The breakfast buffet at the Hotel Hwa Du was disappointing, as we expected. There was no cereal or yoghurt, and the only fruit available was some sliced watermelon. (Mom has to have her banana-a-day.) There was a small salad bar, but the rest of the options were hot Asian foods like congee, cellophane noodles, steamed veggies, and tofu. We all grabbed two or three complimentary cookies and rice snacks from the lobby on the way up to our room afterwards as a sort of breakfast replacement.
Shortly afterwards we caught a cab to Fort Zeelandia in the Anping District. We toured the museum and learned more about how badass General Koxinga laid seige to the fort and forced the Dutch to abandon their colonial rule of Taiwan. While we were at the fort we heard what sounded like gunfire, but turned out to be fireworks being set off at the nearby Anping Matsu Temple. So, we left the fort and walked down to the temple to check it out. The fireworks were over by the time we arrived, but a band was playing in the entrance to the temple and it looked like some traditional dancers were milling around. There were a large number of people wearing team uniforms and we thought that perhaps there was some kind of competition later in the day. (We learned later that it was the start of the Ghost Festival, which starts at the beginning of the seventh month of the lunar calendar.)
We sat on some plastic chairs set up inside the entrance to the temple and absorbed the amazing chaos and peace at the temple. I say "chaos and peace" because the temple was full of people praying, leaving offerings, and catching up on the latest gossip, while at the same time there was this amazingly spiritual atmosphere that was almost soporific. We wanted to stay longer but we were getting a lot of stares from the locals plus it was so hot that we were dripping with sweat. So, after about 30 minutes we decided to head outside and see what else Anping had to offer.
We got some much-needed beverages at the 7-11 across the street and then walked to the Anping Tree House. It's not a tree house in the western sense. It's actually an old merchant warehouse that was slowly "consumed" by a banyan tree. It was eventually abandoned because the locals thought it was too creepy. It was restored in the last few years and is now a big tourist draw. The first time I visited the Anping Tree House I only had my old point-and-shoot camera and it couldn't quite capture the shadows and colors. This time I had my big DSLR with me, so I spent a fair amount of time looking for good photos.
We visited the small museum in the building adjacent to the Anping Tree House, as well as the Zhu Ying Jiu Residence which has been transformed into a calligraphy museum.
From there we wandered back into the tight confines of old Yanping Street. We tried to find a restaurant with air conditioning but every place we checked out was full. We wandered through the Cultural Market (I don't know the real name) between Yanping and Anping, near Yunhe Road. When we exited onto Anping there was a dumpling and noodle restaurant that looked tempting but there were no seats inside and I couldn't read the Chinese menu.
We continued walking up the road a piece and I spotted the entrance to a restaurant I had researched the night before. The staff at the restaurant couldn't speak any English so they indicated they were going to get someone to help us order lunch. The "someone" turned out to be the owner, a lovely middle-aged woman. She led us to a table upstairs, got us set up with drinks, and then helped us choose something appropriate from the menu. I say "appropriate" because the restaurant specialized in gigantic portions - imagine pork cutlets that are bigger than the plate they're served on. Mom and Simone decided to share a bowl of pork donburi and I ordered a chicken sandwich. Even though we were sharing, it was still too much food. But, it hit the spot.
After lunch we thought we might catch the free tourist shuttle to the Eternal Golden Castle. We got to the bus stop and discovered that we'd missed the shuttle and the next one wasn't for another hour. We had just decided to return to the hotel when a cab swung around the corner and pulled up next to the bus stop - convenient! So, off we went to the hotel.
We rested at the hotel for the remainder of the afternoon, then decided to try a local restaurant called My Steak Home for dinner. As far as I could tell from the online menu, you could pay NT$200 for all-you-can-eat salad bar, which suited us just fine. We got to the restaurant, got a table, and tried to order the salad bar but it became clear after some back and forth in Chinese that we couldn't order just the salad bar - we had to order some kind of meat and then we could get the salad bar for free. So that's what we did even though we were still stuffed from lunch.
After dinner we decided to go for a short walk up the street to digest our ginormous dinner. We met a "shop cat" at a scooter repair shop that was very friendly, but also very dirty - poor thing. The mechanic thought it was great that we liked his cat and offered to let us wash our hands inside, but from the looks of it the sink and soap would just make our hands dirtier.
Our flight left at 7:30am the next morning so we went back to the hotel, sorted out our luggage, and watched a bit of television before calling it a night.
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