FINALLY!!! I'm starting to get back to this trip report!!!Monday, 10/21/24
Taitung

Today we’re all about the scenery!

From our hotel window, we could see the Longfeng Temple, located on Liyu (Carp) Mountain. So naturally, we had to see it! After breakfast, we walked to Liyu Mountain, just behind our hotel, where we took a short walk up the hill to the temple. We passed a couple nearby who were singing karaoke to a monitor on their van! It was very soothing to hear them sing and made a nice background to the temple visit. A beautiful temple and very few people around! What a treat.

We had the hotel arrange a taxi to bring us to Chailease auto rental, where we have a car reserved for 2 days. While we’re not doing an extensive driving tour of Taiwan, Taitung seemed to be the one place that made sense to have a car.

Soon we were on the road to Chishang, the epitome of the stunning scenery of the East Rift Valley, with its fields of rice paddies surrounded by mountains. We start off in the town center, where we had a mediocre pizza for lunch. We found our way over to Brown Boulevard, the main paved pathway through the rice paddies center of indigenous culture and thr East Rift Valley, a region of striking beauty, with its gorgeous rice paddies, stunning mountain ranges and the coast.

We spend an afternoon in Chishang, riding around the rice paddies (which we’d seen from the train a day earlier). Renting a bicycle or covered cycle is a popular tourist activity but it’s SO MUCH FUN!!! There are many rental places near the entrance to Brown Boulevard, the "starting point" for entry to the rice fields, and we stopped in a few before we chose this particular place. The vehicle was less slick than some but it had the nice canopy and was comfortable for the both of us. M had no problem steering it and off we went!

After dropping off the car, we returned to Taitung, first looking for but not finding a specific teahouse I wanted to try. Driving is pretty easy here and our Google directions worked pretty well overall, but it's not perfect. We gave up and returned back to the hotel, less than an hour away.

We had a decent dinner at the Thai restaurant located in the Wave House.

Longfeng Temple on Liyu Mountain

From our window


Liyu, or Carp, lining the walk uphill

Chishang - another temple, of course!

We stopped in town for lunch and stopped into the temple in town. So colorful!

Brown Boulevard and the Cycling Through the Tea Fields

By the entrance to Brown Boulevard








Happy hubby!




A tree made made famous through 2013 commercials by EVA Airlines which featured the Japanese actor and singer, Takeshi Kaneshiro. It is a very popular stop for many tourists!








Lots of rice!




A very fun kind of day!!

Progol, I am so happy to see your newest installment! I loved reading your descriptions of the scenery and reading about the newest tourist faze - the bicycles! Sounds like so much fun! A great way to enjoy the scenery instead of always being in a car. Those yellow flowers are certainly unique!

Where is your next trip to? Are you going to Italy this spring? Just wondering because we will be in Italy in May.

mrwunrfl, 😘

Karenwoo, thank you! I’m doing my best to catch up! And driving through the rice fields was just the coolest thing!

I had really hoped to get to Italy in the spring but the type of travel we’re doing is changing. We’ll be going to Mexico in February for a few weeks just to get away from winter, visiting family on the west coast during the summer, and our next bigger trip (though “only” a month) will be France and Malta. We loved this trip but readjustment after returning was tougher than it’s been previously, especially for my husband.

Oh, that's too bad that you won't be in Italy this spring. I was hoping we could meet somewhere in Italy. I know how much you like Italy. But I certainly understand about slowing down and taking shorter trips. After spending 6 weeks in Australia and NZ, and then 5 weeks in Italy this May, we plan to do a shorter trip in September to Romania and Hungary but no more than 3 weeks. Malta certainly sounds interesting and different.

Well, we’re thinking of Prague/Vienna/Budapest for the fall so perhaps we can meet up then! Nothing is set in stone, but we could connect before the planning those autumn trips!

I like how they portrayed the 'whiskers' on the carp. Very East Asian. Like the carp knows something you don't.

When people go to Prague/Vienna/Budapest, the last is usually the least. Substitute Krakow instead. The rynek is a jaw-dropping site.

Th is, shelemm, Krakow is a definite possibility. I’ll focus on that trip in a few months. It’s still loose and nothing is written in stone here.

Love the point about the whiskers on the carp!

