If you go to the area and look it up online, it'll all be spelled "Tamsui," but it's pronounced "Danshui." Whatever you call it it's a cool place, and I'll definitely be going back.
Danshui is by the sea, so it has a very touristy feel. Nevertheless, there is good food and good fun. There are places selling clothes (I bought much-needed sunglasses) and food (including iron eggs (little eggs cooked in soy sauce), giant cups of tea, stinky tofu (which I tried, it's good!), bean paste buns, squid, and generally fried everything). There are also some little booths with carnival games. It was like a little seaside state fair.
An Iron Egg!
Giant Starbucks!
Amelia and I walked around and she showed me the sights. It was very hard to believe that I live only an hour from here and can get here by bus and MRT, because it felt very much like an expensive ocean vacation. The river between the Danshui side and the Bali side of the island was enormous, and it flowed right out to to the sea.
You can't go in the water, but the tide was high enough that we could just stand on the edge of the walkway and get splashed, sometimes up to our faces!
There were tropical trees and flowers everywhere, and a breeze keeping us cool. Oceanfront cafes and restaurants were scattered up and down the coast. It wasn't insanely busy, though, and despite the obvious tourist attractions (like cheap souvenirs, carnival games, and state-fair food) it also had a local-attraction feel.
An open-air restaurant, with sofa-like seats facing the river.
A temple in Danshui.
Leftover from the Dragonboat Festival in June. I just missed it!
Amelia and I took a short boat ride to Fisherman's Warf, which is a bit further down the island. Everything looks so tropical that I feel like I'm on vacation, not actually living here.
An enormous hotel on the Fisherman's Warf side of the island.
Birds outside a shop. There were two Australian King Parrots (just looked them up, I think I'm right) and an African Grey, as well as two pigs! The birds looked extremely happy; they chattered, flapped their wings, preened, and walked around on their perches. It was very warm outside, so they definitely weren't chilly, and they seemed highly interested the cars and people passing by.
The pigs were more interested in napping.
Before going to the San Domingo fort, Amelia and I stopped at a restaurant for lunch/dinner...despite the somewhat misleading menu posted outside. This is actually unusual; written English in Taiwan is often quite good.
On the wall, inside the cafe. No period, but a complete sentence!
Amelia and I underestimated this cafe. We thought were were each ordering a small dish, and then one of these "Honey Toast Box" things to share. The "small dishes" of regular food (seafood penne for Amelia and gratin pasta and sausage for me) actually came with small salads, small bowls of soup, and drinks, and the dishes themselves weren't exactly small. So after we polished off that food we had to tackle dessert, and I was not expecting this monster that showed at our table. It's like a gingerbread house made out of French toast, with ice cream in the middle and chocolate shavings, banana, an Oreo, cookie sticks, and drizzles of cream and chocolate sauce on top.
God help us, we ate our lunch/dinner and then we ate the Honey Toast Box. This all happened around maybe 5pm. It is almost 1am and I am just now starting to think that I may eat food again.
TOTALLY. WORTH. EVERY. BITE.
The path up to the Sant Domingo Fort, which was built by the Spanish in 1629.
We got all the way up to the top... but it was closed for construction! What are the odds? We still got some beautiful photos of the landscape and the fort itself, which was quite stunning.
The path back down!
After all this we came straight home; eating that diabolical amount of food wore us out. Once back in Hsin Jhuang, we went to McDonald's to hammer out the lesson plans for Amelia's classes on Wed, Thurs, and Fri, since I'll be teaching them for her while she's taking some vacation time. Amelia's been incredibly helpful in making sure I have all the information I need to get through these classes, not just what to teach but what kids are in what class, how old they are, what they like, and what to know about them to make sure everything runs smoothly. I've seen most of her classes already from shadowing, so I hope I can do half the job she does come Wednesday. If nothing else, I have everything written out in detail so I can just follow the plan if I get nervous!
One more day of summer break, then back to teaching!
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