Monday was such a nice day- 25 degrees- and we spent the day on a sightseeing trip with Samuel and Christine. First, we went to
Yingge AKA "The Pottery Town", the hub of ceramics production in Taiwan. Like every other tourist-reliant town in Taipei county,
Yingge has a charming cobblestone "old street" lined with ceramics vendors, souvenir shops and cafes. In terms of the "old streets" I've been to, this one was especially nice and well worth a visit.
Some ceramics for sale. I'd never been so tempted to buy ceramics, quite frankly. The stuff here was awesome, creative and very affordable: starting at around $1.50 for a unique plate or mug. The souvenir we eventually decided on was a rice wine pouring set with cups that Samuel told us is made with infrared rays that will make the rice wine sweeter than usual. I'm game for drinking out of china that will chemically-altering my beverage!
Or you could pick up some Hello Kitty ceramics (OF COURSE)!
There were several
DIY stores where you could mess up your own piece of pottery if you thought you could do it better than the experts on the street.
A trip anywhere with Samuel and Christine is never complete without trying some different food. We went to a little shop that sells salty tofu (it looks and has the same consistency as pudding) with shaved ice and your choice of toppings. We went with peanuts and tapioca pearls, but there were also several types of mushy beans and taro to choose from. The shop had a 4 page
questionaire that, if you filled it out, would get you your dessert for free. Christine got halfway through translating the first page for me, noticed there were 4 pages, and just continued filling it out herself instead.
Yay for free desserts!
Next we had some cactus ice cream, which was thoughtfully absent of any cactus thorns. No questionnaires here, though. You had to
cough up the 60 cents for your cone.
Near the end of the old street there was an old kiln that you could walk through, which was kind of cool. The kiln smartly exited into a souvenir shop.
After spending a few sunny hours walking around
Yingge, we drove for about 10 minutes to the town of
Sansia.
Sansia has another charming "old street" that we had seen on a postcard in a bookstore and thought looked nice, which is what made us interested in visiting the area. The old street was very nice and very different looking for Taiwan, and I've read online that it is an example of old Japanese architecture.
We stopped at some touristy shops along the old street; this one was selling calligraphy pens. Interesting fact: Christine told us that most parents in Taiwan will use the hair from their baby's first haircut to make a pen like this.
I've found that most towns also have a "famous" food and
Sansia's famous food is its bull horn croissant. We went to the most famous horn shop (there were several) and they even had a sign up boasting that President Ma had eaten there. No word on what President Pa thinks. Although they look like a croissant on the outside, the horns are more dense and
bready inside than a croissant would be at home, and some of the flavours had a tasty filling inside as well. We tried the coffee, banana, strawberry and chocolate and recommend all but the too-
bready chocolate horn.
Even Santa was wearing a bull horn and getting into the action!
Near the old street is
Zushi Temple, said to be one of the most detailed temples in Taiwan. And there are A LOT of temples in Taiwan so that must be quite a compliment.
It was an incredibly detailed building, with all the bright colors and dragons you'd expect to see outside, and lavish ornate gold inside.
On our drive home we shared the road with an unhappy bunch of pigs that were wailing and biting at each other. I don't what they had to be grumpy about, they have more personal space in the back of that truck than I have on the
MRT a lot of days.
After we got home we quickly dropped off our things and headed to the
Acer repair shop in Taipei. We'd left our laptop there last week and were itching to get it back. They said it needed a new motherboard, which would cost $150CAN, but then called to say the new motherboard wouldn't work and that they'd just fixed the old one. Although I now feel like my laptop could break again any second, guess how much the week or labor from
Acer cost us? Ten bucks. TEN BUCKS! And we were even treated to a complimentary cup of
Acer coffee while we waited. After a nice meal at
Alleycats we headed home to watch some much needed downloaded TV!
Success!
Monday was such a nice day- 25 degrees- and we spent the day on a sightseeing trip with Samuel and Christine. First, we went to Yingge AKA "The Pottery Town", the hub of ceramics production in Taiwan. Like every other tourist-reliant town in Taipei county, Yingge has a charming cobblestone "old street" lined with ceramics vendors, souvenir shops and cafes. In terms of the "old streets" I've been to, this one was especially nice and well worth a visit.
Some ceramics for sale. I'd never been so tempted to buy ceramics, quite frankly. The stuff here was awesome, creative and very affordable: starting at around $1.50 for a unique plate or mug. The souvenir we eventually decided on was a rice wine pouring set with cups that Samuel told us is made with infrared rays that will make the rice wine sweeter than usual. I'm game for drinking out of china that will chemically-altering my beverage!
Or you could pick up some Hello Kitty ceramics (OF COURSE)!
There were several DIY stores where you could mess up your own piece of pottery if you thought you could do it better than the experts on the street.
A trip anywhere with Samuel and Christine is never complete without trying some different food. We went to a little shop that sells salty tofu (it looks and has the same consistency as pudding) with shaved ice and your choice of toppings. We went with peanuts and tapioca pearls, but there were also several types of mushy beans and taro to choose from. The shop had a 4 page questionaire that, if you filled it out, would get you your dessert for free. Christine got halfway through translating the first page for me, noticed there were 4 pages, and just continued filling it out herself instead. Yay for free desserts!
Next we had some cactus ice cream, which was thoughtfully absent of any cactus thorns. No questionnaires here, though. You had to cough up the 60 cents for your cone.
Near the end of the old street there was an old kiln that you could walk through, which was kind of cool. The kiln smartly exited into a souvenir shop.
After spending a few sunny hours walking around Yingge, we drove for about 10 minutes to the town of Sansia. Sansia has another charming "old street" that we had seen on a postcard in a bookstore and thought looked nice, which is what made us interested in visiting the area. The old street was very nice and very different looking for Taiwan, and I've read online that it is an example of old Japanese architecture.
We stopped at some touristy shops along the old street; this one was selling calligraphy pens. Interesting fact: Christine told us that most parents in Taiwan will use the hair from their baby's first haircut to make a pen like this.
I've found that most towns also have a "famous" food and Sansia's famous food is its bull horn croissant. We went to the most famous horn shop (there were several) and they even had a sign up boasting that President Ma had eaten there. No word on what President Pa thinks. Although they look like a croissant on the outside, the horns are more dense and bready inside than a croissant would be at home, and some of the flavours had a tasty filling inside as well. We tried the coffee, banana, strawberry and chocolate and recommend all but the too-bready chocolate horn.
Even Santa was wearing a bull horn and getting into the action!
Near the old street is Zushi Temple, said to be one of the most detailed temples in Taiwan. And there are A LOT of temples in Taiwan so that must be quite a compliment.
It was an incredibly detailed building, with all the bright colors and dragons you'd expect to see outside, and lavish ornate gold inside.
On our drive home we shared the road with an unhappy bunch of pigs that were wailing and biting at each other. I don't what they had to be grumpy about, they have more personal space in the back of that truck than I have on the MRT a lot of days.
After we got home we quickly dropped off our things and headed to the Acer repair shop in Taipei. We'd left our laptop there last week and were itching to get it back. They said it needed a new motherboard, which would cost $150CAN, but then called to say the new motherboard wouldn't work and that they'd just fixed the old one. Although I now feel like my laptop could break again any second, guess how much the week or labor from Acer cost us? Ten bucks. TEN BUCKS! And we were even treated to a complimentary cup of Acer coffee while we waited. After a nice meal at Alleycats we headed home to watch some much needed downloaded TV! Success!
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