Taiwan Day 5 - Tainan

Next Stop - Tainan 台南
This southern town is the oldest city in Taiwan, and was ruled by the Dutch in the 1600s (you can find a lot of ruins from those days). I absolutely loved this city, probably because I happened to be there during the "Tomb Sweep" holiday weekend and it was so loud and lively everywhere I went. There was a good mix of modern department stores and restaurants, with a ton of traditional temples thrown in between.

Altar of Heaven
This temple is unique because it doesn't have any images of the god. The original temple was built as a temporary measure until a proper temple could be built, 300 years ago. It still has a temporary feel.
Billboards
I found this fascinating, not because I felt the urge to see any of these movies in the run-down theater, but because each of the billboards are actually gigantic 4-piece paintings instead of posters! Do they do this for every new movie?
Matsu Temple - another one
The Matsu Temple in this city had a super gaudy entrance that made me weary of even stepping foot in the place.The inside turned out to be pretty plain, though.People prayed like this in all the temples. Sometimes they held long incense sticks, sometimes white and purple flowers, and sometimes two crescent-shaped red blocks that they held to their foreheads then threw onto the ground to have their questions answered. I watched for a while and couldn't figure out how to read the patterns.
The Official God of War Temple (Sacrificial Rites Temple)
I happened to be there during a service and from the name of the temple half-expected to find some kind of blood sacrifice on the altar. To my relief, it was just a guy giving a sermon while the massive crowd intently listened.
Chihkan Towers
This was a Fort back in the day (the Dutch day) to guard against invasion and when the Chinese took over they made it look real Chinese. There was a partially excavated entrance at the base that they left buried, in fear of causing the upper portion to collapse.The nine tortoises carried slabs covered in intricate Chinese writing. Too bad there wasn't an English translation included.I would have spent more time just relaxing in the park if I had more time, but there were too many other things I wanted to see!
Pig or Dog, you decide.
Dongyue Temple
The god here is in charge of deciding whether you go to heaven or hell, and the second chamber was apparently the path through hell. In hell, you can have the pleasure of hanging from a hook in your chest.Or having your stomach opened with a knife.Or having someone grind twigs into your eyes.Or being forced to drink boiling water.Or many other amusements covering the walls heading into the third chamber.

Lady Linshui's Temple
The front looked like any other temple, with ladies in the street selling flowers for you to offer at the altar. In the back there was some kind of ceremony going on. Four men held a portable shrine up to the altar, and another man held a chicken by its wings. Another man held a goblet under the chicken's neck. He had a long blade in his other hand, held it to the chicken's neck, and I ran out trying not to think of what happened next.
Food
It looks like chicken, but isn't. This vegetarian restaurant used wheat gluten to make it look like meat, and strangely feel like it, too. I'm not sure how I feel about making vegetarian food as meat-like as possible.
Parades
People were throwing firecrackers into the streets all day (and sometimes in front of passersby) and I'm positive I now have permanent hearing loss. I kept running into little parades everywhere I went. It was pretty dangerous; none of the roads were closed off and mini-parades hugged the edge of the road while motorbikes sped past. Eventually I saw someone holding a flier with the parade information and peeked over his shoulder. It was all in Chinese, what'd I expect? There were hundreds of groups listed. I think every temple, important family, artistic circle, and religious affiliate got a group together to take part in the event.While exploring the city I realized that the groups were following a set route that allowed them to worship at each temple, each in their own way. Some groups had dancers perform in front of the main shrine for several minutes with fans and swords, some had musicians that fervently beat on drums and cymbals, some carried portable shrines and violently swung them this way and that as if the shrine bearers were having seizures.Some groups carried ornate wooden structures that didn't seem to have any religious significance, making me wonder exactly who was taking part in the festival.Most of the groups carrying a shrine housing the image of a god did a strange two-step that swayed the shrine back and forth and made the streamers bob up and down violently. The beams were suspended by ropes to give the shrine extra bounce.When night fell, people got more rowdy and started lighting aerial fireworks in the road. Pedestrians (like me) had to keep an eye out for guys running away from boxes that spit out dozens of haphazard rocket-type flares. More than once I had to desperately flee from fireworks that had just been lit.The parades had started before I left the hotel at 9am, and were still going strong when I went to bed at midnight. Do people even sleep during Tomb Sweep Weekend?

