Retro Post: Day 3 - Tainan/Kaoh Siung

After a night in a pretty low class hotel, we had some free breakfast which included some questionable food. I had congee (water and rice) with the nice peanuts that usually are found in little dishes in a restaurant and 2 chicken nuggets (because that's all they had left). I made some toast with a toaster that only toasted one side, even when I flipped it around with very yellow butter that might not actually be butter.

Then we headed out! First we walked over to the train station that we would have to be at later that afternoon and walked around the area. There wasn't anything special so no pictures.

There's something about palm trees that remind me of LA even though I've never been.

After that, we headed to the Confucius Temple. It wasn't terribly exciting since it was mostly wooden slats representing his dead pupils.

Funny cloud patterns...signs of upcoming typhoon?

Tree crutches!

There were actually quite a few students there who were doing some summer homework. We walked across the street to just wander around the area. Tainan is also well known for its salt hills. Unfortunately it was quite far away and we didn't have time to go but from the pictures, it looks like a snowy mountain except the snow is actually salt. My aunt had heard of salty popsicles and wanted to try one. So as we were meandering down this random street, we saw a lady selling salty popsicles and we bought one each. 

Left: Egg yolk flavoured almond   Right: prune

We also saw this cute house/storefront. Look how  it differs from its neighbours!

 Next we walked over to this place dedicated to that famous man again, Cheng Shing Gong who apparently is often referred to as Koxinga. It was really nice and it had a penny machine! #3!

This was the most fun! 

We walked around some more and took in the pretty architecture.

This is a fire station. 110 is their version of 911 I think. 

We saw lots of people in this place so we came in too. It was very good and cheap! The rice was 20 NT (less than $1 CAD) and the fish ball soup was 40 NT (a bit over $1) The drinks were 10 NT each (~35c)

My aunt also really wanted to go to this restaurant with its famous noodles so we went and found it.

We then headed back to the hotel to get our luggage and back to the train station to head to Kaoh Siung. Bye Tainan!

When we got to Kaoh Siung, we were picked up by Ah-Mei who then took my aunt and I shopping for snacks. Since my mom requested dried prunes, we got them! Prunes for life! I was also given a bag of black peanuts and two bags of dried squid. I didn't actually ask for any of that and a lot of the conversation happened in Taiwanese which is nowhere close to Mandarin or Cantonese so I just nodded a lot and ate the samples they gave me. It's a good thing I gave my aunt money to finance the trip in advance. I never had a chance to pay for anything! 

Then we headed to Ah-Mei's shop which is a hair salon. She has one other person who can cut hair and two helpers in charge of the hair washing and massaging. One is a seasonal worker and one is an apprentice. I was too relaxed after the massaging and hair washing (about 30 minutes worth!) so when Ah-Mei asked me how I wanted my hair cut I just defaulted to the last one I got. Good enough! If she had let me pay for the services it would have cost me 350 NT (~$12). 

Oh right...let's explain who Ah-Mei is. She is my Aunt Alice's husband's younger brother's wife. My aunt and I were staying with them while in Kaoh Siung. They actually live in a house that Ah-Mei and her family built on their own. They live together so there were 3 families in the 3 storey house. Sleeping arrangements were...new. The husband slept in a little room above the store for various reasons that I'll get into later. My aunt and I slept on a mattress on the floor with Ah-Mei and her two kids and a female cousin sleeping on the floor. Apparently they do this regularly and we weren't actually putting them out. The kids weren't phased by us being there at all. The son was 9 and the daughter and cousin were 12. So one of the reasons the husband slept at the store was because it wasn't really proper for him to sleep in a room while we were there. Normally he and Ah-Mei would sleep on the mattress though. The other reason he slept at the store is because sometimes he works the morning shift which begins at 4 am. The store is very close to his work place but the house is about 20 - 30 minutes drive away. 

Anyways, when we got to the salon, a man walked out and I knew right away that it was my aunt's husband's younger brother because he looks really similar to Uncle Kenny! They even have very similar voices! After the salon closed (which was at 10 pm! It's supposed to close at 8:30pm but people kept coming!) we went for dinner. Most of the population in Taiwan have a scooter/vespa and I had casually mentioned that if there was no traffic at all, I would want to try to ride one. So then they forced me onto Ah-Keung's scooter and he drove me down the street and around a corner to the place we were eating at. It was terrifyingly thrilling. The big cars are scary though. 

Oops! These pictures are out of order but between picking us up and going to the salon, Ah-Mei suggested we go to get this onion pancake that was supposed to be really good. The line was pretty long. I enjoyed the one at the Tainan night market better though. 

All righty...one retro-post down. The others will come soon! End of Day 3.