Taiwan for the 5th time - April and May 2023 - Page 7

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.

I headed back to the new old station area where I had been during the day. Behind it is the Taroko mall. Named after the famous gorge on the other side of Taiwan. I went to this mall last time I was here.

Here is a claw machine supply and repair shop. The mural is from the perspective of the creatures that live in the machine, and then there is a giant claw hanging out of the side of the building.

This is the hotel I stayed in last time I was here. Each room had a different art them. I have good memories of it, I tried to stay there this time too but it was sold out.

This building still has people in it, but the top 3 levels are condemned. I bet I could take some interesting photos if I could get up there.

There it is, Lalaport. Complete with a fake lake just like the giant one in the north of Tokyo.

At first I was deflated, closed. Opens tomorrow. But wait.

Half of it opens today!

Giant very high quality food court, rejoice!

My dinner was FANTASTIC, but a lot of food. It is Sichuan style soup with fatty slices of beef in it, and a bowl of noodles with more Sichuan 'meat' and various other things, and 2 bowls of pickled veg. All their options were 2 bowl setups, I do not think it is intended for 2 people. I emptied everything into the soup bit by bit, and it was delightfully spicy and numbing. I am a huge fan of Sichuan food.

Despite having non Japanese dinner in this Japanese mall. ALL the shops are Japanese. Even that weird Japanese chemist, Matsumoto Kiyoshi, and a Japanese supermarket.

Here is the back of the new old station seen earlier in the day, now seen at night.

And my final pic this evening, the Sogo that is attached to my hotel. I do not think I showed it from the outside previously.

First up, a walk around Taichung. This is the art gallery. I have never been here. If it had of been open yesterday, I would have gone yesterday, but the general rule around the world for museum type places is, closed on Monday.

The walk back to check out of my hotel in Taichung of course took me past a temple with an incense burner. Nothing fancy, but I took the photo to better explain the next two photos.

The mens (Man) toilets at the temple.

And the women's (Lads).

Here is the view from the Taichung high speed rail station. I already posted a similar one when I arrived. That big tree with all the red flowers is interesting, I have seen them a few of them.

Today's train snack was sesame rice crispy things and a cup of tea.

Now, importantly, this is the outside of my hotel. Stay tuned for indoor pics. I was too early to check in of course, so first I dropped off my bags and went for a wander.

That meant I had time for a delicious, but expensive, salad lunch in a department store cafe.

Here are some nice apartments, great sky!

Now for 2 hotel shots, it has carpet, try and remain calm.

And a special treat, a photo of a hotel bathroom. It is a lot like a hotel bathroom. This hotel is alarmingly cheap. There is a story. I am paying about $70 a night, and right now that seems like the deal of the century. I booked long in advance, and the hotel has changed it's name since I booked, but the booking website sent me a message explaining that, and that my booking was still valid. Then Singapore airlines changed my flight back to Australia, so I have to leave a day earlier. So I went to cancel the booking for this hotel and make it 6 nights instead of 7, but since I booked, prices had quadrupled! So I kept my 7 night booking even though I will only use it for 6 nights. That was really long winded. Tonight I will go to a night market, and research tomorrows hike. Today would have been a great day for hiking with the clear skies, tomorrow, thundery showers.

Here is the Taipei stadium, where many a ping pong battle has been raged.

Oooh, great light for the sunset.

I took a shot from this spot in the dark last time I was here.

Now for some bridge shots. The mountain in the background here is Yangmingshan.

And looking the other way, the mountain behind the buildings here is tomorrows hike.

I walked around and up onto the red bridge, which is called the rainbow bridge (there is a more famous rainbow bridge in Tokyo) and behold, the sunset.

Night market temple.

They say this night market is the one to go to if you want a more authentic experience than you would get at Shilin market, although I think they have all been made a lot more sanitary in the last decade. They used to kill snakes in the street and cook them / drink their blood.

General vibe of the night market at dusk.

And... drum roll please... Coco curry! I did not even want to go as I had eaten a big lunch, but I swore whenever I saw a branch, I would try and get in, no matter the time or place. Just to say I managed to get in after so many (2) rejections. I built my own curry of omurice, spinach, mushrooms, and beef. Very delicious. Now to research tomorrows hike, which due to the existence of a subway system, won't require much research.

