The GF woke up late and I waited for him, so we parted ways with the Boddhisattva and the Woodland Creature for the day, planning to meet up in the early evening at the Jian Guo Flower Market to buy some plants and flowers for the flat. So off we went, first for lunch at a restaurant calling itself ‘Asian fusion’ but serving a sort of South Indian food – watered down of course, but still quite well made, then onwards. We discovered a bean to bar chocolate shop which delighted the GF, of course, and then peeped into the NTNU stadium which we remembered from our previous visit. There was a pretty little park/installation just outside it: basically a barren space that had been turned into something a little more pleasant and intentional, not quite a park, not quite a sculpture garden, and with a plaque saying this was for the Sustainable Development Goal on urban development and it was permitted to hang bedsheets to dry here.
On we wandered, getting quite hot and thirsty and (in my case) headachy, but enjoying the stroll through points familiar and unfamiliar. Our last trip to Taipei was some years ago and we weren’t here for more than a few days, but I remember so much of it considering it is a fairly nondescript city.
Along the way we passed through the Da’an Forest Park and were surprised at the number of people out and about, and little social distancing or even face masks in evidence. We’ve been quite rigorous about it, maintaining our 2 metres and wearing masks whenever there is someone nearby, and feeling vaguely that this wasn’t enough, that we should be in total isolation perhaps, but unsure. Along a small stream running through the park were set up bright red exercise cycles and GF, never one to resist, leapt on one and pedlalled furiously. It turned out the bike was attached to a water pump, and water sprayed out across the stream, hosing down a saffron clad monk who had paused to admire a lotus. He yelped and then, fortunately, burst into laughter, while we sidled away sheepishly. A little further another monk appeared, this one a zen monk. A football rolled towards him and he leapt to do a stylish little kick with the back of his heel, and then complained (in English) that his shiny kicks were scuffed.
We arrived at the Huashan creative park which, it turned out was a little disappointing though on further reflection it had been, even before, a lovely old factory with rather commercial exhibitions and restaurants. But the space is nice. There were street performers there, being watched by rather denser crowds than we were comfortable with, so we watched from a balcony. A woman did a show with a rather shocking lack of social distancing: calling out a man from the audience, getting him to take off his mask, getting him to kiss her cheek, etc. But I suppose the frisson of danger was part of the act as its centrepiece was when she lay on her back and balanced a pole across the soles of her feet and then spun it around, causing the burdens at either side to to centrifuge out, the burdens being a pair of toddlers called up from the audience.
We went into a little exhibition of Taiwanese art, which seems to be permanent (the exhibition, not the objects which were different from our previous visit, and an older woman came up to us and noted, with an undercurrent of disapproval, that we were rare foreigners to come into a country during a lockdown. We assured her we had been here for over a month and she thawed a bit, saying that we must be trapped here then. After this she was friendly enough, but it did make me think that we should be even more careful and perhaps demonstrative about precautions.
Then on to the flower market where we purchased a huge bunch of lillies, an extravagant (in size) orchid, a tiny plant of some instagrammable genus, and finally, something I can only describe as a plant explosion, with immense glossy green leaves bursting out of the pot, which we got at less than a third of the asking the price.
Then to dinner and a stop at the local supermarket where we did a slightly bigger shop than usual, though not large enough to count as panic buying (2 mackerel each instead of 1 and a 5 kilo bag of rice). With everyone wearing masks, I accidentally put my purchase in the trolley of a thin small blond man who, it turned out, was an American and not the Woodland Creature at all.
Then back. By now my head was pounding – anxiety largely, I think, but also the heat and thirst of the day, and exhaustion from the past weeks of work, where it has been far more unrelenting than I am used to. But who knows if work will continue, the world is falling apart so I am taking everything that comes my way.