We risked melting into little pools of enervated liquid as we trekked over to the station on Saturday, but once in the air-conditioned carriage, we prepared for the next onslaught of heat when we disembarked down at the old Yuanshan soccer stadium. Nowadays, it's a hub for all things cultural and artistic, as it is settled a hop and a skip away from the Fine arts Museum. After a metamorphosis for an international flower festival a few years ago, it has now been re-badged, re-branded and re-utilized yet again as a boutique collection of interesting indoor/outdoor restaurants and food stalls along with some artisan market stalls and quirky shops.
It's always an exciting stroll through the adjoining park, as a huge Farmers' Market keeps the area humming on the weekend. There were the usual (strange but seemingly ubiquitous) troupes of "veteran" dancing women, kids riding mini luxury cars around and a wide mix of young families and trendy couples and groups. After shopping at the farmers' stalls, you can wander further through a mix of food stalls with wide tables and slatted benches to eat your bites of fancy fare. Further along, stop in for a princess party (for the under 7s), buy a handmade leather satchel or an individually ordered and crafted fixed gear bike! Just a wander on up the promenade, the area opens out to a live performance stage and a gigantic tree growing up to the sky, the roof built around it, the tree itself festooned with technicolour lights and light displays. Radiating out from this central tree hub are various international sit-down restaurants and pubs and the indoor-outdoor atmosphere, the singing and entertainment as well as the vast scope for people watching make it a very relaxing spot for a lingering meal and chat.
We opted for a drink and burger at The Red Lion, a self-styled English pub, with authentic everything really! Taipei with a twist of London....can't be bad, right?! Afterwards, we wandered the quirky fashion stalls on the other side of the promenade and Cassy was able to find a pretty cool hat that fulfilled her criteria for full sun dissipation, along with not looking like a melon head! She didn't even need to go to the night markets afterwards, which is a blessing on a fine Saturday night (infer: 10,000 people in narrow alleys in 35 degree heat!), as she decided to resurrect some sunglasses she had as a prop for a dance some years ago (see last paragraph)
I ripped up the steps in even more critical heat on midday on Sunday yet, despite being quite wooden legged about 3/4 of the way up, I managed to make it to the top. Unlike a couple of weeks ago when it was overcast and spitting, I saw the full extant of the damage from the typhoons on the trails upper reaches as well as a few cleared out view corridors, all the way to 101 if you looked in the right spots. There were more than a few trees blown straight from the ground, roots and all, and various fallen monsters crudely chainsawed apart, the massive pellets left precariously dangling from the edge of the path, looking ready to plummet to the valley below!
Due to the sapping heat, we've been scootering over to do the shopping at Mingde Wellcome in recent weeks. Cass like to do it herself most times, but I can usually find something to entertain me, this time a giant squid, ironed and bagged! We had a great time on Friday night with a few beers and a catch up with Wal and Annie and baby Logan, now a bouncing three months old. I managed to hold him for about 1/2 an hour without him either squawking or getting otherwise discombobulated, so I was pretty happy: Cass had a nurse as well. Other pictures today are courtesy of the complex at Yuanshan, including the dancing ladies and Cassy's hat stall. I captured the "girls" dancing on this video as well!
Cassy is reading Paul Auster's "The Invention of Solitude" and I've started Jonathan Franzen's "Purity"
