Taiwan Day 13, Shizuo day 2 (spring)

 Breakfast is served and we are fed like royalty. Mrs Lin cooked and there is congee instead of weili zhajan men... Sad lol. 

Still delicious... This time my appetite was better??? I managed to finish everything without being too stuffed. 

Then we had tea ceremony and the sister came along and did it in English. M asked why she chose to learn tea ceremony, and Ms Lin realistically replied that it's because to et a job after she graduated from uni and couldn't find a job in Taipei lol. So real. I feel her. 

This time tea ceremony was in front of the main house of the sanheyuan, I asked why and it's because they're currently doing construction work on the upper level just above where we live. They're wanting to redo the rooms and the restaurant there, and the noise and dust was too much. 

After the ceremony was finished, we got ready to go walk some trails. 

We started off walking up the road to the Sunset Trail, so we could take the Sakura trail down. M decided to wait for us at the start of the Sunset Trail... Stairs are eveil, she said. Lol L and I went up and we made it but our legs suffered.

We made it and the view from top was pretty good. There was a lady in a red dress and a parasol, walked past as I was getting nui photos and she thought Juan Juan was Xavier and she said she plays Love & Deepspace. How rude lol. I said they were from Thunderbolt Fantasy and she replied sounding like she knew the series??? We will never know. Her perfume was so strong... She had come from the Mist Trail. 

Then we had to come back down... The info centre at the start of the two trails was undergoing construction and closed until the 5th of April. Poo. I bought my stamp book for nothing lol. 

We did the Sakura trail but the sakura had finished blooming... We were about a week too late. Nooooooooo.... 

At the end of the trail, we unexpectedly found a stamp for a stamp rally?!?! Well I'm glad I hailed my stamp book with me!!! Never will I be caught out again!! 

 Then we followed the trail and back down to town. 

It was about 1:30pm and we decided to go to 平安快炒 across the road from Tong-Xin. They had outdoor seats too. We got mapo tofu, bamboo shoots, beef stir-fry noodle, and a plate of 水蓮. The mapo tofu was exquisite. Silken tofu... Just right spicy... Full of flavour!!! The breed noodles had a satay flavour base, it was good too. Bamboo shoots were nice and crunchy and not tough. 水蓮 was crunchy too. Everything was awesome. A hit. We finished eating around 2:20pm and the auntie came to get the bill as they close at 2pm, Woops. Lunch was $590, I paid L&M $200.

Inside I could spot that they had a corner with some manga and books, and many figures including a big one of the 3 Yu-gi-oh Egyptian Gods. They also had a blackboard out the front with DBZ Freeza screaming something. 

And near the end of our meal a local guy wearing a DBZ t-shirt walked out and spoke in perfect American English, if the taste was good. And two more sentences after our reply. Lmao that was unexpected. 

After we paid we left and went for a walk around town. I noticed a lot of shops close in the middle of the day. A backpacking European couple was peering into shops to see if they were open - so I told them that the shop is closed. 

We came to a drinks shop with aiyu jelly and we sat and had some aiyu drinks. This place ended up having the poster for the stamp rally, and we finally found out what it was. It runs until September... 

And the boss came out when I looked at the poster. Said he had 3 stamp sheets left, would we like to do it? I had a chat and said we saw the sakura trail one earlier today but the sign there didn't say what it was. 

I ended up taking one stamp sheet and then looked up the three trails (as you can redeem your stamps for prizes in 3 tiers of collection, and need a photo with you in it at the stamp point). The other one was mist Trail, and the one was Cloud Trail. The Cloud Trail was an hour's walk.... And uphill with that many steps? Nooooo. We could do the mist trail one though. So I went to put the sheet back. 

I borrowed the shop's toilet and L and I decided to challenge the Mist Trail and suffer, whilst M went back to rest. 

Off we go. I realised I walked the Mist Trail last year, and started the beginning of the Tea Trail (which links in with Mist Trail and then connects to Cloud Trail on the other end) but didn't finish it was the sun was setting. 

The steps were brutal lol. And the stamp was at the other end of the trail entry/exit, which mean we climbed all the way up to the end... L and I took a selfie showing how unimpressed we were. Haha. I was thinking the stamp may be in the middle so that you'd had to walk part of the trail either way. 

We headed back down via the road, and on the way at the Sakura Trail entrance I met a couple who were trying to take a photo and I offered to take for them. I got a few shots and they were happy. They asked about how far the trail goes up, and I said be prepared for a lot of steps. When asked where we were from, I said NZ. And she said her son spent 3 months there on exchange when 10 years old and was so happy about it. I commented that the schooling there has less pressure and the approach to education is different. 

Then we got back to the entrance driveway of Lin Family house, with the red small shrine and the single blooming sakura tree. We started taking photos and one English speaking lady offered to take photos for us. 

It was hard because of the angle of the tree and the slope. 

L managed to get a selfie with his phone case stand, and I helped do a series of photos where I placed him and pressed the shutter button so him and the tree were in frame with him doing various poses. 

Then I tried some nui photos, and home we go. 

Time for dinner, quick break and pee and then off to dinner. We are going to try hotpot at Tong-Xin tonight haha. M decided to skip dinner and rest. 

We walked down and got hotpot of classic bone broth and the crispy high mountain stream fish L had eyed up the previous night. 

It was just right. The fish was a bit dry for me, kinda like the crispy tiny prawn. 

The hot pot had the jelly fuel and it was pretty good! I think my 酸白菜炒豬肉 is still the best though. Mmmm. 

Then we headed to Hi-Life/7-11 for dessert/drink. 

Hi-Life didn't have any fruit for me, so I went to 7-11. They had yellow watermelon. 

