Busan, South Korea

My introduction to South Korea, (the 69th country I've visited, depending on which counting site you use) wasn't that pleasant. I arrived at Busan International airport, managed to get first in line for immigration which is when I realised I hadn't been given a landing card and customs form to complete. You get these on the airline, but I spent the whole journey snoozing, so I had to source forms and by the time I had completed I was well and truly at the back of the queue. 

South Korea flag (before anyone spots it, I know it is from the back)

Once picking up my bag I hit a problem. The first stop in an airport is always to withdraw local currency from an ATM (my bank Norwich and Peterborough allow free foreign currency withdrawals and is a MUST for any savvy traveler) however none of the 9 ATM's I tried were VISA compatible. There was a 10th which promisingly had the word Global above the screen, but sadly it also had a sheet of A4 stuck to the screen with Korean writing which I took to mean 'out of order'. 

By now it was getting late, (about 21:30) and all the money exchange places had packed up for the night. I had $44 USD but couldn't change it. Thankfully the airport staff let me pass back through customs back to the baggage collection area where an exchange office was still open. With South Korean Won I was able to catch the metro to my apartment.

My apartment in Busan (7th floor)

I was staying with a family which I had organised through AirB&B. The condominium was a luxury pad and I had my own room. The bed however was traditional Korean style with a mat about the thickness of a duvet on the floor which you could heat up. It was quite a hard bed but all was nice and clean.

Korean style bed didn't do my back a lot of good

Getting money was my first objective the next day, so I set off to find an international bank, Citibank was just around the corner, but these didn't accept VISA cards either. I began to worry my $44 USD worth of currency wasn't going to last long. When I eventually found a bank, the Industrial Bank of Korea, that worked as the cash machine made the sound it make just before it gives you the money I made an audible cheer and a camp mini fist pump, such was my relief.

Finding breakfast was a challenge, no menu's were in English and no-one could help me out. I found a cafe that had pictures and ordered what I presume to be a spicy mixed noddle salad. Very nice it was. The girls in the cafe watched me struggle with chop sticks for a while before handing me a fork. Had they not have done I could still have been in the restaurant now finishing off that breakfast.

Korean style breakfast - the red stuff was spicy

With that drama out of the way I could walk to the beach. On the way I found a small square with a hot spring running through it. Mostly old Koreans were there relaxing with feet in the spring listening and singing along to a singer who was belting songs out via huge speakers.

Hot springs in the park

The beach was nice and big with many sand sculptures been made. The place was clearly gearing up for the summer season when the beach is sun parasol to sun parasol. The day I was there it only had a handful of people dotting about. The sea was very cold when I had a little paddle.

Busan Beach

Busan had some very impressive buildings and is clearly a place of wealth. Looking at some of the yachts in the harbour some of them wouldn't have looked out of place in the South of France

Plenty of money about in Busan

I'd read up quite a bit about South Korea and one thing I wanted to try was a Jjimjillbang. I read that one of if not the best ones of these was located in Busan, housed over three floors in the largest department store in the world. A Jjimjillbang is a spa, half of which is gender segregated with a strict no clothes policy and the other half is mixed where you get given some shorts and a T-shirt to wear.

The male only part is the 'wet' area which has many bathing pools ranging from very cold through to too hot to sit in for long.  It also has a wide range of hydrotherapy pools, saunas and steam rooms. The etiquette is to shower in front of everyone (naked of course) using a coarse cloth to scrub yourself all over, it was like taking a scrubbing brush to your skin. From the moment I got into the changing room I was confronted with naked men everywhere who were parading and not giving a care in the world, lets just say I found it all quite uncomfortable.

Getting into the hydrotherapy pools was also uncomfortable as you had jets of hot water pummeling you EVERYWHERE and of course I didn't have swimming shorts on for protection. My ticket into the spa was about £7 and entitled me to 4 hours stay. I didn't hang around long in the gender segregated area and felt a lot more comfortable once I had donned my outfit and headed into the mixed area.

