Taipei day 6 - last day of holiday

Today, 16 Feb, was the last day before training starts and we decided not to do too much. We had a ton of laundry to do so we went to the coin operated laundromat. It was quite interesting as pertains to the trust everyone had regarding their stuff. People had clearly put washing in and weren't planning on returning until much later. They counted on the next person to remove their washing and leave it there until they returned to put it in the dryer. Other people live life differently.

Renalda did most of the work, while I caught up on yesterday's post. I feel like it's important to keep writing this blog, both for the people who are reading it and for myself to look back on. I would write a journal, but this allows me to include pictures, and is a lot more fun.

We also decided that if we were to be here for two more weeks we should probably unpack a bit better, so we went looking for a supermarket to buy some essentials, like extra hangers and water. We also bought some sushi takeaway for lunch, which was ridiculously cheap. We headed back to the hotel to unpack our bags properly for the hectic 2 weeks which lay ahead.

We'd heard of a jade market under the elevated freeway a few blocks away so we decided to walk. We sure are getting enough exercise! We saw another thing that I will love about this place. Cape Town is only just catching on to this, it's the outdoor gym. We walked passed a park with equipment painted in playground colours. I'll have to find one of those close to home when we move to our branches.

We found the Jade Marker under the Jianguo elevated freeway. It smelled like incense and was
packed with people. Hundreds of stalls selling everything from rings to statues to blank chops (name
stamps). And of course the ever present zodiac symbols and statues. We settled on getting Renalda a small pair of jade earrings. 

Next along was the flower market, which was more like a massive nursery and flower shop. Think 500m of pots, seeds, tools, plants, bonsai trees, fully grown trees, garden ornaments and fountains, sold by hundreds of proprietress, supported by thousands of people.

Why did the tortoise cross the road? It didn't, it was made of stone!

There were massive carvings of all sorts of materials, stone, wood, amber.

Renalda and the Giant Pear... the sequel.

You could break a tooth on these litchis!

Grapes, litchis and what looked like a carrot. I wasn't entirely sure but it looked like there was another carving at another stall of a steak! It was made of red and white stone, so it had a strip of fat and marbling in the middle!! Amazing!

The final market was the handicrafts market where handicapped people sell their crafts to make a living. All sorts of paintings and other goodies on sale. We found a hairpin for Renalda made from cow's horn. When the proprietor asked where we were from we said Nanfei (South Africa) only to be told that the horn comes from...you guessed it! South Africa!!

A cow horn hair pin

It was actually the first sunny day we have had and we were able to get into shorts and t-shirts, if you hadn't noticed. And we got a great view of the 101. We will definitely need to take a trip up there one day soon.

Taipei 101 in sunlight!!!

Let's not forget the all important supper! While walking home we came across another market, and saw a vendor selling fish. We shared this wonderful looking specimen. Renalda just refused to eat the eyes. I can understand why. I didn't particularly enjoy the one I tried.

Whole fish of some sort

But the rest was tasty.

We ate it all!!

We stopped at another place to get a few veggies, we picked broccoli, green beans, radish (I think) and mushrooms. These were fried up with some garlic and spices and as usual were very tasty. As we neared the hotel we came across a Taipei Buffet restaurant, which looked great. We will definitely have to try it sometime soon! Now? To bed.