Around The World In 72 Days - Return To Tamsui, You Can't Go Home

It is rare to go back to a spot where you've had a phenomenal serendipitous experience and have it meet expectations when you return. So it was with our visit to Tamsui on the outskirts of Taipei. When we were there in 2017, we had a magical moment. Of course, we didn't expect that to happen. But we remembered Tamsui as a quiet place with numerous areas to wander and explore. We remembered the food as being good too. 

Our first inkling that something very different was afoot was on the Metro. It is along ride out to Tamsui. It is the last stop on the line. Yet no one was getting off the train. Only more were getting on, a lot of them with children. 

(Speaking of Metro, how many Metro's have a special family sleeping area? And why is that white woman glaring at me?)

 

We get off the train to find ourselves engulfed with people! I asked one of the grandkids to do an internet search on whether today was a holiday. Sure enough. It is national children's day! So much for the quiet exploration of Tamsui!

OMG there are even organized tour groups!

🤯

 

 Enjoying the bliss of quiet Tamsui

We were hungry. We were in no mood to be tourist ripped off like yesterday. We moved out from the tourist area and found a hole-in-the-wall local joint serving classic Taiwanese Beef Soup Noodles. It was good.

The Soups - Mine was a Curry Soup

 With some Cabbage and Kimchi (why Korean Kimchi in Taiwan, I'm not sure)

 Well, we're here so let's see what this festival is all about.

Samples of Fried Cuttlefish

Friends getting together

 Candied Fruit

 

 Tall White Guys standing out

 

 Oysters (damn, wish I wasn't full from lunch)

 The Universal Symbol of Squid 

Variations on a Theme of Ice Cream

 

 Passing on the Traditional Family Value of Gambling

Need to Mend a Broken Heart?

Need Wooden Cooking Utensils?

 

 Wondering Why the Hell Someone is Taking Pictures of Signs?

SIGNS OF THE WORLD

Do Not Levitate Apple Cores!

No Crushing of Plants with Heels (Flat Shoes Only!)

Do Not Rant at Your Food Cart!

Exaggerated Kung Fu Style Frisbee Catching Prohibited

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

 

 

Around The World In 72 Days - Earthquake Special Post-Morten

Following the time honored principle of shutting the barn door after the horse has escaped (or as we say in our family buying the purple candles*), we have over the two days since the earthquake been doing a lot of reading about what one should do in these situations. 

*This refers to a terrible ice storm we experienced when first married that left us without power for days on end in the middle the winter. My younger brother who was in the same area at the time, gifted us with a HUGE box of purple candles to take care of us should this happen again. Said box followed us for the next two decades before finally we realized they had melted into an unusable mass.

I happy to report that the four of us, Wife, 2.2, 2.3 and myself, did virtually NOTHING correct. 

• We should have gotten under a table or bed. We did not.
• We should not have braced ourselves in a doorway. We did.
• We should have stayed in bed covering our neck and head with a pillow. We did not.
• We should have gotten away from a area of potential glass falling. We did not.

I am also dismayed to report that the literature is sadly lacking on what to do when one finds oneself on a toilet doing one's business when the earthquake hits. The two grandchildren, in the way of teenagers, have made quite a few jokes on what the emergency rescuers would be saying as they found my carcass in the rubble on the toilet. 

Lastly, I will report that while we had the bad luck of being in Taiwan for the worst earthquake in 25 years, we had the good luck of it being Taiwan. For it turns out that Taiwan (responding to past disasters) has become the world's leader in earthquake related building codes, retrofitting, infrastructure design, and emergency response. If one was going to have to experience, this is the place to do so. 

Wife and I have decided that we can check this experience off our travel 'to do' list for keeps. 

Around The World In 72 Days - Post Earthquake Stroll

 Let me stop you before you get your hopes up. This not going to be a post showing all the scenes of devastation around us from yesterday's earthquake. In Taipei in general, and in our area specifically, very little damage occurred. We were shaken up and taken out of our complacency but that's it. 

Because of the quake, we weren't really in the mood for taking a long metro ride out of town which was our original plan. We decided instead to just go for a walk and explore our neighborhood. Wife and decided this was a good excuse for us to go into photo shoot mode. It turned out the neighborhood had a lot to offer.

Off we go!

A common theme through out are the Grandchildren saying...

"Where's (fill in with Grandma or Grandpa as appropriate)" as we go wandering off after some shot or other. Or...

"Grandpa (or Grandma), get out of the street! You can't stand there and take pictures!"

(And yes, this is all a bit of role reversal with Wife and I know playing the wandering toddlers and 2.2. and 2.3 the parents)

Major Theme - Food

It is mind boggling just how many food options there are in just this rather small section of the city.

Then we have motorcycles and motor scooters

 

Taipei has vast coffee options

There is also Exotic Taipei Coffee, Cheap Taipei Coffee, Fancy Taipei Coffee just to name a few.

Taiwan is an Extremely capitalist culture. 

While the New Taiwanese Dollar is the official currency, there are many other subsidiary currencies as well.

Some even have their own banking systems

General Street Scenes

The Mandatory Temple Shot

Education

Education is valued very highly in East Asian cultures

Even baked goods are encouraged to seek out schooling

Personally, though, I found this outfit's recruiting a bit creepy.

Laundry

It is not a de-I neighborhood shoot without a Laundry Shot

Uncategorized

And of course...

SIGNS OF THE WORLD

Special, "We're Not Sure" Edition

Is this a school for Dancing? Contortionists? Chiropractic Work? Sadomasochism Studies?

Where Pigs Loving Brews Congregate?

And lastly...

The Place for Romance? Heart Transplants? Cannibalism?