Tainan

Tainan

台南

The other weekend marked my friend Tyler's last day in Taiwan, and we decided to take the opportunity to finally have a much postponed trip to the city of Tainan on the Southern end of the island. Tainan is the oldest city in Taiwan, and originally served as the capital of the country. Accordingly, Tainan is notable amongst locals and tourists for its wealth of historical sites and buildings. Furthermore, though no longer the capital of the country, many people consider Tainan to be the culinary capital of Taiwan, with many of the country's more popular dishes originating from the city.

We caught the bullet train after I finished work on Friday, arriving at our hostel by 10 and ensuring that we'd have a full day of exploring on Saturday.

On Saturday, we headed a little bit out of the city to an area known as AnPing, which is home to an old Dutch fort from the 1600's as well as numerous old streets selling food and local wares.

The fort was cool to look around, with many of its walls crumbling and covered in plants and vines. Unfortunately, it was pouring with rain on the day we visited and the area definitely felt like a place that would be really pleasant to walk around in the sunshine (for which the south of Taiwan is notable for in contrast to Taipei). When I'd checked the weather forecast before leaving Taipei, I read to expect sunny days and 29 degrees temperatures. Accordingly, I had only brought shorts and T-shirts with me to Tainan, and didn't even have a sweater or jacket, which definitely did not help. Nevertheless, there was a small indoor museum on the history of the fort and the short-lived Dutch occupation of Taiwan before their expulsion and a variety of artefacts left over from both the Dutch and the Taiwanese of the time.

You could climb to the top of the building in the middle to get a good view of the city.

Replicas of Dutch cannons.

In the area surrounding AnPing fort, there is a wealth of old streets and interesting shops and restaurants which we walked around. Again, the terrible weather definitely brought a downer on the experience but it was still a fun place!

One of the more brightly coloured lion statues I've seen.

We stopped for lunch at a small restaurant selling Dan Zai Noodles, one of the most popular dishes in Tainan which consists of shrimp broth, coriander, an egg, garlic and a shrimp on top. It was really delicious!

I'm not sure what these circular signs are, but we saw them all around the area.

While walking around, we also made an obligatory stop at one of the many temples in Tainan, which was pretty intricately decorated inside and out.

Due to its proximity to the coast, seafood plays an integral role in Tainanese cuisine. At one point while walking along road, the air suddenly became filled with a very strong fishy smell. We quickly identified the origin of this when we discovered this shop which had a bunch of people sitting outside surrounded by piles of shells which they were preparing. These mounds of shells were piled all around the street, spreading their delightful aroma!

There were many streets like this with stands set up selling food and other goods.

Eventually the rain became too much for us and we headed back to the hostel to try off a little. That evening, we decided to check out Tainan's Flower Night Market.

We started with some very inexpensive grilled steak which involved the chef holding a huge flame to the meat in order to brown the outsides. The steak was great, especially considering it's low price and very tasty.

We also stopped at a Shawarma stall.

We tried this strange desert known as QQ, which was this very strange gelatinous substance that was scooped in balls and rolled into different powders. We got 2 peanut, 2 sesame and 2 chocolate. They had a really strange texture and constituency (texture plays an important role in Chinese cuisine), but were interesting to try at least!

We also ate some delicious sesame chicken, some slightly disappointing Beijing Duck and some candied guavas before heading out.

The next morning, the sun was finally out and the weather had warmed up considerably! We decided to explore the actual city of Tainan a little more and after eating breakfast at a small panini cafe, headed to Tainan's Confucius Temple, originally built in the 1665. The temple itself was in a big grass complex which was very pretty to walk around in the sunshine!

Facing onto the temple was an Old Street which was full of small food stalls and restaurants as well as various little shops.

The entrance to the Old Street.


The Old Street was pretty to walk along and had a nice relaxed feel to it!


A food stall on the old street.

After looking round the temple, we decided to explore the city, taking advantage of the easy accessibility around it on foot.

A statue of Koxinga-a Chinese military leader who sailed to Taiwan and expelled the Dutch East India Company.

A friendly reminder of the draught in Taiwan...

At one point while walking around the streets, we suddenly heard the familiar loud bang of firecrackers and soon discovered its origin. There was a procession of people heading toward a temple, with a variety of people dancing while the cacophony of traditional Chinese music played in the background.

One man seemed to have been given fire duty, and he was continually pulling out firecrackers and fireworks and setting them off with his blowtorch.

Then a large pile of prayer (?) cards were put into a pile, which the fire guy set alight. The man pictured below in the colourful clothes danced around the burning papers, occasionally hitting his back with the spiked red stick in his left hand. I've seen processions heading towards temples in Taipei before, but this was certainly the most bizarre as well as the loudest!

After watching all this unfold for about ten minutes or so, we turned our back on the temple and headed to a street known as GuoHua Street, which had been recommended to us by a Taiwanese guy the night before.

