Stop 1: Neiwan
Our free day started early. It was Mavis and James from our Taiwan office, along with Mavis' husband Theo and James' girlfriend May. We headed out to a "traditional town" called Neiwan. It was sort of touristy, but touristy for Taiwanese so it was still novel to me.
The most interesting part was a street market (I love street markets!) with traditional foods and some crafts. Merchants hawked grilled sausages, odd-looking fruits, and moaji, which is actually the same as the Japanese mochi (sticky rice dough). We had some rolled in peanuts-- yum. We also had a special Neiwan food called ye chang hua chong, which is rice fried together with beef, mushrooms, and spices, then wrapped in a large tropical leaf. You eat it right out of the leaf. Another woman was selling blocks of flavored gelatin-- I know that sounds weird, but sweetened gelatin is kind of a thing in Asia. We got a sample of some that tasted mildly banana-flavored, and it had nuts in it. Pretty good.
We stopped at a pottery store where a local potter sells his wares. I bought a small plate shaped like a fish and painted prettily. There were a bunch of them in a stack, and each was unique because they are all done by hand.
I could tell we were out in the sticks because I got a few stares. I've seen it before-- that involuntary lingering of the eyes on the person who looks funny. Also, there were few Western toilets. Remember to bring your tissues as you travel in Asia! And learn to squat neatly.
There was also a kitschy section of Neiwan with little shops and attractions aiming to take tourist's money. We stopped at a thing called "Fantasy Space" that looked like a small museum. In fact, it was a sort of freak show. They had unusual animals that were displayed for their "amazing" traits, like two of the tiniest mice in the world and a very long snake. They animals looked very sad, and I felt bad for them. They also had a number of dead animals designed to titilate, such as the two-headed pig preserved in fomaldehye, and a snakeskin labeled as a "dragon skin."
Then there was the upstairs part. Oh my god. It was the weirdest collection of freaky stuff, some of it quite disturbing. There were photos of people who could turn their shoulders 180 degrees while their feet faced forward, people with elephantitis, and weird "native rituals" like face piercings. There were dead snakes with the heads cut off labeled as the world's longest penises-- I kid you not. Also curios from Nazi Germany, Mao's China, and other places. Strangely juxtaposed was a section of optical illusions and holograms. I was sort of glad I couldn't read most of the labels because only a few were in English.
Needing fortification, we stopped for tea, then lingered long enough for lunch in a cafe. I got some spicy chicken that came with rice, fried tofu, veggies, and native Taiwan river fish. They are small and you crunch them whole, like shoestring potatoes. Except I find them a little salty and fishy for my taste. I had one bite to show my tablemates that I knew them and could handle them. We also shared a waffle, which for some reason comes with coffee sort of like we would get a croissant or biscotti.
The bane of the day was that it was quite cold and windy (but at least not rainy). Buildings are rarely heated in Taiwan, so it is often not much warmer inside than out. (Thankfully there is heat in my hotel). I was shivering at this point after sitting down to eat for so long. We headed back to the car and down to Taichung.
Quick geography and Chinese character lesson: The character tai stands for the island country-- it is the same character used in Japanese to mean "Taiwan." In the word "Taipei," the pei means "north"-- it is the same character in the Chinese "Beijing," which means "northern capital." So Taipei is the north of Taiwan.
The chung in Taichung is the same as the Japanese character for "middle" (naka or chuu in Japanese), so it is the middle city of Taiwan. There is also a city at the bottom of the island called Tainan, where the nan means "south" (minami or nan in Japanese).
