Taiwan 2.8: Two lazy days in Lukang

I overestimated how much there would be to do in this small town.  On our first full day, I was fairly tired, so I napped after breakfast for four hours.  We went out and walked straight to the temple across the street to the Lukang Mazu Temple.  This temple was smaller than Lungshan Temple, but still of a decent size.  One chamber of note had an entire wall lined with stacks of two inch tall Buddhas.



We walked toward the route I had taken the night before and then diverged toward the  local "art village."  This was a small street lined with art shops.  We went  inside a few.  Inside one, we fell in love with an intricate piece that was behind a protective case.  I asked how much it cost and the woman wrote down 220,000.  That was in the Taiwanese Dollar, so you would need to divide by 30 to get the US dollar amount.  Still, that is quite expensive!  We bought two spinning tops.

Back on the main street, we found one shop with clay figures.  The woman inside would teach you how to make any of the figures.  Miles asked to make Shadow the Hedgehog from the Sonic games.  She warned that it was one of the more complex ones to make but he decided to give it a shot anyway.  It took around two hours but I think it turned out pretty well!



At night we went out for a walk similar to the night before.  This time, however, most of the cats were not to be found, though the one at Lungshan temple was right where I had left him.  Instead of an amateur dance troupe, this time we found a small band practicing together.  We tried visiting the Wenchang Shrine and Martial Temple, but it was closed so we walked home.



Today we spent a few hours in our hotel room while Miles did schoolwork and then continued where we left off yesterday.  We went to an old town half well.  The story behind it is that the owner of the house was very wealthy and had his own well.  The people needed water in some capacity, so he extended half of the well to the outside of his wall and kept half inside for his family.  It brought together the community and he was celebrated for it.  Of course, now you can see a KFC in the background.



We passed some pinball like machines just past the well, but without the controls.  It looked essentially like gambling to me.



Next we walked to an alleyway that is known as the Breast Touching alley.  It was named as such because it is so narrow that when two people tried to walk at the same time...  In any case, we were lucky that no one else was trying to walk from the other direction!



We noticed last night that there was an outdoor wall filled with small heads outside an artist's shop.  There was better lighting today.



One thing that I noticed about Taiwan in general is that there are very nice places directly next to areas that are torn down or in disrepair.



We ended the walk where we ended it last night.  It turned out that the Wenchang Shrine and Temple is also one of the two visitor centers in town.  A woman ran after us to give us a visitor guide of town.  I didn't have the heart to tell her that we had been here for days.