yesterday i took the train to kaohsiung to meet up with my flickr friend joplin who is back in taiwan visiting his family. while waiting for him to show up i hit the train station gift shop and bought some of these old style postcards. i can't get enough of these - and how can you go wrong with one with cute kids and a camera?

once joplin showed up, we drove to a flea market one of my students had told me about. i wasn't sure if it would even be there(my student wasn't sure), but it was and quite large too! i don't know what it is about flea markets - but they almost always make me extremely happy.

we spent the day wandering around the market chatting and taking in the goods for sale. i saw quite a few cameras, including two seagulls and one yashica. i didn't ask for prices on them, but they weren't in the best condition. there was even a big stall of old records and a few turntables. in addition to the regular flea market booths there were two or three auctions going on. there was a big set up for snakes too(that is the killing and then eating of them), but it looked like they were taking a break when we passed it by, which is just as well, as i'm not really fond of being that close to cobras.

surprisngly, i didn't buy anything. but had a good time just looking at all the funky old stuff. the flea market is on shihchuan 3rd road near tongmen 3rd road. a bit northwest of the kaohsiung train station.

another student told me about a flea market in taichung which i hope to check out in the near future, and yet another thought there was one here in tainan. i may soon be in flea market heaven - even better some of these are open 7 days a week, not just in the wee hours of the weekend.