CNY in Thailand

I just realized that I've been doing something I've always detested - dropping acronyms in my blogs.  CNY, TIC, AWA.  When I worked at UTLAS in the late 70s, it was OCLC, BCUC, and Unicat/Telecat.  Blame it all on libraries!  Speaking of libraries, the city of Montreal has planned to build a new one in NDG where Andrew lives.  Andrew is sceptical, and says that it "might" happen in his children's children's lifetime.  Mayor Ford of Toronto, on the other hand, is trying to wipe out libraries and professional librarians from the Toronto landscape.  And the Dean of the Library School (Faculty of Information) at U of T has announced that he will move 80-90% of the paper collection to an off-site storage depot in the 'burbs in order to make space for more virtual labs for students in the Inforum (that's what they now call the library at the Faculty of Information).  This is not the profession that I worked in for 35 years!
But I digress ...
Back to Chinese New Year in Thailand!



Our first stop was Chiang Mai in the hilly north.  It was quite a shock to leavie noisy, bustling, freezing (8 Celsius) Hong Kong and arrive in a laid-back warm place.  The sun immediately worked its magic to help us begin to relax.

Instead of bargaining with a tuk-tuk or songtao (covered pickup) driver, we opted to take a taxi to our hotel.  The sign at the desk promised to get us there "safe and saved".  From what? From whom?
After paying the exorbitant rate of 140 baht ($4.50CDN), we were asked to wait outside in the heat (30 Celsius).  Fifteen minutes passed, then another ten.  Welcome back to the Third World!  We finally gave up, got our money back, hopped into a songtao with our luggage, paid 100 baht and arrived at the Kantary Hills Hotel.  The hotel was both beautiful and comfortable.

We quickly shed our warm layers and heavy shoes and headed out to explore the city.  The old town covers one square kilometre and is surrounded by a tree-lined moat!  There are reconstructed ruins of city walls on the corners of the moat.  In addition, there are over 300 Wats (Buddhist temples) in CM - sometimes two in a single city block.  All of these religious structures convey to us the historic significance of CM.  From the 13th to the 18th centuries, Chiang Mai was the capital of the Lanna Kingdom.


My friend, Chloe, who lived in HK until June 2011, recommended that we visit the three most important Wats in Chiang Mai.  After that, one tends to get "templed-out"!  A few months ago, when we booked our trip to Thailand, I was excited to learn that Chloe and Eric would be in CM at the same time!  We made plans to have dinner on Saturday night, our second day in Chiang Mai.

Our first stop was Wat Phra Singh, one of the more venerated temples in the city.  Over 700 monks study here, and they were busy bustling around the complex.

Inside the main temple we beheld the creepiest sight!  To the right of the main buddha, there were lifelike plexiglass mannequins of deceased monks.  We had to look very very closely at the one in the middle in order to verify that he was "most sincerely dead" (like the wicked witch).  We were sure that he was sitting there staring at us until we read the plaque that said he had died last year at the ripe old age of 99!

Many of the Thai monastic complexes have libraries.  The one at Wat Phra Singh was beautiful on the outside.  Unfortunately, no visitors are allowed inside.  My travels are never complete without a photo in front of a library somewhere in the world!

Jeff and I continued our walk through the narrow streets to the most impressive Wat Chedi Luang, which was built in the late 14th century.  An earthquake in the 16th century destroyed most of it, but in 1990 it was restored with the help of UNESCO and Japanese funding.  This temple , surrounded by huge stone elephants, is almost as grand as Ankor Wat!

In one of the temple buildings, we beheld a very fat monk, Phra Sangkachai.  This monk was so handsome that angels and men often compared him to the Buddha.  He considered this inappropriate, and disguised himself in an unpleasantly fat body.

Every tree in every Wat has a slogan nailed on it.  This is one of our favourites!

This is Jeff's favourite sign. He says it proves that they have rednecks in Thailand.  (The American Heritage Dictionary defines "bubba" as "a white working-class man of the southern United States, stereotypically regarded as uneducated and gregarious with his peers".)

An enormous tree!  I couldn't fit all of Jeff and all of the tree in one photo.











And then a big surprise!!!  As we were about to leave Wat Chedi, I looked at the street beyond the main gate, and there was Chloe walking by!  (At 6 feet, she's hard to miss in Asia!).

