Fort Domingo

By recommendation of Kiwi, one of Brian's work colleagues, we went to Fort Domingo. Close to Fort Domingo, in the town of Danshui, is an area called "the old street". There are a lot of street vendors, food stands and entertainment.  Some of the highlights of our walk down Old Street are as follows:

Here is the perfect pet. It is a battery operated hamster that comes with its own ball enclosure. This is just like a live pet hamster; minus the rodent smell, mess and feeding.

This looked pretty tasty so I tried one. It is strawberries and tomatoes (two on the bottom) on a stick. The stick is then dipped in a candy coating. The coating is crunchy and sweet. Kind of reminds me of a candied apple. Very tasty.

When i first saw these i thought they were monju (a japanese dessert made of sweet pounded rice with sweet beans in the center). We only tried one so, the others may have been like monju but the one we tried had the sweet rice on the outside and... crunchy peanut butter on the inside. It was actually pretty good. 

What is Brian holding? It is a whole potato cut into one continuous spiral and fried. It is pretty much one big, long potato chip on a stick. You can get them in a variety of flavors (curry, pepper, garlic, etc.), we went with original salted. Tasted pretty good.

This is a stand selling some kind of sea animal. I think it may be squid. We did not try it. The woman at the stand was trying to tell me something. Maybe "no pictures, please?" There were a few stands that said "no pictures" so we could not take as many as we would have liked. We are not sure why they do not allow pictures. Brian thinks it is because they are concerned with people trying to copy what they have done.

After walking through The Old Street, we had lunch before going to the fort. I ordered what I thought was tortilla chips and salsa but, got nacho cheese Doritos and salsa.
 

I used the restroom at the restaurant and was surprised when I saw the toilet. Looks kind of like a urinal laid down on its side. You have to squat over it. So, if you are going to be there for a long deposit, you will also get a mini workout. 

Fort San Domingo was first built in 1629 by the Spanish, captured by the Dutch in 1642. In 1867 the British leased the fort to use as the grounds for the British Consulate. For more information on the fort please visit the following site, http://www.taiwanfun.com/north/taipei/articles/0611/0611Tamsui.htm 

I have only been here a week but, I am already more appreciative of things. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for early explorers to move to a foreign land. Its not as if they had the internet to help them or english translated signs and menus or a friend who already lived there to show them around. I have a new respect for the early explorers. Sure, they were most likely willing to travel because they were hoping to take the land for all of its raw resources and benefit from the oppression of others but, still very brave.