Days 3 & 4: Tainan

On the platform, waiting to board the high-speed train.

Tuesday morning we prepared to be on the move once again, now heading south to Tainan, the fifth largest city in Taiwan. We ate breakfast, packed up, and took a cab to the train station. Of course we arrived 45 minutes early in the usual Reid travel fashion, so we killed some time in the train station walking around and taking a few pics. We finally boarded the train just before 11:00 AM, and found our seats easily. High-Speed Rail (HSR) is an incredibly comfortable, civilized and convenient way to travel.

On our way to Tainan!

Ewan enjoyed the entertainment provided by his window seat, and I took advantage of the quiet time to work on my blog. We arrived at Tainan HSR Station in just under two hours, but the station was a good 15 kilometers from the main part of town, so we had to catch another slow train into the city center. This took us another 25 minutes or so, and when we arrived at the main city station, we literally crossed the street and we were at our hotel, the Shangri-La Far Eastern Plaza, a gleaming cylindrical, 38-story tower. We checked into our spacious room on the 32nd floor, just in time for Ewan’s afternoon nap. Gavin and I each took turns checking out the hotel’s beautiful, state-of-the-art gym before Ewan woke up, and then we cleaned up and headed out to explore for the evening, after first chatting with the concierge and grabbing a local map.

Typical Taiwanese urban street scene.

We set out on foot for the Chihkan Towers, a historical site built in 1653 by the Dutch, during their colonization of Taiwan. The air was warm and damp, our t-shirts sticking to our sweaty backs as we walked down a bustling, brightly-lit, thoroughfare, sidewalks lined with scooters, parked neatly in a row, perpendicular to the street, as far as the eye can see. After 20 minutes or so, we reached the site, which we were happy to find was open late, uncrowded, and all lit up with colorful lights, flashing in time with coordinated music.

Chikhan Towers, one of Tainan's most famous landmarks (photo by Gavin).

Ewan's new found fishy friends (photo by Gavin).

Ewan gravitated to the large koi pond in the foreground of the tower, and was thrilled to find a fish-shaped machine dispensing little plastic cylinders of fish food. Ewan delighted in standing on the edge of the pond, sprinkling the pellets into the water as the large, orange, white and black spotted carp rushed towards the little balls, rubbery, whiskered lips, rapidly gulping them down. We walked around the grounds, climbing up into the old building and enjoying the views from the tower for the next hour or so until we decided to look for somewhere to dine. We found a place around the corner, where we enjoyed a bowl of noodles and some delicious dumplings, before walking back to the hotel, which somehow seemed to take half the amount of time than it took us to walk there to begin with!

In front of temple and Anping Fort.

The next morning we decided to check out an area of town called Anping, where there were a few different sites to see down by the river. The easiest way to reach it was by taxi, so we rode in a cab for 15 minutes or so, until the driver dropped us off in front of another beautiful and colorful temple. We heard the bells and chants of bright yellow-clad monks as walked past the temple toward Anping fort, originally built by the Dutch in the early 1600s.

Anping Fort

This clearly was a popular spot on the junior high school field trip circuit, as we swam our way upstream, ascending the steps through throngs of friendly Taiwanese teenagers heading downstairs towards us, many of them gawking at us, smiling and pointing at Ewan, excitedly waving and exclaiming, “Hello!! Nice to meet you!” in thickly accented English. It seems Tainan is clearly off the beaten path as far as Western tourism is concerned. We are quite the novelty everywhere we go. We traipsed around the fort snapping photos of canons and buildings, but the weather was quite sunny, hot and humid, and so we decided to move on. Just a few blocks away was another landmark site called the Anping Tree House, which was originally a British merchant warehouse that they used to handle tea exports. Later, during Japanese occupation, it was used as an office and warehouse for the Japan Salt Company until after World War II when it was abandoned. The surrounding banyan trees’ aerial roots and branches then proceeded to take over, wrapping their tentacles around the building’s walls and roof to envelop it, which makes for a fascinating sight.

Anping Tree House

We explored the area, enjoying the cooler, more shaded environment, and having it practically all to ourselves. After we shot our fair share of pics, we grabbed a nearby cab and headed back to our hotel. When we got there, it was past lunchtime, and though we weren’t starving after our big buffet breakfast, we thought we should grab a snack before Ewan went down for his afternoon nap. We ended up in the food court of the mall, which made of the lower five or six stories of our hotel, and sampled some delicious baked goods from a Taiwanese bakery and a quintessential pearl milk tea. Satisfied, we headed back to our room for what has become our afternoon ritual here: Ewan’s nap and my workout time.

