Yay!I finally uploaded these pictures!
Wanted to upload these a long time ago, but I didn't have the time to edit, which was why I kept on procrastinating... Anyway, more than three months after my trip, I finally did it! (*does victory pose)
So, cat village! When I found out there was one before my trip to Taiwan, I became really, really EXCITED. (Yep, in capital letters.) I read the history, looked at pictures, checked on how to get there, and had this scene of catland in my head.
Well, it wasn't like that at all, but I can't say that it was a big disappointment either. After, a true catland would probably only be a fantasy for cat lovers... Or maybe not. (A cat-fanatic CEO might go and make a theme park on cats...)
My expectations didn't jibe with reality, but it was still an interesting place to visit. There was also an abandoned mine, but I didn't go because I already planned to go over to Jiufen to see the place that they were saying online looked a little bit like something out from Ghibli's 'Spirited Away', which is a really awesome movie btw.
Houtong isn't as famous as other tourist spots such as Yehliu, Jiufen, and other places (actually, a friend who's Taiwanese was surprised to find out that it existed, she never heard about it before), but it was interesting in its own way. I think it was more of a spot that locals visited since I didn't see non-Asian foreigners.
Disclaimer before you continue reading: I'll have to warn you that this isn't a guide to Houtong. I just want to share photos I took during my 'adventure' there.
Enjoy!
Food is needed for energy, so of course I had to have breakfast before leaving. A lot of the shops were closed when I headed out, and spending time to look for vegetarian options when you have a big day ahead can be tiring, which is why convenience stores are convenient!
Unlike in the Philippines, which is a country of people fond of meat, vegetarian options are easy to find in Taiwan, which was really, really great for me. Not only do I get to taste new stuff, I get to eat them according to my dietary preferences!
And the tea!!! So many choices for tea! They weren't as jam-packed with sugar as in the Philippines too! Big thumbs up for tea!
Houtong is outside of the city, and because I wanted to save money, I didn't book for a tour (which could be done with websites at a not-too shabby price). Being a student on a tight budget I opted for PUBLIC transportation and checked out the route with the handy-dandy Google Maps (my bestfriend during the trip). I discovered two options, take a bus to Ruifang then another bus to Houtong, and the other one was to take a train to Ruifang then another train to Houtong (well, you could also take the bus).
As anybody could see with the pictures, I took the train option. Not the metro or the THSR, but the Taiwan Railway train. It's not speedy, but it gets you to the destination.
Because I was a bit conscious of making a rude social mistake, I refrained from being trigger-happy inside the train. And since there were a ton of people, I ended up standing during that hour or so train ride.
Ruifang Station wasn't large, just a normal station for a not-large town.
The train tracks at the station were looked picturesque to me. You know, like a place that you'd expect from a movie with a scene of a couple parting from each other, the guy trying to be stoic even though you could clearly see a tear at the corner of his eye, and the girl sobbing her heart out. And then they'd meet each other in the future, each of them with other people but still drawn to each other....... What. A. Cliche.
Anyway, it looked like one of those places.
Seeing Chinese lanterns made me really feel that I wasn't in Kansas anymore. Oops, I mean the Philippines. And the bear, I love cute bears!
If I had a companion I would have had my picture taken with the bear.
Now I wonder who wrote the love 'wish'.
Love until forever, what a romantic person. If it was me I would have wished for 'zombie apocalypse to not happen'. Or maybe, 'don't let aliens come', 'please don't let robots have their independent minds and take over the world', stuff like that.
Wishing for love to last forever sounds nice, but there isn't such a thing as forever. Maybe a lifetime is more doable.
Thankfully they flashed the place, departure time and train in English. or else I might have ended up riding the wrong train.
Oh, the horrors of not being a polyglot.
This miss made a rather cute picture.
The platform that I was waiting at was not crowded, so people were occupying whole benches for themselves. The lady was alone and I was behind her, so I took a photo that came out quite well (and became even better after some editing).
The cat in the picture above was the first one that I saw in Houtong.
