Feelin' Groovy

Friday, me and my cousin traveled by bus to Elan, which is on the East Coast of Taiwan. There is a center there celebrating Taiwan's rich cultural background. There are several small museums, a traditional Taiwanese house, and a scenic walking trail through a park. There is shopping too. Lots and lots of shopping. I think that by now, you guys know what sparked the most interest in my cold, little consumer's heart. 

This is the shopping area. All of the buildings are so beautiful. Each one of those buildings have a shop inside of it. We spent a couple of hours looking in every one of the shops. There was so much to see.

They have these lanterns out for Chinese New Year. (By the way, the last day of Chinese New Year is today. It is the 15th day, and so tonight there will be a lantern festival. If I go, I will take pictures and upload them for you all here).

The stores sold all sorts of things: homemade soaps, cypress wood furniture, calligraphy brushes, traditional Taiwanese toys, puppets, clothes, candy, incense. 

Here is homemade incense that is drying outside of one of the stores. 

Here is one of the candy shops.

There were a few different kinds of candy. There were these pulled sugar sticks, and candy coated fruit on a stick, cotton candy, and this thing on a stick that was basically two giant Ritz crackers sandwiching some melted sugar. Anything that can be eaten on a stick here is very popular, because most people like to eat while they walk around and browse the shops. BUT... When people are looking for a sit down meal, they can come to the "food court" for a large selection of ridiculously cheap, and delicious food. For instance, when most people think "food court" food, they think of burgers, pizza, hot dogs, that kind of thing. Here, however, the food court serves full meals. Mine had a bowl of rice with some ground pork on top, a plate of sauteed cabbage, a plate of tofu, and a bowl of soup. All of this was only $130NT, (that's $4 U.S.). You could not find that in the states. You just can't.

One of the coolest things about this place was the abundance of architectural details.

Yes, those are pots. Inside of a wall.

The points on the temple

Why, yes. These are 3D designs on the facade of the building. 

This park in this area had a pristine river flowing through it, so there was an abundance of bridges elegantly arcing over the water.

This is a traditional Taiwanese-style house. It is an original building, that has been renovated, and now acts as a museum of sorts.

The building consits of three corridors and a wall that surround a courtyard. All of the rooms face inside towards the courtyard. This design hearkens back to a time when inter-family feuds tended toward violence, (think the Capulets and the Montques). The structure acted like a fortress to keep their enemies out.

I wish I knew why it was painted in such psychedelic colors. The paint job was so bright, that I thought the doors and windows were lined in neon lights.

The room that is front and center when you walk in the gate is the family temple. Look at how ornate the architectural details get here.

This is the inside of the temple

Back outside, there were more bridges. 

This building is the museum's main building 

This picture, (below), was taken on the outskirts of the park. It is of a forked river that has been completely covered by some kind of plant. Thousands of small green leaves covered the water like a green shag carpet.

This shot was taken of the river-front walkway that runs behind the shops.

There was also a small theatrical show that played every few hours. I was able to record parts of it.