Bar?
I didn't go in, but people were turning sideways to squeeze into this space between two buildings. Only one person could fit in there at a time and a few meters down I could see a door on the left. I should have gone in just to check it out, but my legs (and for some reason my back) were absolutely killing me.
Hotel Room Service?
When I got back to the hotel there was an elderly man sitting downstairs. I got my key from the front desk and he followed me into the elevator. He said, "I introduce you girlfriend." Um, no thanks. He was a friendly old guy, and I could only politely decline. Must have been like 90 years old. Just goes to show that you're never too old to be a pimp.

Taiwan Day 4 - Lukang

Lukang Revisited
I couldn't let Lukang beat me, so I booked another night at the Changhua hotel to give me the next full day to explore Lukang. This time I stayed on the bus until we had crossed town and the small lanes became open roads. It finally stopped at the Lukang Main Bus Terminal.Yes, the building (I use the term loosely) that looks like an abandoned garage is the main bus terminal. Even if I had come across it the night before, I probably would have walked right by.

Living Treasures
Several shop owners have received "Living Heritage" awards for their skill and dedication in preserving old crafts. There are 36 such people in all of Taiwan, and 6 of them were in the small town of Lukang so I searched for their shops. Obviously receiving a "Living Heritage" award doesn't make you rich and famous.The shop in the photo sells handmade fans, and only encompasses the area of wall between the taxi and the orange crates. They were beautiful, but not as spectacular as I'd been expecting. I also visited the craftsman who made paper lanterns and the one who specialized in tin. Again, not as exciting as I was hoping, probably because I'd already seen the fascinating works of art at the Palace Museum in Taipei a few days before.

