Day 4 (March 11, 2018): Train to Tainan

If you have never experienced a 12-hour time change, it's difficult to explain how it whacks your system.  We always try to throw ourselves into the new time and force our bodies - and brains - to adapt quickly.  But that is hard to do, especially after a 21-hour voyage during which you sleep very little.  By the time I finished last night's blog, it was midnight Taiwan time on Saturday - or noon Halifax time.  My last sleep of more than a few hours was last Tuesday night.  Therefore, the rise this morning was BRUTAL.  But rise we did, as there is a country to seen and very little time to see it!

We walked to Koahsiung Main Station close to 9:30am and were on a packed train to Tainan just before 10.  And when I say packed, I mean sardine-packed.  We arrived in Tainan - a city of 1.8 million to the north of Koahsiung - just after 10:30 and started another day of good walking.

Tainan is known for its temples, canals and the small-ish Taijing National Park on its northern boundary.  We started our trek with a visit to City God Temple, where people were busy burning incense sticks.  Then onward to the finely restored National Museum of Tiwanese Literature, the Confucius Temple with its fine grounds, and then a jaunt to the old downtown area, where a Japanese department store and bank from the 1930s have been finely restored:  Hayashi Department Store and the Land Bank.

Through twisted alley ways and scooter clogged traffic, we hunted down additional temples, the restored / artsy Shennong Street, the Chihkin Towers and grounds, and finally on to the Taijing National Park, where the Sihcao Dazhong Temple dazzled with its orante detail and a 70-minute boat tour of the Yenshui River revealed lots of bird life.

We made it back into the city in time to get an even crazier packed 5:15pm train back to Kaohsiung.  Dinner was a vegeterian buffet and, while we are not vegetarian, we were very impressed at what can be created without meat!  It was simply delicious.

I'll let you know if I wake at 3am craving a hamburger.

Taiwan Tail from Koahsiung to Tainan.

The City God Temple.

The finely restored National Museum of Tiwanese Literature.

The Confucius Temple.

The Japanese-designed Land Bank from 1928.

The Hayashi Department Store was THE place to shop back in the day.  It was recently refurbished and is a wonderful place to wander.  Its elevator was the first in southern Taiwan.

This is the God of War Temple from 1690, dedicated to -- you guessed it -- the God of War and Patron of all warriors.

 

You really have to love your neighbours to live in such tight quarters.  And yes, the scooters whip down these alleys as if they are 20-feet wide!

 

Started by the Dutch in 1653, Chikhin Towers has gone through many masters: Ming, Qing and Japanese.

That's one mean looking dude, at the Grand Matsu Temple, which features a beam where the king's concubines hanged themselves way back when.
 

  The over-the-top ornate detail of the Sihcao Dazhong Temple in the Taijing National Park.

 The mangroves of Taijing National Park.

The abundant bird life of Taijing National Park.