Hidden treasures continue to abound around every corner and behind every facade here in our wonder city of Taipei. We pass a boutique temple in the park across the river from our place every week when we walk across to do the food shopping, completely oblivious to the rejuvenated little oasis tucked in behind the pathway's stone fence.
We've taken a couple of shots of the intricate stone masonry that has been in evidence in the last 18 months as both of our local temples have gone through various renovations and revamps. The garish paint has been sanded back and re-touched and the crazily skilled stonemasons have carved scenes of buddha out and about ministering to the masses, or cute little temple dragon dogs with stone balls trapped in their open mouths like an all day sucker rolling round. We had no idea that tucked in behind was a koi pond teeming with plump, shining fish and beautiful manicured trees in front of yet more amazing carvings.
The temple had actually been quite a pain through the week, which possibly prompted me to duck behind the fence and have a look while Cass dealt with an untied shoelace. There have been many successive nights of at first, mournful wailing of traditional Chinese songs with accompanying discordant drumming, followed by what sounded like a local karaoke contest at ear-splitting volume and culminating in the regular weird music for the weekly dance lessons. Not to worry, we know that they always pull the plug just about when we're ready for bed on a "school night" so it's never too bothersome!
We wandered down to Din Tai Feng on Sunday, where, as is our habit, we ordered our usual fare. We each get a steamer full of mini sculpted dumplings, Cass with the vegetarian dumplings and me with the chicken xiao long bao which always impress with their flavour burst of hot soup in every morsel. We start with pickled cucumber and have sides of stir fried cabbage and fried rice with egg and prawns....delicious without fail!
Onwards to the French supermarket chain, Carrefour, to source some new pillows, a doormat, a mop and that speciality luxury item: mincemeat! We wandered back home just escaping the next cascade of rain, which had dribbled and worried away at us all of Saturday as well. While on Carrefour, I'm reminded of yet another Taiwanese service miracle which occurred mid-week. Cass is pretty fond of her HTC Wildfire phone, but the battery just keeps fading away. Considered not much more than a museum piece these days, all the advice was to ditch it and upgrade. She was quite prepared for this but when I told the local HTC store guy (housed in the Carrefour building) about her great fondness for the phone he rang around his friends, conjured a new battery for it from somewhere and offered to get the battery for me from downtown the next day. I was very grateful, but my gratitude turned to incredulity when I realized he was going on Saturday evening (his day off) to get the battery! Sure enough, within a few days, I went back down to retrieve it and we ended up spending about $20 to rebirth the phone!
Furthermore, I've just remembered yet another "miracle" through the week! The washing machine was on the blink, so with the help of a neighbour, we arranged for the serviceman to come to fix it. He arrived the next afternoon, with the correct replacement circuit board and proceeded to replace the electronics, with the help of his apprentice for the princely sum of $100, part included. If anyone back in Australia is reading this, yes, we're fully aware that we'll need to adjust our expectations when we are back in Australia!
I'm off to Japan for 4 days on Friday: It will be great to catch up with old mate Gurecki and hang out again in beautiful Fukuoka and Nagasaki!The blog might be taking a little spell next week because of this (I'll see how I feel when I get back late on Tuesday)
Photos: Some interesting construction warning signs, temple oasis koi and Din Tai Feng artwork imitating life! Video up top is from a "Lightopia" exhibition in Vienna. Later, check it here.