Taipei Toy Festival 2010

Last one.

Taipei Toy Festival 2010

more photos and a link to the official site. If you scroll over the menus, you should see the English.
http://home.pmo.com.tw/pmo/monster/

Taipei Toy Festival 2010

It took place at Huashan 1914 creative park. Here is a link to an article about the show:
http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1313873&lang=eng_news&cate_img=35.jpg&cate_rss=news_Business_TAIWAN&mbn=420C56324089B156E73E348F96095E88

Taipei Toy Festival 2010

I was able to go to this toy festival last Saturday. I always enjoy toy shows - so many creative people get involved with making toys that it's usually more interesting than a contemporary art show at a museum. Just like in the states, kids in Taiwan are a little bit too into Japanese culture, and while I love Japanese culture even more than the next guy, I would sometimes like to see more individuality shining through in their work. Still lots of good stuff though. Also, it was held in an interesting space, I wish I knew something about the history of that place. Another thing that I like about toy shows is that things are for sale and people who aren't ridiculously wealthy can buy these pieces of art. The prices are reasonable starting around $500 NT or so. There is no point in going into my favorite pieces, you can judge for yourself. I will try to get lots of photos up.

Tainan pt 7

So that's it. I got up the next day, had one last Dan zi mian, drank some milk tea, and walked for 30 minutes to the bus stop. Just missed a bus, so I got to wait and it was super hot. But that's ok, I had a nice time. I was sorry to get home, oh well.

Tainan pt 6

Here is a pic of the night market, Chikan at night, the place where I bought the coffin bread, and the coffin bread itself under the jaundiced light of my hotel room. Looks like I time traveled back to the 50's for my snack, which is possible. Yuck.

Tainan pt 5

After my nap, I went out again and saw the Confucius temple. This time I had my umbrella, which was handy because it was raining again. The temple was pretty nice, and very quiet. It was interesting to be a tourist in what felt like a ghost town most of the time. Not much tourism happening on Monday and Tuesday, pre-season. Also, the whole time I was in Tainan I think I saw about 7 westerners. I did hear some Mainland accents and japanese, but westerners were not around much. Which was kind of nice. I got more respect when I spoke Chinese, and when I busted out the little bit of Taiwanese I know, I got some laughter. Not bad.

After the temple, I went looking for this restaurant that the front desk person told me about, but I couldn't find. I think it had closed down. Then I went to the night market to eat dinner. Tainan's night markets are famous, but I was there too early, on a rainy night, and it wasn't one of the more famous markets. It was ok, I had stinky tofu, some kind of Taiwanese version of a burrito, and an attempt at Indian Chai (that wasn't too good, though. No flavor). I considered going out to watch the world cup again, but I decided it's better just to save the money, so I just watched it back at the hotel. That was okay. I brought home something called coffin bread, a leftover from American GI's apparently. It's white bread with some cream sauce covered mixed vegetables and seafood shoved in a hole in the bread and covered with something deep fried. Richard tells me American soldiers call this "shit on a shingle." The first part seems accurate, it's just terrible. I was hoping that the Taiwanese had improved it, adding some delicious local flavor, but no, just bland yuckiness. It cried out for hot sauce, which I had foolishly forgotten to bring with me. Not recommended. Then I went to sleep.

lunch and buildings

This was my lunch and those other things with roofs are buildings I saw.

Tainan pt 4

So, the rain finally stopped and I resumed walking around. It was a weekday, so there weren't very many people around, and a lot of the shops were closed, but it was interesting to walk. Many things to see, but I was getting hungry, so I started looking for food. I finally ended up at a place written up in my guidebook (Chou's shrimp rolls) which, indeed, had outstanding shrimp rolls with great tempura batter. The Dan-zi mian were good, but not as good as what I had the day before. It really hit the spot, and I appreciated the chance to take a break from the heat and sit in air conditioning for a while. After lunch I walked around a little bit more, saw some nice old broken down buildings, bought some interesting black sugar cookies for gifts, and finally decided I had seen enough. I could have taken a taxi ride to see some museums, but they didn't sound that great and I had been walking in the sun for several hours. I was pretty wiped out and ready to take a nap. So, back to the hotel to crash for a couple of hours. A good choice I think.

Tainan pt 3

The next day, I got up early to head over to the Anping section to see Fort Zeelandia and wander around. It was already fiery hot, and I drank a papaya milk and a huge winter melon tea as I walked around. Fort Zeelandia was an old dutch fort when they had a trade presence here and it was interesting to see some dutch items and Indonesian items that ended up here as part of the trade route that the Dutch had set up. Eventually, Koxinga came over and lay siege to the fort and eventually kicked the Dutch out. This fact is used by both pro- and anti- unification people to justify their positions - everything is open to interpretation. The fort was interesting, it was cool to see the levels of ruins from different periods, and it was a beautiful day. Finally, the sky opened up and I ran for the nearest cover (I forgot my umbrella) and ended up spending about 20 mins watching rain come down and waiting to start walking around. The pics above include an old, semi-destroyed wall, a statue of Koxinga, and the view from up on the fort itself.

And a few more

more pics in and around Chi Kan.

Some more random images

Just some pictures of random things I saw walking around the city.

Tainan pt 2

After lunch, i walked a few feet to see the Chikan Towers. As soon as I got there the sky opened up and rain poured down. I got bored of waiting under a roof - my feet and legs were getting soaked anyway - so I made a dash to the main building. Really nice. I especially enjoyed the stone hallways under the building, which were unfortunately difficult to reach since the rain had accumulated in very deep puddles. After I finished checking out the towers, I walked around the area a bit, looking at a couple of temples nearby and enjoying the old buildings and stone streets. My feet and socks were soaked, and I was exhausted and not yet adjusted to the heat, so I went back to the hotel for a nap.

My room was like a cave, nice and dark, and the bed was pretty nice, so I slept like a baby. When I got up it was already getting late. I went for another walk around the neighborhood, saw some more temples, etc., and generally explored. I found the bar where I would watch the world cup later and had some mian xian with oysters and garlic fried greens for dinner. I get cranky if I go too long without any green vegetables. Went to the bar to watch Netherlands play someone, a boring game in a smoky bar, but the Anchor Steam was cheap and it looked cool and I had a good seat. I decided not to stay for the second game - cigarette smoke burns my eyes - so I went home to crash.

Tainan pt 1

When I got to Tainan, I was shocked to see blue sky. In Taipei it had been raining for 40 days and 40 nights, and I had forgotten that sometimes the sky is a color other than gray. I took the high speed train, which was nice except for the lack of information at the station. I was looking for a hotel and no one could give me any advice at all. Poor. I took the free shuttle bus into town and ended up in the middle of nowhere. Stupid bus driver wouldn't tell me anything, it's possible his mandarin was not very good and I couldn't ask in Taiwanese. So I took a taxi who took me to a place that fit my criteria: clean, not too expensive, in a convenient area. It probably would have been cheaper if he didn't take his cut, but at least he helped me find some place. It was nice to drop off my stuff and go get lunch. I wanted to try two things Tainan is famous for - dan zi noodles and the fried shrimp rolls. Unlike Taipei, people in Tainan were actually kind of impressed that I can speak some Chinese and my hotel staff were pretty nice and helpful. They sent me in the right direction and off I went. You can see that the pics of my lunch are too dark, I was still learning how to use this camera. The noodles at this place were really nice, great texture and a perfect, salty enough but not too salty, flavorful broth. The fried shrimp roll was also good, served with a mixture of that apricot duck sauce and wasabi and pickled ginger on the side, both excellent for cutting the grease of deep fried shrimp. The home made winter melon tea was also good and refreshing.