Tainan Day 2

Slept in this morning because…I can. It's nice to have the opportunity to sleep in once in a while, especially on vacation. So Yuki and I barely made the complimentary breakfast at the hotel. If your ever at the Shangri-la, the breakfast area is very nice. The hotel has a cylindrical shape, so the Horizon club dining area is suspended in the middle (not on the first floor). After satisfying our stomachs with made-to-order omlettes and waffles, we quickly headed over to the National Museum of Taiwan Literature. It's a beautiful turn of the century Japanese build building. According to what i see in the historical pictures and the chinese that I can understand, it was originally a military command post by the Chinese and Japanese. It wasn't until the last 20 years that it was converted into a literature museum and library. The entrance fee is free. After a short tour, we were getting a little hungry as it was already past noon. Well maybe only I was hungry. Gift of a fast metabolism. So we then headed to a famous Tainan Zhongzi restaurant. The Zhongzi （粽子） was must softer, sweeter and considerable larger. They do have a normal size, but the large one (at $150NT) was twice the size. I'll remember to share this one next time. Afterwards, we decided to walk off some of the lunch. Wandering into a old alley way, we bumped into a black pig on our way to Chikan Towers (赤崁樓 Chìkàn Lóu). Afterwards we stopped by the Confucious temple (孔廟) for a second time on the way to west gate(大南門). The west gate was simple and small. Obviously the walls connecting it are long gone. So the only thing left is the great brick corner building with a big iron double door in the middle. Moving on, Yuki read about a famous mochi establishment in Tainan. It's not too far from the city center so look it up and stop by if happen to be in Tainan. It is actually a strawberry （草每） wrapped in red bean （紅豆） wrapped in mochi. That about did it for our list of site we wanted to see in Tainan. So we had to kill some time. So we found an almond tofu shop nearby for some time to get off our feet. Almond tofu （杏仁豆腐） is also kind of famous in Tainan. I don't think the one we visited has any notoriety, but the shop owner was definitely friendly and talkative. I find most faces in Tainan to more friendly and talkative compared to the bussle of Taipei. After some slurping up the last of my sweet almond tofu, we headed to a small "old Street" and found a Tainan noodles place (過燒意麵). Yi Mian is probably the most famous food related to Tainan. We were told to not miss this while we were here. As with most food here, it was a sweet. But these noodles had an additional almost cinnamon taste to it. It can be served as a soup or on a plate. Traditionally it should have eel in it too (according to my MTC teacher whom is originally from Tainan). Last stop..Ba wan aka meat circle (肉圓). Using Yuki's Iphone, we quickly found a famous Tainan Ba Wan restaurant for dinner part 2 I guess. Well we shared the Yi Mian noodles, so don't think i'm stuffing myself :(. Entering the place we were ushered to the back where we were seated by a happy "hefty" guy and ordered one Ba Wan. Wow! It was soo good. nian-nian 黏黏 (I don't think there's an accurate English word, maybe sticky), warm, meaty and sweet! It was so good, we had to request a second order. He happily obliged. But now our Tainan trip has come to a conclusion and it's now time to hop aboard the train back to Taipei.

East Taiwan hot springs

Last night I stayed over at my relatives place. They were curtious to let me stay over. I went with her to the local traditional market. It is unlike a night market where they mostly sell clothes and cooked food. It's more like a daytime market full of fresh produce and meats and fruits. It's usually outside and a lot dirtier than a supermarket. But the prices are cheaper too as long as you can stand the grittiness of the place. Shortly after that, Lucy and Hatuyen showed up at the house. We then headed into the mountains by car to reach the east side of Taiwan. About a half hour drive. We ended up on an old historic street and nibbled on street food for lunch. I bought some small mountain zongzi (粽子) to bring home.They were extremely fragrant and delicious. It had a more smoked and herbed flavor to it. Kind of like being in the mountains :). Afterwards we headed over to the hot springs (泡溫泉, pao wen quan). Another half hour drive east. We found a rather nice one. Relatively clean environment, not too crowded and a boar meat vender opposite the street. $300 for entry all day. That's cheap! They have larger pools of varying temperatures, smaller hot tub styles, private gender separated nude hot springs, napping area, dry and wet sauna and a couple whirlpools. There was still a lot more to offer, but I didn't go exploring that much.The feet get pretty cold walking from tub to tub. If you can get yourselves out there without too much cost, it's definitely a cheap and extremely relaxing for only $300. I don't know if that goes for all the hot springs around the area, but it's definitely cheaper than what you'll expect from the Beitou Hot Springs. Still I'd be willing to pay more and try Beitou since they're much easier to get to. I live very close to the Beitou springs, and it's just a MRT ride away. I can't wait for next time, and there WILL be a next time!

XinSheng electronics mall

Today I headed over with Momoko to the Xinsheng electronics mall. She needed an external DVD burner. I also met up with Jason to pick up my flash color correction kit for my camera. All three of us browsed around the mall for a good hour or two trying to find the cheapest price. Momoko ended up with a cool pink External DVD burner for $1290 NTD. Afterwards, I was hungry and we found a local tiny shop and ate a plate of You Fan (油飯). Directly translated, oil rice. It's the same content inside of a ZongZi (粽子), but without the bamboo leaf wrap. And for people that don't know what Zongzi is, it is made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings (peanuts, fatty pork, mushroom, egg yolk) and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves. Next Momoko and I hung around Ximending shopping and killing time with alittle homework at the big Ximending Starbucks. At 7, we met up with most of our classmates to have dinner with Nico aka Su Ming at Watami Ximending. He had cancelled his classes and will be heading back to Germany. He has been struggling to balance both work and chinese class. But he determined that his work was a higher priority and we all understand that. We all wish him good luck and hopes that he will come back to Taiwan, where we will be greeting him with friendly arms.