Big hug, and then a photo in front of the sign that proclaimed "woman no entry".  We stopped for a refreshing drink and started to catch up on the past eight months.  Chloe left us with directions on where to meet the following evening.
Jeff and I continued walking around the old town, taking photos of the various Wats.  Then our stomachs reminded us it was dinner time, so we headed down to the night bazaar (tacky souvenirs, been there, done that) and the Kalare food centre across from the night market.  This was similar to hawker stalls we've visited in KL, Singapore, and Penang.  Dinner with large bottles of beer cost a total of 10CDN!

We were pooped from all the travelling and walking we had done that day, so a Thai foot massage looked like the answer to our aches.  Jeff must have been really tired to agree to a massage - it's not normally his idea of a good time (it still isn't).  The excellent older masseuse worked on my feet, while the young, pretty lady gently massaged Jeff's feet.

The next morning we hailed a songtao and headed up the mountain to Wat Phra That Doi Southep, the jewel of Chiang Mai.  The main temple was literally blinding - all gold, shining in the sun!  Because it was Saturday, there were thousands of tourists crowding the temple grounds.  There was also a lot of local entertainment - young and old dressed in native costumes dancing in the square.

We also saw:

Whimsical garden decorations.

A group of monk-tourists having their photo taken.

and a dog wearing a coat (it was 31Celsius!).
(Believe it or not, we also saw a cat wearing a coat!)

We did some shopping in the afternoon and relaxed before meeting Chloe and Eric for dinner at an unassuming alfresco restaurant.  Lots of spicy food - we ordered numerous small dishes, and lots of refreshing Thai beer to wash it down.  I'm still trying to improve my spice threshold, but I couldn't keep up with Jeff and our friends.  After dinner, Chloe and Eric scooted away on their rented motorcycle.  (I was relieved to see them wearing their helmets, no matter how dorky Chloe thought they looked!)

The following morning, we hopped on yet another songtao and headed out of Chiang Mai to Bo Sang, the "umbrella" town.  Almost everyone in the village is employed making the umbrellas (silk, synthetic or paper) or selling them in the brightly decorated shops that line the main street.  We happened to arrive during the umbrella festival, and watched the beautiful floats drift through the town.  When I mentioned the umbrella town to some HK acquaintances, they rolled their eyes and commented how touristy it is, but sometimes "touristy stuff is truly fun and pretty.

The umbrellas are made in an assembly-line in the workshop at the back of the largest umbrella store.  Each worker has a specific task to do - e.g. cutting the posts to the right size, weaving the mesh inside, painting the outside.  The artists at the end of the line paint the umbrellas (and fans) and leave them in the sun to dry.

When we walked into the factory, one of the artists offered to paint our camera case, while another person offered to paint my t-shirt.  Both look wonderful, and the elephant on my t-shirt did not even run or fade when I washed the shirt!  When I asked the price, they told us "whatever you want to pay".  Their handiwork and humility probably caused us to give them more than they would have asked for had they set a price.

My last adventure in Chiang Mai was a one-hour Thai massage at the Old Medicine Hospital.  The massage cost 70 baht - 2.30CDN - no, there are no zeroes missing!!  Thai massage is not relaxing.  In fact, it's rather painful, as the masseuse pulls and pushes every joint and limb in the body.  It's more like physiotherapy than body rub.  I kept wondering how I would feel at the end of the process, and much to my surprise, I felt terrific!  As my mother always says, "it hurts to be beautiful"!  As it turned out, Chloe was taking a massage course, so we enjoyed our third reunion!

On Sunday afternoons, the main street of the old town becomes a "walking street".  This was way more fun than the night bazaar.  (I bought two silk sleeveless tops and a silk scarf for a total of 14CDN!).  There was music, there was food, and there was a wonderful atmosphere of locals and tourists enjoying themselves.  It reminded me of Boulevard St. Laurent in Montreal in the summer.

We splurged on a great meal to celebrate the end of three superb days in Chiang Mai.  We ate on the terrace of The Riverside - where all the "cool" people go.  While we were reading the menu, an American at the next table leaned over and recommended that we order the snapper that he and his partner had enjoyed.  It turned out to be a yummy choice.




