Things you find at a B&B! Meaty breakfasts and ‘disposable’ bath towels that don’t do the job
I drove the car up the crazy, narrow, winding, treacherous often single lane roads to Taroko Gorge and got pinned down by buses for a bit. One thing about Taiwan is most often the sinks are actually OUTSIDE the washrooms.
I parked the car in a small lot and then we took the bus further to the Tunnel of nine Turns.
During the bus ride back the bus had to stop and the driver had to get out and direct traffic to get unstuck on a dangerous corner. To get a sense of the treacherousness, watch this vid:
Afterwards we went to Qixingtan Beach and rented bikes to cycle along the path. There’s a military base nearby, and we saw some defenses.
Even though driving in Taiwan is stressful, the drive along the East coast from Kaohsiung to Taitung was lovely. I drove my wife, her older sister (jeijei) and crazy niece.
There are many giant fiberglass fruits on the road
The stray dog problem and the plastic problem in Taiwan
gatchas in the 7-11 along the highwayBe careful if you get gas here7-11s are everywhere… and can get anywhere!Stopping to stretch the legsWarm and breezyalmost there…Make sure you get your welcome punch
We had dinner at a Korean bbq place and then for a special treat we went for bubble tea at Ding Go and fried chicken at Blue Dragonfly
Still staying at mom’s place in Kaohsiung, there’s a nice little breakfast joint right across the street where I would pick up breakfast for Erica most mornings in the city (I always was up and about first). It worked by Erica sending me a text message in Chinese which I would show to the staff, and then I’d hold out a handful of coins and they’d take whatever it cost. One of the great things about Taiwan is you don’t have to worry about tipping. Hopefully people are making a living wage!
Happy breakfast cafe!Diandian the  狗 watches over the mangoesI just really like the treesConvenient!
We took the MRT to the immigration building for Erica to get some paperwork handled, and I got to see the Dome of Light at the Formosa Boulevard Station!
I love the welcoming vending machines in the stations, as there’s always something to feature on #torentries, like for example this salty sarsaparilla
As dusk fell, I drove through nightmarish traffic to a Korean BBQ restaurant to eat with the family, including Jiějiě (older sister) and her insane child, who enjoyed pretending to be a snake, hissing at the weird white man, and of course I played along, terrified!
Afterwards we took a little walk around that neighborhood and saw more things OF INTEREST
Right next to the Kaohsiung Airport! Hippo butts (‘pigu’ in Mandarin). There’s so much innnteresting foliage in Taiwan I went a big crazy with the photos.
You thought it was a rock but it was a very cleverly disguised speaker!What fun texture is that? Hippo skin
Had a nice conversation with a Czech guy who was selling cake. This was a fine night market with lots of treats and I got some new summertime socks too!
These grapes covered in a candy glaze were fantastic! Definitely recommend
Woahhhh! Driving in Taiwan is a bit scary – mostly because of all the scooters! But I got roped into it. TRIAL BY FIRE!
The bank: If it doesn’t say ‘no parking’ – it’s parking!
Foreign traffic directions are fascinating to me!
Good Morning! This is the place we got a lot of our breakfasts from when we were in quarantine hotel
Customized scooter for the outdoorsy type
I haven’t been to Mos Burger since I was in Japan in 2019! Good to be back! And…this one sells produce? In case you want extra tomato I guess! For some reason they were playing “White Christmas” – in February!
Fascinating toothpastes!
So during the quarantine period I developed a severe stabbing pain in my back whenever I shifted my body while laying down. It didn’t seem to be going away so we went to the hospital to make sure it wasn’t anything serious. They put us in a little room off to the side, and they had to bring a mobile x-ray machine in because during quarantine I wasn’t allowed in the general hospital halls or areas. They scanned me, but apparently the x-rays didn’t turn out because I was too chonky. Not sure how that works but that was what was explained to me! So the doctor just gave me a bunch of pills and said I could come back for an MRI in 2 weeks, but by then we would no longer be in Kaohsiung so we just went ahead with our travel plans and I suffered through the pain. Seems whenever I travel there’s always some problem – when I was in Japan it was frozen shoulder. We paid them some money and then I was off to try to manage the paperwork for my travel insurance. Fun fun stuff!
My first subway trip in Taiwan! From the Houyi station to Pier 2, where we saw lots of weird art!
Of course there’s 7-11 kiosks in the station, and they had my favourite, chocolate covered grape gummies!
Near Pier 2 there’s a book store called Eslite which is kind of like Taiwanese Chapters. I bought some Traveler’s Notebook products and unbeknownst to me at the time, there was a promotion – we got 2 free beers!
Yes. At the book store.
Many cool things were seen
There was a food market area, and yet you weren’t supposed to take off your mask or eat the food they were selling. So confusing!A military presence!A tiny lighthouse!
As the sun went down we were treated to the light show. Here’s the Music Museum pre-dusk and at night. One of these is not my photo, can you guess which one?
At dusk we took a tram to the Lingya District (not far)
We met with my wife’s older sister and her family at the Canadian restaurant called Yaletown Bistro! We got the typical Canadian fare – poutine, Montreal smoked meat sandwich, and of course a Nanaimo bar! The owner is from Vancouver and was super friendly.
After that, we went home and distributed our gifts from Canada to the family.
Quarantine is over! It’s warmish outside! Kaohsiung is a noisy place! Finally I get to be outside in Taiwan during the day!
Outside Mom’s apartment.
First thing on the docket is to get a haircut. Pro tip: if you’re white, don’t go to this place
Not a great haircut, but you might see a corgi
I walked around and found my first street food – which was a drink – I got guava and yakult (yogurt), delicious.
Got to see our quarantine hotel from the outside. One of the things I looked at every day was the 9×9 stationary store across the street. This photo is from the door of that store. I bought pens!!
Royal Hotel – we spent 2 weeks trapped inside here watching the doves cavort in that tree.
Typical Kaohsiung street views – notice the abundance of scooters. Because of the pandemic, whenever you went into a business you were supposed to scan a QR code for the purposes of tracking any spread. Naturally me and my phone took forever to do this.
If this restaurant was open when I was nearby, I would have tried it.
Residents in Kaohsiung don’t have lawns, so they do what they can by having gardens in planters out front! Also check out the crazy trees!
AFTERNOON: ANPING OLD STREET, Tainan
Wife’s sister’s friend drove us 50 minutes North to Tainan City for the lantern festival. During the afternoon we walked about and found some fun places in Anping Old Street, including Miaoshou temple, a crazy soft serve ice cream shop, and some place with fun crustacean mascots.
Scooters are ubiquitous, and of course they have a scooter sharing programI picked up this cap from the market, which you will see me wear for the rest of the trip!
Sadly, the lantern festival was called due to rain, so at dusk we travelled to Ba-Wei hot pot/ginger duck restaurant on Anping Road where we met some of Erica’s old friends who luckily speak English!
The Anping Canal, unless I’m mistaken
Unfortunately comfortable seating is a rarity at these kinds of restaurants, as you can see the stools are tiny. I had hurt my back somehow during the flight and/or quarantine hotel and I had to stand up periodically to manage the pain.
A great first day out and about! By the way, if you come across these – they’re delicious. It’s like what if bubble gum ramune was an ice cream!
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