5 May 2023
I have seen it now
Exploring Yilan at night
My computer just threw a blue screen of death! That never happened before. I don't think I lost any data. Very annoying!!!
OK, my title might be a bit misleading, Yilan apparently has a population of about 200k, so I doubt I have seen it all already. As usual there is some confusion over that number, as there is Yilan province and Yilan city in Yilan province, and there is another city just over yonder called Luodong with only about 1km of rice fields separating it from Yilan city that on google maps at least, appears to be a similar size. I might go there on the train one evening. Have you ever tried to describe a map with words? I have, many times, it always goes about as well as it has here.
As for Yilan, it has a decent sized shopping mall, this is very surprising, the more well known east coast cities of Hualien and Taitung which I visited on my last trip do not. So fear not food court loathers, there is both a food court and an entire level of restaurants in this large shopping mall.
Other than that, there is a flying train, which is the most common picture when you google Yilan, and quite a bustling night market, but that is not surprising as every corner of Taiwan has a bustling night market. Actually I think the one in Luodong is more well known, perhaps I will find out.
It was a bit weird returning to my room this evening, letting myself into the front door of the cafe with my room key, and walking past the coffee machines and snacks to get to the lift to my room, I am sure they have a camera, but this is highly trusting of the hotel guests. There is no 24 hour reception in this 'hotel', so in theory I could have fired up the machine and made myself a frothy skinny milk drink with artificial sweetener (just the way I like it!).
This is my 'hotel'. I am selling it a bit short as it does extend back a bit, there are 4 rooms on each of the 2 hotel levels. I do not often stay in boutique hotels like this one, but apparently Yilan is a very popular holiday getaway spot for Taipei folks, and I am here over the weekend. The bigger hotels were $1000 a night or sold out, I am paying $60 a night here and the actual room is of a simialr quality to a Japanese business hotel, and a bit bigger too.
A typical Yilan street scene, much like the rest of Taiwan, there are always a lot of chemists that are really cosmetics shops.
I presume this is the morning food market, all closed now.
Here is the local mega mall, Luna plaza, the crowning achievement of Yilan.
I immediately descended to find the food court, it has one! Good times.
For tonight's beef noodle soup, I opted for the tomato version. It looks crap, but was decent enough for my $6. They leave the skin on the beef, which is fine, you don't even notice, there are plenty of places in Australia that do this also, but it might look unusual to people used to a typical cut of steak.
Inside the mega mall is a Tom's world. These are in most parts of Taiwan, they teach kids to gamble. Most of the regular games are now pay money to win a prize machines. I wandered around pointing my camera at peoples kids until the mall cop turned up on his segway.
I had visited luna mall, so here is la lune itself, in its full glory, red tinged. Also, taking a photo of the moon with anything less than about 600mm zoom is pretty much useless, behold, a bright dot!
And now, the flying train. Masterfully constructed in a way that makes it hard to take a photo of it in any sort of cohesive manner.
Near the train station there are a lot of old buildings, genuine ones I think. This one is a kind of community bookshop, meeting hall, souvenir stand. Inside a guy was giving a speech about some old photos.
Part of the inside of the shop.
Now for the night market. They are also hard to photograph as they are tight alleyways. This one has a road bridge over it that I thought about walking up to take a photo of the night market from above, but alas, no pedestrian access allowed.
A bit more night market under the bridge for my final photo of the evening.