10/22/24 -Tuesday
Taitung

The weather was quite hot so we started our morning right - in the lovely rooftop swimming pool at our hotel! A perfect start to our day.

We visited the National Museum of Prehistory, which focuses not only on the prehistoric peoples of Taiwan, but connections with other indigenous cultures. We met a volunteer docent there who ended up giving us a wonderful private tour, too. Well worth visiting. We admired the building, too, designed by the well-known architect, Michael Graves.

We then drove to the Bunun Tribal Leisure farm, a re-creation of the tribal village, where arts, crafts and music are showcased. We’d hope to hear a musical performance that the members do regularly, but unfortunately, there weren’t enough visitors to perform. We still enjoyed the visit and walked around the village, admiring the traditional wooden carvings around the village and then ate a traditionally prepared meal while there.

After returning the car (easy peasy), the rental agency called a taxi for us and we returned to the hotel and had our afternoon rest.

That evening, we had dinner at a traditional hot pot restaurant just behind the hotel. A fabulous meal!

火鍋世家-台東新生店
No. 191-2號, Xinsheng Rd, Taitung City

A perfect start to the day


Looking from the National Museum of Prehistory


Lobby


Display


Love the carving!


museum display


museum display


Bunun Leisure farm




The carvings are wonderful, not unlike the figures in the museum






Some of the ingredients for our hot pot!


More ingredients for the hotpot!

Wednesday, October 23
Taitung to Tainan

We thoroughly enjoyed Taitung - it’s very different from Taipei and and we enjoyed its laidback vibe. Now it’s time to leave for Tainan, the oldest city in Taiwan as well as its birthplace and its first capital (until 1887).

A short and easy train ride to Tainan - I love riding by train!

And we loved, loved, loved Tainan! It turned out to be our favorite stop in Taiwan.

After settling into our hotel, the Lakeshore Hotel, we took a walk along some of the streets with numerous food stalls, eating some snacks and visiting the very touristed Shennong Street. We strolled back to the hotel, checking out possible restaurants along the way, but found none that appealed.

And a word about the hotel…Lakeshore Hotel is huge, but it is surprisingly well-organized. Once again, there are wonderful services, such as a steam room/sauna/hot and cold tubs - yes, it was busier than other places, but late in the afternoon was a quiet time and it was a wonderful way to relax.

We had dinner at Du Hsiao Yueh, a small but popular danzai noodle restaurant which we loved and returned a second time because it was so good. Danzai noodles are traditional to Tainan and are thin noodles in a flavorful broth, typically topped with shrimp and minced meat. It is really tasty and this is one of the places that is known for them.

Taitung train station and ride

Arrival day in Tainan - a walk about, some snacks and dinner at a local noodle restaurant



The chocolate roll was wonderful!










Shennong Street, one of the best preserved traditional streets in Tainan. It was nice enough during the day, but more magical (and crowded!) at night. But the whole area is hopping at night!










Halloween was only a few days away!

The popular Du Hsiao Yueh
(food pix from our second visit there!)

Wow! I love all of the food and restaurant photos. I know my husband would love all of this food. He would be in heaven! We all love hot pot. Your photos are awesome. So delicious! And that pool looks so inviting. Do you remember what the temps were in October?

Karenwoo, thank you for still following!

Taiwan was warm! It was probably in the 80s for most of our trip, though very humid for much of the time. It IS a subtropical region. I was very glad that I had my summery clothes! We were fortunate to miss the 2 typhoons that hit the island a few weeks before we arrived and, again, immediately after - though the second typhoon did nip us in our butts shortly after we arrived in Japan, giving us a day of torrential rain in Fukuoka!

We did love Taiwan, though, and somehow, the weather never really bothered us too much. Having those regular breaks and hotels with A/C do help.😉

Thursday, October 24
Tainan - Day 2

Breakfast at the Lake Shore Hotel was an overwhelming experience! This was one of the largest buffet breakfasts I’ve ever experienced, and it was a bit daunting, though the choices were all pretty darn good. There was usually a short line for breakfast and then we’d be seated somewhere in the very large dining areas. But we got the hang of it pretty quickly. The choices were overwhelming but I found I loved having the beef noodle soup for breakfast and tofu pudding with red beans and other sweets. Too many choices!!

