Not long after my alarm woke me up (I was still snoozing), I heard drums and cymbals and then firecrackers at some point. I got up and peed etc, and opened the door to the balcony to find a procession??? Going through my street. Deffo from a temple, I think it's a Guangong miao. Since they had a person dressed as Guanggong (red face, officials robe) and then people carrying the jiaozhi (carriage) for many tiny figures, and some people following behind with incense. Well that's one way to start the day. After asking, I learnt that it's a temple custom called 建醀 Jiàn wéi. Upon googling apparently it happens like 5am for some people and 3am??? Thankfully only 7am for this lot. That was a first.
After breakfast and getting ready (gotta picaridin properly), I went to see if suijianbao was open but forgot they open after 2pm... ok. Let's head to Anpin then! On the way back I managed to loop into a differetn alley, it had a special named gate for this alley, so I went down. There is a temple... but close to the temple there is an ancient!!! city gate??? Remnants??? Next to the vicinty of the temple? I borrowd their toilet. This is so cool! 兌悅門 duiyuemen it's called. The city gate is well preserved and tiny. You can even walk up on it! Apparently it's the only remaning city gate. Interesting. Someone on google reviews said "One of the only remaining gate to the outer city wall of ancient Tainan city. Also a gate closely related to the old port of Tainan. The waterway split into to five branches. The pattern is barely visible now, but could still be hinted by buildings and alleyways and such."
I managed to find uBike but got a little confused on my way there. I found an Oyster Kiln and museum converted from the old storehouse/workshop, and spent some time looking at the info there. Fascinating! Love this history.
Then on my way. The dock closest was full, but I somehow wandered onto the bicycle track (goes all the way around the coast) and got off at the one further down that had docks. I passed the Anping treehouse on the way and was like !!!!
I managed to find my way near the Fort but it was 11:30am and I was hungry. I walked around the streets and managed to find one with outdoor seats (not before being stopped by someone selling prawn biscuits, interesting. A bit too salty. Got given a taster). They were selling 蚵仔煎 so I ordered one and a erwa soup. $140. I ended up liking the soup quite a bit (pity they don't noodle), but the omelette, although rich in veges, is quite greasy. Two older ladies decided to sit on my table.... I wanted to be alone.... ok... at least it's breezier today but upwind has other diners. Yikes. If not for covid I wouldn't have minded at all. One of the ladies asked me questions and I told her I'm from NZ, the usual, and first time to Tainan. She told me that they used to be workmates, but now not working and whilst they can walk they go to places. They are from 西南區 iirc. I wished them happy playing as they left on their scooters. Took me a while to finish lunch cause it's pretty greasy. Once done I found somewhere selling dongguacha, purchased for $20 I headed to the Fort, paid $70 entry and spent... just over 3 hrs in it. WOW.
I loved the place!!! I can't belive there are remnants from 1624~ onwards, and then this is the actual place Zhen Chen Gong fought off the Dutch. You know the one general we always hear his story about as a kid, through the 中國童話故事? It's real. Holy shit. There's so much history here. The two exhibits at the top of the fort, and then the musuem at the bottom. The original Dutch walls. There's also some excavation pits. I spent time exploring and looking at things, and bought more postcards at the souvenir shop. Then stamped the very well used stamps at the drinks shop (the carvings were kinda worn). Took some more photos, checked out the lighthouse (inside, too, 5 floors), and looked around. Loved the many banyan trees. By the time I finished it was about 4pm.
I asked the ticket lady if the Tait & Co Merchant House is do-able in 1.5 hrs. She said it depends.... yeah of course. 😅 Some people zip through it in 30mins but considering I spent 3 hrs here.... lol. I decided to go anyway, it's only 5 mins away. Paid $70 entry and asked the lady if I had enough time. She said the Anping Treehouse is mostly for photos, and there's a musuem and another (calligraphy) exhibit musuem. Aiyaaaah.
