So the wife and son and I were walking around ying ge yesterday, there is a new section of the Old Street with new shops and eateries, when we went into a shop that smelled reeeal good. I thought it was camphor wood, which is found in Taiwan. We have a chest made of camphor and I love the smell it gives off.
So we were looking around at some very interesting cabinets, shaped like a standup bass, a bottle, fish, half fish, all about 4 feet high. They were quite nice.
Then we went into the back room and saw a fantastic table, not of the pollished wood cabinets, but thick heavy, last for 500 years kind of wood. I asked the guy if it was camphor, not that I’d ever seen anything so big made from camphor, but it smelled nice too.
He said, in English, “No, it’s dick.”
I said, Beg pardon?"
“Dick.”
I said, “Teak?”
He said, “That’s what I said.”
So, the teak is from Indonesia, and a 150cm table made of solid teak will cost about 40,000NT.
Now I’m not expert on teak, so I don’t it that’s a good deal. I do know that teak is banned for sale in the US though. Not here I gather.
It’s a sweet looking table though.
edit: Doing some checking, maybe teak isn’t banned in the US after all. hmm