I spent another day in Tainan and was greeted by the day with an incredibly loud thunderstorm and some typhoon warnings – excellent! Once the rain died down, I decided to make the most of the day that was left by first having a lovely little cake and then going on an excursion to Anping, a district of Tainan in the west of the city, right on the coast and famous for the old Dutch fortress that was the first non-indigenous settlement on Taiwan, which remained until Koxinga defeated the Dutch. I went together with two other girls from my hostel. As well as seeing the sites, of course I got to try the food! I ate a “bingheguai” – ice monster, which is made from shaved ice with fruit syrup, with icecream at the back and a drink below. Delicious!

We then went to visit Anping treehouse, an old colonial building which was abandoned and now has a banyan tree growing inside and within the structure itself – very striking. The rain then heavily came down and with the typhoon warning in mind, we ran to catch get bus back inland, but not before trying the weirdest food I’ve had for a while courtesy of my travelling buddy, from a shop called Teng Xi Jia Icecream, which was a prawn cracker tube filled with vanilla icecream and flying fish roe – it was distinctly seafood-y and honestly just as weird as it sounds! If you want something weird give it a go but I probably wouldn’t choose to have it!

After returning to the youth hostel, I met up with my old friend Sandra, who I originally met in Leeds! She took me and my travelling buddy on a mini gastronomic tour of Tainan – we had niurou tang (beef soup) which is slivers of raw beef in a clear clean beef broth – a gorgeous delicate dish, and the beef cooks beautifully in the piping hot broth. We went to have it at a streetside restaurant called Ayi. She then took us for danzai mian, which is wheat noodles either in a pork and shrimp broth or with a sauce if you are having it dry (as we did), served with prawns, garlic, bean sprouts, an egg, and a pork ball.

We then went to Shennong Street which is one of the best preserved old streets in Tainan – so beautiful. Finally we went to have Taiwanese fried chicken, which is more like popcorn chicken but with different seasoning, more salt and pepper and some chilli as well. We ate it in a 7-11 and I drank a cold Taiwan Beer with it 😬

So so lovely to see Sandra and so generous of her to spend the evening driving us around Tainan! Please come back to the UK and I can take you for good food, ok?

 

After the clear heat of Taipei, I felt like I was ready for a change: I planned to go to Tainan and although I knew it would be hotter there (as it is in the south of the country), I definitely wasn’t ready for the increase in humidity!

Before I left Taipei, I met my lovely roommate who was also from the UK, from London, and had studied Chinese in Sheffield and was waxing lyrical about the programme. I knew I should have gone there! I then got my backpack back on and made my way on the metro to Taipei Train Station to get the HSR (high speed rail/bullet train) to Tainan, which would take less than 2 hours to cover the 160 miles at around 170mph. I stopped by the Taipei Station Bento shop to get a lunchbox – had pork cutlet with rice and salad.

The train journey itself showed me just how friendly Taiwanese people are; a lovely older chap was sat next to me, he was from a town in the north of Taiwan called Hsinchu, and told me about the speciality foods I need to try, both from his hometown and from Tainan. Lovely conversation, apropos of nothing!

Once the high speed train arrived in Tainan, I realised that the station was not actually in Tainan at all but about 12 miles from the city. Supposedly there was a free shuttle bus but when I arrived at the bus area there was absolutely nothing, so I walked to a local train station and caught a tiny local train into the city.

The hostel I am staying in is down a tiny alley with a little temple, the hostel itself is nothing to write home about (no functioning sink, tiny showers, the room I was meant to stay in is flooded, lots of staff who have filled up the small communal space etc) but hey free laundry!

I ventured out for a walk around the area to get my bearings, and when I returned to the hostel I met my roommate who was from Australia. We then went out to grab some food and had a delicious zongzi (sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves stuffed with pork and mushroom) and a beer. I then decided to set out to find a cash point that would accept any of my UK bank cards as so far I hadn’t managed to find one.

It took me over an hour and 7 different cash points to eventually find one that would accept my card! Citibank, I love you ❤️ I then continued on to another bar to have a local beer, which I felt was well deserved!