11 March 2017
Department store rain shelter
The Hualien Far Eastern department store
Imagine my lack of surprise when this evening I stepped out of my hotel room to find it was raining. It is not really a problem at night, and it didnt rain much during the day.
Imagine my further surprise when as I set off down the street a small girl came charging out of the hotel in heels furiously waving a free hotel umbrella at me. I was petrified. Was she going to kill me with it? The metal spike on it looked sharp.
After I regained my composure I was able to explain to her, whilst standing in the rain, that I prefer to get wet than carry an umbrella, she locked shocked and stood dumbfounded as I strode off.
Due to the rain, I had googled where to go to get out of the rain that wasnt just sitting in a cafe. There are no shopping malls in Hualien at all, but there is to my surprise a department store, the local branch of 'Far Eastern', complete with a multi level walmart clone in the basements, a starbucks and a mcdonalds. Hours of fun then.
So I headed there, and wandered around a lot looking at things, but then chose not to eat there. I was actually feeling a bit faint from my all cake and coffee diet, so I headed into the first proper Taiwanese looking family restaurant I could find. More on that below.
Once I had finished eating, I headed back into the basement walmart clone for a while, much like these stores in the rest of the world, they largely exist for poor people to hang out in at night and watch the wall of televisions or use the internet on the tablets and phones before they buy a crate of toilet paper and go home. But at least they bought something, cause I did exactly the same then bought nothing at all!
Shop dog has eaten shop cat and replaced him in this shop.
Here it is, in all its glory, the Hualien branch of the Far Eastern department store. It is deceivingly large, a big L shape behind it, and features H&M, Uniqlo, Muji and others, but no food court.
My dinner from somewhere with no picture menu, no English, and no English speaking of any kind. No problem, I got through on broken Chinese. I dont recall encountering such a total lack of English before, after ordering I said thank you, in English, and this caused another round of confusion as I explained that it is the English way of saying xie xie, which resulted in laughter from the two ladies helping me.
I kind of wish more places were like this, everywhere else I go they insist on speaking English.
My dinner was however delicious, and I stopped feeling faint by the time I got up to leave.
Chinese, I mean, Taiwanese Walmart. China actually has Walmart. Where as Taiwan has A-mart.
You can buy girl incubators here. Stick a girl in a heated tent until she comes out done.
I genuinely dont know what these things are, they have them in stock and one assembled on the shop floor, so its not just a joke.
Not many pictures due to the rain, but I really do enjoy Family Mart burnt caramel popcorn. It is much more burnt than the kind you would get in Australia. I am a fan of burnt flavour.