For breakfast it was the 水煎包 we bought last night. It was very delicous, the cabbage filling is stellar. I also finished the rest of the dragonfruit. No rain but it is hot and humid today.
Lin-jie dropped me off at 886 and on the way there we passed a procession of deities and performers?! It was very long, and wow it looked real rowdy!
When I arrived at 886 and paid for my ticket, there was an uncle giving a talk about what life was like in Mingde village. He asked if anyone has seen fly larvae before, and I said I have (not in a book at school lol), from kitchen scraps. He seemed to be one of the original inhabitants, as he described the long shared facility houses for normal troops. He said the toilets were public, and every week they had to remove the sewage water. The public toilet had fly larve in clumps, and he personally haven't fallen in but seen other kids fall in (trauamtic) and end up being all colours once picked up, and the mums would hose them down as much as they can. Since the houses were quite small for the number of kids, you can imagine how rowdy it was. Kitchen was shared too, and many families would lend each other and give each other ingredients and food. If a kid didn't come home for dinner, they'd be eating at another house, and the mum wouldn't worry because the community spirit was so strong. I remember mum mentioning that you didn't have to lock your doors at night.
I headed through the buildings and I finished going through the videos (1 hour) in one of the houses, and the other building I didn't get to see. One was a 36 min documentary about Huangpu village, and the short time leading up to before they had to move away. I related a lot to some of what they felt when they went to get their lottery for the new houses in the Guozhai. This village ended up having a big reunion gathering before the moving deadline. They also successfully managed to petition the government to retain some of the buildings (but they removed the illegally built ones). So I assume if I went to Huangpu I can still see some juanchun buildings just like Mingde, where 886 is!! Huangpu is the oldest/first juanchun village, and they also used buildings left by the Japanese.
The last building had a kitchen and living room set up like what it would have been like in the 1950's. A volunteer auntie arrived just as I arrived too, but when I left she looked like she was snoozing. By the time I finished this building (02,03), it was almost 2pm. So I was really hungry. I stopped by at the gift shop building and bought Yourblocks of the Tiger and Dragon pagoda for a friend. They also had a paperkura version of it for $20 ea, so I got that too (2 of them). I asked the shop staff where to go eat, and they said I can walk down to 建業新村 and there will be places that sell food there.
I walked around the neighbourhood, and tried to take it all in, but was so hungry that my brain couldn't think straight. There's a lot of dilpalated houses. :( The café across the road from the kind lady and gentleman who let us in on Fri night, that had the light up deer decoration outside, was closed. They must be closed on weekends... so I had no choice but to head in the direction out and try and find other places to eat that wasn't that expensive fancy French restaurant. I came across an eatery, which had food prices that was pricey for Taiwan but cost about the average for a meal in NZ. I went inside, it was loud as and full house (small building as it's a JP one). I asked if they did takeaway, and they did, thank fuck... they also confirmed that getting a gyuudon would only take about 5 mins (it ended up being more like 15 min). I paid about $370 for the gyuudon and barley tea combo.
The lady said that their waiting line area outside can be sat on but there was a couple that was taking up the whole space, so I ended up trying my luck elsewhere outside. I remember seeing seats/benches on the street along the front yards, but didn't find which street. I did find a park bench near the old Activities Centre though. My barley tea split and leaked only a few steps out after leaving the eatery (Amenzin) 😫 they didn't close it properly... I sat on a park bench (they had big ants) and ate the gyuudon bentou. It was really good. They had 木耳 that had a vinegarette with a yuzu taste to it. Their tofu (pan fry) was also really good. Gyuudon good. Rice good. Seaweed flakes good. No wonder they were so busy (I heard them say to a customer who rang up that it wuld be 3:30pm until they had a seat). The tea was cold and good. No bin nearby though. The lunch box container had a neat design where you unclip the for corners to remove the lid.
Time to head to the old city gate. I went to rent a Youbike, but needed to pee so I stopped back at 886. The uncle saw me come in and asked why I was still here! I said I needed to borrow the toilet. He told me to go quickly. After I came out I think he was getting ready to do another story at the houses down the other side, so I just left. I wanted to say bye. I cycled to the old city gate and missed the Youbike station, as it wasn't roadside but like in the park of the Lotus Pond. Whoops.
I looked around and walked up and down the old city gate. I saw a rock that looked like it was all inverted barnacles?! How peculiar. As I was leaving a police officer asked me if I was taking photos of sightseeing points. Yep. He asked me if I was by myself, and I said yep. Howcome?! Friends can't get the same time off lol. Alright. See ya byebye.
