Good day to all from World Map Pin community, hope all of you are doing fine this lovely weekend. In the first post on my year end travel to Taiwan, I have shared on a unique fort, Fort Zeelandia which was an important fortress for the area which stood the test of time, seeing how the Dutch had influence the area and subsequently falling to the Chinese. In today's post, I will continue exploring Tainan, an amazing place that is less explored but rich in culture. The cover photo is taken at Anping Tree House where we see how the overgrown trees adding a new look building in the Anping area turning it into a tree house. Other locations covered in today's post include Anping Old Street and Da Dong Night Market.
Background
This Taiwan trip is a week long trip that I planned with my wife and we went to quite a number of less travelled locations. The trip include many places that most people going to Taiwan will not include in their itinerary and that is why I would want to share it with the community on these amazing places that my wife and I explored.
Join us as we explore the various less mainstream locations in Taiwan.
If you've missed the first post where I visited Fort Zeelandia and also how to travel down to Tainan, here is the link to the post:
@vaynard86/exploring-amazing-taiwan-part-1-fort-zeelandia-tainan
Anping Tree House
Anping Tree House is located very near Fort Zeelandia, so if you are to visit Fort Zeelandia, do not miss out this location as it is a beauty and should be visited after visiting the fort.
Entrance fees goes at 60NT, which is the same as Fort Zeelandia which is approximately $2.50 Singapore dollars.
From the entrance, you would not be able to tell how the trees are overgrowing onto the buildings as it just look like a wooden shed with some buildings behind it. However, the beauty starts are going through the entrance and heading right where we will be greeted by majestic trees that overcome the houses.
If you've visited the Angkor Wat in Cambodia, there is a sacred temple, Ta Phrom, which is similar but in a more run down state where trees overwhelmed it fully. However at Anping Tree House, somehow the trees co-exist with the buildings and give it an overgrown look with tree extension.
But as we walked further into the backyard region of Anping Tree House, there are multiple aerial platforms that are being setup against some broken walls that are overwhelmed by the tree. As I've understood from reading the information available at the place, this portion which was initially the warehouse region, was overwhelmed by the tree and the owner decided to create a place where people can view the overgrown trees from above.
It is such a beauty to admire nature and man-made buildings co-exist and of course the additional efforts from the owner to create a nice view for visitors to admire the place from above.
As we walked through the aerial platform, there is a path that stretches out to a solid metal lookout across a small river.
Something unique is that there are many beautiful birds that come to the small river to hunt for fish. They are focused on their prey and when almost come to a stand still when they are locked on their prey. I was able to capture pictures of them upclose watching their prey but unfortunately, they did not make their move to catch fish while I was there.
My wife and I had a good session of doing some bird watching and capturing photos of them which brought us to a close on our visit to Anping Tree House. This place is a beauty and you need to come in and experience it yourself. Admire the trees, walk on the aerial platforms and do some bird watching.
Anping Old Street
As we departed Anping Tree House, Anping Old Street was just around the corner. This is a street that sells loads of local produce and you will also hear a distinctive "pop" sound as you visit this old street. The sound is actually made by a prawn cracker machine that shoots out nice hot and crispy prawn crackers. Throughout the whole street, you will hear people peddling prawn crackers and asking you to try so that you will be convinced to purchase one pack.
As it is getting late, we left Anping area and move back towards our dinner location - Da Dong Night Market.
Da Dong Night Market
There is a schedule for night market in Tainan so when you are there, you need to be aware else you might be heading to a closed night market.
This is the schedule for Tainan Night market: 大大武花大花花
There are 7 characters here which symbolize which night market is open at which day of the week.
大 (Da) - This signifies Da Dong Night Market
武 (Wu) - This signifies Wu Sheng Night Market
花 (Hua) - This signifies Garden Night Market
With the sequence, Da Dong Night Market opens on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. And the other 2 night markets respectively according to the schedule above.
It is a Monday evening, so we headed to Da Dong Night Market and we were greeted by a cute Psyduck performed by a street artist.
We were super hungry so anything that came in our way, we just take our pick on what's available at the stall and ordered. We just ate all the street food but still felt hungry. Then we finally stopped at a teppanyaki stall where we enjoyed the skill of the chef whom prepared our dinner.
We gobbled down everything and was satisfied with the end of the day which we wrapped up with an awesome dinner of teppanyaki and street food.
Closing
What a great day we had, exploring the beauty of Anping Tree House, admiring the trees, watching the birds and also walking through the aerial platform. Following which, we walked through Anping Old Street and listened to the popping sound of the prawn cracker machine and tasting them as shopkeepers peddle them. Finally we headed to Da Dong Night Market to have our dinner as we wrapped up the day.
Thank you for walking along with me to explore the places I shared today and see you around in the community. Do keep a look out for my next post on Exploring Taiwan in World Map Pin!