Around The World In 72 Days - Of Rodents And Temples

On Thursday, we were ready to throw off the shackles of earthquake trauma and get back to the business at hand of exploring Taipei. Today we had two objectives, The Capybara Knight Cafe and a couple of temples (Dalongdong Baoan Temple and Taipei Confucius Temple) we'd missed the last time we're here.

Interesting buildings at the Metro exit

"What?" you ask, "Is the Capybara Knight Cafe? Well...according to the 'official' description it is a place where you can go and enjoy a nice relaxing beverage like a coffee or tea drink while petting and feeding the tame capybara that are maintained. Seems...a bit odd. The capybara is a large South American rodent that lives in watery environments like a muskrat. Why would you have these in Taiwan?

Super sleuth 2.2, a young woman grounded in reality and practicality, has done research. She believes this is just a cover for a...'CULT'...! And she is going to uncover them. (I did mention why she was dragging the rest of us on this mission that could be dangerous as we didn't give two hoots about this 'cult'. I was told that I was her Metro guild and to just 'suck it up'.)

Arriving at the Cafe, we were told, "No, there is no way you can get in. It is reservations only." 2.2 asked how she could get a reservation? "You can't. We are all full." Very strange.

 2.2 was not to be denied. Taking me as her photographer to accompany her ("Why me?" "Because if we get caught, you're slower and they will grab you while I escape." Hard to fight that logic.) Soon we were in position to see into the compound.

"Look Grandpa! That person petting the capybara looks drugged."

 

"Now he's feeding it."

"The Capybara is Eating Him! I Knew It!"

 

 Our Sleuth with a look of a job well done

Temples

After another short Metro ride, we arrived at the locale of the temples. It was raining. We were hungry. Everything around was packed. We finally ended up at a Japanese place where we had a very forgettable meal served by a surly waitress that was the most expensive of our trip to boot.

I find shooting East Asian temples very challenging. To my eye they look very similar (even more so than say Gothic cathedrals). They are also extremely ornate (read busy) which makes shooting them difficult. So today, I decided to focus on trying some different exterior perspectives and the detail of some of the painting for a change.

Ye Olde Normal Temple Shot

 

Study of Temple Exteriors

Rain

 

 Paintings

Going back to trips to Italy and guides we had, I have taken to looking closely at the faces that are pictures to see whether they are 'stock' images (so to speak) or they reflect more personal, individual characters. Here is a piece I was looking at.

 You can see a number of stylized, stock characters

 But then we have this one with clearly non-stock characters. Who was the artist using as there model?

 

Similarly, this scene has a combination of stock and non-stock images

SIGNS OF THE WORLD

Special Temple Edition

These were everywhere

Step Meditation