Solar Tree Time: Yilan Day 2 (National Traditional Arts Centre)

So wake up and it's pouring.... heavy. Well, I guess this means Atayal Musuem is off the menu. I'll just concentrate on National Arts Centre today. Went down for breakfast next door, and it's open storefront but a family was dining there too. Fingers crossed I'll be OK. I had some 蘿蔔糕 and fried egg. I ordered two 蘿蔔糕 but their 蘿蔔糕 is thick and huge. Wow. Okay I thought I could finish it as I was really hungry but I couldn't. It wasn't bad. Better than average. Kinda salty if I have it with the soy sauce. I think the grill is a little dirty cause it has an off/slightly bitter taste on the fried surface. I had soy milk for drink.

I asked the lady to pack up the extra 蘿蔔糕 I couldn't finish. I went back to the minsu and found that they do indeed have a microwave. Which is great! I popped it in the fridge and started to get ready and pack my bags. It's pouring a lot and the bus is every hour... I decided to take a taxi. It ended up being $240. Since it was raining so hard the taxi driver almost didn't see a pedestrian when turning and almost ran into him.... I asked him to drive slower since it's raining so hard... but his driving is a bit 猛.... I thanked him and he gave me his card in case I needed to call a cab again. I think they're trying to undercut service fee lol.

Entry fee is $150. It was raining hard and some of the ground has puddled up. I entered at the exit? and started looking at the souvenir shops first. I ended up buying my postcards first since I always run out of time at the end. The sales ladies were trying so hard to sell me stuff. They had lots of tasters too. I respect0fully declined. I needed to pee so headed to the toilet near Hi-Life. There was another shop there that made sauces and pastes for noodles. I ended up having an peanut and seasame soft serve for $80 there. Since the shop had an open vendor window and no one else was in there except the shop lady, I ate the ice cream in the shop. I ended up dripping a bit on the floor but the shop lady was like "it's OK!" and then the ice cream started to leak through the bottom which was covered in serviette. I had to suck it through the serviette... rip it's cause I eat to slow lol. She let me wash my hands at the end since I got ice cream all over it when the last part broke apart. I ended up buying a seasame paste jar for $120. They're so good at selling.

Then I headed down and ended up at the Wenwu temple. Some said there's a souvenir stamp but I didn't see it everywhere. They had a stamp for protective charms and seals though so I stamped that.

The outdoor theatre across from the Wenwu temple. Performances cancelled today due to the rain.

Then I started to look at the line of shops on Wenwu street. There's so many.... this took the bulk of my day... there's so many different crafts and DIY workshops available. There's also so many primary school kids on a school trip.... super noisy....

Some of the shops had stamps like the Photo Studio. I got 3 postcards for $100. So cool.

Stamps at Youth Photo Studio

Cute mailbox outside

I ended up asking every shop I went in if they had one. One other shop "5 Grannies" had heaps. I misstamped one lol and tried to join it, it looks like it's being broken away like bread, haha.

Cool display outside one of the shops

I bought heaps of stuff... I even managed to find the Pingtung tree to bar chocolate in a Hakka shop?! Well, not gonna say no. The 80% is slightly sweet with a drysweet aftertaste. The 100% has an acidic note and bitter. I bought a tin for 小智. $300 for the 80% and $450 for the 100%.

There was even a potehi shop! Seeing the intricate embroidery is always a thrill. And they're priced to reflect that!

I ended up buying a cypress soap for $300.

I also bought a traditional tea cake of 金橘 and I think 梅子 flavour? $70 for the two. And a pack of dried red guava 紅心芭樂 from Deng Yi for $150.

There was also a charcoal studio that had a mini exhibit for their charcoal products. There's a "white charcoal" that is made by firing it at 1200°C and it's conductive and is also reusable active carbon. They basically did a live experiement on its properties and also to sell their product. They carved little figures out from the charcoal, and moulded a big Guangong statue from charcoal powder. They also put Kimetsu no Yaiba figurines in the display cabinet, lol! They also put a drop of oil on my ring finger and put it under the microscope. I could see my capillaries! They look like little worms. She put a blanket with active charcoal in it and put it on top of my arm. She said to see the little white balls moving in the capillaries - those are my white blood cells? and that they move faster with the blanket on. The charcoal also blocks like electronic signals? She used a plasma ball to demonstrate the conductiveness. It was fascinating for sure.

I wanted to buy but ended up asking for a card to buy online, cause I wanted to do research on if this was legit or not.

