Day 2 and I was up early. Needed to find the bus stop to Anping, a town I was going to explore for the day. The bus stop was a bit tricky to find, almost 15mins walk from my hotel. Luckily it was in front of a hospital, so it shouldn't be that hard to find. I recall there was a mantou and soya milk stall nearby. I wanted to try it since there was a constant people buying from it in the morning. I eventually did on my way home :) Above is a photo of the bus stop, and the bus #2 heading to Anping. I was off on my adventure again!
The bus ride was almost 30mins, and the reason I wanted to come to Anping was to see a beautiful old bayan tree house. After alighting in the middle of nowhere and headed to the wrong direction, I finally came to my senses and found the entrance. I guess not many people visit this place? Lol. Trust me to find a weird attraction to visit. Above was the entrance, and the ticket booth was attended by an aunty that was in no hurry to go anywhere and wanted to talk to me forever....
And so she sold me a combination ticket! Maybe that was what she wanted to talk to me about? For 210NT, it wasn't a bad deal. It had all the places I wanted to visit anyway, plus a weird out-of-the-way fort which I could get to by bus. Ha! None of that was gonna happen. I was just gonna WALK there!
Anyway, the combination ticket was really quite a good deal. I ended up visiting the 4 main sites, plus I used a discount coupon to visit the Confucious school in Tainan town the next day too. Not only that, I passed the ticket on to my Taipei ex-colleague so that he can use it to bring his family to come visit Tainan! What a deal! We all win in the end!
The thing about combination ticket is, you never knew where you might end up in. So I ended up in the house of Zhu Jiu-Ying, a house of calligraphy from the former elder of Anping. Since I love calligraphy, I spend about 30minutes here admiring the beautiful scrolls of writing, most which I couldn't read. But I did took photos of the two that I could read below! I'm just gonna leave there here for you to admire.
An interesting thing happened at this residence house. I saw what looked like a mango tree outside from the 2nd storey balcony. As I exit the house, I asked an aunty was it a Taiwanese mango tree? And why were they not eating the fruits which I could see scattered all over the ground? Were they not sweet? The aunty answered that they were indeed mangoes. Would I like to try one? She brought me back to the ticket booth, and ask another aunty to get me a mango from the fridge! She handed me one, and ask me to go wash it and eat it behind the garden. Wow! That was not what I was expecting from my conversation! I asked her how do I cut it. She told me to just bite into it.... okay...... I thank her and went to eat my mango. Visitors were starting to arrive, and they saw a weird me eating a mango like a monkey underneath some bayan tree, lol. Thankfully the mango was soft and sweet, and cold! It was so refreshing in the summer heat. I went to thank the aunty, and she told me to come back after my visit to the bayan tree and she will give me more mangoes! Okay...... See, I told you, Tainan aunties are AMAZING!
Off I went to explore the Anping Tree House just behind the residence. There was a cafe there which I went to take a look at excitingly. Sadly, it was closed.....
Finally, arriving at the tree house, it was everything I imagine it to be, if not more! My imagination was quite limited when it comes to tree houses. Above is a nice sign and map of the tree house, with the tree roots just behind in the background.
I love old trees. And even if paying to come see a house ruin by tree is dumb, it was just magical for me. One of the very first thing I saw, even before reaching the tree house, which eating my mango, was this beautiful love shape sunlight shining thru the roots of the bayan tree. Can you see it? This was a magical place, I just knew it! Will share more in the next few post dedicated to Anping Tree House. But first, a summary of my day in Anping.
I saw this sign in Anping Town later on. Ha! Where is a sign when you are lost? But basically none of the sign was very helpful. I use my GPS all the way, or ask people along the way.
The aunty at the tree house did gave me a map. I took a photo of it, and here numbered my path of the day from #1 to #4, #4 being the dumbest place to visit, a solid almost 30-40 minutes walk away in the hot sun! It was call the Golden Palace, but it was neither made of gold, or remotely gold in colour, and it was NOT a palace! It was a fort. And not even a very remarkable fort. But since it's included in my combination ticket, I was determined to visit it even if I have to grumble about it for the rest of my life about it! That was part of the travelling experience! Lol. And yes, the tree house aunty did gave me a bag of 6 mangoes. I didn't want to ask for it when I finished touring the tree house, but she spotted me and waved me over. Handing me a heavy plastic bag full of mangoes, she kept repeating that these were organic mangoes, no pesticide. They might be bruise as they were picked from the ground. Put them in the fridge if not eating them right away. OK!!!! Luckily, I have a small fridge in my hotel room! Those mangoes were delicious! Well worth the combination ticket price!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments