Taiwan - Chinese New Year 2003

Knocky Cat

Thursday - February 6, 2003 We got up early this morning. I took a shower first thing, figuring there was no chance we'd have hot water at the house we'd be staying at - if running water at all. More details were revealed about the house. The person who owns the house has three residences in Tainan: a suite in the city and 2 house farther out. The suite was too small for the five of us, so we'd be staying in the house outside of town. Apparently the house is used as a guest house or second home most of the time, which makes me feel a little more comfortable about staying there. It is; however, "30 minutes" outside Tainan. This estimate is being provided by the same person who says Kaohsiung is also only 30 minutes from Tainan. I made a trip to the Cong You Bing shop and at long last he was open. Overjoyed, I had my breakfast. We packed and it wasn't a pretty sight: Hauling the "portable" baby crib meant we had almost as much luggage as we arrived in Taiwan with. Our goal was to be ready by 8:00AM for the 4 hour trip to Tainan, but Johnny wasn't up, so I decided to make my daily run to get my pictures. Because of the time constraint, I used the bus. At least, that was my plan. I was told bus 8 would take me down Heping Road and turn up Roosevelt, which runs in front of the memorial. I walked to the bus stop, but it didn't show bus 8. I continued on to the next and the next and the next. No where was bus 8 indicated, nor did a bus 8 ever pass me. I would believe it to be a complete mistake if I hadn't seen a bus 8 on a previous day. I ended up at the Kuting metro station which is at the corner of Heping and Roosevelt, so I just hopped on the train the rest of the way. There was still nothing happening on the lantern, but there's a new build-up of wooden platforms outside. I have no idea what those will be used for. On the way back I caught a different bus on a different route and made it back home. Johnny was up, which really surprised me, so we packed up and left, picking up Tiffany along the way. Johnny picked up the first leg of driving, but I took over at the first rest area, near Hsinchu and drove most of the remainder of the way, letting Johnny back at the wheel just past Chiayi. It was interesting to note that all the road signs now call Chiayi "Chiai." which was very confusing to me. I skipped one rest area along the way, which I now suspect was the marker for the Tropic of Cancer. Despite the fact that I maintained a steady 100kph (the speed limit) and Johnny maintained an average 95kph (despite speeding up to 130kph whenever possible) our overall speed was only 50kph (including stops and toll gates) and it took us over 5 hours to get to Tainan. For the last hour the "aunt" whose hospitality we would be enjoying was calling asking where we were. She met us at a freeway and lead us along an every-increasingly desolate and rural road until finally we arrived at condominium minium block literally in the middle of a corn field. It was completely incongruous. Along the route we passed Taiwan's (and particularly Tainan's) crop of "Beetle Nut Beauties". Girls who were, until very recently, clad in very near nothing, but now slightly more covered-up after a recent crackdown. The girls sit in glass booths along the side of the road and sell beetle nut to truckers passing by. Johnny continually slowed and tried to see the really hot ones, although they were few and far between. Inside it was a very nice 4 story house, but she warned us the water heater did not work. The house is filled with eclectic collections, from keychains, to paintings (done by the aunt), seashells, rocks, refrigerator magnet to video tapes (mounted in frames) of railways. The room Chu-Wan and I have has a nice bed - at least it looks that way, it's a mattress, but hard as a board. While I'm thinking about it, I've noticed something curious on this trip to Taiwan. As I've been walking the streets, I've noticed many mattress stores. What makes them interesting is that almost always you can look in the shop and watch them make the mattress by hand. Perhaps that explains why they're all hard as boards. Johnny and Tiffany's room really contains boards. They get to sleep on polished, furniture grade wooden slabs. I made sure I got a picture of them just for future reference. After a visit with the aunt (who is really Chu-Wan's aunt's best friend) we headed into Tainan proper, to the old historic district. It should be noted that my desire to see Tainan is entirely different from everyone else's on this trip. Tainan is the earliest major Chinese-inhabited city in Taiwan, as such it has the most authentic old-Chinese architecture and temples. While architecture and temples aren't my bag of tea, my tour of the entire island would certainly be incomplete if I didn't visit Tainan. Tainan also happens to be the only major Taiwanese city I haven't visited yet. The others, on the other hand, have come to eat. Even my English tourist map of Tainan is entitled "Historic Relics and Snacks Map of Tainan". The map lists some 40 or so famous xiao qi (or "small food"/"snacks") places, while Tiffany had printed a list of 55 places for them to eat at. The aunt lead us into town, which took just over an hour, all the while calling Chu-Wan on the phone and pointing things out along the way, like, "Did you see those white birds by the side of the road?" Her enthusiasm for us to see the sights was heartwarming, but it also nearly exhausted Chu-Wan cell phone pre-paid minutes. Johnny and Tiffany have apparently purchased Japanese-style cell phones, using a totally incompatible with the rest-of-the-world