Had trouble waking up as was so tired from last night. Eventually I did get up after 10am and had the two 紅豆餅.The butter flavour was really nice, it's more moist than the red bean, but it might have been due to the cakes being overnight. Had a few slices of bah-la and that's it. Then I packed my stuff up and finished writing my postcards. Had another cup of tea, rested, and then it as around 12pm. I ate the rest of my leftover fried mushrooms. I then headed out to PX Mart, but Lin-jie said that there's a Family Mart with a Cathay Bank ATM. So I walked out and found a Family Mart, but they had a 台銀銀行 ATM. Hmmm ook I go to PX Mart instead. On the way back I saw the correct family Mart Lin-jie mentioned LOL, you can't see the sign from under the building itself, only from across the road. They had a Cathay Bank ATM and I got my money out.
I made it back and was ready to go. Being a good guest I vacuumed up my hair and stripped the sheets. Lin-jie dropped me off at Shin Zuoying station. This station is as confusing as ever. I started to get hungry now - typical. I got my ticket $86 and then bought a temaki sushi for $50. I went to my platform 2B, but forgot the platforms are all underground here.... so can't eat. Sigh.
The train came and it's a orange Tze-Chiang train. This one goes straight to Tainan so takes 30 mins. I got on and awkwardly there's no big luggage storage in the train, but it was empty enough that the seat next to me was empty. Phew. And it's only the next stop so no worry.
Once I got to Tainan I went to the main hall to get the station stamps. The station was under renovations.
Then I lined up to get a taxi. The driver who came up to me had a bit of an accent in his Mandarin, and he didn't know where the 中西區市政事務所 was... but we got there when I figured out how to read 臨安路 Lin-an Rd. He dropped me off at the side and fare was $120.
I walked up to the front door and let the minsu people know. A gentleman came to check me in this time. I'm in room 202 and he helped me lift the luggage up. Awww thank you.
The TV was on in my room ?! and he went over the briefing and left. I thanked him. I settled in and unpacked a bit, ate my temaki (it had no rice but shredded cabbage instead, prawns, pineapple, lettuce and some dressing. Then I went to the post office as it's open until 5:30pm (it's 15 mins till closing now). Got my stamps, and put them on the postcards, and mailed them out. Then I went back to my room, and looked up where to eat. I'm sad because the little park across teh road is closed for rennovations, they have the fun swing chairs.
There's a nearby place that does 意麵 and is rated highly on google 4.5 stars. They had pork heart/liver, unagi and squid noodles. I ended up getting 花枝乾炒意麵 and the wait was 20+ mins (took 30 mins). Boss lady gave me $30 change instead of $70 opps, her brain must be so fried. All g, she gave me the right change. They were so busy. I went to buy some bread from the bakery I chanced across and was really nice last time. Mmmm. I came back and waited a bit more, and saw another regular add in the chilli flakes for his order. Soon my order was ready. I also added some chilli flakes. Thank you!
I got back to my room and dug right in. It's so good!!! WTF! Nice char flavour, with a acidic tone, and not too heavy. Great stuff. Will come back tomorrow if I can. And then later Dark H told me the unagi 意麵 is a famous delicacy. LOL. Guess that's tomorrow. xD
After I rested a bit I got ready to go out, and then felt really tired.... so I bummed around for 15 mins more and decided instead of Chikan tower, I'll go to the Nintendo Store instead.
I wanted to take the bus but it showed up like 10 mins early and drive straight past. Woop. I waited until 7:45pm just in case another one came, but not. Alright, looks like I'm uBike-ing all the way there. I can cycle along Hai'an Rd, and they have heaps of docks. Then it's only a short walk to Shinkon Mitsukoshi.
There's not too many cars and the cycle/moped lane was pretty empty. Which is great. It's a great road to cycle along, so many art installations and special features. And then when I finally got to Shinkon Mitsukoshi, I got on the wrong floor even though I pressed 5F? No wonder I couldn't find it, I was on 3F. I got to the right F but I made a typo (or they updated the date) and the Nintendo store opens tomorrow... RIP... so I had a look and spied in to see what I could buy as a gift for a friend. Then I ran to uniqlo and had a look, but they had no culottes. Sad...
