Taiwan Trip 2015 (台灣30天環島記) - Day 21: Taichung 台中 (Tian Wei Breakfast 天味早餐咖啡道, Fengjia Night Market 逢甲夜市 + Very delicous Strawberries from Miaoli 苗栗的草莓超好吃), Changhua 彰化 ( Lukang 鹿港 + Breast Touching Alley 摸乳巷）
Second day in Taichung! Let's start with what I ate for breakfast. As mentioned in my previous post, there are tonnes of food around the hostel that I stay at. There was this one shop selling toast bread with meat and egg, a Taiwanese favourite, which is patroned by many people everyday. I have no idea what is so special about a normal toast stuffed with bacon.
In the end I went to the shop opposite, Tian Wei Breakfast, which sold the exact same thing, but minus the queue. NTD 600
For today, I decided to head to Lukang (鹿港). Lukang is also a rather non popular tourist area so I'm sure many people have not heard about, me included, before reading about it at Lonely Planet. In a nutshell, Lukang is located about an hour's bus ride away from Taichung and is still in Changhua county. In the past, Lukang was actually one of Taiwan's main trading ports and Taiwan's second largest city after Tainan in the past but their resistance towards development, namely disallowing a train station to be built in the city, and the harbour got silted, caused the drastic decline of city's fortune. The town can be easily covered in a day.
The main Lukang area is generally quite accessible with most of the tourist attractions reachable by foot. There are numerous signboards and maps everywhere to guide you around. Generally the main attractions here would be their temples. But personally this place have a lot of small alleys to explore and just get lost. It is also an eye opener and another history lesson in the book to see
The bus dropped me off nearby the Lukang old street (鹿港老街), where there was a huge market place. There were loads of food and stuff to buy but I didn't really try any since I was still trying to stick to my budget haha. After having a good look at the map and trying to understand the sign boards I then started to wander off.
It was really quite interesting to see how they could actually fit a house under such cramped conditions. The alleys were so tight that there was no way a car could enter. So I am assuming most people here only have motorbikes which they can park right in front of their door steps. Back in Malaysia, it is almost unheard of that a landed property comes without a parking spot.
Also dropped by a shop making joss sticks for prayers. Did I mention the weather today was great for walking as well?
Do not worry about getting lost as there are even directions being placed on the ground!
I tried to cover as many temples as I could within the vicinity. The main deity that these people pray to would be the Ma Zu (媽祖) deity. But alas, temples do get a bit boring after awhile.
There was, however, a very interesting and hilariously named attraction known as the Breast Touching Alley (摸乳巷). The alley itself is very narrow so only one person can pass at the time. So in the past, if a male and a female were to enter the lane together from the opposite ends, the female's breast would brush against the male so it was pretty embarrassing. As a true gentleman, the guy would let the female past first.
In the past people used to put claypots as part of the wall structure for their houses. Now with bricks the locals printed out pictures of the pots as a reminder of the past instead LOL.
With any prosperous towns, there ought to be someone rich who owns a huge mansion. In Lukang there are two notable factions. One from the Ding family and another from the Koo family.
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| Ding's mansion |
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| Traditional well |
The Koo family is still relevant today as they are currently one of the biggest business groups in Taiwan at the moment. Their old house (or mansion) had been converted into a Folks Art Museum. Here you could revisit all the history all Lukang from the past. It's 50% cheaper on the entrance fee if you flash your student ID.
For lunch I decided to try KFC. The size of the chicken was really quite small compared to Malaysia's. Maybe they didn't inject enough growth hormones I guess. Their set is pretty different as you can see there was no coleslaw or mashed potatoes. Instead you get nuggets and a piece of a really delicious Portuguese egg tart. I also tried their BBQ flavoured chicken to go along with the spicy flavour. NTD 155 for the set. Not that cheap either.
With my stomach filled I then moved on the explore Lukang's old street which I had ignored earlier. Surprisingly there were quite a lot of visitors, although mostly Taiwanese.
My last stop at Lukang was at the Gui Hua Lane art village, which was quite similar with the Hinoki Village back in Chiayi. There were a few houses which showcased various items and stuff.
For me I went to try a shop which gave the visitor a chance to make their stamp art with the use of traditional Chinese ink. I got to choose which stamp I wanted and then I had to spread ink all over it before placing a red paper over the stamp to complete my work.
Chinese New Year souvenir for me! NTD 20 only!
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| 春 |
At night I then headed to Taichung's famous Fengjia Night Market with the friend from Hong Kong. I believe this place needs no introduction. However to save money and hassle, we boarded the BRT towards Maple Garden (秋紅谷)) station and then walked about 1.5 kilometres to reach the night market.
The night market was packed with people as usual. However I would like to give a huge shoutout to Taiwanese strawberries! I actually had no idea Taiwan produces strawberries from their own. It was after I stumbled upon this store then I realised that they do produce a lot of strawberries at Dahu (大湖) in Miaoli (苗栗) county .
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| Yummy strawberries |
They were being sold at NTD 70 a cup of bigger strawberries and they were absolutely delicious. Mind you I am a huge strawberry fan and I am fortunate enough to try very expensive strawberries from Japan and Korea as well as cheaper versions from USA, and not forgetting our local strawberries from Camerons. These Taiwanese strawberries are certainly up there as there are big and juicy and most importantly, SWEET! They were so good that I bought another cup. But to my disappointment they do not sell by boxes. After this it was my mission to hunt for Taiwanese strawberries every day hahaha. One of these days I will plan a trip to Miaoli just to handpick strawberries from their farms.
~Day 21 end~
Next: Day 22: Taichung 台中 (Isabella, Taichung 5th Market 第五市場, Anime Lane 動漫彩繪巷, Budokan Martial Arts Hall 臺中刑務所演武場, City Hall 市政府, 2nd Market 第二零售市場, Ai Yu Dessert 愛玉冰, Ciji Hospital 慈濟醫院, Rainbow Village 彩虹眷村, Miyahara 宮原眼科, Yi-Chung Bazaar 一中街商圈)
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