 The street was crowded with people, street stalls and restaurants and had various streets coming off to them which led to pedestrianised areas with stalls, second hand clothing racks and busy open restaurants. The whole place had a great atmosphere and managed to feel simultaneously lively and relaxed and was a lot of fun to wander around on. I got an especially good crepe filled with ice cream, kiwis and mango (which is back in season!) along the way and my friend Tyler was extremely excited to see a food stall selling Dr Pepper, Cuban Sandwiches and Grilled Cheese (I tried their brownie which was great!).

After GuoHua street, we started to make our way back to the hostel to pick up our bags and catch the bus back to Taipei. Along the way, I stopped at a small restaurant selling Ba Wan, known as a Taiwanese meatball. It consisted of bamboo shoots and pork wrapped in a sticky dough, which is often steamed, but in this case was deep fried. It tasted awesome, although I did fail to recognise the huge pile of garlic in front of the bun, attempting to eat it in one mouthful before realising what it was...

After this, we collected our bags from the hostel and headed to the station area to catch our bus home.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong

香港

We recently had a four day long weekend in honour of Children's Day and Tomb Sweeping Day, both of which warrant a national Holiday in Taiwan and Hong Kong (and as far as I know, China). This four day break seemed like a perfect opportunity to do some travelling, and the logical destination was Hong Kong which was only a short plane journey away and also home to my friend Monica, who was planning to leave by the summer.

So on Thursday afternoon after finishing work, I jumped on a bus to Taoyuan Airport and started my journey (delayed by an hour of course), arriving in Hong Kong a little before Midnight, and Stanley Island (and Monica's Dad's house) a little closer to one. After some catching up with the Dunners, I headed to bed, exhausted.

I decided to have an easy start to my first day with a planned 32km hiker with Monica, her Dad and Kristen. So after a brief five hour sleep, we headed out at 7:30 in the morning for a long day's hiking. We were soon on a ferry to Hong Kong's largest island, Lantau Island, hoping to cover two peaks which promised to offer some spectacular views.

Upon arriving on the island, we very quickly stumbled upon some man who was wheeling along two huge turtles in these bags. Thought it was difficult to guess what he had in store for these turtles-I think he assured us they were being moved for conservation reasons, but turtle soup seemed an equally viable  outcome-we decided to take a picture anyway!

Soon enough we were off of the road and onto the mountains, where it quickly became apparent that our views might be somewhat obscured. The whole of the area was covered in fog and mist. Though this provided us with a great way to escape the heat (the combination of the mist and the wind created a similar effect to those small handheld fans attached to spray bottles), it did mean that we could barely see anything along the hike. So although the hike itself was pretty enjoyable, after completing our first peak, we decided that it wasn't worth doing the second when we couldn't see anything. So we headed to the road and caught a bus to Tai O, a small fishing village popular with tourists, for our lunch.

The village was very picturesque, consisting of lots of buildings on stilts, with the stunning backdrop of mountains rising from the sea which was so common throughout Hong Kong.

The village itself was very busy, and seemed to consist mostly of street stands and open front shops which sold alls varieties of dried seafood, a popular ingredient in Asian cuisine. You can imagine it wasn't the kind of place which had my stomach growling with hunger... 

Dried squid anyone?

Some of the shops had whole dried shark skins hanging amongst their fare.

The village was pretty fun to walk around and we eventually stopped outside a restaurant marked by a chef cutting roast duck outside. We had some delicious food (including the aforementioned duck) and I was fortunately able to largely avoid the copious amounts of dried sea creatures we'd been walking past in the village. Although I am more open to eating seafood than in the past, the tiny whole dried fish (eyes included) which are occasionally sprinkled over our lunch at work and which were one of the options at lunch are definitely past my threshold.

After our late lunch, we headed back home. I was staying at Monica's Dad's house, located on Stanley Island, a popular area among expats which provides escape from the craziness of the city centre with its beaches and waterfront. I decided to explore the area a little, checking out the waterfront which had a bunch of International and Western restaurants and bars as well as Stanley market, a small outdoor market which runs along a street, selling clothing and your standard tourist souvenirs.

After seeing my fill of Stanley, I headed back to Monica's Dad's house where I was treated to an incredible dinner of bread, brie and saucisson!

The next day, Monica had a barbecue planned with some of her friends on one of the Islands outside of the city. I had a little time before this in the morning, so I decided to head into the city centre to explore the streets of Hong Kong.

I headed to the area around Sheung Wan, which had a variety of cool antique stores and stalls everywhere. One especially cool one (which I couldn't get a picture of) sold massive mammoth tusks on which hundreds of small characters were carved out in intricate scenes. Apart from this, there was your standard fare of jade and pottery, as well as various street stalls selling Communist Memorabilia.

There were also a variety of temples in the area which were distinct to some temples I've seen elsewhere by the large number of spiralled incense covering their ceilings. The effect of all of them together was pretty cool!

The streets also had a lot of street art and galleries, which gave the streets a fun atmosphere to just wander about on.

Some street art of Bruce Lee, one of Hong Kong's more famous exports.

Some detail on the Man Mo Temple, one of Hong Kong's more famous temples.

There were also tons of shops which opened up to the street, seeing hug bags and jars of dried fish, which seems to be very popular in Hong Kong!

