Tainan Vacation

So we've just come back from our very first vacation since we've been here and it was awesome. We went to Tainan which is way down south, about two hours on the HSR (high speed rail) with our friend, Debbie. It was similar to Taipei in some ways, but definitely had a different feel. Things weren't as bustling, there were lots of trees, and the people were SO friendly.

We took a transfer bus from the high speed rail station into Tainan city, and the guy sitting next to John said the people in Tainan were the friendliest in Taiwan. That definitely proved to be true as we explored the city. Any time we gathered around the map to see which street we were on, someone was always right there, asking if we needed help. Once, when we were looking for a street at an intersection, a woman standing next to us noticed us looking lost and asked where we were going. When she wasn't sure exactly where the street was, she asked a guy in a car that was waiting at the red light next to us. The guy got out, followed by his wife and kids, and they all figured out the best way to get to the street we were looking for. By the time we said our goodbyes, a policeman had also wandered over and offered his knowledge of the city, as well.

We spent three days and two nights in Tainan, ate some amazing food, and practiced our Chinese a lot. The first night, after we grabbed some dinner in an interesting hot-pot type restaurant, we found a pub and met some new friends. A guy who later introduced himself as "Mr. Chang" sat down with us at our table with all his friends. They spoke about as much English as we do Chinese, but that didn't stop us from hanging out for about three hours and having some great laughs. We were all thankful that John brought along the Chinese-English dictionary. It got some good use.

The second day we decided to do some sight-seeing. Tainan was originally the capital of Taiwan, and is full of history. We saw more temples than we could keep track of. After a long day of historical site after historical site, we decided to go to a bar and grill called "Willie's Second Base Bar and Grill" which is owned by ex-LA Dodgers pitcher Steve Wilson. We took a cab and it ended up that the bar no longer existed, so we asked/mimed to the cab driver to take us to any good restaurant. We ended up in a very nice dim sum restaurant which was yet again another great opportunity to use our Chinese/English dictionary. It turned out to be a great meal.

After dinner, and some walking around, we found (again!) a really nice little bar. Everyone seemed a bit nervous when we walked in there, and communicated that nobody really spoke English except one waitress who we ended up having a great language exchange with. Her name was Ting Ting and she said she was looking for an English name. We offered to help think of some and it was really fun coming up with a long list of names. She also wrote our names in Chinese and told us what they meant.

The last day of our visit we stumbled across an incredible curry restaurant called "Pumpkin Curry" which served all things pumpkin and curry, of course. After that we went to Anping, which has some of the oldest streets in Taiwan. We saw an old Dutch fort and went up in a tower that gave us a great view of Anping. We also saw a really great Eagles/Air Supply cover band who played "Take it Easy" for the Maegworens (Americans...us).

We ended our trip with a walk down a night market in Anping which was by far the most intense and crowded night market over any we've been to. We collected some nice stuff to take home-charms, fans, whistles, and some great pineapple cakes.

So our first trip out of Taipei was a fantastic one, and we're all looking forward to getting out again! We also took about a hundred pictures if you want to see Tainan.