Then I decided to head to the Blue Cultural Park across the road, which closes in 30 mins. It seems like it used to be old Juanchun housing too. Very cool. There's heaps of little shops inside, and some of the buildings had a JP style to it. I went into a photo/costume rental store, but their lease ends at the end of the year (and tomorrow the park is closed), so no luck. I did get a card from her and her SNS so I can see what she's doing next time I am in Tainan and around. Then I walked around and spotted a little art shop called Xubi that was still open. Two English speaking tourists (couple?) were cashing up their products. I had a look around and the shop is full of artist creations, mostly illustrations! Some of them had an anime flavour. Turns out the artist is the shop owner! WOW!
I had a chat and she started introducing me to places I could go to - this year is Tainan's 400th birthday, and next year would be Old Tainan City's 300th birthday. Wooo!! There's an art gallery/musuem with an exhibit on that features BL LOL - she asked me if I read manga and if I read BL hahahhaha. And mentioned how it's strange that something like BL can now be in a national arts gallery as an exhibit, like a proper cultural thing. Amazing. Also introduced an ice cream store, a juice store that does natural orange juice and has been around since she is a kid. She said that the living treasure, the man that hand paints the big movie posters lives like 2 doors down and comes to buy the bulk juice to take home!!!!! Sometimes his house is open for visitors. So cooool~~~
I also suggested she could make a store stamp and then she said maybe she make the stamp on the wooden hammers that are carved by her dad. Neat idea!! You can test it out and see if it works. And then I suggested perhaps she could propose a stamp rally for the culture park and have some other shops participate by having their own stamps, and she was really taken with the idea (she said she could visualise it). The park can provide a card for a small fee, or visitors can bring their own book like me. Nice. It was a really nice chat and I bought some postcards ($50 ea, 3 of them) in case no other shops are open. I thanked her and wished her a good night.
It was 8:09pm now, and I decided to finish looking around. There was another shop in the next row that still had its lights on and the sign op saying they're open. And they look like they have indigenious products! I pressed the doorbell but it said it failed to link? I stared inside to see what they had, and then someone came down from 2F. They opened the door and I asked if they were still open - yep! Awesome. I came in and had a look. iSluhuang is the shop name. He was really nice and talked about his art - and the postcards he made. There was one with a male and female potrait illustration version of each tribe, and I was going to have trouble deciding what to pick. But there was another set on the other wall which had cross stitch patterns and his original designs with an indigenious flair. I saw one which was based off a famous painting of the wheatfield ladies, but replaced with his female family members picking up stones from the fields instead. He said he asked why when he was little, and they said it's to make the millet grow better (easier to till). The word for stone is "batu". So I picked that.
I turned around back to the wall with all the tribal potraits, and next to it there was paper craft frame potraits. One had their traditional stone house!! He said the pack explains about the house and how it's built. This is for me!!
Then back to the wall with the original designs, he recommended one called "Kaviaz", which is the name of a snake and it also means friend. He says his grandpa told him that, we should give a little and be considerate, so we can live in balance/harmony with the snake, just like how you should with your friends. I liked that so I picked that card too. And the last one is "balikuan" which means butterfly. The story with that is you leave the tribe/community as a caterpillar, but after enduring the outside world and accumulating experiences, you come back as a butterfly, signifying growth and maturity, and being a better you. Alright, this one too then!
I asked him about if he was familiar with weaving because I saw one in Yilan's cultural park. He said that should be Taiya tribe's weaving, and their weaving is very skilled. He said his tribe, Bu-something (didn't catch it....), is also very good at weaving, but he has just started to learn. he showed me a weaing machine on his work table, and showed me a little strap he made from it. I said, I also saw similar up there! They used a bow. He said the bow is a very traditional form of weaving, and men can do it too. Traditionally, each gender had their roles and couldn't touch the other's gender's stuff, like hunting tools are men only, and weaving is women only. But now, since the culture is at risk of being lost, they're not as strict with that now and encourage all to preserve the art. The postcards were $50 ea ($150 total) and the papercraft pack was $300. I only had $449 in change but he let me have it, and wrote a manual receipt. Aww thanks. I wished him a wonderful night and left.
I took a few more photos and went back to the ubike station and rode home. After docking I almost got lost on the way hom walking, again lol. No sense of direction - usually walk the opposite way...
Got home, and very tired, and it's already 10pm. Shower, and then blog. It's 12am now. Chikan Tower is open 9:30am tomorrow and Nintendo Store 11am. Let's try.... lol.
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