This is a daily chronicle of my trip to Taiwan from 9th to 24th May 2006 with Ronghua and partially Boon Liang. I am trying to blog about all 15 days, so it takes time..sorry.. If you wanna read all that have been posted, pls click on Taiwan Adventure category here, or on the left sidebar.

Sorry this update took sometime coming, was in army and only had the time for short posts.

Warning: Picture Intensive!

Boon Liang was supposed to fly back today, leaving me n Ronghua to go down to Tainan in what can be called the 3rd and final segment of our trip. Staying in Taipei for past 4-5 days made me nuah, waking up like 8.20, when the bus is supposed to leave at 8.45. All thanks to my lazing-on-bed skill, RH’s inability to wake me up. So early morning already must mad scramble to bus station which was a comfortable 10 mins walk away, that wasn’t comfortable carrying a fully-loaded 55l pack and a daypack. Thankfully, we made it on time, even had time to go into the railway station bakery and pick up my fav sandwich..heh..

The bus down to Tainan was not as advanced as the one from Chiahyi, having 6 LCD screens only, but still having the individual sound console. The driver screened the animated version of 梁祝 The Butterfly Lovers which was pretty good. Ride took about 3 hrs plus, and we nearly got fleeced by the bus driver, who conveniently offloaded everyone in an area which was obviously a taxistand and nowhere near Tainan Railway Station. RH saw a taxi driver thanking the bus driver, nabeh.. Most of the passengers resorted to the cabs, while garang me and RH elected to walk thru a city that we just got into, depending only on the small map printed in Lonely Planet Taiwan that was fast becoming our best friend. Checked into a hotel near the train station, pretty cheap..NT$500 per nite. Room has no windows, which we were willing to make do since it was only for 1 nite.

Tainan was the old capital of Taiwan, and has the reputation of having the best temples in Taiwan. There are easily more than 20 famous temples ranging from 妈祖 to 关公. Lunch was however the 1st order of the afternoon, and we found this famous 旦仔面 shop. The restaurant was trying pretty hard to replicate the original look…

The lady would take our order before proceeding to the small area in front of the main entrance to cook. I had to ask her to pose naturally as she would look into the camera….

旦仔面 and 冬瓜刨冰

Of course RH was silly enuff to order the soup version, only to complain that the soup has no power. The power of cos lies in the meat sauce.

The 1st stop was to 赤坎楼 Chikan Tower which was used as a fort, now it is a part-temple if u ask me…

Exterior of the building

The stone slabs were like imperial edicts and citations from the Qing emperor, and they were written in Manchurian mostly. There is apparently a slab where the craftsman made a mistake at the start, and instead of using a new slab, he turned it ard and used the other side. Talk about recycling…All in all, i find the place boring leh..but got a few interesting pics…

Leaving the temple, we got approached by a few Falungong supporters, seeking donations for the movement. No surprise that they have thrived in this country…


Another attraction is this famous winter melon tea shop, where there are long queues everyday. This is the 1st time that i hear ppl doing that for 冬瓜茶.

Elected for the cold one with nata de coco..

Really good stuff!

Directly opposite is the 关公庙, who is the God of Warriors. It is one of the oldest temples in the whole of Taiwan, being established in the late 18th century. Pictures only..

What better to sum up the spirit of 关羽 with this:

We proceeded to get lost (again) walking ard Tainan.. We went back to the room to bathe before seeking Tainan nightlife, which sadly never existed. Short of travelling to dunno which part of the city to watch the baseball match, there was nothing do on a Thursday night.

The only thing of interest is seeing the super luxurious buses. NT$600 for a ride to Taipei on a 14-seater bus. Every seat has a LCD screen on swivel post, and every chair is a bloody massage chair..winner liaoz.. Plans were made to explore the western outskirts of the city, but you shall see what happened to that plan…

And i can’t resist putting this photo of RH upon discovering the mosaic channel…