Taichung Day 1

 Woke up later today, and ended up going down for breakfast. Ohhh man it's so much busier and the buffet was on. I went down around 9am so I guess most people at awake... still a quieter area near the elevator side. They had 炒米粉!!! but not much left so I scooped most of it. Scrambled eggs, fruit, for the first plate. Soy milk to wash it down. Second bowl was congee with mostly vege toppings. Ok we finish up quick and go back up, the otehr table is too close for my liking. Just packed and chilled mostly, and ate my egg pudding tart from Yu Pudding. It had like a lemon curd type of top layer and the bottom is like the creme brulee tart layer. I am so full I felt a bit sick. 

I stripped the beds and bagged up my rubbish and dumped the towels on the floor. I hope this helps the cleaners. Then ready to leave at about 10:50am. As soon as I got all my suitcases out I closed the door BUT FORGET THE KEY ON THE WALL POUCH!!! UH.... I'll check out anyway and reception said it was fine, as long as you didn't leave anything inside? I believe not....!

Asked them to call me a taxi, and this time it was an unmarked navy car. Uhhhh OK shouldn't be bad if they do business with the hotel. No registration and no ID inside... driver was nice though. Made some small talk and did ask me to pay him before getting to the Bus station, $150. That's OK. But brooo you are swiping while driving, walky talky while driving, and also finding me change while driving.... eyes on the road please.... Got to the station safe enough.

Next bus is at 11:30am, and bought a ticket $165. Got told to wait at no.5 door. Asked if I needed to add money for an extra piece of luggage, lady said it'll depend on the driver and how many people are on the bus. If you do, the driver will ask you to come back and buy it. Alright. I went to no.5 and found $5 on the seat... blended in with the metal (same colour). Looool. Nice bonus. Only like 3 other people on this bus. I got on and once we were on the motorway the announcement came on, and they asked passengers to seat belt, avoid walking, and wear a mask to rpevent the spread of viruses (!!!). Nice. I feel asleep not long after. 

Once we got off the motorway I woke up, and 二叔 was already there waiting for me at Chaoma. Thanks for coming to get me, uncle! Juggled some stuff from his boot to fit my suitcases and then off we go. Initially we were planning to go back to grandma's house right away after dropping our suitcases off, but ended up changing plans to go at night. So I just sorted out my luggage, and we just chilled for the rest of the time. I wasn't hungry at all. Dad said to open the lid on his teapot so it wouldn't go mouldy, but he missed a leaf that was plastered onto the wall of the teapot, which had gone mouldy... LOL. I washed it out and then just ran the pot with some hot water to help disinfect. 二叔 found some high mountain tea from somewhere and we had that. He had some bowl noodles for late lunch. I had half a dragonfruit he had left over.

When it was time to leave (I forgot 小智's cheese and choc whoops) we headed for dinner. But before that I wanted to see the alley way I saw last time with the Juanchun housing!! We went for a walk down there - wow!! 二叔 said that 9 and 10 were the houses you would see once you came out from the back door of 爺爺奶奶's house. No. 9 surname was "ye" 葉? and he also remembered another house's surname but I can't recall what it was. We walked down to the end of the alley, and he commented a lot of the 2nd storeys were added later. The end of the alley, where there's housing debris now, had a small drain canal, and a public toilet was at the space and it was a long drop. At the end of the alley, there's a wall where you can see 2 sections of it. The upper half is concrete brick and a palislide (sp?) barbed wire fence. 二叔 said that the wall was only half tall as it is now, and when they were kids they would flip the wall to get to the other side, which is a Military Telecommunications centre. As kids they would often turn left, and then left again into an alley a little further up, and play in one of the alleys there. From the 小水溝 position, if you look in that direction you can still see the second storey of that house of the alley they played in. It still has the traditional roof tiles. 二叔 said there was a small bridge near the 小水溝 too. If you keep walking down the alley (turning left at the wall) you'll end up on Jingwu Road. If you turn right at the wall, there are a few more Juanchun houses. 

Beginning of the alley

No. 9 and 10 were the houses you could see from 爺爺奶奶's back door

On the left is the 小水溝 and where the public toilet was. On the right are the ruins of a house

You can see the 小水溝 just further up from here

Just before the end of the alley where you hit the wall.

Staring into the front yard... it feels just like the houses at Laolao's juanchun. <3 

The wall in between no. 9 and 10.

Turning right at the wall. You can see the wall on the left. The original lower half, and the upper half which was added later on.

