Luodong 罗东, Taiwan Trip (Day 2)

14th May 2018, Monday

Our breakfast

Was not able to sleep well through the night, just slept a few hours...so i got up early to get ready for the day. We went out at around 9 am to look for breakfast, though we were provided with McDonald's vouchers by the hotel. But it was quite tricky as almost every place were closed on a Monday and the streets were quite empty. We just kept walking along the streets till we saw a noodles shop opened for the day. So we decided to go in to try. We ordered a few dishes to try...not really like the noodles that much but the rice was not bad.

After breakfast, we wanted to walk back to Jimmy Park. But we saw many people around a street ahead, so it got our attention. We walked there and see what the people were busy there, ohh...its like their wet market. There were fishes, big big fishes, giant watermelons, veggies, fruits and people were buying the ingredients. We just walked the market until we saw a shop selling soya beancurd. We decided to try it and we ordered two of the shop's signature dishes. Both are cold dishes and had "bubbles", one bowl had green beans and the other bowl had peanuts. And it had a lot of ice in it. After we finished the beancurd, we headed out to Jimmy Park as it was getting late.

Cold Soya Beancurd

Train in Jimmy Park Entrance

Yilan Main Station

When we reached Jimmy Park, we tried to look for the entrance but it seemed like it was closed off. Then we realised it was closed for renovation....sadz...We just crossed over to Yilan Train Station to take some photos and visited the visitors information centre beside it. I managed to get stamps chopped for my notebook. Then we headed back to the hotel for check-out. We got back to collect our luggage and did our check-out. Then we headed back to the train station and bought tickets to Luodong. It was just a 5 mins train journey, which we can't even enjoy the train ride much.

We reached Luodong at 11:20 am and walked towards our hotel. Again, we realised there was a run-down castle building beside the hotel. The hotel was located quite hidden in the alley, where there were public car-parks around. We got in and did out check-in and the rooms were not ready yet as we were early. We asked the hotel staff to help us to confirm our online reservation for the tour in the rabbit pencil school. Once it was confirmed, we left our luggage in the hotel and went to the rabbit pencil school by taxi.

Rabbit Pencil School

Once we reached the pencil school, it looked kind of rundown and deserted. We went in and take a look in the shop. I went ahead to register with the staff and we were asked to choose the pencils that we wanted to do for our DIY session. We learnt that there were some eating places outside the streets from the staff, so we went out for lunch first as the tour will only start at 1 pm. We chose on one of the eating shops and ordered some small dishes. The fried rice was quite nice cos it had the smell of the wok. The mutton was also quite tender and it did not have the mutton smell.

Our Lunch

After lunch, we headed back to the pencil school as we were slightly late for the tour. The tour had started when we got back. The guide was giving an introduction of how pencil came about and the history of the school. However, the tour was in Mandarin so me and another colleague had to translate to English for our other group mates. The guide explained to us that the school was once a pencil making factory, which was forgotten over the years. So the owner had transformed the factory into a "school" to make personalised pencils and guided tours to keep the school alive. The guide also told us that they are the only one making the pencils, which are widely used in Taiwan.

Later, the guide showed us the tool that was used to measure the number of pencils. It was a big funnel-shaped where the pencils will be put in it. It was calculated as one big funnel shaped equals to 144 pencils. Later, the guide showed us that a fame and explained to us the frame was totally hand-made to demonstrate the full process of how a pencil is being made. She said it was a old old newspaper frame used in the olden days. On the left side is the flow on the process of how the wooden part of the pencil is done and on the right side is the flow on the process on how the "lead" of the pencil is done. And, at the bottom of the frame shows the process on how the "lead" is put inside the wooden portion of the pencil and the final packaging. The guide also told us the wood used for the pencil were taken from Tai Ping Shan and the factory's location which was carefully chosen was also decided because of the high availability of the woods in the mountain. The woods were cut into equal size wood pieces and arranged into circular shapes, after that, the woods were air-dried.

Tool to measure the pencils

Classroom

The tables and chairs in the classroom were small and wooden and everyone took their seats. The guide then played the video for us to watch. The video was on the process of the pencil making. Interestingly, the "lead" used by the school was not real lead. Instead, it was made by combining two raw materials and fried in hot oil, which would be later deep-fried. This was done to give the pencil to have a smooth feel when writing. The wood used were also later cut to have grove shape and split into half. The leads were then later glued into the groves and the other half of the wood was then covered back. Then the pencils were finished on with the end either dipped with colours or having the eraser as the tip. The video took about 15 mins, then the guide asked some quiz questions to let the kids win some pencils home.

