This morning we went to Tamsui, a town by the sea and a river and visible from our windows. The day I arrived was the final day of the Chinese New Year and I watched fireworks all along it, far below our condo building on a hillside above the town. The Boddhisattva is in Vietnam for work so it was just the three of us: myself, the GF and the Woodland Creature. We were dropped off at the wharf on a hot, sunny mid-morning and strolled along it for a bit under fierce white light and surrounded by a fishy smell; it reminded me of Karachi though the water was cleaner. We had a quick lunch at one of the fish restaurants – not entirely a success as between the various dietary requirements we could only scrape together a steamed fish and cabbage, while other tables devoured crabs, shellfish and kangkung with relish. Then we strolled on to what on Google Maps called itself the Museum of Fishy Goodies, to see what on earth it might be. The plaque outside claimed it was the museum of the fishing collective but inside was only a souvenir shop. Perhaps the museum was the sort with highly restricted entrance hours, but certainly we didn’t see any sign of a door that seemed to have a museum behind it, so perhaps it was just a bad translation.
Anyhow, off we went towards the heart of Tamsui – this was a rather resorty bit, with some megahotels overlooking the sea and an abundance of parking. Along the way, as we passed through one of the many car parks we saw some people taking their pets for a walk. On closer examination the pets turned out to be a rabbit on a leash and a cat on a leash and both were clearly not quite au fait with leashes. Later we saw a man who appeareed to be wearing a leash but it turned out to be a snake coiled around his neck and as we passed it looked up at us and hissed, rather startling us all.
We soon turned off the road and went uphill through the very narrow streets of a modest neighbourhood, aside from one house with flame-like flowering trees. Then through masses of jasmine with a heady all-pervading scent, and into a park with paths looping across the hillside. This had another beautifully scented garden, and as we got to the top of the path and looked down I realised it was a Japanese garden, of the same lineage as the ones we saw in Kyoto some years ago. Indeed, just at the very top was a Japanese building – there were board with extremely detailed accounts of its construction in Chinese, Japanese and English, but I’m afraid I didn’t come out any wiser.
Next we went up to the Cloud Gate theatre, a modern construction and home of a contemporary dance troupe. A beautiful building, set next to an old gunpowder fort and overlooking the town and the bay. At its foot was a little bookshop and cafe set in a funny tall building overhung with trees, where we had some truly excellent cold brew coffee – the woman said it was like red wine and indeed it was.
Then onwards, to the fort, which was a low, wide open space with rooms filled with slightly odd interactive displays that probably made sense if one understood Chinese, but were fun to play with. There were, for example, holographic displays of weaponry and a projection on a wall where one had to wave one’s arms in a semaphore and win points (none of us got any points at all). Outside were some large cannons and the foundations of towers that looked rather like the old Mario gamescapes.
Finally we went down to the coast again, for a walk along the sea. The sun was setting now, and hundreds of people had gathered as Tamsui’s sunsets are famous in Taiwan. We watched the sun go down over the fishing port – it was indeed very beautiful and made me think of the many sunsets we watched in Byblos.
Then finally, a stroll through Tamsui Old Street where unfortunately we couldn’t eat any of the street food but did buy ourselves a slice of the famous cake. This is an absolutely immense sponge, rather mild of flavour, and shot through with a layer of processed cheese. Not my favourite cake even in Taiwan, but certainly an experience as we arrived as it was coming out of the oven, about a metre square, with slices measured off using a metre rule, all with great flair.
Then back to Beitou, a quick dinner at an izakaya, and return.
We watched Coco, which had been pending for a while and I think it might be my favourite Pixar film. Part of this is sentimentality, as it took me back to Mexico (indeed we met some of the people that characters were modelled on) and the look and feel of the place was very real. And part of it was that it was just a nice little story, sweet and loving.