On to Bangkok the next morning.  I'm convinced that 75% of the population of Thailand (almost 70 million) lives in Bangkok!  Traffic is a nightmare - expressways, cars, buses, more cars, more buses.  Yes, there are a few tuk-tuks and songtaos, but they look totally lost (and unsafe) in this extremely noisy place.  Taxis are dirt cheap, but they take forever, so the Skytrain (elevated rapid transit) is a much better choice.  Bangkok seems to sprawl for miles, and appears even more vast because the land is so flat.
 

After checking into our hotel (terrible hotel, terrible location, won't use this travel agent again), we decided to visit the Jim Thompson House.  Thompson was an American architect and entrepreneur (and purported spy) who almost single-handedly revitalized the Thai silk industry in the 1950s and '60s.  Thompson moved six old wooden country houses from Ayutthaya (the former capital of Thailand) and combined them into a masterpiece.  The house is located by one of the klongs - canals - that run through the city.  Each part of the estate is filled with treasures, and beautiful gardens and fountains unite the complex.  Thompson's personal story ended mysteriously.  While he was on holiday in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia, in 1967, he went for a walk and disappeared.  No trace of Jim Thompson has ever been found!

The two main attractions in Bangkok are the Grand Palace (home of the Emerald Buddha), and Wat Po (home of the Reclining Buddha).  We took a convenient riverboat to reach both of these monuments.  And then we had our first-ever gullible dumb-tourist experience!  As we were walking to the entrance gate of the Palace, a man approached and informed us that the Palace was closed until 1 p.m. for a special function.  He suggested that we visit two other Wats that happened to be open only one day each year - and this was our lucky day!  This man was wearing what appeared to be an official uniform - khaki pants, beige shirt, pin in his collar, beret cap.  He grabbed my map and started to make notations all over it, and almost forcefully started to lead us to a taxi to take us to the other venues.  I snatched the map from his hands, gave him a "look", and started to walk back to the tourist information kiosk.  Jeff ran after me, berating me for being so rude!  When we arrived at the information booth, I asked if the Palace was truly closed.  The woman at the desk laughed and said "Oh, don't believe them.  They don't tell the truth."  There are so many policemen patrolling Bangkok.  I wonder why they don't clamp down on these illegal activities (does anyone smell corruption?).

The Grand Palace is breathtaking.  Huge, gold, bejewelled.  There is so much to see and absorb, that I think multiple visits are necessary.  This was not one of my fashionista days.  My Peter Ho hat, which I bought in KL last fall, had started to resemble a Mad Hatter's chapeau.  Although I wrapped a large shawl around my sleeveless shirt when I entered the Palace, the guards made me borrow a proper shirt for my visit.  I also forgot to wear slip-on sandals, so I was forever buckling and unbuckling my shoes as we visited the temples.  The Emerald Buddha sits atop a very high altar.  The Buddha is made of jadeite, and is clothed (by the King of Thailand) in seasonal dress.  Because it was winter (35 Celsius, but still winter), the Buddha was almost fully covered in garments made of gold.

These are two small examples of the amazing sculptures on the various buildings in the Grand Palace.  I could have spent weeks taking photos of every detail!

The Reclining Buddha at Wat Po was the highlight of Bangkok for me.  It's amazing to stand at the entrance to the temple and hear people gasp as they first lay eyes on the 15 metre high and 43 metre long statue! We started at the head, walked ever-so-slowly down the length of the body to the amazing feet.  The bottom of the feet are inlaid with mother-of-pearl, divided into 108 panels representing the auspicious symbols by which Buddha can be identified, like flowers, dancers, elephants, and tigers.  Along the corridor there are 108 bronze bowls representing the same symbols, and many visitors drop a coin into each of the bowls to bring them good fortune.

The heat in Bangkok was really oppressive, so we decided to visit the National Museum on our last morning, figuring that an air-conditioned venue would give us some relief.  Wrong again!  The Museum is only "cooled" by fans (not effective).  However, we lucked out with an amazing English docent, who not only gave us information about the Thai artifacts in the collection, but also the relics from Burma, Laos, and Cambodia.  One of the Museum buildings houses the funeral chariots of the royal family.  They are even grander than the Lord Mayor of London's coach (on a gigantic scale)!

Now that we've seen parts of two new countries in Asia (Taiwan and Thailand), it's time to venture into China again.  Stay tuned for our future adventures in Qingdao, Beijing, and Pingyao.

