lotto box but the shop people were busy elsewhere and I forgot. I wonder what the prizes were. This shop was most nostalgic.
Next door room had more souveniry and puppet realted stuff. More traditional forms of artwork. I think I forgot to photo. There's mugs too, for the musuem. It was really cute, but not suitable for me to buy.
Upstairs 2F there's a classroom for clay sculpting. And 3F there was a puppet performance at 2:30pm. This was really cool! The story was juuuust a little bit not that engaging for me, but I suspect half of it is because they spoke daiyu, but also guoyu so those who can't understand can still get the story. At the start of the show they explained and demo'd the different types of puppets, the traditional ones are small and have a small head, but are very nimble and can even act out wiping sweat when walking, or combing one lady's hair. They can martial arts and swap hands during a fight and do backflips.
The other type is a jinguang type, where the puppets are bigger in size, with more glitzy costumes, and a bigger head so audiences far away can see, and draw passerbys when performing in front of temples. This type is less nimble and can't backflip. For fights it's like, I punch and then the other puppet "explodes" and dies. So not much excitement.
And finally, the TV/movie size are the ones we know, where they're big enough to sit on your shoulder.
The show ended with a bang (3 bangs, actually), complete with white confetti and smoke. It was very loud and the villain died like that lol. Took me by surprise. I think it scared a young kid, who had his own puppets and took it around the musuem. I think he must be very into puppets - maybe a future artisan?
After the show there's photo op and the parents took photos of the kids (but removed their masks....), but I managed to get a selfie (bad one though) with a traditional glove puppet. So cute.
Next, I went to the Story Museum next door. Oh no it's a koha box for entry fee. I didn't have $50 coin so googled nearest conbini (OK Mart) and bought a drink there. Seriously, where are the bins? I wanted to throw away my empty bottle... Okay, change got, let's go in! They had some displays around too, and the staff would explain how some of the tools used by storytellers (travelling ones too) worked. There's a wooden puppet with joints, and a thin board, where you sit on it and tap the board to make the puppet dance to a tune. That was very cute and strangely charming. I think they sold postcard - I asked and they had 3 books FULL of postcards to pick from. Wow. Oh, they're illustrations from all over Taiwan so I just picked the Yunlin ones to save time. They were $30 each. Spent some time taking photos of the carious nostalgic bamboo stools and wooden chairs whilst waiting for the staff to fetch the postcards. There's stamps near the little refreshment stall unmanned when I came) and I put some on the postcards. Soz friends that got the badly stamped ones. Then went outside into the yard where there's seating, and sat for a break and ate some snacks to keep me going. Back inside to use the toilet before the bus. The toilet had an open window and was very small, so I took my mask off quickly to wipe my sweaty face down so wearing the n95 for the bus wouldn't feel as horrible. Tried to breathe very little. Fingers crossed.
After I left, I sat down and also nasal sprayed to be sure.
Ran out of time to buy taiyaki as souvenirs before the bus, and managed to get the last second to last seat. Otherwise I had to wait another hour....
I wanted to visit the Eslite bookstore, where it's also in a historical building. And also the Starbucks where it used to be the fire fighter station, I believe. There's also an old street? But I didn't get time to go there.
Onto the bus, and about 1 hr 15 mins I'm back in Taichung.
After dinner, I went to Carrefour to buy plates as a gift for B - theyre pretty but not great quality. Sorry B, but I think it'll be something to have at least 4 matching plates. xD
Then off to QuanLianSerh, but they didn't have the peg frames that dad wanted... but I found mum's active oxygen. I think we have to go to a bigger one.
Back home, 9:30pm. My left calf tendon is jumping.
Apparently they wanna go Costco tomorrow... hopefully not too long. I will have to make it clear that I will not dine in Costco. Guess I should eat more for breakfast.
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