April 16, 2026
Back to Main
The Zhong Ke Hotel is a very popular hotel, often used by Japanese tour groups, and we saw a couple during our stay. This morning,
we ventured down to breakfast while one was there, and it was crowded. We had difficulty finding a table, but eventually one became
available. This would be our last all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast at the hotel, as tomorrow we'd be checking out very early in the
morning to head up to Taipei and the airport to catch our flight home. So I had my typical
breakfast here this morning (they had little sausages!), knowing it would be my
last. While the selections were always great and everything always tasted good,
we always ate too much (because we could). It was probably good that this would be our last one for a while.
Meihui wasn't going to come meet us until 11:15 this morning, so after our big breakfast, we went out for a walk, settling down
in 民俗公園 watching some dogs at play and some
seniors exercising, already reminiscing about the past week and all the adventures we
had and how it was about to be over.
We decided to go back to the morning market again. Mei-O bought some very soft washcloths there, and she wanted to buy some more. On
the way, we passed one of our all-time favorite eateries in Taiwan, 永和四海豆漿, a fast food place that can be found all over the island.
They have funny hours. They open around 5:00 PM, stay open all night, then close after breakfast, around 10 or 11 AM. They
make everything fresh and fast. Check out these yummy
油條 that tempted us! When we passed by, a 水餃 (dumpling) maker was quickly making up a big
batch. Unfortunately, having eaten a big breakfast earlier, as much as we wanted to eat some of their good stuff, we couldn't eat
another bite, so we just kept walking.
This is one of the first shops at the morning market, right on the corner of 昌平路 and 金谷巷 (金谷巷 is the street the market is on). Mei-O
bought a couple of pair of pants here. She bought a shirt from a different vendor; I wish I had a picture of that purchase because she wore
it today (here she is modeling the shirt and one of the pair of pants back in our hotel room),
and Meihui took some pictures of our adventures during the day (you'll see them coming up). Meihui later posted some of those pictures
on Facebook - time spent with her sister and brother-in-law visiting from the U. S. - and one of Meihui's Facebook friends commented that
she recognized us from this morning! She was the owner of the clothing stand at the morning market who sold the shirt to Mei-O! What an
odd coincidence!
What's this? While Mei-O couldn't find the shop selling the washcloths she was looking to buy, I found this really nice
man purse. It's made of real leather and was only $US16. I've always wanted one, and now I
finally have one. But I'm not sure I'm ever going to use it. I hate the idea of my wallet, keys, and phone, and maybe some other junk,
all being in one place that I could either misplace or have ripped from my body by a thief, losing everything important all at once. I
don't know how women an cope with that idea. Anyhow, Mei-O likes it and says she may use it for our upcoming Boston trip.
I didn't take a lot of pictures as we walked through the market this morning, just these few.
Nothing special. As I said, much to Mei-O's disappointment, the wash cloth seller wasn't there, and that's what we really came for.
We went back to the hotel, then around 11:15, Meihui texted us and we met her down by the bus stop in front of the hotel. While waiting
for the bus, I took advantage of the free time to record some of the busy traffic (1:59) rushing along 崇德路.
By 11:35, we were on the bus (oops!) headed for ...
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...豐原 (Fengyuan). We had one main reason for coming to Fengyuan, but first, we stopped by the 