Food?
People were lining up at road stalls like this one. The shrimp were alive and crawling over each other. The smell of these kinds of food areas reminded me of rancid gutters and I tried to walk past quickly.If you can believe it, cars were squeezing through these same roads, too.I don't know what this green fruit is but I was hungry and everything else looked gross. The lady didn't look like the cleanest person in the world, and I worried about ingesting some kind of intestinal parasite or coming down with a severe case of diarrhea, but it turned out just fine. She sprinkled brown salt on it which tasted good on the mildly sweet fruit. The skin was wrinkly and the white part was the texture of something between an apple and a pear.If you can bring your eyes to focus on the dangling things on the right, you're staring at a bunch of pig faces hanging from a hook. Just walking through this area made my stomach turn.
The holiday called "Tomb Sweep"
It was an interesting cultural experience being in Taiwan on April 4th/5th. People buy stacks of yellow paper called "ghost money" and burn them, because you not only need money in this life, but in the afterlife as well. People were carrying home crates full of these large yellow bundles of paper to burn for their ancestors.You can buy them from ladies like this, or from shops with stacks of them wrapped in bales that were piled to the ceiling. A bale of "ghost money" apparently costs 500 Taiwanese dollars, or roughly $17 American (1700yen). Kind of expensive paper to burn if you ask me.Most people burned them in metal drums like this. Every home had a fire going in front of their house, and when the smoke died down they piled on more paper. At first I enjoyed the cultural smell, then after a few hours of being bathed in smoke wherever I went my lungs were in need of fresh air.Temples also had special structures to burn "ghost money" in, for people who didn't want to burn them in front of their homes all day. I wonder if this tradition is why all the buildings in the town were covered in black soot.
Matsu Temple
Temples for this god were in every city I went to (there are supposedly more than 500 temples dedicated to her on the island). She was a real person named Lin Mo that guided ships to shore in the 10th century, and after she ascended to heaven she continued to appear to sailors to guide them to safety. You're supposed to pray for her when you travel.This particular one is known for having a Matsu statue whose face has turned completely black from the incense smoke that worshippers carry. I watched carefully what people were doing. You hold three long sticks of incense and shake them toward the statue, as well as behind you, then move to each part of the temple and do the same thing. It was pretty dangerous with everyone carrying long sticks of lighted incense, but I escaped safely without burning an eye out.Again, impressed by stone carvings. It must be pretty tough making these 3-dimensional figures without accidentally lopping a head or arm off and having to start all over again. The back halls were full of these kinds of pillars. From far away they looked like some kind of golden decoration, but...A close-up reveals that each one is a golden image with someone's name on it, probably someone whose family paid the temple to care for their soul.There were also halls packed from floor to ceiling with these container-like ones, probably for people who passed on recently?I turned around and was startled by two demons. Was it sacrilegious to be taking photos around there? Just to be safe I waited until there was no one around to snap photos of stuff, probably making me look even more sketchy for standing around not doing anything in there.
Red brick homes
This town had a large number of brick homes, the entrances of which opened into small alleys like this one.Most of them had simple doors to prevent people from looking inside, but I looked in any that were open to see how homes were laid out. There was usually a large living room as soon as you enter the home, and an altar for their ancestors taking up almost the whole wall.I like the look of brick. Even if the house was crumbling and in a filthy neighborhood, there was a traditional feel that made it not so bad.Lots of homes didn't have a doorway leading to the road, but into a small alley that only pedestrians could use.
Longshan Temple
I found myself at the same temple that I wasted valuable time at the day before.It had a totally different feel to it in the daytime with children playing in the courtyard and running along the hallways of the temple. This kid had one of those big double-side tops that they swing around in Chinese acrobatic shows. He wasn't so good and kept flinging it across the courtyard.A tired old man even took some time to rest his feet from all the walking.
Folk Arts Museum
It took over an hour of retracing my steps through twisted alleys and going around in circles to find this darn place. The signs were terrible, and often pointed into the wrong direction. One sign actually pointed into the small space between two buildings that was full of weeds. And it wasn't just me that was lost. I kept bumping into the same Taiwanese people wandering the alleys; we were all looking for the same place. I finally spotted the large building over a wall, and circled around to find the entrance.It used to be the home of one of the 4 richest men in Taiwan, and is now full of old musical instruments, clothes, cooking utensils (I had no interest in any of those things) and several rooms set up with furniture so you could imagine how people lived back then (much more interesting).

The Symbol of Lukang
I got lost (yet again) and followed a really wide road thinking it would lead me somewhere (it didn't and I had to retrace my steps back to the cramped part of town). Lukang used to be a port full of deer, and along the big road I found a park. I found myself face-to-face with this butt-ugly creature. It was right there to greet everyone at the front entrance (or scare them away).This time, I made it back to the bus station on my own without having kind ladies drive me there on their motorbikes. And before dark, too.

Taiwan Day 3 - Changhua and Lukang (sort of)

Next stop - Changhua　彰化
I headed south and away from the rain. It was warmer down here, and I could use some of the clothes I'd brought with me!

In a city of 234,000 people, I expected the train station to be big and modern, not cramped and dirty and full of sweaty taxi drivers trying to get you in their cab. They chew on betel nut and have rotten, stained teeth (those teeth that were still left). You could see the red juice oozing from their lips. From my bag they knew I was travelling and were all looking at me and shouting, but I didn't know how to say, "My hotel is right across the street" so I just smiled and shook my head as I scurried past.

In the evening this entire area was jam-packed with people on motorbikes waiting to pick up friends and loved ones coming home from work or school. The sound of so many motorbikes combined with the shouting of people calling to who they were waiting for was deafening, but it had that warm feeling of people looking forward to seeing those they care about.

The town itself felt like it had been left behind while Taipei had modernized. The plaster on the buildings was crumbling off and streaked with black pollution stains; the streets were covered in a layer of dirt and belting up in places; there were peddlers selling things from carts and men that looked homeless sitting around on the sidewalk. It reminded me of towns that I'd visited in rural parts of Northeastern Thailand, or the dirty parts of Tijuana, Mexico.