Me complete with clothes in the foot spa

I was loads better in the dry area where it housed around a dozen themed sauna's all of which had explanations in English what qualities they did for you. I was much more relaxed and could talk to the others at the spa (those that could speak English).

The main common meeting room in the spa

I tried each room, some I stayed in for longer than others as some were uncomfortably hot. Others were ultra relaxing. I particularly enjoyed the Roman Room, the Pyramid room, the SEV Room and the Yellow Earth Room. In the end I was rushing to sign out before my 4 hours were up. I felt ultra clean and relaxed, well worth the money, still not quite got over the naked experience yet though.

One of the Sauna Rooms in the mixed area 

Choosing a restaurant for the evening wasn't easy. There were hundreds just across the road from where I was staying but most of them just served up massive dishes, by massive I mean enough for 4. Dining alone isn't something that they cater for. I found a place with pictures and a brief description of what the dish was, I went for spicy sausage soup and in true tradition style it came with loads of side dishes. I washed this all down with a hite beer, and no, nobody had scratched the S from the beers title.

Korean style evening meal for one

I had big tourism plans for the next day which was to be my last in Busan, most of which didn't materialise due to a slow start in the morning and a very extended lunch break. I visited the fish market which had loads of sea-food nicely arranged. I called into the raw market where you could pick your fish and they would chop it up and present it to you on a plate. The chef's around here had an easy job, no need for any cooking just a knife. I was very tempted to try it, but just like the previous evening you couldn't just order a small amount.

Shell-fish at the fish market

Octopus still wriggling about in the raw fish market

After reading about one bloke in the main market that was very helpful I headed for Jacky's seafood stall. He did me a deal prepared me half a squid dish and half an octopus dish. He had a stove and cooked most of it, but left some raw for me to try. It was all delicious but again so much food. He told me that the locals have Soju with fish. Soju is a very cheap white rice liquor that is between 17 and 40% alcohol. It comes in 35ml bottles which was always going to take time for me to drink on my own.

My first bottle of Soju

My seafood lunch with all the trimmings

My meal was massive and took my ages to get through. The trimmings included sea snails which after closing my eyes and going for it I quite liked them. So helpful was the guy at the restaurant he decided once I'd broken the back of the dish to announce that he would make me a fish soup for free. I said OK but only a small amount as I was already full. What came out was a massive pot of soup which was bubbling away on a stove on my table, This was 4 or 5 large bowl fulls and took another hour of so to polish off. What a lunch, a great experience but it did kind of ruin my big plans for the rest of the day.

The tourist Information (which is excellent in all of South Korea) showed me a tower to go up and it was in walking distance. It was slow going walking the lunch and Soju off but Busan Tower offered fine views of the city as it was a very clear day.

Busan Tower

One more tower selfie

Busan Tower and statue

I had asked many people I'd met where next to visit in South Korea. I had 14 days in total so still had 11 nights before my big adventure was to be over. Most people advised me to go to an island just off the south coast of South Korea Jeju-do. It sounded a very nice place but required a flight to and from and I wanted to mainly stick to land travel. I opted for a Jeonju, which is a touristy traditional style place located north-west of Busan famed for delicous local food. It was a 4 hour bus ride, but the bus was very comfortable and the scenery was lovely.

Next stop Jeonju

Made up in Taiwan

Alishan National Park before the rain came

I was a little concerned when I set my itinerary of 3 full weeks on the Island of Taiwan. I need not have worried I'd have nothing to do, quite the contrary I was having to do some editing of places on my tick list in the last week.

Where my last blog left off I'd just left Tainan, I headed north east inland to Chiayi. I didn't have anything I wanted to see here but it was to prove a great base (location wise) for a couple of day trips.

I left the train station in Chiayi at 12:45 without any accommodation,  I went to the tourist information to pick up a map and location of budget hotels, found one close by, checked in, dropped bag and managed to catch the 13:00 bus to Guanziling.

Guanziling is up in the mountains and has may hot springs which in turn have brought many spa hotels. Getting off the bus too early, despite been told not to, I had a hike up the mountain to the spa of my choice.