'Logging' for hooking

2nd Activity

After that, the guide took us down to an open area where she told us that we were going to play two games. The first game was to stimulate how the cranes would hook up the logging and we had to make use of the hooks and fish out 10 "logging" lying in the floor. And, she told us that the first 3 persons to finish first will receive a prize from her. So everyone took a hook and tried to hook the logging....I made it into the 2nd place...hahaa....After that, we were told to sit around a table where there were wood pieces of the same sizes. The guide told us to stack the wood pieces and align them the same way they were stacked for air-dried. It took us a while to figure out the arrangement but still, we finished it. Then the guide told us to carefully carry the structure up with everyone holding one two side. Later, she asked one of our colleagues (the smallest side of us) to go into the hole of the structure....but she didn't...hahaaa....After that, the guide told us to jump with the structure on our hands. The purpose was to test how firm the structure was, if we had to jump multiple times to get the structure "destroyed" means that the structure was very firm. So we jumped, think our structure broke after the second or third jumps...hahaa...The games were quite interactive.

DIY classroom

Our completed pencils

After every group had their go on the jumps to break their structure, the guide leaded us to visit their machinery and told us that no photographs or video were allowed. There were different stations with different machines to make the pencils. The guide also told us the purpose of having the eraser as the tip was to prevent the children to put the pencil in their mouth. After the tour, the guide took us to another room where we can diy our pencils (it was actually just to "design" our pencils). There were some "plastic labels" provided on the table and we started to work on it once we got our pencils. Everyone was engrossed in designing their pencils, once the pencils were ready, the guide took our pencils and put them into a machine to "melt" the plastic labels onto the pencils. We had our very own personalised pencils...guess i won't bear to even use them...hahaha...

After the pencil tour, we went back to the shop to get some souvenirs and we also asked the staff to help us get a cab to the National Center for Traditional Arts. The taxi took a while to arrive at the school. We were the last to leave the school by then. We reached the National Centre for Traditional Arts around 4 plus and the place was closing at 6pm. We bought our entrance tickets and we had to rush a bit if we were going to explore the whole place. Actually, it was kind of quiet when we went in as there were lesser people at this hour. There were shops selling furniture, tea pots, traditional cakes, sweets in the place. And, the shops were from old times, think there were a lot of activities in the early hours as i saw there were a few shops having DIY activities... We came upon a shop selling some handmade stuffs and selling coffee. Since my colleagues had been craving for coffee since morning, we decided to sit down for a coffee break.

National Center for Traditional Arts Entrance

Tea House

Coffee break place

We ordered some drinks and a lemon cake and sat down..the place so quite cosy too...the cake was soooo sour.... >_<.. I bought a pair of baby bibs for my friend and then we left to explore the rest of the area. Since there were not many people around, the place was quite lonely and quiet which was also good in one way as we don't have to squeeze with people. We walked to visit one scholar's house and there was a resort hidden further inside...not sure if it is for rental to outsiders. There is really nothing much to do in the center. After that, we stayed around till 5.30 pm before we headed out for dinner.

Hot Chocolate

Lemon Cake

Old Street

Soap-making cart

Scholar's House

There was a drum sound in the centre at around 5.30 pm, which we thought it may be the sound to inform everyone that it was time to leave the center. So we left the centre and made our way to a restaurant opposite of the centre. When we reached to the main road, there wasn't a traffic light for us to cross. So what we did? Cross illegally...hahaa...We waited for the time when there was no cars coming, we dashed across to get to the opposite side.... When we got in the restaurant, there were not much diners...guess it was still early for dinner. We ordered a half chicken, a chicken pop piah rolls, seafood soup and a plate of veggies. The portions of the dishes were quite big despite we had ordered small portions. The skin of the chicken was crispy and the meat was tender but the skin was quite hard to chew though. The pop piah dish was quite nice though....But the food wasn't tasty that must go back for it. Well, we did not finish up the food as it was too much. Think we were feeling thirsty than hungry..at least for me....

Our Dinner

After dinner, we managed to get the staff to help us to call for a taxi to bring us to Luodong market, which will be near to our hotel. We waited around 10 mins for the taxi to reach where we were waiting. Gosh...met with a weird uncle..when we got on the taxi, the uncle told us $250NT to go back to Luodong Night Market. I said ok without thinking, so one of my colleagues asked back the uncle why not run by meter. Wah...the uncle argued back saying that it made no difference with the meter on, the price would be around the same. Plus, he said he came all the way to Luodong to come pick us up. By then, we were not in the mood of talking to the uncle, but still, he kept asking us where we came from, how many days we were there and where we went. So i just 'entertained' him a bit. Glad the trip ended when we reached our destination. But the uncle dropped us a street away from the night market..not sure what he said of dropping us there (because of his taiwan accent) but i really dun care....

So we got off and then made our way to the night market to see see look look. There were a lot of food stalls around...But who has the space in stomach to try the street food right after dinner? Hahhaaa....So we just walked around the market and decided to come back tomorrow's night to try the street food as dinner. We bought some tibits to bring up for our mountain hike trip tomorrow. After the night walk, we walked back to our hotel and got cosy on our nice bed...Got to sleep through the night.

Places visited:
Jimmy Park (Closed for maintenance)
Yilan Train Station
Rabbit Pencil School
National Center for Traditional Arts
Luoding Night Market

Hotel Stayed:
Herb Art Hotel