The Hotel
This town was so cheap! For starters, the hotel cost the same as the hovel I stayed at in Taipei, but I had my own room with a bath, a refrigerator, air conditioning, cable TV, and free long-distance calls. I loved the Taiwanese style of the room, and the lady at the front desk was so kind. She couldn't speak a word of English (I had the tourist office in Taipei help me make the reservation) so we communicated by writing things down on paper and I used my knowledge of Chinese characters to make out what she was trying to tell me.
Food
Interesting contrast from the day before. In Taipei there were lots of modern-style restaurants that had things like menus, waitresses, cleanliness. Here in Changhua there were lots of carts selling scary-looking food, and being vegetarian made it hard for me to just try things randomly. I memorized the phrase, "I'm vegetarian." and said it to a cart lady to see what she could give me, but she shook her head and pointed down the street. I walked a little further then asked someone else, who again pointed down the road. Eventually I ended up at a shop with this in front.Yes, it looks gross and dirty and not vegetarian, but the lady didn't point down the road when I said I was vegetarian, and the sign above the food had the Chinese character for "vegetarian" in it. I didn't know what anything was and the lady seemed to think that speaking extra loudly would make me understand, which I thought was kind of funny. Plus it was kind of chaotic with people ordering from all around me because there wasn't a line. Then she grabbed a handful of noodles and gave me a questioning look, so I smiled and said, "Yes!" in English. Then she pointed to the bubbling pot with all kinds of stuff in it, and honestly I had no idea what I would get but I said "Yes!" anyway. I got this:So cheap! It cost about $1.50 and was pretty good. In the left bowl, the red thing on the noodles that looks like meat is some kind of pressed and marinated tofu that feels like biting into bits of chicken. In the right bowl of soup, the stuff that looks like chicken skin and pork is made from the thick layer that forms on the top of soy milk when you heat it.

Behind the food cart was a small sitting area. I shared a table with a lady eating alone and watched her closely, copying how she ate. I used the sauce she used, mimicked how she put sauce in the spoon and used chopsticks to dip the noodles into it. She smiled when she realized what I was doing.

I discovered there were basically three things you could order here: a bowl of noodles, a bowl of soup, or a bowl of soup with noodles. For dinner I had all 3 plus another bowl of noodles and thought my stomach would burst (it actually hurt). All four bowls cost less than $3. You can't beat that.

Confucius Temple
I thought I couldn't go into the grounds because the giant front gates were closed, but there was an opening in the wall around the corner. It was so peaceful with no one around. Below on the left you can see the groundskeeper, who seemed to be keeping an eye on me, making me wonder if I shouldn't have been there.On both sides of the main temple were empty classrooms. The groundskeeper came in and stood at the back of the room to see what I was doing in there (pretending to be a good student).
Old Dutch Well
Hundreds of years ago the Dutch had control of Taiwan, and you can still find some remains of those days, like this old well. The guidebook made it sound interesting, but seeing a woman washing her clothes in it kind of took away from the historical experience.
Big Buddha
The third and final thing to see in this town according to the guidebook was the Big Buddha at the top of a hill. Instead of following the main road I walked up the dry riverbed and enjoyed the scenery.The Buddha was huge (in the foreground there's a man to the left of the tiger statue) but was pretty tacky up close. The pink base looked old and faded, and there were windows in the Buddha's back. You could go inside and see mannequin-like displays depicting the main points of Buddha's life, but the explanations were wordy and strange.Monkly dude chilling on the blue chairs.
Lost in Lukang 鹿港
I was finished seeing the main sights of Changhua, so I decided to catch a bus to the nearby town of Lukang to see some sights there before it got dark. Knowing Chinese characters really helped in getting the tickets. The bus station was absolutely packed, full of students who had just gotten out of school and people who were heading home from work. There were only two ticket machines (and strangely no ticket desk with a human to help out) with about 50 people crowded around them. Once I made it to the machine I only had a few seconds to get my ticket, and everything was completely written in Chinese. I pushed the button for Lukang, got my ticket, and stood in line to wait for the bus. It didn't come for a while, and at 4:30pm I started debating whether or not it was getting too late to explore another town, and if I should just scrap my bus ticket and try again the next day. The guidebook said it was a 30 min. ride to Lukang, so I figured there was enough time to see a little of the town before hopping on a bus back to Changhua before it got dark, like around 6:30pm? This was my first mistake: even the best estimate only gave me an hour to spend in Lukang, and I was assuming everything would go smoothly.