After getting off at Xizhi station, I thought about running a few sprints around the track. Seriously. But since I had just drank 2 litres of water, I decided against it.

There are some housing developments as you go up the hill. The gold sign is the name of the area I was trying to get to, so I was on the right track.

The road was very steep in places. I was sweating a lot just on the road bit.

Here is where I joined the trail. As I mentioned above, I think there is an alternate way that joins up a bit further where you cross the road near a temple.

Weird housing development. Today I am east of Taipei 101, which you can see in this pic.

Nice clouds. Down there is Xizhi station, probably on the left of shot, where I had walked up from.

The first part of the hike was all steps. The steepest steps of this trip so far. A woman with her dog was putting it through torture making it go up the steps against its will.

Similar view, this will be a theme, a lot of similar view shots today because I was thrilled with the clear sky.

This spot marks the end of what is called Dajianshan scenic area, and the end of the stone steps. But do not worry, many trails continue on from here!

This view is a fully zoomed in shot down to Keelung, where I was 9 days ago. I took photos of that little island on a smoggy day. I can also see the chimney's at the power plant I walked past.

Another similar shot...

And of course, my big head. Sadly I could not find a spot to pull off the stance today.

Zoomed out shot towards Keelung. I feel as though I could walk there.

After the top of Dajianshan scenic area, the trail got a lot more interesting.

Parts of it were nice and smooth, making for good progress.

Before too long I arrived at the end of the trail, at Sifenweishan. Prayer flags but no temple. There are of course more trails beyond here, but you have to go along a road for a while, further away from any kind of train.

The summit area has a little park, as it is quite close to a road. The view is actually better from the earlier lower down parts of the trail.

Wide view with prayer flags.

Unfortunately, I was thwarted today. I originally planned to go down this path, to a waterfall where a road ends. The trail was marked on the map, but it was very badly over grown. I decided to turn back and come back down basically the same way I came up. I think that is the first time I have had to do that on this trip.

One last view towards Keelung.

Almost last view back to Taipei.

I made a slight detour on the way back and came down through that temple. This brought me back to a different road, but then I found the alternate trail. So kind of a loop trail today, but not really. Also, it was about 5 hours, 16km station to station.

One more pic due to the nice fluffy clouds. Thats all for now!

My walk to Xinyi went underground in one of the following the subway underground malls. Not as long as some of the others, but nothing to be sneezed at, and air conditioned. It was very hot this evening.

Scary doorway. I think it is a bible study centre. In a basement, with graffiti everywhere.

Another stadium. Not the same one as last night. I guess this one is for badminton if last night was for ping pong.

Nearby is the Sun Yat-Sen memorial hall. I have been in there before. Also a special friend poking up through the trees.

Not many photos tonight, so bonus shot of badminton stadium. I missed the nice sunset light by seconds.

Bookstore basement food court. What a concept!

However, when I saw the tomato ramen place, one of my favourite things to eat in Tokyo, I skipped the food court and went to one of the restaurants that surround the food court. As I am now a fat pig man, I did not opt for my usual favourite that adds chorizo and chunks of garlic bread, instead going for the relatively healthy tomato and Parmesan cheese. There are noodles in the tomato soup that you cannot see in the pics. Strangely when I was seated near a Japanese guy, he yelled at the waitress, in Japanese, glared at me, then changed tables. I saw the waitress go and look at the chef completely perplexed. I did all I could to make the angry Japanese guy as uncomfortable as possible, which involved copious usage of my furious monobrow.

After refuelling on tomato soup, I went and looked for a mouse in the book store. They have a serious no photo policy, after I snapped this photo they came and spoke to me. OK then, I hope you get shut down! Oh yeah, you are getting shut down!

And for my final pic tonight, Taiwan is THRILLED TO THE MAX, that the shortest serving UK Prime Minister of all time is making a personal unofficial visit to Taiwan after basically being thrown out of Eng-a-land. So much so they lit up Taipei 101 to welcome her. Where the hell is my parade? If you can't read it, it says 'Liz Truss MP'.