There's a tangible sense that whatever the most kitsch, raucous and gaudy product on this seething mass of an island, it's definitely to be found in the back alleys and waterfront boardwalk of this spot, as long as it's cheap, possibly nasty, but always, just always, remarkable and very interesting!

The accompanying food ranges from the local delicacies, among them most parts of a pig's entrails and other squishy bits, all the way through to deep fried flattened whole squids on a stick and ice-creams that defy gravity with a foot high swirl of icy confectionery.

This could be nowhere else than the fabled jewel of the north coast, the Yahweh of the Damshui, the emperor of the rivermouth, yes, indeed, the vibrant twin towns of Damshui-Bali. We'd been disgorged with the madding hordes at the terminus station of Damshui in the late morning on Sunday, to be greeted with a biblical crowd of tourists and a searing sun set to wreak havoc upon our lily white visages. The train had become increasingly packed as we approached the coast, yet when the train doors whooshed open, the wave of people slowly washed down the stairs and through the electronic gates before fizzing out onto the forecourt, spreading and dampening the riverside parks and seating areas with its rather awesome volume and variety.

We took a sharp turn right to dodge the froth, yet soon encountered a street barrier. In very un-Taiwanese fashion we threaded our way through the barrier, crossed the street illegally then squeezed our way back onto "Old Street" as it speared away from the station. The sights and sounds and smells never cease to surprise and amaze, despite the rather kitsch nature of the proffered goods, services and food. A cacophony of chatter and tinny background music blasts away as you move down the street and each shopfront competes to draw the eye with some visual assault or other. After we reached about the 3/4 mark we ducked into a tight alley that headed towards the waterfront boulevard...

Despite the relatively early hour, the boardwalk was already filling up, so after a bit more of a wander upriver, we headed back to the ferry wharf to book a berth over to the western bank and the twin town of Bali. We were ushered in quick fashion onto a utilitarian ferry chock full of humanity for the dash across the powerful, wide Damshui River. The entry point (a drop down bow) was raised to make the journey, reminding us of a troop carrier en-route to a foreign beach under fire: we half expected artillery to start pinging off the metal door rather than the odd dramatic crash of boat wake!

Bali was a sizzling melting pot of humanity squeezed onto a narrow waterfront promenade with corresponding rows of fast food stalls and tacky souvenirs, until we made our way further towards the river mouth when the park widened dramatically, the stalls disappeared and grass and trees made a reappearance. After a pleasant stroll through undulating parkland with a pleasant breeze whistling off the water, we wandered through venues with karaoke singing men with a dedicated following and racetracks with dozens of tiny designer cars being driven by tiny tots! If they were too young to operate them, the cars could be guided by remote control by a trailing parent: so cute.

Our lunch venue, The Four Seasons Waterfront was a real treat. I'd spied this place in a photo taken by one of my Taiwanese colleagues and she gave a vague description of its location, so we tried to track it down and with some success. We each had a four course lunch in French style, slightly incongruous as it was served in Balinese style thatched roofed pagodas, but hey, this is Taiwan, the land of the beautifully quirky! We posed for the obligatory shot near their wet edge pool looking out over the river before re-tracing our steps back to the ferry wharf.

A queue for the ferry of at least 500 metres length was slightly off-putting, but the ferrymen and pilots were so efficient, that the line was whittled down within half an hour and we were cruising across to wander back through the park and hop on the train back home in no time at all. It was an enervating afternoon and evening and we managed to stay up for only a relatively short time before getting an early night to be ready for work today. We'd been over to the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi buildings on Saturday to see Billy Flynn's Long Halftime Walk (a rare disappointment from the usually reliable Ang Lee) and eat at Thai Town, so we'd had a rather busy weekend.

Cass with stars of a movie at Shin Kong, and various shots from our Sunday outing to Damshui and Bali.

Cass hosted her annual Book Club soiree on Friday night and it was the culmination of some weeks of some quite considerable planning and effort. As I mentioned last week, it's hard to believe that a relatively simple meal for six people could assume the logistics of the D Day landings in Normandy, yet somehow....!

Apparently the hottest topic of discussion was not their current book, but the staus of the world as we know it. We've been collectively shocked in the last week by DT winning the American presidential election, despite all predictions to the contrary. The guy himself seemed quite unprepared for the outcome, which made me question whether he was really seriously considering taking on the office. What does this mean, especially coming on the back of the BREXIT decision and the minor rise of ultra conservatives like Pauline Hanson in Australia?