Guanziling village where I mistakenly alighted the bus

Kings Garden Villa was located in what looked like a 4* hotel. For the meager fee of 350 NTD (£7) I had an unlimited time in the spa.

There was loads to do, there was a hot spring pool, a very hot pool, a herbal pool which was hot and a bit like sitting in a vat of herbal tea, mud spa where I covered myself head to toe in mud let it dry hard and washed it off, cold pools, a swimming pool, exercise room, fish spa (the fish in here nibbled away at all the mosquito bite scars, did a fine job) an exercise room and finally a facial mask parlour. All that was included in the fee.

I'd planned my bus back to Chiayi, but the heavens opened forcing me to stay in the spa, apply another face mask, and dip in all the pools again.

When I finally got back 'home' I was tired, instead of grabbing street food I went to a Japanese restaurant, and looked for a bar for the following night.

Taiwan but particularly Chiayi teases you when it comes to bars. Every corner you reach you think, mint, there are loads of bars down here, only to find the neon lights are a hairdresser, shoe shop or something else not what I'm looking for.

I walked a good hour, street after street looked promising, but nothing, the best nightlife to be had appeared to be McDonald's which I was never going to go to.

Beautiful scenery from the bus window on my way to Alishan

After an early night the next day was another decent day trip. Alishan National park was about 2 hours away. The journey was winding around mountains and passing many beautiful tea plantations. On the way I read that the weather is great and sunny on a morning, come lunchtime it mists up, the afternoon usually has a heavy downpour of rain. Sure enough that was the case, perhaps I should have got a bus that arrived before 11:30 as the mist was starting to roll in.

Plenty of trees and greenery in the park

I had a decent look around before it rained heavy, was nice to get way from it all into the hills and countryside. I did a few walks before rain cut short my plans.

Decent sized trees

Temple in Alishan

Getting back early I was thirsty and fancied a beer. After grabbing a train lunchbox from a street-side cafe I fancied sitting in a bar with the hope of meeting a few fellow travelers. Chiayi is probably the worst place I've encountered for such a task. Restaurant didn't serve beer and the 3 bars I found were closed. I did find one that opened at 10pm but it looked well dodgy. Google tried to help me out but could only suggest a sandwich bar some 5km away. I had to spend the night with weak beer (shady) in my room. I had 3 flavours, honey, pineapple and a lime beer.

Railway lunchbox, Pork Chop veg and a tea soaked boiled egg

I had hoped to get to Sun Moon Lake the next day but a couple of back to back day trips had taken effect on me and I decided to head back to my comfort zone that is the capital Taipei and staying in a familiar place.

Getting around on trains is easy, there are fast trains (very fast), intercity or slow. The fast train did the journey in less than 2 hours, but the departure or destination station wasn't particularly convenient to me. So plumping for express I headed to the station last minute to find it was full so had to take the cheap slow train (5.5 hours).

Back in Taipei for my final 3 nights. I had plenty of places I wanted to see and I liked the comfortable surroundings and friendly owner. I could feast on the Taiwan pork hamburgers and baked pork buns I'd loved from earlier in the trip. Delicious.

It was Saturday night and I fancied seeing what Taiwan had to offer for nightlife. I didn't want fancy, I didn't want sleaze, I wanted cheap beer in friendly surroundings. Where I went hit the spot. Beers were about £1.80, the clientele was a good mix of locals and adapts. Within minutes I was drinking with a Columbian, Canadian, French and a couple of guys from Holland. All were either teaching English or learning Taiwanese.

Happy hour finished a couple of hours later which doubled the drink prices so I went elsewhere. I just happened to stumble on a locals cafe/bar. Drinks were even cheaper, and I was the centre of attention. The owners girlfriend could speak perfect English so acted as translator as I fielded questions from all the rest of the bar. I loved that scene, they gave me a free squid also, nice.

Having lots of big ticket items left to see, I rather wasted the following day. I spent it on the balcony catching up on blogs, emails and doing my laundry.

I'd read about a nice day trip in the hills, I had a choice of two, one which everyone said I should take Yangmingshan and another which sounded good to Wulai.

