A small commotion in our laneway disturbed us from our
reverie early on Saturday morning, the chatter of voices and the scratching of
brooms along with trolleys being dragged along. A cute Taiwanese tradition is the
local community volunteer clean-up group that descends periodically in a
whirlwind of frenetic energy, before disappearing just as quickly. They're like
a plague of locusts facing a crop of rich, fresh wheat: not a shred is left
behind! A slightly sinister by-product is that if they discover anything
untoward, like a bag of recyclables left around, or even worse, some errant
garbage, they'll sift through the mess until they find some evidence of the
dumper. They then confront the neigbourhood criminal with their evidence and
castigate them roundly…luckily we’re very good citizens and haven’t received
one of these sprays!
We re-visited a fantastic spot down in the south east of the
city this weekend. The Songshan
Cultural and Creative Park is a beautiful space, an oasis of calm and
stylish design in the midst of one of the busiest areas of the city. Right
outside its front gate, traffic whizzes along and elevated roadways host even
more vehicles going hither and dither. It’s a nostalgic visit for us as, I’ve
mentioned previously, the area has morphed into being since we used to visit
the Living Mall so many years ago. The park virtually lies in its shadow.
Cobblestoned paths lead the way in past luxuriant stands of
tropical palms and plants, weaving their way between temporary stalls and tents
displaying all types of crafts and trinkets. The stalls have swollen in number
and variety since we last visited. The old tobacco factory has been fully
restored and sprawls across acres of land in the form of numerous large
warehouses and an enormous double-storied administration block encasing an
inner courtyard of paths, plantings and an impressive baroque, cascading
fountain in its centre. Cass just loves the main building: it oozes style and
space with little nods to art deco styling throughout. We had a great time
wandering through later in the day.
First, however, we made a beeline for the new edifice behind
the old, the Eslite Spectrum and its basement food court. We hoped that the “Australian
Pie Pie” shop would still be there and it was! We tucked into some lavish
servings of pies with accompanying mashed potato and vegetables. The slight nod
to being in Taiwan was the iced tea that was part of the set, but unsweetened,
it was the perfect liquid refreshment. Onwards and upwards, quite literally,
the second floor bespoke arts area was great fun to re-visit. We wandered past
hand crafted guitar nooks, fixed wheel bikes, glass blowing and pottery and
were even invited to make our own silver jewelry in a fully kitted-out
workshop!
We didn’t stumble across custom made furniture outlet
Ruskasa which was rumoured to be housed within, but never mind, perhaps we’ll
find another area to explore when I can locate it somewhere else! Strolling back to the
warehouses, we were enticed inside by the earnest invitations of beautiful
young hosts hovering near the doorways. Feeling very old and daggy due to the
packed warehouses of overdressed, impossibly young and gorgeous uni students,
we realized that we’d stumbled into the graduating design class of 2017 from Taipei
University. Girls were tottering around in sparkling, gravity defying stilettos
with swishing dresses, while the guys were doffing pork pie hats, wearing “ankle-freezer”
skinny leg jeans and toting leather shoulder bags.
Oblivious to the old foreign dags in their midst, the
youngies fawned over each other and exclaimed and giggled as they took a thousand
selfies, so we judiciously exited stage left! We wandered back across to the
relative calm of the old administration building to the Taiwan Design Museum
and discovered a haven of chic creation and style. We wandered around for ages,
exclaiming at the cool designs and innovative products. There was so much stuff
I wanted, but in the end we resisted and walked away with just a few good
memories.
We raced around as is our usual practice on the rest of the weekend,
sourcing food for the week ahead, organizing our lives and relaxing with the
strangely and newly attentive girls. After our favourite Maya Pizza refused to open at our preferred
time (!), we sourced some from Pino. The main guy there is originally from
Pizza Oggi and, judging by the taste and quality of his products, he has taken
some of those authentic Italian secrets across with him. We’ll be back!
Photos: A flipped car on the main road when we walked to
school earlier in the week….how did this happen?! Clean up crew in the lane-way
and shots from the Cultural and Creative Park.