Weekend in Taiwan

Most tourists who visit Taiwan (not one of the premier hot spots of Asia) head straight to the National Palace Museum in Taipei to ogle the superb collection of ancient Chinese artifacts and artworks representing 8,000 years of Chinese history.  In 1931, General Chiang Kai-shek moved the most valuable pieces out of the Forbidden City in Beijing in order to prevent them falling into the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army.  In 1948, he moved the collection to Taiwan in order to prevent it falling into the hands of the Communists.  Enough said!
The second reason tourists visit Taiwan is for the amazing local food, which has been influenced by both Mainland Chinese and Japanese cuisine.  Again, the Generalisimo was the catalyst. His high-level cadre brought their best chefs with them - chefs from all corners of the country.  These chefs, in turn opened restaurants and influenced the subsequent generations of chefs.
Our AWA weekend in Taiwan excluded both the Museum and the good food, but it did have its highlights and lowlights!

Twenty of us AWA members and spouses boarded an early flight to Taipei on Friday morning, January 13th.  Most of us were upgraded to business class - a very nice way to start a trip!  The focus of our tour was to travel off the beaten tourist track, and to explore the colonial history, natural beauty, and ethnic culture of this island.

After checking into the Fullon Hotel (one of the nicest hotels ever! twin king size beds! beautiful bathrooms! excellent Western breakfast! and it's shaped like a cruise ship!) at Fisherman's Wharf in Danshuei, a coastal suburb of Taipei, we headed to lunch in a restored colonial building where we were greeted by our guide-for-the-day, Stevie Garcia.  Stevie had been billed as the "Jason Wordie" of Taiwan.  (Jason's one of my favourite Hong Kongers - there are many references to him in my earlier blogs).  Stevie didn't quite live up to the billing.  He's not exactly a "scholar", and he lacked a very deep insight into the history of Taiwan.  We did learn that Taiwan was first colonized by the Dutch, then the Spanish, then the Dutch again.  In 1662, Taiwan became part of China.  During the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, Taiwan became a Japanese colony, and there it remained until the end of WWII.  Japanese imperial education was implemented in Taiwan, and many Taiwanese fought for Japan in WWII.  The Japanese built at least 16 POW camps in Taiwan from which only 60% of the prisoners survived.  Enough said again.

I should mention that we had one of those TIC moments (after all, Taiwan is China) at lunch.  After a passable Chinese meal (the rest of our meals went downhill from there), the waiters brought out our dessert - Russian ice cream cups (yes, Chloe, it was awful!).

After lunch, we took a short boat ride (a respite from the humidity).  Although the day was cloudy, we were able to see the mountains on the other side of the river.  Most of the Chinese population in Taiwan live on the west side of the island.  Mountains dominate the interior, and ethnic minorities (referred to as aboriginal tribes) have been relegated to the eastern side and on the small islands off the east coast.

We alighted where the river meets the open sea, and then walked by the Love Bridge to get to Hobe Fort.  The fort was not remarkable in the least.  It resembled the forts that Jeff and I visited in Penang, Malaysia,  and Xiamen, China.  I suppose there's not much creativity needed when designing defence structures.  While we were walking around, I met a pleasant Taiwanese man who explained more about the history of Taiwan, and told me about growing up speaking Japanese with his parents!

I could not resist taking pictures of these two intriguing buildings.  Unfortunately, neither the Teng Feng Fish Ball Museum nor the Museum of Tamsui Fishiegoodies was on our itinerary!  

After visiting Fort Hobe, we proceeded to Fort Santo Domingo.  The fort was built by the Spanish, destroyed by the Dutch, rebuilt by the Dutch (renamed Fort Anthonio), then taken over by the Chinese. (One of the Dutch East India Company officials left his clogs outside!) In 1868, following the Second Opium War, it became the British Trade Commission, and so it remained until 1972 when the People's Republic of China was admitted into the U.N.  When the PRC was admitted to the United Nations, Taiwan was kicked out, and all of its foreign embassies packed up and moved to Beijing!  Today, the only a few African and Central American countries have embassies in Taiwan (including Burkina Faso, Chad, Swaziland, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, and Haiti).  More "important" countries, like Canada, the UK, and the US, have trade or liaison offices.

