20 March 2017
4 down 3 to go
Taking the train from Kaohsiung to Tainan
Now I am in Tainan. My third last destination on this trip that is going too quickly.
Today is also hot, with almost no visible pollution, I guess it must be windy. The clear blue sky is infusing the previous few days pollution directly into my skin. I am a strange grey color.
Because Tainan is so close to Kaohsiung, I had plenty of time for one last wander around the great city of Kaohsiung. Thats the last time I have to type the horribly spelt Kaohsiung.
As prevously mentioned, I wish I had more time there, but who knows, maybe Tainan will be even better. I have not been to Tainan before, even though it is after Taipei the most popular tourist destination in all of Taiwan.
I took the local train to get here. There is a local train all the way around Taiwan. In places there is an inner loop (mountain line) and outer loop (coastal line). Local line means it stops all stations and takes all day to go around Taiwan at a slow pace. I dont think anyone takes it for long distance, but it is good to know you can get to almost any tiny little town by train eventually.
My ride was all of about 50 minutes, and $3. Which meant despite hanging around my hotel before checkout as long as possible, I was hours too early to check in to my Tainan hotel. Not to worry, time for lunch and the games arcade.
On my morning walk, I was enjoying the fine looking streets of Kaohsiung, and damn it I had to type it again.
This is a huge gentlemens club. Probably quite exclusive, as I dont think Johnny Walker blue label is cheap. The building seems to be made of white marble.
Colorful flowers, so colorful. I prefer the American spelling of color.
More great streets I did not have time to walk down.
Here it is, the tri-force space ship building ready for take off.
The dual department stores of Sogo and Shin Kong Mitsukoshi. I had no time to go in either, but I think Tainan has both brands too, for future food court opportunities of a cheap dinner.
Here comes my train to Tainan. Despite being a slow local train, they have attached a sleek modern locomotive to the front. The carriages were a hybrid of what you might get on a bullet train and a local train. There are toilets even on the local trains.....hello mother.
The Tainan train station is the most basic yet. And there is no signs of an upgrade. I must point out that this is NOT the high speed rail line, thats some distance from my hotel closer to the mountains.
I was quite amused that at some point in the distant past, this many public phones were ever deemed necessary.
A random Tainan street. Yep, still looks like Taiwan. I wonder if the old Japanese and Dutch areas will look different. Yes there is a Dutch area of Tainan.
TRUE JESUS. I prefer the untrue.
I now can declare Donutes to be the best cafe, ever. Fantastic coffee, great service, 3 levels of seating, an excellent bakery on site. Australia needs Donutes.
Fun fact, the Chinese characters for Donutes translate in Pinyin to Duo Na Zi.
Donutes even has a huge library inside it with a ladder you can climb up and fall off. Its high enough to probably kill you if you fell.
Still a bit early, I hung out with some Taiwanese unemployed obese men and played car racing games.
This is just another example of the cafes in Taiwan. I might go here tomorrow if I get sick of Donutes. This one has dried flowers hanging from the roof.
Here is my hotel room. Smaller than the last, but very modern.
The unusual thing about this hotel is the enormous shower. Probably not depicted too well in the photo, but you can fit at least 9 people in the shower. Important if you are having a party in your room, which I am.