Wulai Waterfall

I choose Wulai, doing it my way, a long ride to the end of the metro line and a connecting bus took around an hour and a half.

Wulai had an 80m waterfall, hot springs, a cable car up the mountain and specialty food. What's not to like? I liked it there, nice and peaceful. It was raining so the waterfall was in good flow. Sadly the log train I'd planned to ride had been wiped out by the typhoon a few years back and was not yet functioning again.

Cable car - made in Taiwan in the 70's? I hoped not.

Getting the cable car over the waterfalls was spectacular. Suspended a couple of hundred meters above the valley, I suddenly remembered the crap toys you got as a child that broke within a day all had "Made in Taiwan" imprinted on them. I was hoping that the cable car was made of stronger stuff.

After walking to the free public hot springs I couldn't really be bothered to get changed and take a dip. My book had a luxury hotel with spa and I thought that would do a better job. I did have quite a lot of Taiwan Dollars to spend in the next 24 hrs. The luxury spa and hotel didn't look up to much. Not having the energy or inclination to walk back to the public springs I jumped back on a bus into Taipei.

The scary view from the cable car

So my last night in Taiwan I went back to the same expat bar I'd been to on the Saturday. It wasn't the same, going back rarely is. I had to listen to an American chatting to me about how well traveled he was (he wasn't). I kept quiet so not to burst his bubble or prolong the conversation. When he said, "You've got to go to Berlin [I have], it is the kind of place you can not sleep for a week or a place you can not leave your hotel for a week" (I guess the same applies for anywhere in the world) I decided to make excuses and head back to the locals bar.

The owner was made up to see me again. I think he was trying to break me when he pulled out a bottle of 73% white spirit. Realising he wasn't going to win this battle he upped the ante and gave me a Taiwanese style bush tucker trial. I dealt with the chicken hearts OK, pigs intestines not too bad, but conceded defeat when he brought out chicken feet. A nice memorable evening in what became one of my favorite countries.

Royal Palace Museum grounds

Before heading to the airport in the evening I went to the very impressive Royal Palace Museum holding the finest collection of ancient Chinese Pottery, Art Work, Jade, Jewellery and ornaments. I didn't really have time to do it complete justice, another one to come back for. It also housed what seemed like the biggest mass of Chinese tour groups.

Royal Palace Museum, Taipei

Cool tiger outside the Museum

So what did I like about Taiwan? I liked the night markets and the food. I think I only want to one restaurant in 3 weeks. I liked the people , very friendly and tried hard to chat even when we had no common language. The scenery is stunning. It is quite a cheap place (almost South East Asia prices) and it is off the beaten track.

What I didn't like about Taiwan. Rubbish bins are virtually non existent in many towns (I think it is the recycling culture - a good thing right - and they don't want bins full of mixed rubbish. I didn't like the teasing streets that looked like they were populated with bars but on closer inspection were tea shops. Finally the thing I liked the least was the tune the bin lorries made each evening, it drove me mad. They blasted out an ice cream van type tune continuously as the drove down the streets and locals would put out their rubbish. I've got that tune in my head again now!

First it was Thailand, then the budget orientated travelers discovered Vietnam Cambodia and Laos. I think anyone who enjoyed these destinations should put Taiwan firmly on their bucket list, I hope it becomes the next one for European travelers, it should be. I'm glad I visited before it does.

Next and final stop is South Korea, Taiwan is firmly on my places to go back to list. If I ever take a teaching English job, then Taiwan would be I place I'd very much consider. 

South and West Taiwan

In transferring from Taitung to Kenting (right at the south of Taiwan) I caught a train and then a bus. It is easy enough to get around in Taiwan, despite a few language issues friendly locals are happy to point you in the right direction. The first thing that hit me about Kenting was how hot it was there. It was very sunny and the heat felt a good 10 degrees hotter than everywhere else in Taiwan.