After exploring a little, I met Monica and her friends at the ferry where we headed to Park Island, a small residential Island which reminded me a little of the residential districts in Dubai. After being treated to a variety of courses including paella, sausages and steak, I headed back into the city to do a little more exploring.

Monica recommended I go to Mong Kok to see the real Chinese side of the city. Mong Kok is notable as being one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with 340,000 people per square mile. I went on a Saturday, and the streets were flooded with people and market stalls which rendered them completely unusable by cars. All the shops had huge signs reaching outwards into the street which added to the busy, chaotic feeling of the area. It seemed like you could probably find anything you wanted or need somewhere within Mong Kok, with there even being a whole street which had nothing but shoe stores.

The sprawling streets of Mong Kok.

Some apartment blocks in the area.

After exploring (and getting lost in!) Mong Kok, I headed down to the river to catch some good views of the city's skyline at Victoria Harbour.

The area gave a great view of the hundreds of skyscrapers which crowd the streets of Hong Kong.

I also saw one of the junk boats which offers tours over the river.

After getting lost a few more times and having eaten my fill of spring rolls and duck congee, I decided to head back home exhausted from all the walking I had been doing.

The next day I decided to check out the Hong Kong Museum in the morning, as recommended by Jane and James Langton, which presented the history of the city. The museum went all the way through Hong Kong's geological beginnings to the various occupations and wars which helped shape the modern day city. Much of the history was also presented through recreations of the streets or houses so you could fully immerse yourself in the city's past. Particular highlights included the recreations of Hong Kong's 20th century streets, the exhibit on the four main Chinese cultures in Hong Kong and the hundreds of old photographs of Hong Kong over the recent years.

Although it has apparently since been banned, there used to be a popular festival from the island of Cheung Chau, which involved three 60 foot towers being covered in bread buns. People would then scramble up as high as the could onto the tower to try to grab a bun. Apparently serious injuries eventually led to the practice being banned, and it has been brought back with new regulations where only professionally trained athletes are allowed to climb to the top.

After exploring the museum, I met up with Monica at her apartment in Wan Chai. We decided I should take advantage of Hong Kong's international status and headed out to find some more Western restaurants in the area.


However, on our way Monica insisted we tried some Char Siu outside her house, which is one of the more popular foods in Hong Kong. Char Siu is basically barbecue pork meat and is part of what is used to fill the barbecued pork buns which I love. The meat was amazing and really really flavourful!

Monica went for pesto pizza while I had duck confit with potato gratin!

After eating our fill, we headed to Victoria Peak which offers the best views of the city and its skyline.

Monica and I looking awkward at The Peak. This is a picture of a photo, so sorry for the bad quality!

When we were finished, we decided to try to walk down the mountain as it was hugely busy (because of it being a four day weekend across China) and the line for taxis were very long. However, after a half hour walk which seemed to be equally uphill as it was down, we ended up exactly where we'd started and realised we'd just done a circle around the peak. Fortunately, we were able to get some even better views of the city!

The next morning was my last in the city and I was eager to sample the Dim Sum for which the Cantonese areas of China are famous for. We went to a place called Maxim's which is located at City Hall and famous for being one of the few places where there is no menu, but instead the food is brought around on carts and you point at what you want to eat. Apparently there are normally huge lines, so we made a point of getting their pretty early (Dim Sum is typically brunch food, but we arrived closer to breakfast time). However, the restaurant was nearly empty and we had no difficult in walking in straight away and getting a seat.

We ate tons of food, including some amazing Cha Siu Bao (Barbecue pork buns which were heavy on the filling), fried wontons and rice noodle rolls, which I'd never had before but were delicious!

Some food being brought around on carts.

Some of or food early on in the meal-we ate a lot!

I'd decided that I want to give hiking one more try in Hong Kong so after our meal, I said goodbye to Monica and headed on the bus to try the Dragon's Back hike-one of the more popular hikes in Hong Kong which offers spectacular views of the natural scenery around Hong Kong.

It was a particularly hot day, and fortunately the skies were clear so I had no difficult in seeing the incredible views.

There were quite a few people sky gliding in the area.

The contrast of the huge green hills rising straight out of the blue water was beautiful.

Due to time limitations with my flight later that evening, I decided to head back after reaching the top of the first peak. After going back to Stanley to pick up my bag, I headed back into the city where I had a couple of more hours.

Some of Hong Kong's more famous skyscrapers including the HSCBC building (the red one) and the Bank of China Building (far left hand side).

After walking around (and eating) a little more, I headed towards the airport express so I could catch my flight. However, before jumping on the express, on the advice of Monica, I headed for one of the Tim Ho Wans which was located a floor above the station. Tim Ho Wans is a now chain in Hong Kong which was at one point famous for being the cheapest Michelin Star restaurant in the world. It specialises in Dim Sum, and in particular it's crispy barbecue pork buns. The one above the airport express fortunately had no wait time, so I was able to grab a portion of buns before I left. The buns were delicious and a nice finale to my stay in Hong Kong. We have a Tim Ho Wans in Taipei, which I'm now keen to try out!

After wolfing down the buns, I headed down to the airport and my journey back home to Taipei.