Day 6: That Rainbow Village in Taichung...

~ 19th March 2014 ~

If I'm not mistaken, you'll have to walk into this Rainbow Village. Just a short distance from outside. You'll be greeted by these few walls erected with kiddy paintings. It's not done by kids but a veteran soldier. A little bit of story behind this village. It was a village for the veteran soldiers but the small village was bound to be removed to give way to development. Because of one man's stand for his only place called home, he started painting all over the village and thus, became one of the tourist attractions of Taichung. When a place has become a tourist attraction, hopefully the government would not have the heart to tear down the old place. The whole of Taiwan seems to be relying heavily on tourism.

It was spring but the hot weather was really killing us. None of us enjoyed walking and soaking in our own sweat. Mi mama wasn't smiling in any of these photos. I think mi mama was about to faint under the terrible heat. I can smile because I know I'm photogenic.... hahahahha... I smile when the camera snaps and then my face turned monstrous and we marched on. You should see how we walked through the whole village. It was like we ransacked the whole area looking for hidden gold or chasing after a refugee. We were really fast.

It was at this place that all of us felt that the tripod has contributed the most to this trip. We were so efficient, I set up the tripod then in every corner that we felt like we wanted to take a photo, I had the timer set at 6 seconds, Pinky and mi mama already posing and left me one spot, I walked over, the green light blinks faster and faster and *ka chak* and either Pinky or I grabbed the tripod with the camera stuck on it and we just said,"Go~! Go~! Go~!" We didn't have to say much. All three of us had synchronized brain. We knew where to stop to take photos. Hhahahahaha....

If you look carefully at the windows, there were papers tied to the window sill. I think they were good wishes written by tourists. Sorry, we didn't know much. We were in a great hurry because it was so hot and we didn't like the idea that our kind taxi driver was in the taxi outside waiting for us. We didn't want him to suffer from heat stroke while we took our own sweet time. 

We were not the only people there. You see behind us? There were quite a number of people. The veteran soldier was still staying there but when we arrived, he has gone out for lunch. That's what another person told us. Even if I got to meet him, I wouldn't know what to ask him. Maybe I would ask him why would he want to continue staying there when maybe the authority could give him a better place? Well, maybe when you have grown roots in one place, you refused to move. I know I wouldn't move anywhere no matter how green the grass was on the other side.

So, as international tourists, we could help by just going there. There was no entrance fee charged. Maybe you would be moved to donate some cash for the upkeep of the place. It was afterall, a lot of effort put in to paint the whole place from the ground up to the ceiling. It shows just how desperate for a person to retain his living squatter from being bulldozed down. I said let's help by keeping this place alive and around. It is beautiful even if it was just doodling. This is a form of art that should be appreciated. If one could appreciate graffiti, why not this?