I had booked a capsule hotel right in the heart of Kenting main tourism strip. I had always wanted to stay in a capsule hotel which is a very small room where you have to crawl in, and has these boxes stacked on top of each other. Luckily I had a bottom floor capsule so I didn't need to negotiate a ladder and a crawl at the same time. The dimensions were approx 3-4ft wide by about 7ft long and about 4-5ft high. It was very comfortable when you were inside having things that pulled out from the wall such as a TV and mirror made it feel more spacious than it actually was. The location mean't that it wasn't cheap, the Saturday night was even more expensive and was one of the most expensive nights I had spent in my travels since October.

Small Capsule Style Hotel

The hotel provided unlimited drinks and snacks which was a nice touch. Free laundry service also, which I took full advantage of, as I had a bag full of clothes that needed washing.

Kenting beach was really nice, the sand was good and the sea was not too cold. I didn't go in the sea, just had a walk up and down the quiet beach in the baking sun. Away from the beach there were some nice small mountains which I had planned to explore and see the caves the following day.

Kenting beach

The view away from the beach at Kenting

Kenting really comes alive after the sun goes down. Stalls line each side of the road for more than a kilometer selling local speciality food, clothes, games for children and a few cocktail bars. Just before dark as the night market was setting up I saw my two favorite words when put together Happy Hour.

I got myself sat on the veranda of a happy hour restaurant, ordered some food and people watched as the crowds begin to grow and grow. Disco's and bars were located behind the stalls with scantily clad girls trying to get you inside with offers of discount drinks or dance shows. It was nice just walking up and down the market and just taking it all in. I bumped into the guy (from Singapore) who was staying in the capsule above and we had a good chat. The guy in the capsule next to me had come off his scooter earlier and was in a fairly bad state. I'd not met him at this point, but Aaron went back to check up on him and we agreed to meet up for a drink after he had eaten dinner.

I found at the far end of the strip there were a few camper vans which had been converted into mobile bars. These were great to sit and and chat with other tourists, which were mainly young Taiwanese enjoying a weekend away.

One of the bars had a lovely dog called Money, who the owners had rescued as he was a former street dog. He was lovely and sat at the table next to me on the chair. He never attempted to move and play with his old stray dog friends when they came over, Money knew where he was well off. It did make me miss my dog Ben even more though.

Sharing a drink with my new mate Money

The cocktails were maybe stronger than I had first though which meant the next day I did nothing. I wasn't hungover, just I had no energy at all. I spent the day in the common room catching up on emails and general stuff on the internet.

I did venture out to try and arrange a bus ticket to Kaohsiung for the next day. A few taxi drivers were waiting by the bus station but nobody official to help. They were giving me duff information on how to get a ticket, it was all very frustrating. It wasn't a language problem, I think they wanted me to go via their taxi rather than take the cheap bus. In the end I thought I would sort this on the day tomorrow.

Come the evening I'd livened up a little and tried a few of the local delicacies from the food stalls, had a couple of drinks with some Taiwanese and had a relatively quiet evening. It was noticable how much busier the place had been than on the Friday night. One other thing of note was the young Taiwanese were throwing cocktails down their necks at a decent rate. I would imagine more than a few would be having lazy Sundays.

The next morning much more refreshed I encountered the same taxi drivers again, one of them 'helpfully' called his friend who had a minibus that could take me for a huge fee. A couple of local girls came to the bus stop and they were going to the same place as me and gave me all the information I needed.

Kaohsiung was next, just up the west coast. Whilst on route I found a couple of places to stay near the night market on the internet and highlighted them to call in. I liked the first place but the last wanted MORE than I could get it for on the internet. After a little period of negotiation, her in Taiwanese and me in English using a calculator we agreed on a price, but it was still higher than the internet, but only by 50p. I actually think I got a better room than the one on the internet, in the end we all seemed happy with the deal.

Central Park, Kaohsiung

I wanted to get another tower fix in and headed for the 13th largest building in the world, TuxTex Sky Tower. On the way I passed a bakers who was just getting some steamed pork buns out of the oven. $12TWD (25p) and it was absolutely delicious, it was really hot so it was a while before I ate it, but it was so good I was tempted to head back for another.

