Blogs from Tainan, Taiwan, Asia
October 27th 2011
Danes je bil cas za Tainan. Ampak najprej zajtrk. Tokrat s Hansom, pri istih ljudeh kot vceraj skoraj isti frustk. Potem pa v center. Isto kot vceraj sem skocila na bus do zelezniske postaje, potem pa se sprehodila do muzeja literature, ki je precej impozantna, kolonialna stavba (iz japonskih casov). Zanimiv je zato, ker je na tajvanu veliko kultur, ki govore svoj jezik, tudi tajvanscina obstaja in jo govorijo, ceprav je uradni jezik mandarinscina, imajo pa se cel kup drugih jezikov, ki so seveda posledica razlicnih kultur. Pa se blazno prijetno hladno je bilo not. Pot sem nadaljevala po ulici Minsheng in ugotovila, da gre za porocno ulico. Vse stacune so bile namrec tako obarvane, z oblekami, fotografskimi storitvami, cvetlicnimi aranzmaji,drugimi rdece-zlatimi prckarijami ipd., in pred vsako je bilo cel kup cevljev, ki so so jih ... read more
October 26th 2011
Se nekaj o Tajvanu, preden nadaljujem. Tako varne drzave pa se ne. Res, vsi govorijo o tem in dejansko je tako. Ne zaklepajo stanovanj, avtov, skuterjev. Povsod so super prijazni, nikjer te ni strah, tatvin in drugih zmikavtskih dejanj ni. In ce ze so, jih baje lokalci zvalijo na tujce, npr. Tajce. In vsaka tretja trgovina je frizeraj. Resno, kolikor se pa tu ukvarjajo z lasmi, pa se nisem videla. Skratka, danes zjutraj sem si pred zajtrkom privoscila tek. Bilo je ravno prav oblacno in zgodaj, da ni bilo grozljivo vroce (kar se mi sicer tu se ni zgodilo, je vendarle jesen oz. zima), tako da sem se podala po ulicah. NAjprej malo urbanega fitnesa v bliznjem parku (povsod imajo te zadeve, kar se mi zdi super), potem pa tekanje po ulicah. Ki zgledajo vse enako, ... read more
October 25th 2011
Po poznem frustku sem se poslovila od Natea in jo mahnila z MRT do Main Stationa, od tam pa samo po hodinkih do glavne bus postaje, ki je seveda na istem mestu. Vse je tako neverjetno dobro oznaceno, da se res ne mores zgubiti. Kot je rekel Nate, sem dobila za bus do Tainana totalno poceni karto: 220 dolarjev. Gre za neko promocijo, ki jo ne stekam najbolje, ampak hej, vazno, da je karta zaresna in poceni! Lokalka v cakalnici na buis mi je ralozila, da je to zato, ker imajo zdaj high speed railway in prides do Tainana namesto v 4 urah v 1,5, zato so busi cenejsi, da se sploh se kdo vozi z njimi. In res nas ni bilo prav veliko, ki smo se ob 13. uri vkrcali na bus. In to kaksen! ... read more
March 14th 2011
Our lovely hosts let us borrow their bikes today! I have to say, I've really liked this city and it seems absolutely perfect to bike around in – it's not too big and there aren’t too many hills. There are lots of parks and tons of scooters and a decent amount of bikes so you can just sort of blend in. Anyways, we started off at the café where we found the baguette (Pain Francais) – we’d eaten the baguette during dinner and still had the cheese, so we needed more bread. After eating there we headed south and got to the Chik Kon Temple. Then we rode on to the Shrine of the Five Concubines. Apparently 5 concubines of one of the kings all hung themselves together to maintain their honor when they were being ... read more
March 13th 2011
Today was sort of a lazy day. The four of us walked around the university park a little and then they sent us on our way to go to the Confucius Temple. We decided to walk there because it was a nice day and we had nothing else to do. So about 30 minutes later (including some stops) we arrived. It was pretty…there were a few old red buildings, a half-circle pond with tons of turtles, and a running track in front. Kids in the middle of the track, in the field, were playing ultimate Frisbee. It was a nice, relaxing scene, and then we headed to the next block to see the south gate. It's the only gate left standing but it was closed, so we just took some pictures from outside and then walked ... read more
March 12th 2011
When we were packed we went to the main house to use the internet and figure out where we wanted to go. After a recommendation from Diane (Hsien's daughter), we decided on Tainan. I sent a bunch of Couchsurfing requests and they invited us to lunch! Two of Diane’s friends were there cooking, Kate and Julia. Kate had made a quiche for the first time and they had lots of food, so we got a free lunch! The people were super nice and I’m really glad we got a chance to stay there…Diane was fun to chat with and Hsien was funny because he always tried to compare Portuguese and Spanish. But despite the language barrier, we had a great time. Kate and Julia were heading to Taichung and we needed to go there to get ... read more
May 18th 2010
From Lidao we took the 9am shuttle bus to Taitung where we waited for about an hour or so for our train to Kaohsiung, we bought boxed lunch at the station and it's quite good. I love Taiwanese dishes, it seems you can never go wrong here, even the simplest food is heaven! Anyway we arrived in Kaohsiung and took another train, this time an MRT that actually goes to Tainan. We got off near NanTai Uni where Su is studying, we pick up his motorbike there but in the meantime one of his friends, Ping showed up and hang out with us for awhile, she went with us to Su's place, halfway through though we ran out of gas, Su's gas meter is broken and he forgot how much more he has, so we sent ... read more
March 25th 2010
Tainan, in the south west of Taiwan, used to be the country's capital city. This is where the Dutch held power in the 1600's before Zheng Chenggong, also known as Koxinga, defeated them and took power of the island. There is an interesting mix of European, Chinese and Japanese culture apparent in Tainan: with colonial buildings and merchants houses, palaces and temples. Tainan is home to some of the most interesting buildings in Taiwan. Fort Zeelandia was a highlight in our day of exploring Tainan - a lot of the original brickwork is still standing which is remarkable when the cement holding it together was made with glutinous rice flour and sugar! The fort was built by the Dutch in 1624, but was seiged in 1661 by Koxinga. The Dutch eventually signed a treaty with Koxinga ... read more
January 28th 2010
Sorry for not keeping up my blog the last few days. I have been to Tainan(south) several time to visit local attractions. What I have noticed is that there are so many temples(buddish, Daois) in Taiwan. Every time you turn around a corner, you will most likely encounter a temple. There are some small local ones and others that are decorated with gold gilted statues and carvings, reliefs and painting that fit for the emperor. You will see local worshipers burning incents and paper money in special incent stand/or kiln. I have been up to the Joaying(kaohsiung) Train station. Very mordern structure with the exception of limited public parking as it is privately own and they have sold lots of parking space to businesses. Have not yet tried the high speed fast traint to Taipei ... read more
September 15th 2009
(Day 529 on the road) We had wanted to see some Taiwanese temples, and we got more than we bargained for in Tainan. Tainan is famous for its abundance of beautiful temples, and people from all over flock to the city for this reason. Our guidebook recommended a walking route that takes in the main temples, and we had every intention to complete this walk. However, we failed, not miserably, but still. We managed to explore about four temples before the heat and the long distances between the temples forced us to abandon our venture. The four we did see however were beautiful, especially the first one we went to, the Chihkan Towers, also called Fort Proventia. In most of the temples we saw the statues on the altar were all of a dark black colour. ... read more