I headed to the Dragon Tiger Pagodas but they were under repair. You can still walk into the mouth though. There's a deity in each of the mouth. I took a few photos and walked across the road to a temple for Baoshendadi. They had some drinks, fruit and snack stands near the entrance, so I bought a soft serve (choc and vanilla). It was nice and cool and refreshing, can't say much about the flavour though. I sat under a big old 榕樹 and ate the ice cream. I went to the bathroom to wash my hands, and also got rid of my lunch box rubbish... sorry.... I also made sure to put the $10 I found on the road in Chishang into the donations box.
Lin-jie has asked me to go to the govt building of some sort near the Ecological Park. I took a Youbike and went down as it was faster and I could rest my feet... I parked my bike and met her there. She took me on a walk all the way down, passing Zuiying Station, Neiwei Station, past Neiwei Arts Centre, and finally to the light rail.
We passed Guo'yin 果貿 Guozai community. This was one of the first Guozai, and the volunteer auntie on Fri night mentioned it's constructed on angles so that you can't see into the Military Base at the harbour. There's a sign explaining the unique architecture but not the real reason lol. They also have numbers on the buildings.
We got to the light rail and took it to Pier 2. My feet was starting to hurt at this stage. We got off and started walking down the stretch where there were stalls for crafts & DIY and food out. I got a quail? egg, and Lin-jie got lamb skewers. We shared half each. Then continued walking down, and stopped in a building where they had this structure in the lobby roof section that moved like a milipede (or a canoe with lots of oars, depending on your angle). Lin-jie said it was a dragon. They had a indoor market upstairs.
We passed 2 coastguard boats. They're so big.
We continued walking down and took some photos of the lovely harbour view. We got to the stretch with a large food truck market. I got a drink, 仙草奶茶, from a truck who said they were from Yunlin.
Then 雞蛋糕 because I can't resist... and then a chicken (I thought it would be fried), but it's more like a salad. It's hand pulled chicken. The lady put onions in and I asked if she could take it out, She said that all their menu items are set, and the onions have been pickled? I said I can't digest it... she begrudgingly took it out and put cucumber in it instead. And put a sauce on it. It was $130 for a small bowl. It's actually quite nice, but damn pricey. My 雞蛋糕 was like $60.
I couldn't find Lin-jie after getting my 雞蛋糕 so wandered the rest of the market. Then I found her later at the waterside end as she had sat down to eat her burger.
Afer dinner, we continued on, and came across another stretch of artisan craft stalls. The warehouses were along this stretch too. I came across a stall selling hand carved wood products, and saw a comb that also smelt real good. It was $1200. Oof. But handcarved, so can understand the price. The boss tried real hard trying to sell it to me. I took a card, thanked him and then left. At the end of the row there's street performers. A guy was performing with a cube.
Lin-jie went to get a video and I sat down on the side to rest. I googled the wooden artisan and he's been introduced by the Kaoshiung Culture Dept, so he can't be a scammer. His FB page has a few comments asking about his products and if he can courier, and someone commenting that his products were good to use. The current performer finished and it was about 9pm now. The stalls were starting to pack up.
I thought about it, and decided to go back to get it. The boss said he'll give me a photo of his landscape photography as well with my purchase. He said that he has won 3rd in a national competition. There was one with such pretty colours, misty/foggy in a mountainous area, and it's deffo early morning. I picked that one. Thanked boss and left.
Our last stop was at the swing bridge (largest in Asia! Takes 30 mins to close the bridge to operate the swing). It was super pretty light up at night. You can go up from the centre of the bridge and take photos of the awesome night view. It swings like a swivel at the middle to let ships pass.
And finally, it's time to go home. Onto the light rail, and then to the starting station of the orange line. It's a pretty long station and I had to run to the other side to get the station stamp.
We transfer at Meilidao, but the station is even bigger, and apparently there are two station stamp spots with different stamps. As we are pressed for time, I had to exit the station to get the stamps and Lin-jie was waiting for the next MRT downstairs, I only found one station and then headed back.
I saw a buddhist sifu who got on at the starting MRT station on the orange line, waiting by themselves for the red line train in the opposite direction to where we were going.
We finally got off at Ecolgoical Park station and walked home.
It's like past 10pm. Azhen-bro is already asleep. I won't see him tomorrow because he wakes up early to go to work.
Shower first, sore feet, and then blog. I will do the postcards tomorrow. I didn't find a post office today.
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