Tuxtex tower, 13th highest in the world

Tuxtex Sky Tower was quite impressive, I preferred it to Taipei 101 from the outside. The view from up top was classic. It was a nice day and I could see for miles. The price of going up had almost doubled from what was quoted in the recent Lonely Planet, but still a bargain at under £4.

View from the top

Obligatory top of the tower selfie

Whilst up the top I thought I'd get a coffee, somehow after chatting to the staff on the counter I ended up with an ice cream and waffle feast, my first splurge in ages.

Ice-cream and waffle feast - to be honest made me feel a little sick

I got back to the metro station coincidentally bang on 7pm and was treated to a light show in the underground station. It is the largest glasswork in the world. It is impressive, I think I preferred it without the light show however.

Formosa Boulevard Station MRT station

Dome of Light, lightshow

How it looks normally

I had a great tourism day following. I caught the reasonable priced MRT (Metro) to Lotus Pond area, It was more of a big lake and had plenty of nice authentic Chinese Temples plus some other more kitschy temples. I took many photo's I won't put them all on here as it would take hours to upload and send most of you to sleep.

First temple I visited wasn't even in the guidebook, it was a good one and you could climb the 5 floors to the top for a great view over the lake

Inside my first temple of the day

Team photo

Walking around the lake it was hot, very hot and I hadn't put any suncream on, neither had I remembered to bring any out with me, which was a bit of a schoolboy error.

The Dragon Tiger Pavilion

The Dragon Tiger Pavilion was great, you entered inside the dragons mouth and exited through the tigers mouth for luck. Fingers crossed it brings me some.

Entrance to the temple was through the dragons mouth

On my way in

The view from the top of the pagoda was very nice, I must admit I only climbed the 6 flights of stairs of the dragon pagoda.

Here I am stood upright and proud in front of the Dragon Tiger Temple

Across the street was a very impressive traditional style temple. A good one for me as it let me cool down from the sun.

Inside the traditional style temple

Further along the lake was the Spring and Autumn temple which featured Guanyin riding a dragon which you could walk through from mouth to tail, which of course I did.

Spring and Autumn Pavilion

The last temple of the day featured an imposing 24m high statue of Xuantian Shang-di (the Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heavon and guardian of the north - or so my Lonely Planet guide tells me).

Decent sized statue out into the lake

All that temple ticking and walking was supposed to be a full day trip, I did it in a couple of hours, so I managed to fit another 'full day trip' to the Island of Cijin. A few stops on the MRT and a short ferry ride I was there. Incidentally the price had risen from the 15 NTD quoted in my book to 25 NTD, still a bargain for just 50p. Another sign that prices are on rise in Taiwan.

Ferry selfie on the way to Cijin

Decent value 10 minute ferry ride 

The ride itself was short (about 10 minutes) and you got to see Kaohsiung skyline from a distance including the unmissable Tuxtex Tower.

Tuxtex Tower, by far the biggest building in Kaohsiung

Despite it been mid/late afternoon it was still hot, I still had no sunscreen on and was starting to turn a little pink. I was also fairly tired after the walking earlier in the day. Needless to say I pressed on, finding a walk that ran along the beach and was mainly sheltered by trees.

Cijin Beach

I walked for a good hour or two, not really with any destination in mind, just trying to put miles in my legs and keep out of the sun.

A decent shell sculpture that was huge

A found an indoor market which was selling dried fish products, thankfully the smell wasn't too bad. All the stalls were handing out free samples, some of which I took up on the offer, others I politely declined. One stall I did take up the free samples was the fruit vinegar wine shop. The lady in there gave me a sample of at least half a dozen - all very nice, apple and peach were my favorites.

Dried fish market 

One of my main purposes of visiting Cijin Island was to sample the ultra fresh seafood that was for sale down seafood street. Beautifully presented stalls selling all kinds of fish. I picked a stall and asked what was best, was prompted to choose squid, so I did.  It was ultra fresh, lightly BBQ'd and came with a chilly and salt dip. It was simple but absolutely delicious and I washed it all down with a nice cold Taiwan beer.

