The Night Market

There are several night markets in Tainan, and each has its own night of the week. So on Friday there is only one market open, on Saturday there's a different on open, etc. This one is called Flower Garden and it is the biggest in Tainan. It's open on Thursday and Saturday.

I'm not sure when thing heat up at the night markets, put most people leave by 12:30 or 1. Also, the patrons and vendors all bail at the first sign of rain, so you have to go on a dry night. The setup is farmiliar to any convention-goer, each vendor has a stall and they are arranged in long rows. The night market is basically organized into 3 zones: carnival games, food and merchandise. They take up about 25%, 35% and 40% of the real estate respectively. There is a left side entrance that puts you in the games and a right side entrance that puts you in the food.

This is only a percentage of the vast sea of scooters that welcomes you to Flower Garden.

This is Mei Ba Guai. She has a small stall at each of Tainan's night markets dedicated to decorating scooter helmets. She will draw on your shoes, glasses and face mask too - and apparently your water bottle! Here are some cool designs she did for other people:

Here is one of the sticker stalls. It is the smaller of the two. On the left you can see the proprietor politely gesturing for me to not take pictures. Duei bu chi! As far as the nazi sticker in the middle - everyone I ask tells me that people really don't know what it means and just confuse it with the similar-looking Buddhist symbol. Not sure what to think - the only nazi symbol I've seen on the street so far is that same sticker on a really old dude's scooter helmet. My friend John said the same thing as everyone else when I asked him about it - no one knows what it means, old dude included. Hmm.

There are a few of these stalls and they seem to specialize in incense, humidifiers, and glowing fountains.

This stuff reminds me of a cool cat I saw in a tea shop that in turn reminds me of Cait Sith!

Hats, shirts.

Fresh fruit in the back - dinnerstuff in the front. I really dropped the ball on taking pictures of the food here. Night market food is GOOD and PLENTIFUL! The food is what the night markets are most famous for. This is where I tried stinky tofu (that's a literal translation, and yes, you can smell stinky tofu stands from a block away. It tastes so good though!), spicy fish "eggs" (actually fish meatballs), fried sweet potato puffs, and some dish that is kind of like an omlette made with oysters, lettuce and a little cream - topped with a sweet and sour sauce. I also get some coconut milk whenever I'm at the market.

Got fish?

And some games. They have every kind of carnival game you've ever played and then some. I may have to try and win me a giant stuffed Pikachu one of these days. And there you have it: the night market.