Our plan for the evening was to head to the Wu Sheng Night Market. Ewan’s behavior had been far from exemplary during the day, due to the fact that our morning excursion had not been the most kid-friendly or interesting, from his point of view. Gavin and I had agreed that our plan for the evening would be to make the night market a quick stop where we would find a bite to eat, and then head back to the hotel where we would appeal to Ewan’s desires and take him to the swimming pool.  Both Gavin and Ewan were somewhat reluctant to see another night market, Ewan, not having been a fan of the delicacies we had sampled at the last night market we attended in Taipei, and Gavin, not being a fan of shopping or crowds. I, on the other hand, was eager to check it out, as I find these markets to be an absolutely fascinating slice of local life; prime people-watching and photo-taking opportunities. I think we were all expecting a similar atmosphere that we had experienced at the market in Taipei, but it couldn’t have been more different.

Eyelashes galore!

First of all, this market was all outdoors, and the food booths were all interspersed with the other market stalls, selling everything from stuffed animals to cell phone cases to purses, and of course, false eyelashes. We walked up and down the aisles, perusing the weird and wonderful offerings. Grilled squid on a stick? Yup. Glazed chicken feet? Uh huh. Deep fried unidentifiable parts of unidentified animals? Mmmmm hmmm.

Squid on a stick. 

Your guess is as good as mine.

Another mystery deep-fried something-or-other.

There were also much more appealing and familiar options, of course, including most delicious pan friend green onion pancakes, and flavorful, bite-sized pot sticker dumplings. We even managed to find a corn dog for Ewan. Aside from the exotic epicurean samplings, it was not unlike an American flea market, except there were much more carnival-like attractions, catering to young children, much to Ewan’s delight.

Happily conducting the kiddie train.

Our first discovery was a small train ride, cars putting round and round the oval track, never stopping. Unlike American rides that have a finite time limit, here, it just kept going, and going and going. We stood and observed for several minutes before realizing this, and once we figured out who to hand over our cash to, the ride facilitator grabbed Ewan under his armpits and hefted him into an empty car on the moving train, and handed him a heart shaped balloon on a stick. Plastic stools were scattered about the perimeter of the area for the parental audience members; some attentive to their children, waving and smiling as they passed by in their orbit, others ignoring their offspring, too engrossed in their cellphones, or too busy intently devouring some sort of meat-on-a-stick. We stood and watched for a while, and once Ewan decided he was tired of going round and round in circles, Gavin walked over and once again hefted Ewan by the armpits, this time off of the train.

Look, Mom!  I caught the Big One!

We next wandered over to a nearby booth where small wading pools sat on the ground, full of colorful floating bath toys spinning round and round in a current. Children could rent a fishing pole and bucket, to “catch” the toys (which were impaled with metal screws) with the magnetic “hooks.” Ewan happily filled his bucket, and excitedly cashed it in for one of the horribly junky and cheap, Chinese-made plastic prizes that hung on the wall at the back of the booth. We repeated this process at a couple more booths, different games including bouncing ping pong balls into a numbered grid to rack up points, and tossing small rubber balls into buckets with lids randomly popping open.

Bouncing ping pong balls into a grid to win a prize.

We had to put a stop to the games, however, to end the accumulation of the chintzy prizes. Instead, we diverted Ewan’s attention to the large bouncy house and inflatable slide, and he more than willingly flung his shoes into the pile and careened head first into the bouncy house.

Bouncy fun!

Fun, apparently has no language barriers, and Ewan quickly made friends with a pair of darling Taiwanese young ladies, and soon became involved in a game of tag. This was the perfect way to end the night, as he really ran his batteries down here. After we stayed a good 20 minutes, we gave him his five minute morning, which he surprisingly cooperated with when his time was up. He emerged from the bouncer, absolutely dripping with sweat, knees black with filth. I pushed my germaphobia aside, seeing the exuberant grin on his face, and knowing I’d be able to scrub him down in less than an hour, after we caught a taxi back to the hotel. Given we had had so much fun, staying hours longer that we had intended, the hotel swimming pool would have to wait. The Wu Sheng Night Market in Tainan was by far the biggest highlight yet.