12 March 2017
Dry trip to station
Eating pasta in Hualien
Tomorrow I am moving further down the coast, this time to Taitung, which is what maps say, but is actually Taidong, because somehow tung and dong sound the same depending on which English speaker is making up a way of saying Chinese words? They arent even close.
This afternoon, I did my washing, fun times. I asked the girls at the hotel desk where the clothes washing machine is, cause I know how to say all those words, but I have a feeling this is not how you say washing machine in Chinese because they got the giggles. They knew what I meant, the good news is the washing machines and dryers are free! Cause Taiwan is awesome.
So I head up to the 6th floor which is actually level 4 in Australia cause there is no ground floor and no 4th floor in any Chinese building, they start at 1 and skip 4, and I find the machines. I always like to wash in cold water so I was busy trying to work that out when the girls from reception arrive on the scene to help me. The word for help is bang in case you are interested, RANG WOMEN BANG NI, let us help you. WOMEN is not women, it is wo men, 2 characters, that mean us.
I was able to explain I wanted cold water, and I think they then told me that in Taiwan wash clothe machine only ever has cold water. So we were good to go. They giggled some more and left.
This evening I headed to the station, it was bone dry, no rain, and bought my ticket for tomorrow to Tai(random). Google is useless at train schedules in Taiwan. I knew what train I wanted, time, number of train etc. But despite checking for times on google using schedule explorer for Monday lunch time, google gave me a train that only runs on Saturdays.
No problem, the girl at the window told me I had made a mistake, we are talking only Chinese again, So now I had no face...no face... She told me the train time nearest to the one I selected, I agreed and handed over $7 for my 3 hour train ride tomorrow.
Thats probably enough text humble bragging about how I can speak enough Chinese to get laughed at or order a train ticket.
Oh yeah, I can also brag about something else, 50,000 steps today! My watch tells me thats 37km.
Here is my local street this Sunday evening, note how dry it is.
Every corner of Taiwan seems to have about a thousand bakeries per square mile. They all seem great. I want that thing to the right of the black thing with the caramel icing. Too bad its dinner time and not time for another cake breakfast.
The local vegetable market. No, its a trick. Tiny miniature vegetables. I thought these were amazing.
The local fish market. Its still a trick! I enjoyed minature scenery so much I took 2 photos. Also its colorful.
Both of the above photos are of scenes no more than 30cm across.
I went and hung out on my own in the Industrial and Cultural Society Liberty Square. Now feeling liberated and industrious, and even more cultural than ever. Also I am a square.
The main train station is actually a long way from the city proper. There is a satellite city of sorts there for tourists who only want to spend the night before going to the gorge early in the morning.
Not many good food options to be found, lots of shops selling pineapple cakes and jade bracelets.
Near the station you can even find Pachinko parlours, presumably to cater to the Japanese. I have not seen any of these in Taipei ever.
And if you are brave enough to stick your head into a Korean karaoke bar in Australia you will see these. Electronic dart boards. I presume these are here to cater for the Korean tourists.
I selected Tiger Pasta for dinner. A funky placy for young people with shipping crates for tables. Young people and also me. Not young anymore. Now I am sad.
The place was called Tiger Pasta and one of the dishes on their menu was Tiger Pasta, so thats what I had. And it was good. But it was $10, which is expensive for Taiwan. The price you pay for an actual table to sit at and shipping crate decor.
It did have big chunks of great quality beef, egg, real parmesan, and you cant see it but cherry tomatoes and brocolli. I enjoyed it a lot. I presume the black pasta is squid ink, they love squid here.
Final picture for the evening, another random street with many scooters. So dry. I might have to moisturize due to the total dryness.