Day 6 ~ Pinglin County, to go or not to go?

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Thursday, 21st August 2008 ~ Another hot hot day in Taipei!!

Lesson Learnt: Never trust a guidebook totally.

At least that's how I feel after my half day tour of Pinglin this morning. Pinglin, a township famous for the Bao Chun Tea Leaves would probably only appeal to tea lovers out there. Coming down from Taipei, I took the Metro to the terminal station at Xindian before catching the bus to Pinglin. The 1 hour bus journey was tortouous as it was going through a series of bends before reaching my destination. Throughout the journey, I had no mood to enjoy the greenery outside the window as I was feeling nauseous from the ride.

Halfway through the bus journey, I sensed something was amissed as the only passengers on board the bus were the uncles and aunties in their fifities and sixties. There wasn't a single tourist on sight and I was the only young lad. I had started regretted my decision to even come here for my day tripping exercise.

By the time the bus pulled into the township, the first structure that greeted me was a massive teapot structure. Walking around under the hot sun, I passed through the stream and the suspension bridge that would bring me to the Tea Museum. How I wished I had brought my swimming attire instead so that I could cool myself in the stream. The main street consisted of rows of shops selling tea products. On a quiet weekday afternoon, I was probably the only tourist wandering around aimleessly in the sleepy town. I probably stayed for an hour or so before catching the next infrequent bus back to Taipei.

If given a choice, you might probably want to give Pinglin a miss. This could be one of the "lows" of my Taiwan trip. Otherwise, the 24 hours Eslite Bookstore at Dunhua South Road, the snacks at the Green Lake Scenic Area and the affordable sushi at Zhongxiao Fuxing made my Day 6 in Taiwan a less miserable affair.

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