2 May 2023
Sunhenge
Pasta and a sunset in Ximending
I went to Ximending the night that I arrived, after 36 hours of not sleeping. It is a couple of streets over from my hotel and one of the busiest shopping and eating districts in Taipei. I decided to return to check if that was a fever dream or actually happened.
On my saunter around the area, I observed a bride running between places to be photographed almost getting run over. She had a film crew and 2 camera crews, plus traffic control. And somehow she managed to time the whole shindig to coincide with sunhenge - the day of the year when the sun completely lines up with the road. There were quite a few photographers waiting for it, just as there are in Melbourne. In Melbourne it is the day someone gets run over by a tram.
Ximending at or around 5pm on a Tuesday is quite busy.
This place sells cups of plain noodles. Just the noodles (I think?). It has always had a long line, each time I come here, to buy just plain, flavourless rice noodles. Apparently people have been buying flavourless noodles in droves since 1975.
Random street scene.
Here's some street photography. Where you just snap photos of random people in the street that are poorly framed without them knowing. This one has the rainbow Taipei street for bonus points.
First sighting of the bride. Yes, they are holding instant cameras pretending to take photos. Yes, the groom does appear to be wearing an Indiana Jones hat.
Here is the red house. The place most people buy gifts from.
Inside of the red house, with a sampling of the over priced tourist things on offer. T-shirts were $40! Elsewhere I can buy 40 t-shirts for $40.
I remember this spot from previous visits. Hardware stores that line about a kilometre of under the freeway real estate. They carry on a long way down the street behind me.
I am not quite sure, but I do not think the blood bank buses are actual real buses. They look too narrow. Why did they have to affix that green wire mesh to the bottom of them? I have so many questions, but if I go any closer they will extract my valuable blood.
SUNHENGE. Heavily edited in lightroom, the non sun part of this photo was basically black to stop the sun from clipping, because there's no way in hell I am doing an exposure stack.
Just like in Japan, pasta is a popular meal. Just like in Japan, you can get weird things like Thai green chicken, seaweed, durian. I went with the chilli beef option and cream of corn soup. Pretty good!
There she goes again, running through traffic.
This is an fancy lingerie shop called Air Space. Exactly where is the air coming from?
Another very popular place that always has a long line. I think they are selling some kind of fried radish cake. But I could be wrong. What I know for sure is that the street around here is coated in many years of very slippery oil.
And now for 2 more night street scenes, here is the first.
And here is the second. Good news, tomorrow is NOT a hiking day. At least I am not planning for it to be.