15 March 2017
Museum run
Visting the national museum of pre history
Because the bus service is so inconvenient, the government of Taitung has decided to build a world class museum nowhere near any bus at all! In fact it is 8.5km from the city, and this time, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere. There is no shop of any kind near the place.
There is however a bike path, that follows the old train line before branching off, this looked interesting on google maps, a long flat car and scooter free path, time to go jogging! I was super excited, way more excited than someone should be at the prospect of jogging to a museum.
Yes I jogged a 17km round trip with a mildly interesting museum in the middle. The path there was almost challenge free, see below, apart from packs of dogs encouraging me to go faster!
Unfortunately, despite truly being an excellent museum, one that would do much much better if you could get to it, their restaurant was shut, and the only food the gift shop sold was icy poles, again see below.
I was able to find a vending machine in the car park and buy water, before my return jog, which was much easier cause it was down hill, the dogs remembered me and were sure to chase me for about a mile.
Occasionally a farmer on a scooter would ride past me and crane his head a full 180 degrees to stare at me, one of them nearly ran himself off the road doing it.
As for an update on the breakfast situation, I went into the breakfast room at 7:30AM, and there was no one there at all! So I got out of my free breakfast obligation by being too early for breakfast.
The start of the running / biking track features the TRUMP STEAKHOUSE. Click to see the bigger photo, its really called that.
Make food great again. The sign looks new. I wonder if they rebranded to Trump steakhouse when he won the election, or, after the recent well done with ketchup incident that was the cause of the second revolutionary war?
I was very happy with the running track.
There were lots of little cafes, bookshops, b&b's, galleries. Incentive to keep running.
House with garden gnomes. Its a trap.
The track was better than advertised, I was having a great time.
However, in Taiwan, all good things must come to a sudden end! I had to double back and around this unexplained chasm.
I considered stopping here, a coral museum. Except the guard told me they dont open until 2:30pm. There were about 20 tour buses so this was confusing, I could see people inside.
I googled, what is advertised as a museum is really a showroom for farmed coral from nearby reefs. The internet suspects they hide some of the stuff before letting certain westerners with cameras in. Glad I didnt pay to go and look at ecological terrorism.
CAR BOMB.
Here is the National Museum of Pre History. Whats that mean exactly? Aboriginal stuff, info on the tectonic plates, and information on Taiwanese wildlife before it got eaten to extinction.
In the hundreds of Chinese sticky thankyou notes, I saw 2 things in English, 'WTF' and 'Jesus loves you'. Shameful.
The musuem was truly impressive. Many of the exhibits were digital projections, including a huge interactive wall which had wild animal animations that reacted to people moving nearby.
I decided to hang out with the rare, Taiwanese giant elephant. Presumably they were delicious, because they became extinct really fast.
BLASPHEMY! I will get the Trump steakhouse onto this immediately,
Even the musem building was impressive. They had a Jade gallery (of course) and so the whole building looks like its made of solid Jade.
No museum is complete without some aboriginal canoes.
There is a nice garden out the back, a hedge maze and a dancing fountain show. I could not figure out how to get out there. Oh well.
As a member of the Taiwan Railways Administration Junior Engineers Club, I am entitled to a stationmaster hat. Unfortunately none are big enough for my enormous head.
My only food before the journey back.
But once I got back I decided on some street noodles and dumplings. Quite tasty, alarmingly cheap, $2 for everything here.