We headed over the mountain Saturday in search of surf. Without any great expectations, the cliff proved to be a pleasant surprise with some little 2 foot, clean swells pushing through. As always, in most of the “off the trendy section” beaches, there was a decent wave and an almost non-existent crowd. I braved the still chilly water and had a great little surf under clear blue sunny skies. Cass perched on top of the cliff in one of the little old chairs left from a summer outdoor restaurant venture enjoying the sun and ocean view while reading her House and Garden magazine….bliss for both of us! After eating our takeaway sandwiches in the sun on the cliff top, we decided to take advantage of the weather and head around to Yeliou to check out the famous rock formations. Unfortunately, a gorgeous day proves to be a draw card for more than just us, so we decided to give the rocks a miss until a calmer crowd was in evidence (maybe Spring Break). We negotiated the freeway home and managed one section with the road sluicing through what seemed like about 20 different overpasses, underpasses, flyovers and ramps…it was pretty wild! As we had the car, we did a “semi-civilised” shop where we actually loaded the car up with groceries and drove them home…how novel! We rang up and ordered some Chili’s–to-go for tea and I went and got it on the scooter. Rambo IV was on the menu for me to watch après meal, so Cassy demurred and waded through a good chunk of her latest book. I think I might have finally outgrown the adolescent boy within: I read a review of this movie which described it as “death porn” and I think this is a perfect description…it is without any redeeming features whatsoever.Our Sunday adventure was excellent. After our usual lazy and long breakfast and relax, we eventually got motivated to head out and continue to enjoy the superb early Spring weather. Wal and Tina had been to Guandu temple a couple of weeks back and Wal highly recommended it so on to the MRT we hopped to drop off at Guandu station just before the red bridge. A little laneway festooned with traditional red lanterns guided us the kilometre or two to the temple. It was just awesome! Levels of intricately carved temple were full of praying locals, burning incense and nodding and bowing at various effigies. The temple actually had 10 anterooms spread over about 4 levels and a visit to each seemed to be required to garner all the good luck there was to offer. Along with the incense, great wads of fake money were being burned. This fake money thing is quite classic: people hand over real cash to various cashiers around the grounds who give the punters huge sheaves of the fake stuff. They then proceed to feed a huge four storey carved oven with the stuff. I was surprised that someone hadn’t thought to throw a pizza or two in there as well: they’re usually fairly ingenious at these things and the rest of the temple food left a fair bit to be desired including the stinky dofu and the baskets of pickled eggs. I’ve always wondered why they didn’t just cut out the middle man and feed the real money into the burners: surely the gods aren’t dumb enough to think they’re putting real stuff in? Maybe they just get a bigger thrill because it burns longer. Anyway, my irreverence seemed matched by many of the people there: they seemed to find the whole caper wildly amusing, even cracking each other up with their histrionics in front of various deities. The view from the top of the temple grounds was quite spectacular. One way takes in the Guandu wetlands and park while the other direction has the most magnificent view of the arched red bridge and a paddle steamer moored at Guandu wharf on the wide and still Danshui River.
We arrived back at the station a little leg weary, but determined to find the Tittot crystal glass museum nearby. We tracked through a few streets but couldn’t find it so I endeavoured to ask for directions. My teacher would have been proud: I managed to ask for the “special and quite famous glass museum” and its whereabouts. The Chinese worked well, but the big guy at the betel nut stand was either “off his nut” on his own product, or just completely unaware of what was in his own neighbourhood! Luckily, his female colleague knew immediately what we were after and directed us just around the corner.
The museum was a sparkling showcase for crystal art at its very finest. Tittot is a famous Taiwanese crystal artist and the museum featured some of his work, but the most astounding works were by a succession of Czech and Japanese. There were incredible art works from all over the world, some of the smaller works for sale at outrageously high prices, the larger pieces obviously priceless parts of the main collection. I managed to sneak a photo or two even though I don’t think it was allowed! Not only did it have the most superb artworks, it also had a section where you can make your own stuff through traditional glass blowing, and/or decorate and paint them. It looks great and I’d love to go back and give that a try sometime.
To top the day off we discovered a brilliant little Mexican food stall in the old street at Danshui after reading of it in a blog that morning. The most delicious fresh and authentic burritos and quesadillas we’ve had….in the middle of a Taiwanese tourist village?...wild! We feasted on Ed Gonzale’s fare down on the waterfront for a very late lunch/early tea, got some Dunkin Donuts to take home on the train for supper and we were done!
Photos: a bizarre shot of me with hair down and Virgy’s tongue hanging out (!), temple shots, the crystal museum, pickled eggs by the thousands and Eddyburrito!