Our first activity in Tainan was taking another wonderful tour with Like It Formosa, walking through the downtown area. We met at the Chikhan Tower, originally a Dutch fort and only later was a temple built on top of it.

We then walked to the Grand Mazu Temple Tainan, one of the grander temples in a city where there are 1600 temples - and more temples than convenience stores, according to our delightful guide, Sushin. The temple is dedicated to Mazu, the Goddess of the Sea. It was also once the residence of the Ming dynasty Prince of Ningjing, who committed suicide when the Qing dynasty took over.

While Mazu is Taoist, she often shares her temple with the Buddhist goddess Guanyin, and there was a room devoted to Guanyin and Buddhist figures. The temples are very ornate but as we focus more on details, the decoration starts making sense. I loved the wall paintings which appear to be about folktales, though not specific to the temple we’re visiting.

After visiting the Grand Mazu Temple Tainan, we stopped off for a refreshing drink of wood melon boba and delicious bubble tea. Taiwan is the home of bubble tea and this one is very tasty. We then continued on to the Hayashi Department store, the largest of the old buildings in Tainan. Built in 1932 during the Japanese Colonial period, this art deco gem retains its old-fashioned quality and you’ll find cozy displays of an old record player and TV set sitting prominently On the ground floor. Taking the old elevator with its pretty mosaic floor to the 5th floor, we walk up one flight to the roof, which has several interesting elements: first, the cute “bun” seats (though no one seems to actually be sitting on them! A Japanese shrine. And the sobering sight of a hole in the wall, the remains of the WWII bombing by a US military raid.

Our last formal stop was the Confucius Temple and perhaps my favorite stop on this tour. Entering the extensive grounds, I was immediately struck by the sense of calm - this isn’t an elaborate and ornate temple but is elegant and refined setting. Of course, the cute couple dressed in traditional red outfits and taking wedding photos belied the completely serene atmosphere but it did remind me that Taiwan has both the traditional and the modern rolled into one. Don’t get too serious!

The temple grounds have several structures, though we focused primarily on the Education Hall, built in 1663, and the reason why the Tainan Confucius Temple is known as “Taiwan’s First School”. One wall is covered in Chinese calligraphy displaying a section of a book written by Confucius. Another wall has 2 large Chinese characters representing loyalty and filial piety, the foundations of Confucian philosophy.

After the tour

Having had our fill of traditional Tainan, we set off for a more contemporary experience, visiting the Tainan Art Museum I and II. The museum is housed in 2 separate structures - the first is housed in the 1931 Japanese-era Tainan Police Department building, a simple but charming Art Deco building, and is a good fusion of old and new. The second building is a purely modern creation, or more futuro-modern, designed with a pentagonal shape to represent Tainan’s Royal poinciana trees, it’s a hodgepodge of shapes stacked on top of each other and the spaces seem to go every which way in a non-linear fashion. Can you guess which museum building we preferred?😉 Mind you, I’m not against modern structures, but this one just didn’t work for us.

We visited the newer one first and the older one second! The latter had a fabulous retrospective of the artist, Tseng Pei-Yao, and important Taiwanese painter. His work really impressed us. Born in Tainan in 1927, his work covers a wide range of styles. Rather than trying my hand at art-speak, I’ll take a quote from the description of the show we saw:

“Tseng categorizes his artist career into four periods, namely the Periods of Sketching and Realism (1945-1952), Subjective and Figurative Expressionism (1953-1954), Abstract Expressionism (1955-1961), and Life-themed Series (1962-1991). Despite his short life tormented by the loss of loved ones and serious illness, Tseng relentlessly explored the true essence of artistic life and seized every moment of art and living.” We loved his work.

The second museum had some interesting exhibits (do I sound a little like I’m “damning with faint praise”?) by Taiwanese artists exploring and processing how to integrate their own cultural heritage with the external but inherited western culture. Good show, though by this point, our energy was running out.

We returned to Shennong Street in the evening - I convinced M that I needed to see this very popular tourist site at night when the lanterns were lit — and it was nice, but what made the trip truly worthwhile was discovering the vendor who cooked duck breast! Just around the corner from Shennong Street, along Hai’an Road, there were numerous stands, and this vendor was one of the most animated cooks - he had a wonderful patter going that alternated between Chinese and English. And the end product was delicious! We strolled back to the hotel, sated and happy.