technology which means their phones are useless outside Taipei. (Actually, from what they tell me, they're pretty much worthless inside Taipei, too.) It was just past 5:00PM when we got to the Anping district, which is when all the fort museums close. The others went on their food tour, while I went looking for a few photos before the light faded away. The fort is a Dutch fort, built in 1653. At the time it was on the west coast of Taiwan, but now the island has expanded and the remaining cannons point at a warehouse, a farm and carpark where tour buses stop for people to take pictures. I walked around until the light failed me and then I returned to find the others still sitting down and eating. We walked around some more so that they could see the night market down the old main street of the city and the fort from the outside. We still had time go to the Confucious temple, the oldest in Taiwan, also from the 1650's, but opted instead to head to south-east Asia's largest Shing Kong Mitsukoshi department store. (I had ulterior motives, which I shall explain shortly.) I can't for the life of me figure out why Shing Kong Mitsukoshi would build such a behemoth in Tainan, but there it was. Department stores in Japan are often several buildings merged together into one confusing mess, unlike their Taiwanese counterparts, which tend to build up higher and narrower in a single building. The store was just like the Japanese versions, the only difference, it appears to be one building built as if it were three separate buildings merged together. How odd. With 9 floors of shopping and eating and 2 or 3 more floors of movie theatres it is big... and I knew there would be a McDonald's and maybe a Subway in the basement. Even though I ate some fried chicken bits and deep-fried corn in downtown Tainan at 6:00PM, that was really lunch. I knew I'd need another meal to make it through the night and I could only dream there was a Subway with a meatball sub waiting for me. There wasn't, but I had a Big Mac. A brief explanation of Taiwanese (and Japanese) department stores. They really are little "departments", totally independent of one another, which is really annoying, as you have to pay for everything at the department you purchase it at. Also, the departments are small, for example, each brand name of clothes is a separate department. Then there are little specialty shops. Not every department has a credit card reader either, and often the sales associate will have to run to another department somewhere on the floor to run your card. They record all the sales on a piece of paper. I don't think they've ever heard of the concept of a "point-of-sale" system. At the Tainan Shin _GL_ Mituskoshi (and the new one in Taipei we visited recently) they actually have inventory computers and bar code scanners in all the departments. I thought they'd made the leap into the 20th century, but they hadn't. The scanner can tell you the price and inventory on hand, but they still record the sale by hand and still only have information on their small department. It all seems very antiquated coming from a land dedicated to the latest and greatest of everything. One "advantage" to this system is that each store may have different speciality stores inside. Such was the case here. We found a small store inside from Japan. They don't have any other branches outside Japan and they had a big (maybe 16 ounce) mug for only $NT 99 (less than $US 3) and they also had a reasonably priced (and cute) solar-powered knocky cat. Knocky Cats are these little statues in virtually every store in Taiwan (and Japan, too, if I recall correctly) with one paw up in a knocking gesture. Advanced models the knocking arm rocks back and forth and in the most advanced, the whole mechanism is powered by a solar-cell. I've wanted a solar-powered model since I first saw them but they've proved difficult to find and expensive when I did find them. I call the "knocky cats", in fact, they've got some other name that I don't like nearly as much as knocky cat. While we were in the store we gave hope for the future to a family whose daughter is marrying a foreigner. They saw Michelle and (after the obligatory fawning over her) they said they only hope their future son-in-law can produce such a cute baby. Another woman came up and spoke to me (in English) saying she was so cute and could she kiss her. That's just so strange. We used the GPS to follow our earlier trail back to the house in the dark without problem, which was a great relief. I'm now positive I can find my way back without the benefit of the GPS, but I'll keep it handy just in case. Johnny found a hidden switch on the water heater and we had hot water too. Tomorrow's anticipated temperature range is 15-25 (59-77F) in Tainan and Kaohsiung. Taipei has been running 12-15 lately. (54-59F) It's surprising what a couple hundred kilometers can do. Perhaps it is because we're officially in the tropics here. Either way, it's a pleasant change of pace. Afterword: Brief note, my lonelocust.com account has been having some problems, due entirely to the incompetence of the hosting company, Siteturn. If you've tried to e-mail at my usual address, you may have had it rejected. Rest assured that is my correct e-mail address and if it doesn't go, try again later. They usually correct the problems within 10 hours of me telling them its back again.
They really sleep on boards!
We only let Johnny hold the baby if he promises not to talk.
While everyone else was eating, I saw the sunset over Tainan
The old streets of Tainan, now a touristy night market
Southeast Asia's largest: the Tainan Shin Kong Mitsukoshi