We turned back and then you can see like 2-3 more houses across the road on the small alleyway side. 二叔 said one of his primary school classmates still lives there - he ran into him at Fengchia once some time ago. 

On the way to dinner, we passed the streets where there used to be a larger 菜市場 that 奶奶 went to quite often. I remember this - she took me there in high school and I tried on some jeans at a shop there, where their changing room was just a ring of curtain at the side of the shop. 

We went for 臭豆腐 near grandma's house. Their tofu is smaller, but it's super crispy and moist on the inside. Business was booming. Pickles nice too. Their chilli sauce had like a flour? component or taste to it, and it was mild so very nice. Then I still had room for dessert after 6 blocks of tofu... so we walked down the street, and settled on the 豆花 shop with a better review on google (there were two with 1 shop in between). Turns out the one we picked (4.6 stars on google) has their own 仙草 farm and their 仙草 desserts are all natural. Wow!! How wonderful! I get to taste real 仙草! We got two bowls to share, a 豆花 with taro chunks, and 仙草 with combo topping. The 仙草 taste is really mellow and subtle... but the bitter taste still kicks in at the end. So very nice. All the mochi stuff were chewy with great bite, but not overly hard. 豆花 was very silky, and taro chunks were very soft/not tough, with a nice chew to it. Awesome. Definitely recommend. The store inside, not much people when we came, like 2 others?, had the walls with lots of photos of their farm, and their menu items saying that the boss recommends it. One photo had a bowl of plain 仙草 and then the photo of the combo mochi items and beans over it. Ki nda cute. I guess it's because it's hard to photo the toppings without it sinking to the bottom. I was sooo full by the end of the two bowls. 二叔 had a smaller portion than me... I tried hard!

Miso soup today

Then we walked back to Grandma's house. On the way back, One street, LianWu Road, 練武路, is an old street (quite narrow) and 二叔 said a lot of his primary school classmates lived on this street. You could see a lot of 2nd storeys were expanded on later, as they had the metal sheeting. 

There is also a group of old Juanchun houses (that 小智 said they go in to vote at voting time) on the street outside of 奶奶's house, that 二叔 said is for military veterans that had no dependants (alone). The houses used to be linked together from one side of the street to the other - and they demolished the portion to build the road. The demolished portion used to be a type of warehouse or storage, apparently. He commented that no lights were on, so it's likely that no one is living in the house. Oh... that's kinda sad.

The old alleyways around the area....

Probably no one lives at this house now. The roof tiles are what I remember at Laolao's village.

These alleyways just have that irreplaceable flavour!

Up we go to 奶奶's house. 五叔 was already back from their family trip to 清水. They're finally able to go out together, as usually someone would have to stay home to keep an eye on 奶奶. Both cats were out. Hu'nio was in the cat tree basket. Mai'ya was under the seats in the living room. She came out to greet me. Didn't run away immediately! Said hi to auntie and uncle and then went to announce my arrival at the ancestor's altar and grandma's altar. 五叔 lit 3 incense for the ancestor's altar, for me to 拜拜 and offer. And then 1 incense for 奶奶. You announce your name and then tell them you're back for a visit. And also ask them to protect over me and wish my parents good health and peace? Apparently that's what you ask for so I did. Then I went back to the dining area, and looked at 奶奶's seat but I didn't feel like she was really there as strongly. I didn't feel her prescence when I walked in either... maybe she is just sitting at the altar? Or maybe she's not home right now and she's gone to Nirvana and will visit back on 1st and 15th? 

We just sat for a wee while and 五叔 made some small chat. 小智 was taking a nap. 五嬸 was in their room but came out for a bit to say hi and stuff. 小智 woke up not long after and went to get dinner. They got KFC and tried to offer me some but I'm so full!! The skin looks way crispier than NZ KFC though. I did have 1 chip, but it had a bitter aftertaste so I guess they need to change the frying oil... Mai'ya came out later and let me pat her bum. She moved from cardboard scratcher, to the small seats and onto 奶奶's seat. 二叔 got called to go move his car. He took a while. Later 五叔 got contact from him to go meet him downstairs to go home. He was chatting to the motorcycle repair shop owner. Apparently I'm to go back tomrrow and they'll take me to eat ice cream at 日光 near the train station. Very famous shop?? I hope it has outdoor/open air seats or the shop is very quiet when we go...

Hu'nio on her favourite spot

Hu'nio is a picking eater. Snack time

Mai'ya on the scratching board (she let me pat her bum)

Time for sleep, I still have postcards to write but I just hung the laundry up, and I am tired. Post shop tomorrow, and hopefully my pants are dry by then.