15 May 2023
Trains and drains
Taichung station area
I am part pig, part man, proof below.
Today is a rest day. So I walked to the old train station, the area which I stayed in last time. It is all new though. New station, train line has been elevated, lots of new shops, lots of construction going on. So maybe it is Taichung redevelopment zone 8.
On the way, I passed not 1, but 2 open sewer parks, one of them is so clean, it has thousands of fish in the sewer water! So there you go, Taiwan sewage, very clean.
When I returned to my room this afternoon, there was a note on my bed, explaining that tomorrow between 12 and 5pm, everyone must pack their bags, and leave them at reception, for a full emergency hotel chemical detoxification. What? Why is this necessary? No other information! But in great news, I check out tomorrow morning and head back to Taipei, so I get the effects of whatever they are planning to detoxify for, without the risk of chemical poisoning from whatever they are using to perform an emergency chemical detoxification.
Photos are a bit shit today.
Here is drain number 1. You can walk along it, but it has no fish.
Drain number 2 however, has fish, proof below.
Behold, drain fish, lots of them. Including the ultra rare black goldfish.
Apparently, this is an ice cream store and ice cream museum. There was a line.
Well I was not expecting that. Old station in the front is what I remember, which back then had shops and taxis and scooters everywhere right out the front. Now the old station is a museum and there is a big grass area out the front, with the huge new elevated station behind.
The old station includes old trains to gawk at.
Station cat on duty.
They are really leaning into the Japan style rail experience.
Train bento's are famous in Taiwan. The thing is I do not know if they still serve them on the trains at all? It used to be that people would ride specific sections of the line to get the specific bento box. Now you can buy them at the stations, this is not the most famous one though. This also extends to airliner food, there are restaurants for EVA airways that serve the same food in the same containers they serve on their flights. I should go there.
Here is a view of the upper area of the new train station.
Pick your hotel. The one on the left is new, but has a ladder attached to the wall, the one on the right is old, but has proper stairs.
This is where the track used to run. They ripped it up and the whole area is set for redevelopment.
New malls springing up everywhere, I have a special surprise for this evening.
Nearby there is a park that seems to try to be Japanese, more on that this evening. Note that there is a red bridge (if you squint through the fountain spray).
Here is a very Taiwanese area though!
A nice old building, dating back to the Japanese era I presume.
And here I am, the pig main... OINK.