Speed to the Treehouse, and WOW amazeballs. Whilst deserted for 60 years, the ex-warehouse for the Tait & Co trading company has been taken over by the banyan tree roots. Like one of the roots grew around what would've been the walls of the rooms and even through a pillar??? Cause they reworked it and left it space in concrete. And just the silhouette of the house is left, with a couple of walls (strengthened to stay standing), mostly the outer walls. SO frikken cool. They also made a walkway out to the pond at the back. Amazing.
The fish pond has a fish feed vending machine - oh noooo the koi started jumping as soon as they saw me go near the water. Sorry bud, I ain't feeding you today.
The storehouses are actually quite big, at least 3? 4? of them? and the roots are just, magnificent. Woooooow. Didn't really have time to read the info plaques so snapped photos of them. My poor Sony xz2 compact working so hard, even the powerbank can't keep up.
Next to the Tait & Co Merchant House musuem. I thought it only had 1 floor.... turned out it has 2. I only have an hour left.... uhhhh.... I wondered if I should go to the gift shop. The info inside is quite interesting. A lot of info plaques had English explanation so snap photos, hopefully for later. I think it was general history of Merchant Houses and such. After 2F, I discovered there is 1F.... and quickly ran to the gift shop first. Lol I watched them close. The shop staff were packing away the snacks and everything. Oh you have to do this every day??? Ah... they said they were closing so I said Oh, cool, didn't make it on time, I'll come back tomorrow. And said bye. Guess that means I should concentrate on finishing the House musuem today, so snap photos of 1F. It was more about the Dutch history.
I went to the calligraphy museum to see if they were open... probs not. It's pretty much 5:30pm. So I exit, sat down outside, wiped my sweat with wet wipe, and crossed into the park across the road. Figured it's been 8 hrs, so reapply picaridin as the mozzies be active now. Nasal spray. Decided to try and find somewhere to sort dinner.
Walked around the outside of the Fort, and managed to see the remnants of the outer wall!! Ahhh!!!! And a really cool, 00's Western style house next to it. I didn't take a photo but I'm sure you can see on Google maps? Most of the stalls outside the Fort entrance were packing up. I walked further down and eventually came across a street next to a small temple with outdoor seats. Yus. They sold Yi-men. Alright, I wanted soupy ones and they had it.
三舅媽's broth still king. The kumara leaves they had had the mince on it. Ah well. I found a small green caterpillar in my soup... prob came with the veges in my soup. At least I didn't swallow it. Removed it and finished my soup and veges. Then sent 琳姐 my GPS cause I was thinking I might taxi home... but I have to change my mask.... felt OK to challenge the bike so I found the Youbike stop and from this stop it's just a straight line along the river until you hit the end. Which ended up being where the Youbike stop was. Nice. Before I found the stop I found 漁人碼頭 and at where they do boat rides, they had a speaker going advertising the rides but also boppy muic reminiscint of idolish 7 (no lyrics), that was really good to listen too. I also found a big whale structure, lit up at night, and a busker next to it. Might be a quiet night, buddy. Ganbare. Then Youbiked home.
Passed a bakery Pagan? on my way home after parking the bike so bought some break for breakfast. A savoury and sweet. Got home and the room across now has 3 young ladies, and one of them waved at me as I came up the stairs, I waved back and smiled with my eyes. Later they knocked on my door, and asked me if I wanted to go to "da ban ban" or was it "da yao yao"?. I explained I walked Anpin all day and my feet are tired. They asked me is I was Formosa round tour - yes, where from? - NZ - but Taiwanese - yeah - by yourself? - yeah - so cool~ wanna come with us to "da ban ban" (seriously what did they say? Didn't recognise the name)? Nah my feet so sore walked Anping all day. They told me to rest lol, yeah. I told them, please have fun~~~
They were real friendly, and I hope they have heaps of fun!
Just wrote my postcards (2 sets!), and chilled. Showered, put Pili channel on (showing Pili Heroes), and omg is that bare feet??? Did they film flesh feet??? Unsure but that answers my question lol. The characters are so cool~~
Did some exfoliation skincare, and now it's 10:20pm and I just finished blogging. Tomorrow is a free day, I think I'll head back to Anping again. There's so much to see there.... can't finish it all in one day! Might taxi there and save me some feet - easy to N95 in the morning. Hmmmm....
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