The Fort (photo on the left) is now a rather unimpressive museum.  It resembles several red-brick British colonial buildings in Hong Kong, including the Old District Office North (photo on the right), which is now used by the Scout Association of Hong Kong.

And then we came to CANCON!!!  Yes, Canadian content in a big way!  A doctor named George Leslie Mackay was the first Presbyterian missionary to northern Taiwan.  Like Norman Bethune in China, Mackay is a hero to the Taiwanese.  Mackay arrived in Danshuei in 1872, and remained there until he died in 1901.  He is as famous for his dentistry practice (he pulled more than 21,000 teeth during his sojourn in Taiwan) as his medical practice (he introduced Western medicine to Taiwan, and established Western hospitals).  We visited his first clinic, and then gathered by his statue in a main square.

We were all rather pooped by the time we arrived at the Sakuraoka Hot Springs Resort for dinner.  Not only was this an hour's drive from our Fullon Hotel in Danshuei, it also served absolutely bad food.  When my very polite father doesn't care for something, he says "it's different".  The food we were served that evening was beyond different!  Some of our group opted to go for a dip in the hot tubs during dinner, but Jeff and I could hardly keep our eyes open, let alone venture into the steamy baths of Taiwan.  The highlight of the evening came when we programmed the karaoke t.v. to play some golden oldies, and Susan W. and I sang along to Paul Anka's "Diana"!

After a great night's sleep, we were all raring to go on day 2 in Taiwan.  We were still waiting for a "wow" moment.  Unfortunately, the Juming Museum that we were scheduled to visit was still undergoing renovations, so we went to a highly entertaining puppet theatre and museum instead.  Glove puppetry (budaixi) is a traditional art form that has been popular in Taiwan for over 300 years.   The venue that we visited was founded in 1931 by puppet master Li Tien-lu.  Mr. Li's grandchildren (teenagers!) are now on their way to becoming masters of this art.  One of the grandsons gave us a demonstration of how the puppets move, and then a short performance followed.  We all sat as enthralled as children, watching the skill and coordination of the puppets (and their masters!).  After the show, we were given the opportunity to practice with the puppets.  Jeff was rather pleased with himself (until he tried to throw the puppet in the air and catch it!).

The puppet museum showcased beautifully costumed puppets.  There was even a George Mackay puppet on display!  We had fun browsing around the small gift shop.  Jeff wanted to buy a monkey king puppet, but I found it too creepy-looking, so we bought an emperor puppet instead.  Our puppet is now gracing the same shelf as our Vietnamese rice picker, our Cambodian lacquered flowers, and our miniature toulou from Fujian.  Quite an eclectic collection.

And now for our WOW moment!  Yehliu Geopark!  This coastal national park is filled with fascinating sandstone rock formations, eroded by centuries of wind, waves and rain into the most interesting shapes.  (They are Taiwan's answer to the hoodoos of Western Canada.)  It is a spectacular sight.  Everywhere we turned there were hundreds of large, weathered rocks, and also many fossilized rocks.  The most famous rock in the park is "Queen Nefertiti" - there was a very long line of tourists waiting to take pictures like the one at the left!  Although there is a thick line marking the boundary for visitors, as well as guards ensuring that tourists do not get too close to the water, these barriers did not prevent local women from scavenging for shellfish at the shore.  Everyone in the group agreed that Yehliu was the best part of the tour, and Kurt (age 23) proclaimed "Day two has blown the pants off day one!"

I can't remember where we stopped for lunch.  We were served the exact same tasteless dishes (pigs knuckles, boiled cabbage, unseasoned fish, etc.) as at Friday lunch and dinner.  This meal had one extra dish - a bowl containing a boiled/steamed black chicken.  At that point I downed my beer, rolled my eyes, pursed my lips, and went on a mini hunger strike for the remainder of the trip.  I survived on some street food we bought along the way and some Mars Bars purchased at 7-Eleven (did you know that there are almost 5,000 7-Elevens in Taiwan?).  I didn't starve, but I wasn't a happy camper.

To round out the day, our bus drove up a mountain so that we could visit Jiufen, an old mining town.  When we got out of the bus, we climbed up to the observation deck to see the surrounding area.  Jeff and I were very impressed with the beautiful Chinese houses dotting the upper hills.  After a minute we realized that these were all tombs!   The rest of the town is now a crowded tourist trap - small narrow streets filled with market-like shops selling junk.  We stopped in at a tea shop where we sampled excellent Formosan oolong tea, and bought some to bring home.