Fresh squid for dinner

That evening I ended back at the night market near my hotel, strolling up and down people watching.

Kaohsiung Night Market

I had a great time in Kaohsiung, I'd really recommend this place, I was sorry to leave after a couple of nights but had another great stop to look forward in Tainan.

Whilst on the train I was looking through the booking websites for places to stay in Tainan, one unusual place stood out for me, it was called H.G Barbershop and was a Barbers themed hotel/hostel. I like unusual places to stay so was attracted to this place and booked a single room. 

The hostel was above a traditional style barber shop, it had a lovely living space and with just 4 small rooms each with a barbers chair which laid down flat as your bed. Very unusual, very quirky but very good. I liked the owner she was great, very friendly and hospitable

A couple of nights at the barbershop with a barbers chair for my bed

I was the only guest staying and the owner (the daughter of the people that had the barbers downstairs) said she would come with me sight seeing for the day. I didn't catch where she said she would take me, but I was never going to turn down the opportunity of having a local guide, she was also very pretty with a great sense of humor, so it was a fun afternoon.

First up she took me to an art district in a former military area, it wasn't touristy and was quite nice to wonder around looking at mainly modern art housed in some traditional style Japanese houses.

We went out for lunch together and Odelia insisted on doing all the ordering, she did ask me if I would eat pigs intestines which I couldn't say I really wanted. What she ordered was a nice selection of local dishes, fish, rice, pork shavings, soup with dumplings. We had iced black tea and she bought some sweet rice cakes for dessert from a nearby stall. It was all delicious.

Lunch for 2

Next stop was a little bizarre, we went down a small alley and saw some people painting a cafe getting ready for it opening in a few weeks. Within 5 minutes we were on the third floor in the bakery kitchen sampling the breads and (Russian) beers that they were going to serve when the place opened. It was quite nice been a novelty foreigner in this house.

Bread and beer tasting in a bakers not yet open

The walking tour continued each alleyway opened up to a small square most having a temple or two in them. With each alley we went down I got more and more disorientated, at one point it felt we were going around in circles,

Small temple in one of the many squares around the alleyways

The heavens opened so Odelia took me to a department store, possibly the oldest in the country (I maybe wrong with that fact). Before running the hostel, Odelia worked with the architect who restored the department store and kept it traditional yet modern.  She took me around the exclusive store, pointing out design features, original furnishings and explained the process of getting the store ready for opening again. It was interesting, whilst we were on the roof balcony an almighty thunderstorm filled the sky.

Tainan department store in the rain

That night I found a beer store with an impressive collection. I sampled just two of them before dodging yet another rain shower on my way back to the barbershop.

Beer house

It took a little time to get comfortable sleeping in the barbers chair, but I had a surprisingly deep sleep, and woke without too many aches and pains. A good experience.

The following day I toured the Anping district using the barbershops free bike. The weather wasn't the best, but I had a route to follow and plenty of attractions to see. Parking the bike up, I headed on foot to walk the narrow streets of Anping, it was nice and I managed to spot most of the attractions I'd been told to look out for.

Temple in the Anping district

Another larger temple, with dragon boats outside for some reason

Next up was Anping Fort, it was while I was walking around here that the heavens started to open, and the rain got steadily heavier. At one point I needed to dive inside for cover.

Anping Fort

Nice gardens and flowers surrounding the fort

The rain was now failing heavily, there was one further attraction that I wanted to get in and that was the tree house. It is basically a house that has been totally taken over by a number of trees. It has recently been restored and wooden walkways installed so you can see it close up. By now however the rain was very heavy, and I had little shelter.

Treehouse, Tainan

I had to abandon the day trip and seek shelter as the rain was so heavy. It did stop later allowing me to walk to the night market, have some food and a couple of beers and back relatively early. Included in my stay at the barbershop was a free massage and a paid a small amount for a wet shave. Both the treatments were excellent.

Tainan bridge on my way to the night market

Part of my supper, fried new potato balls - delicious if non too healthy

I'd began to really like Taiwan, the food, the culture, the people. It was rapidly rising up my 'favorite countries I've been to' list.