Blogs from Tainan, Taiwan, Asia

Time's running out, commitments are drawing near, so we skip a few destinations in the southern and central regions, and head straight to Tainan. The city was recommended to me by a friend whose judgment can generally be trusted. Tainan is the oldest city in the country, and its fourth largest. Hence, we find a dynamic city steeped in history and traditional culture, just what we're looking for. It's the second day of Chinese New Year, which means that unfortunately, we have to pay a little too much for our faceless, danky hotel room. Also, we find things a tad unpredictable, especially opening hours of restaurants and museums. On our first night, we walk around, trying to get a late-night snack, but can't find anything worth mentioning. No local food stalls, nothing. So we settle for ... read more

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

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

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

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

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

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