In the very second that I stepped into the train station at Houtong, I saw this rather chubby cutie, who was immediately surrounded by fan, err, tourists who took tons of pictures of him/her.
And the cat took it in his/her stride, ignoring the affectionate looks cast his way to continue on sleeping the day away.
Houtong is small. Really.
I believe that most stores there made a living by catering to tourists. There were a lot of cat goods sold everywhere!
This brings me to the thought of Naruto... Can Hidden Leaf still be called a village? It's a city, right? I mean, it's so big and all, it doesn't resemble a town.
At first I thought that the round cat deco was a bell or something similar, but it was just a normal decoration.
No hidden weapons or such.
But it's still adorable.
Gah! The pineapple cakes tasted really delicious! And the cat shapes were cute too.
The fact that they were sweet without being too sweet is a definite plus. I like sweet stuff but there's a limit to the amount of sugar that food can have for me to enjoy it. (my personal opinion)
But it was weird, they still called them pineapple cakes even though there were other flavors like blueberry and strawberry.
There were also some that had charcoal! Though they didn't taste like charcoal...
I believe that the building above was part of mining operations before.
There were also other buildings that were dedicated to tourist information, history and such.
Didn't spend too much time exploring and reading through them since I had a set amount of time, or else I would have had to miss going to Jiufen.
Now this cat, looked peaceful and all.
But looks are totally deceiving.
The feline would scratch or try to scratch anyone who would come near and disturb his/her sleep.
Honestly, most of the cats that I saw in Houtong were sleeping. Or going to sleep.
And they were fat. No slender one in sight.
The two pictures above were ones of the bridge that connected the station to the main part of the town.
Called 'Cat Bridge' (yeah, imaginative name), it's supposed to incorporate mining and cats... Which I can't really see, or maybe my artistic sensibilities are just plain awful.
Well, the mining thing is because the town used to be a mining site. It was one of Taiwan's best site for coal mining.
They wanted to preserve the place as one of historical significance, and the cats were also a good thing. So two birds with one stone, and there you have it, a 'cat' village.
Which still had more humans than cats due to the number of visitors around.
In the town, you were' allowed to feed the cats, but the food must be specifically cat food. Feeding the cats human food was not allowed.
(Strict diet, huh.)
I saw a lot of parents giving their kids cat food to feed to the furry creatures (while watching carefully to ensure their little angles wouldn't be sudden attacked by the temperemental felines).
The cats were all over the merchandise being sold!
I was the one who became nervous when I saw one cat lying amidst porcelain stuff. The cat was huge enough to weigh about five or more kilos.
The sellers were just ignoring the cats, letting them sleep wherever they wanted to.
The cats also just went in and out of any store.
I think some of them were personal pets by the people living there, but some were also a 'general' citizen, not owned by anyone but fed by everyone.
And, of course they had a ton of cat souvenir shops!
Some sold stuff at an affordable price while some sold expensive stuff, really expensive stuff (in my opinion anyway).
They didn't worship cats, at least I think they didn't, but they did revere them.
Chinese do believe that cats are lucky creatures, which I think they are, even black ones.
Actually, black ones have the most awesome color.
And.....Let's play spot the difference!
It's the same store window from the one before the cat altar thingy, but there's a difference, I wonder if anybody can spot it right away? The differrence?
And that's all for now!
I'll be making another post about Houtong.
In that post, there'll be pictures on the place that I accidentally found through walking along a wrong path.
It wasn't a 'visit' spot, I think it was a worship place that wasn't one the brochure.
Anyway, bye for now! Hoped the pictures were fun to look at!
|ΦωΦ|Random Thoughts Corner|ΦωΦ|
Has anyone watched 'Meteor Garden 2018'?
I'm actually watching the first episode as I make this post.
As a person who never followed the original series, I don't have any biases about it, but....
The hair! The hair!
I don't like the hair of the male lead! It makes him look bad, like he's a trying-hard gangster with a weird hair stylist. I seriously wonder why the author made the character with bad hair. I'm trying hard not to be bothered by the hair, but it really isn't a sight for sore eyes.