After an hour on the bus I started seeing signs that told me I was in the town of Lukang. The guidebook must have meant a 30min. ride if there are no cars on the road, so it was already dusk when I got there. When the bus made a stop on a wide road (well, wide enough for two cars to pass each other without one stopping to let the other one swerve around) the majority of the people on the bus stood up to get off, so I asked the driver, "Lukang?" and he said yes. That's why I got off there, too. This is what I saw:No English whatsoever, and nothing to tell me where to go. One of my problems was that my map was written in English, but the signs in the town were in Chinese. I could recognize the characters, but I didn't know how to pronounce them to find myself on the map. The sign says 三民 but which road could it be... Minzu? Minquan? Sanshu? Also, the signs were old and bent, and sometimes pointing in the wrong direction.

I followed the crude map in the guidebook and counted the number of blocks as I passed them, turning left and right where appropriate. But I never reached the temple I was trying to find. In fact, I'd been walking in a straight line for quite a while when there should have been cross-streets already. Mistake number two: I'd gotten off at the wrong stop, and was lost.

I retraced my steps and made it back to the bus stop that I'd gotten off at. In the distance I noticed an arrow-shaped sign with characters I recognized on it. It was the direction of a temple that I thought I wouldn't have time to see because it was on the other side of the city. So then I understood: I was in Lukang, but on the opposite side of the city that I thought I was in.

If I could make it to the temple, then I could find myself on the map and get to the bus that would take me back to Changhua. Hopefully before dark.

Lukang's Longshan Temple
I found the ancient temple and couldn't resist exploring a little. Mistake number 3: I spent valuable time looking around when I should have been trying to find the bus stop. At this point I still thought I had time to spare. At least it was beautiful, being the best preserved Qing Dynasty temple in Taiwan.I liked the pillars carved from stone. The ceiling beams were carved, too, and they were probably originally painted in bright colors.Gettin' jiggy with it.When I left the temple the sun was low in the sky and it would be completely dark within the hour. I made my way to the bus stop, but the roads were narrow and winding, and it was hard to tell what was an alley and what was a road on the map. After twisting and turning I had no idea which direction I was facing, but kept on my way.

You guessed it, I got lost again. I'd been walking for a half hour and the signs for Longshan Temple were pointing in a direction that I didn't expect the temple to be. I'd walked in a great big circle. So I set off again, this time at a faster pace because of lost time. Then it got completely dark, and I was still lost.

It was a small town, and there weren't any taxis roaming the streets like in Changhua or Taipei. All the signs were in Chinese. I started to get nervous. I didn't know what time the last bus to Changhua was... what if I missed the last bus back? Mistake number 4: I lost my calm. I started heading into the general direction of where I thought the bus stop was at a fast pace. And because of the winding roads and lack of sun to tell me the direction, I was just guessing.

Eventually it occurred to me to write down the Chinese characters of the bus stop I wanted to go to on a sheet of paper. I looked for someone to show it to, knowing that I wouldn't understand the directions they gave me anyway, but I had to try something.

A woman about my age had been selling flowers on the side of the road and was putting her things away. I asked if she could help me, and showed her the characters for the bus stop. She pointed, then frowned like she wanted to tell me something but knew I wouldn't understand. She paused for a moment, then said in English, "I bring you." I'd been walking for a while and knew the bus stop should be closeby, so I gestured that I could head in that direction and ask someone else along the way. But she repeated, "I bring you" and handed me a helmet. I got on her motorbike and we drove. For longer than I'd expected. And made lots of turns. Holy cow, I was really far from the bus stop. Apparently I'd been walking pretty fast because of the adrenaline in my system, in the wrong direction.

We made it to the bus stop and I hopped onto one of the last buses of the night. If it hadn't been for the kindness of the flower lady, I would never have made it to the bus stop and back to Changhua.