Last weekend F. and I went to Tainan to meet up with her college friend Meyer. It was just a quick one day trip, but was loads of fun. The train from Kaohsiung to Tainan takes a surprisingly short 30 minutes. I've been to Tainan twice now, and like it more every time. It is a bit cleaner than Kaohsiung, but the people (especially students) seem a little bit more conservative, at least in dress. Not surprising, going from a large city to a small city.
The first place we went was a restaurant for lunch. We had bai fu yu gong--a sort of fish soup, except the broth is thick and the fish is more like pieces of fish than the entirely unnatural fish balls found in other soups. I'll put some pictures up in the rapidly expanding Food Gallery soon.
After lunch, we went to Chiken Tower, built in 1653 under the Dutch administration. It's impressive in its architecture and the detail of the building. Beautiful. In an aside, I read in a history book that one of the first governors (or some other major administrator) of Taiwan shares my Dutch last name. I will have to do some research to see if there are any connections to the current line.
After the tower, we took a break at a fantastic coffee shop called "Five Cent Driftwood House." The inside is cavernous, and uses a lot of driftwood and recycled railroad ties as furniture. The interior has a number of trees, the outsideglass is built around tree trunks to create the feeling of being outside while inside. All the dishes were handmade pottery. Really a beautiful place--I highly recommend it if you are in Tainan. There are also locations in Chiayi and Hsinying that have slightly different themes.
We took a quick trip to Eternal Castle--a cannon fort--where we shared our visit with a local photography group taking pictures of Spicy Girls as well as the ubiqitous Wedding Photo Group. The guys taking the pictures must have had a roll full of really dumb pictures. I snapped a few pictures of my own. We picked up another notable Tainan food--Anping Bean Jelly--and headed out to the big statute of Matsu where a skyful of kites floated over us as we ate.
Then back on the train to Kaohsiung after a stop at MosBurger for a quick dinner.
Hi TT,
Excellent words and images - especially the food.
I just wish I had the energy to do the same, but
getting up at 6:00 am, getting home at 6:30 pm
6 days a week and Sundays being used up as recovery from work, phoning relatives and going to the supermarket, didn't really leave much time for anything else.
Just once I would have liked to have spent a day dropping in to some of the places that I'd passed on the way to work to sit around eating nice food and watching the crazy traffic antics from a different viewpoint.
Oh well, I did meet some very nice and generous people (away from their vehicles of mass destruction) and get a few nice pictures also.
I really don't like to point out differences in cultures, but the idea of 'spatial awareness'
seems to be omitted from the Taiwanese people's traffic code. I'm guessing that the doctrine here is something like 'look after the front, the behind will take care of itself'.
Luckily it does in most cases, but trusting another person like that is fraught with danger I think...
Posted by: Phil | 2004/9/22 at 下午 9:08