There have been a myriad of articles written, debates fought and views espoused, some fair and reasoned while others have been vitriolic or hysterical, on both sides of the argument. I wouldn't like to weigh in with my relatively ill-informed world view, except to say that there appears to a genuine sense that established political machines are just not representative of the people in this age. To me, it looks like politicians round the world will have to reassess how they're connecting to their electorates, or run the risk of "people power" electing some maverick choices. These people may or may not be successful: time will tell!

The mood around our campus has been interesting. There are a few out and proud republicans who are quietly celebrating, yet the vast majority is a little hang dog at the moment. Some of them have articulated their feelings as exasperation or embarrassment. One of my colleagues even had the day off to lie in bed, unable to face work the day after the election! The departing president probably summed it up best by stating that the sun would still rise tomorrow morning, so let's just get on with it. Good advice!

After the big Friday night, we relished some glorious weather and real down time for the weekend. We got out to eat at Din Tai Feng and have a little retail window shop in a creamy lit Saturday afternoon down at the Sogo forecourt. My streaming app for the cricket worked well, but the Aussie cricketers didn't respond in kind, being slowly and surely strangled by the inexorably steady hand of the South Africans.

On Sunday we had a little wander in the neighbourhood, eschewing the rugged delights and cardio bursting appeal of the "steps". The bridge across "Sulfur Creek" is a great vantage point to check out our immediate area, as witnessed by the video above, or here. The sun was coursing through the parks and open areas as the water flowed strongly under the bridge and out to the Damshui River tributaries. The sky was padded by tiles of cloud, all trussed up like a leg of lamb bursting from its string cocoon. What a delight to stroll across to the shops on this route.

Photos: Cass working pavlova wonders in our little toaster oven, steam punk style artwork from the elementary kids, the moving seat addition to our stairwell for the elderly upstairs, DinTai Feng, lilies, glorious weather and the "girls".

The two days of the weekend had a razor sharp delineation between an urban, concrete crawl and a bucolic, foliage-dripping sprawl. Our week had again been punctuated by work and yet more work interspersed with work so we were looking forward especially to the weekend. Is it a fact that we seem to be working harder as we get older or are we slowing down and finding work that much more difficult? We don't know, but we do know that the weekends are becoming increasingly precious and anticipated and definitely more needed!

The urban crawl involved going to three different food outlets for supplies and a few other places in our 'hood for good measure. It's not that we're on a gastronomic splurge, but rather, Cassy is hosting her annual Book Club dinner at our place on Friday night. Somehow, despite being just one meal and a relatively modest one at that, our shopping load seems to quadruple. Cass also insists that these six women eat like tiny sparrows as well, so it's astounding how arduous the shopping becomes!

We did the regular shop at Wellcome and a few specialty items were added to our regular basket for the week. Cass intended to source as much as she could here, before we scootered over to Jason's Marketplace, lurking in the basement of the still impressive, yet slightly faded glory of the Dayeh Takashimaya building over near the baseball stadium in Chung Chen Road. Jason's, predictably, provided not just essential items for the dinner (like smoked salmon and capers, unusual cheeses, French champagne and Australian wines) but extra little things for us as well of course! Bags bulging with produce, we staggered back up the stairs and loaded up Blacky the scooter with all manner of goods before a teetering, tottering careful journey back home.

After unloading our second bulk of goods, we set off yet again, this time on foot, into the buttery afternoon light of a stellar Autumn day. We wandered past the little corrugated iron humpy of the local cobbler, who had resurrected my crumbling dress shoes from oblivion for a cool $20 that very day. Onward down Chung Shan and by the upmarket Jamie Chen designer store with its contrasting nose bleed price-tags before strolling round the corner for the weekly bread order at Wendel's. Leaving the bread and cake haul to pick up later, we checked with the nearby Pizza Oggi on their opening hours for next Friday for the collection of two of their signature walnut salads, before sauntering over to our favourite "Eat Burger" for some tea.

We checked Uniqlo on the 4th floor of the Sogo building to scout for winter bargains and had a brief look around, sizing up some winter coats for mild "non-European" style winters, before exiting, picking up the bread and wandering home again to catch the highlights of the cricket.

Sunday opened with similar atmospheric fanfare and sunlight bathed the back rooms in the morning, patted Cassy's laundry dry, and beckoned us out into its sweet caress before the morning was done!
Despite the fact that we were luxuriating in some HD cricket via iPad app and some VPN trickery, lunch in the cricket signaled us to get out into the world. With narry a blink, my darling instantly readied herself for a trip on the trails with no notice whatsoever: she's a gem!

