Asia Mega Tour II - Some Days Your Lucky...The Tamsui Video Spectacular

Wife and I have an attitude that our travel is an adventure. True it might not be what people who are decades younger than us and who are fit and athletic might call an adventure. But for us, each new place we go to, each new country, each experience is an adventure in what we are going to find, how we are going to figure it out, what we are going to see and experience, and what surprises we're going to have but pleasant and unpleasant. When things don't go so well, we will bitch for a while but then we just chalk it up as 'part of the adventure'. But then there are the times when totally through luck you have these fabulous experiences.

Yesterday we headed off to town/small city that is at the very end of one of the Metro lines. It has an interesting history. In the 1870's a Canadian, George Leslie McKay, came to this town. He established a medical school and university. He was revered as a person who introduced Western medical practices to Taiwan. He was also a Presbyterian minister and that sect is now the largest Christian sect in Taiwan. All kinds of buildings dating from that period as well as an old Portuguese fort and some older temples are found in this town. So we were looking forward to walking around the area and taking it all in.

We arrive and get out of the Metro. They've predicted rain for the day and it is wet and a little misty when we arrive

 Fortunately it stops almost as soon as we start walking and is nice the rest of the day.

First let's get our bearings

"Uh honey, can you read this sign?"

Ah here we go. That's better

We're trying to find a temple (shock!) but are getting completely lost

We end up in some market...and not a tourist market...a real working market...where of course we find...a temple

We finally get ourselves out of the market when we hear this noise.

No it's not really a noise. It sounds like music and drums playing.

So we make our way back to the main street of the old area.

There we run into what looks like a parade

We continue up the street where we run into floats. 

It really does look like a parade being staged.

With all kinds of drumming and displays that are very reminiscent of things we've seen in the temples

Moving further down the street, we reach an area where things seem to be happening.

Need to move forward and see if we can figure this out.

Ah this is it.

I find out from a local (using the Google Translator App) that this is the annual celebration for the temple we are now in front of. Each group that comes represents a neighborhood in the city. We stay there for an hour and a half watching one set of devotional performers after another come and pay their respects to the God of the Temple. Here are the three best. If you'd like to see some great still photos go to Wife's blog which should have a post up later.

Here is the object of veneration. We're still not sure what the Temple's name is and they had this big billboard poster covering it.

We were starving and I'd spied a fish restaurant on our way out from the Metro station. I will cover our meal in Gastronomy below.

We decided to take a ferry across to another town touted in our guide book as 'postcard picturesque'.

I got to practice the 'paparazzi' techniques I learned in Kyoto and got two shots of this adorable little girl with her parents and grandparents. Seeing all the little kids is so cool. Kids are the same everywhere.

Also was able to capture a picture of a hot photographer who wasn't paying attention

'Postcard Picture Perfect' Mud Flats

Gastronomy

We had a great eating day!

For lunch we had shrimp dry cooked with salt and spices, grilled snapper collar, and sauteed water spinach. Sorry no pictures. Hands were too dirty shelling the shrimp.

One of THE SNACKS OF CHOICE is grilled or deep fried cuttlefish. These are attractively displayed on a stick

There were places giving out free samples.

I tried a couple and they were pretty good. Not as chewy as I would have thought.

But I had my eyes on something else I'd seen earlier in the day.

An oyster fritter that the woman was cooking to order.

It was amazingly not fishy tasting.

For dinner we went to a Shanghai style place that was also real good.

Soup dumplings

Orange Chicken that was neither too sweet nor too spicy

Stir fried greens

And Shanghai style noodles