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!