The Tienmu Gudao was a difficult slog in the midday heat. Despite the rapid onset of cooling autumn temperatures, Sunday was an aberrant 30 degrees, with a slightly relieving zephyr to temper the sizzle. We topped the peak after a slog up 1500 steps, and reveled in a pleasant, longer than usual walk along the ridge-line trail in a tunnel of rock and cooling foliage. The Macaque's occasional squatting poles were mercifully vacant as we made our way along the path which narrowed as it ducked under the soaring rock cliffs. We reached the end of the path under the Cultural College before eventually turning back to head back down for our ice cold cooling draughts at the base of the steps. A couple of baguettes from Cedric at Lutetia were just the ticket for a light lunch on the way back home and we settled in to rest our aching legs, feet up with the cricket for the remainder of the afternoon.

Photos: Virgy, urban day, country day. Special mention of photo number three above: this space was open when we went over to do the shop and the silver car had filled the spot when we got back....that's some pretty impressive reverse parking!

There's yet another hidden gem in the vast stretches of re-purposed land in the far eastern districts. It lies quietly embedded in the new hub of the city of Taipei. It had been a number of years since we'd gone this route, as it was a long forgotten playground for us in our early years here. The then new and shining Living Mall had provided all sorts of solitude which has long since been replaced by more modern, gleaming edifices much closer to home.

Taipei's Cultural and Creative Park is an eclectic mix of re-used urban space and incredible new urban shopping structure all blended into a creative and artistic melting pot. There are magnificent lines of old railway workshops and the old Taipei tobacco factory with cavernous spaces within each one that held all manner of design and creative exhibitions. We just scratched the surface and were lucky to catch the dying days of the Taiwan Design Expo which has been going for a few months already. There were amazing design creations by the burgeoning design set of Taipei, everything from pottery to lighting to electric bikes!

Another, equally amazing discovery was the nearby Eslite Spectrum retail hub housed in a soaring wild design of a building almost in the shape of an eagle's wing. It's sweeping forecourt hosted all sorts of entertainment, stalls and exhibits of its own, just tantalizing enough to lure the exploring type inside to another, even more capricious world.

A dazzling display enveloped us upon entry. The vaulted spaces sailed high above us as we gazed in wonder at the assembled shops and areas. The floor plan was almost a leaf shape, tapering away to points at either end of the long, narrow building. The shops were delineated by sweeping walls of glass with eye-catching window displays, or else completely open to allow foot traffic to meander in and out of their assigned space.

A palpable sense of cool and design chic emanated from every area. It felt like there was a hand crafted, fixed gear pushbike display outside every second shop, their store brand emblazoned on thick, rustically tooled and tanned saddlebags. A crafty tang of scent wafted through the air, heavy with leather and incense, essential oils and hand made soaps. The stores, or many of them, not only sold products, but incorporated lessons of some artistic endeavour or other. Painting, woodworking toys, calligraphy and even glass-blowing were on offer. People were engaged and flowing around all the spaces, interacting with the products and salespeople....it was unlike any retail experience we'd ever had. The Eslite company had their signature stamp on the third floor with a giant book haven interspersed with lifestyle hubs filled with yet more interesting, unusual or unique items. At either end of the leaf shapes on each floor were restaurants of differing cuisine with pocket sized cafes dotted along the front glass walls.

I was amazed, when we went down to the basement food court, to see a sign with the word "pie" just peeking out from behind some tables. Not wanting to get my hopes up too much, as we approached we saw more and more evidence of the holy grail: a pie warmer with what looked like the genuine product reared from the crowd and a sign of "Pie Pie: Australian Meat Pies" came into full view. Wow! Excitement was an understatement! I could barely contain myself as the meals were prepared, and each pie came with a serve of mashed potato and vegetables, as well as a sachet of tomato sauce of course. The pastry was delicate and light, hardly a trace of sweetness, and the filling was meaty and rich. There were no vegetarian options so Cass picked the bacon from a mushroom, bacon and chicken number. There was something slightly wrong with the overall sensation, an indeterminate problem: and yes, I'm a connoisseur! Regardless, I'm stoked to say the least!

We completed our day by wandering around the outdoor stalls for a while till, slightly leg weary, we made the long trek to Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall MRT station, then train home, changing lines once half-way. We'd discovered an exciting new playground, one for which we barely scratched the surface and we'll be back soon. We'd had a minor adventure the day before too, going to see "Dr. Strange" at the movies before a familiar dining experience at "The Spice Shop". We had a very full, and slightly exhausting, weekend!

Photos: trusting scooter owners with two brand new helmets, then various shots from in and outside Songshan Creative Park and Eslite "Spectrum". Here's a full version photo album. The video for glassblowing is also here.