I ended up browsing the shops and had about a quarter left to go at almost 2pm. I was getting really hungry and started to look for food. And ended up at the waterfront theatre where they were having a potehi performance... I asked the staff there and this was the last show of the day.... struggle... food or show.... I ended up going in at 2:08pm and tried not to think about how hungry I was. The front part of the seats were flooded... and the puppeters had to wade through the front part from the audience to the stage during parts of the show when different characters arrived. Mazu deity arrived from the stands and went to hand shake with all the kids. I wanted to hand shake too... but I was sitting at the back shfbkjdfd. And then Mazu summoned a big "hand of love" to fight the monster giant, and also went for the kids to hi five and touch. So cool. The production value of this troupe is very high. They had moving stage sets, fog, and fire, and also a big party popper confetti cannon. The story is about 2 individuals that were wanted by Japan so they ran away to Taiwan to escape the Meiji govt, and ended up founding/establing villages at Bei'gan. It was entertaining even though I couldn't understand much at all. They did say some phrases in Mandarin. At one point with the showdown of the Hand of Love and the Giant Monster, they said to do a cool pose and the puppeteers litfted up their face veils (total 3) and did some poses LMAO. Correction, the puppets are supposed to be cool posing. I found that pretty funny. Great troupe. At the end they all came to the stands with the bigger puppets (they used a mix of hand puppets and the tall 100cm ones) to get a photo with the kids. I wanted to get one with them too!! But they cut the power at the stage when the kids were leaving. And then the other puppeteers left the seat and was just Mazu left - I got a photo with her and shook her hand. TToTT <3. If you like their FB page you could get a hongbao, so I did. It had a $1 coin in it and a business card. There's also a survey you can fill out which I must remember to do later.

Then as I left I spoke to the troupe staff that they are 辛苦了 as they had to move their stage set up and stuff over the flooding river and front seats...

Alright, food time. It's past 2:30pm now. I pretty much stopped at the first eatery since it was raining and I didn't want to look around. It was also empty except for staff so it was a lower risk place. But it was so expenny.... the same price as a meal in NZ though. I got a bowl of tieguanyin vege noodles and a cup of panda bubble tea. $426 (I think there was a service fee? Noodles were $318 and drink special is $69). I tried to eat fast but I didn't have much appetite despite being hungry.

Once done, I went back and finished browsing the rest of the shops I missed on Wenwu street. Then headed to the exhibit hall. This was about 4:30pm. Why does time go so fast? I ended up only going through 2 exhibits, and rushed through them a little. There was a potehi one on until the end of the year (running for year), lucky! So I spent more time at that. It was cool learning about a different aspect of the art.

After this, I only had about 15 mins left until closing, so I headed to Luban-jie where most of the DIY workshops were. My first stop was at a jewellery artwork based one. They had artoworks made from leather. Leather!?! It doesn't even look like typical leather??? Amazing. They also had earrings that were made from tree bark. Mind blown. So pretty. The staff lady commented that it's indigenious technique/art. So cooool. We ended up chatting a bit and lead to her offering a ride for me back to the minsu. Really?? Are you sure?? It won't be too much trouble for you?? She said it's fine, since she also lives in Luodong on Zhongsan Road. Why are people so kind. TToTT She said to come back at 6pm after she closes shop, so I used the remaining 12 mins to look at the Indigo Dyeing workshop next door. Soo coooool. Took a few quick photos and then walked down the street to see what shops there were. The last shop was a glass and precious stone focused one? The shop lady there said I can take my time to browse but I said that a lady at the shop up the street offered to take me home. She wished me a safe journey and good time here. I went back and arrived just in time for closing.

The lady took me to the staff office building and she swiped to clock out, and then took me to the carpark. We chatted a bit in her car. She said she lived in Winconsin for 2 years and that there were more tourists today. There were 2 that were also from Winconsin and they were happy to find someone else who has lived there before. She them used some English words here and there. We got to the minsu and I thanked her and farewell.

Despite it raining so heavy all day, my feet wasn't soggy. My shoes were wet for sure, but my socks didn't feel awful. I think it's because I wore the OST pink socks (expensive made in Taiwan ones) that are like sport socks. They only felt damp. I took a quick break in my room and then found out that there was a vege shop just two blocks away. That's dinner then! I only took the essentials in my pockets and went. I found my way pretty easy and the shop was open front. Only 1 person was seated there near the door and just the staff so I opted to dine in. I got 紅燒麵 for $80 and it was a giant bowl! I commented to the staff that it was delicious. They said that usually at this time they would have sold out but since it was raining and less people, they still had some. They thought I was a student at the uni here, and that they've been open for many years. I said I am a tourist and it's my first time. They started closing up shop and I asked if I would delay them, and they said no, they'll take at least another 30 mins. Oh phew, cause I arrived just before 7pm and google said they are closed at 7:30pm.

The flavour is really good for the soup and it's a generous serving. I was stuffed near the end and sadly couldn't finish the soup. I thanked them and left.