On our way back to our hotel in Keelung, our guide, Candy, turned on the t.v. on the bus so that we could all watch the presidential election results.  Because of Candy's enthusiasm, we had all been caught up in election fever ever since meeting her the day before.  Candy told us a little bit about the candidates and explained what their platforms were.  Almost 500,000 Taiwanese who work in HK and Mainland China returned to Taiwan to vote!  Everywhere we drove there were huge election posters with smiling politicians.  Team 2 - the blue team - won.  Mr. Ma, the leader of the KMT, was re-elected much to Candy's delight!
By the time we arrived in Keelung, it was too late and too dark to tour Baimiwong Fort, so we checked into our hotel, relaxed, and looked forward to a Western buffet dinner at our hotel.  The only Western dishes at the buffet were spaghetti and mystery sauce.  By the time our gang arrived at 8 p.m., most of the food was gone, and there were no plans to replenish it.  There were a lot of very nice people in our group, and we just sat and talked for a couple of hours, drinking our beer.  Most of my caloric intake that weekend was from beer - Andrew, am I becoming a "frat boy"?

Day 3 - Sunday morning, and the weather was pouring!  Seven of us bleary-eyed AWAers met for breakfast at 7:30, raring to go.  Where were the others?  Sleeping, of course.  Those lazy bums were about to miss Baimiwong Fort!  Fortified by breakfast, the seven of us donned our rain gear and joined Candy on our bus.  Oops! only six of us got on the bus!  About five minutes after we drove away from the hotel, the bus driver's phone rang:  S.O.S. - we had forgotten Sue!  Since it was too late and too complicated to turn around to fetch her, Candy told Sue to take a taxi and meet us at the Fort.  Our bus stopped at the bottom of a steep, paved road.  By the time we walked the kilometre up the hill to the Fort, we were soaked.  Sadly, I discovered that my faux Burberry raincoat (purchased in Shenzhen) is not at all waterproof!

Linda didn't have a raincoat at all, so we gave her an umbrella that we found on the bus. Alas, the umbrella was useless, so Linda had to return to the bus.  After a few minutes, we all started giggling, and we didn't stop laughing until we had explored every slippery surface of the Fort.  In the fog and rain, the only dim view we had was of the smoke stacks at the nuclear power plant nearby.  When we got back to the hotel, we dried our hair, put on warm clothes, and bragged to the rest of the group how much fun we had!

Our next (dry) stop was the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines.  This museum is right across the road from the National Palace Museum.  The museum contains artifacts relating to the numerous indigenous tribes of Taiwan.  I was not overly impressed, since I thought that it merely skimmed the surface.  I wanted to know more about how, why, and when most of these tribes were converted to Christianity.  Did they/do they have many churches in their villages?  What Western/Christian elements have they introduced into their daily lives?  We did learn that many of them now work in construction in the big cities, and it reminded me of the Kahnawake (Mohawk) of Montreal who built most of the skyscrapers in New York City.
We had our last disgusting meal at the Silks Palace Restaurant (check out the Imperial Treasures Feast on their home page) in the National Palace Museum.  My mouth watered as I watched diners enjoying beautifully prepared dim sum.  Nope, not for us!  Same old, same old.  I finally "lost it" and complained to Jane, our leader.  She explained that she had gone over every menu in every restaurant with our guide before our trip.  Alas, TIC - you are served what they want to serve you.  (Be sure to carry granola bars and a jar of peanut butter when you travel in China).

Next stop was the jade and flower market.  We Hong Kongers have visited our own jade and flower markets many times, so this was nothing new.  Jeff and I found the nearest Starbucks and warmed ourselves over cappuccino, tea, and some normal food.
Then it was back on the bus to our last stop, Yingge, the ceramic town.  Lots of tourists and lots of shops selling pottery and housewares.  We bought a couple of mugs and a very nice serving platter (to replace my blue and white platter that is in storage in Toronto along with all of our other dishes and serving pieces).
If time allows, Jeff and I will go back to Taiwan one of these weekends to visit the National Palace Museum, take in a puppet show, wander around the sculptures at the Juming museum, and eat some fabulous Taiwanese food.