When I went to pay, another customer was checking out the pudding and asked the young lad at the counter if they had the no-caramel-pudding-only flavour. He said ti was sold out. The other customer lamented it and the lad laughed. I asked if it was a new flavour? He said yup, this time it's all pudding no caramel, and we got stock today and it sold out fast. I said, oh, I remember seeing a thing of it online. He said, last time it was all caramel no pudding, right? Hahaha. Not sure why people are so crazy about it, rofl. We laughed, I thanked and left. 

I went out and couldn't see L, as I left him behind when I saw no fruit at Hi-Life. He wasn't in Hi-Life anymore, so I texted him. Apparently he arrived just as I left. Lmao I just missed him. Oh well I'll start walking back first. 

I got home and gave him $250 for dinner (dinner was $500). Then I just winded down for a bit and then went for a shower. Also decided to wash my pants and see if they dry cause I've been sweating so bad. 

Now I blog, and finish. Sleep. The weather so rude, it's forecasted to rain at 6am tomorrow, heaviest at noon, and then clear up around 6pm. Poo!!!!! 

Taiwan Day 12 - Shizuo (spring)

 There was hardly anyone at breakfast today, except for 1 person. But I took my breakfast up with me anyway. A lot of items were out yesterday but today they had croissant so I took one, a brown sugar mantou, and nikuman, along with the choco cereal and oats. 

After breakfast, I went back down to return my plate and also borrowed their toilet to poop. 

Then I went up to gran my laundry that was still damp and headed to the laundromat around the corner, but all machines were in use. So I sat for 5 mins, as one machine had 10 mins left, then decided I will go back to the hotel and see if they will let me use the machine early.. I arrived back at 9:38am, and asked reception if they could? 

They let me! I put my clothes in for 30 mins, then popped back upstairs and took my postcards out to he post office with me. 

I decided to head to the post office that was a little further as they held 3 風景戳. That was worth it - I sent 9 postcards in total and Nadi/Archer got all 3 of them. The rest got 2 - the two temples. The guy who served me was so nice and patient. 

Then back to the hotel, It was about 10:08am and my laundry should be done. I asked L to check on my laundry, and he put it on for a couple more mins. I got back and went and grabbed me laundry bag, headed back down, and collected my now dry laundry. Yay! 

Back upstairs and finish packing. It was just after 11am now once we all finished sorting our stuff out. 

We checked out and asked the reception to call a taxi that could fit 3 luggage for us. 

A plain white hatchback came and they could juuuust fit all 3 of our luggage into the boot. Woo! The driver was dressed in a shirt, tie and waistcoat. Fancy! Fare was about $200.

Whilst in the car I reserved train tickets and then collected it at the self-service machine. We went into the platform and hung around. The train that came was a push-pull train, the one with weird baggage holding areas that had the foot rests on it.... 

Welp, looks like we're baby sitting our luggage. I had to manspread but it worked. Thankfully the train is only 45 mins journey. 

Tainan Station had a signboard up about the renewal of the station. It looks like they are under grounding the train lines, which is a real pity. I like open air stations way more. And seems like they are putting a new building out the front? So the train station would be covered.... That's sad man. 

Once at Chiayi we exited the station, and Chiayi station is also an open air station like Tainan. We headed to the TRA info desk for the stamps, and then I popped to the tourist info desk to ask if they had stamps. They had 11! Wow! 9 of them were all uniform circles of the same size, which was satisfying. Two were square/rectangle. 

The auntie at the info desk asked me to spray my hands with alcohol to disinfect before stamping. Very fair. 

I thanked the lady and said bye. 

We headed to the FamiMart just to the left of the station and got lunch. I ate an onigiri combo of salmon and tuna. 

And then ate the bean tea cakes (the kind that drys your mouth out but melts instantly with enough water) left over, and then drank the oolong tea from last night. 

We had about an hour until the bus, so we just hung out under shade and then moved to the bus stop about 20 mins before. 

There were two lines, the reserved and non-reserved. Like no one else was in the reserved tickets line??? Everyone else was lining up in the non-tickets. 

Though, after we got on, two ladies came on near at the end with their tickets. 

The bus driver opened up the bottom cavity for us. Initially we put our suitcases in first but there was another 2 passengers that were getting off at Alishan, so took ours out and reordered them as we were getting off at Shizuo. 

I chose front row seats... Because the bus drivers tend to open up the window when we start ascending the mountain and the air is way better. It was quite hot in Chiayi. 

As soon as we started climbing, the bus driver opened up the window on his side. 

On the way up, we had 2 monkey sightings. We also ran into a truck that was carrying stone pavers/concrete bricks load, that didn't take a turn properly and got their right rear wheel stuck into the gutter on the side of the road... Thankfully their wares were tied down - the stones glad wrapped and on forklift pallets, and secured in place onto the truck. One person was helping spot the bus as they made the turn, the space was soooo tight in between the edge of the road and the head of the truck that had the accident. We made it! The driver thanked the spotter and we headed on. 

One bus coming down in the opposite lane was taking the corner too fast and our driver had to brake to make sure we didn't crash. One passenger behind us said why they turning so fast... And the driver was like 搞什麼. 

We made it safely to Shizuo and I let Mr Lin know we were here. Less than like 3 mins later he arrived and I was in the middle of typing a message cause I remember his little black SUV, might not fit all our luggage, and said I was willing to walk if no room for luggage lmao. 

Turns out he was driving a van! A van so old, it didn't have seat belts on the back seats. And the windows were manual roll down ones. Nostalgic... Cause dad's Ford in Taiwan was like this. 

Once we checked in, Mr Lin went through the briefing and I translated for L and M. 

We settled in quickly, L and M went to look around, and I unpacked a few things. Then I followed them to the observation deck. 

The mist was coming down really hard now and you can't see anything. Real Silent Hill hours! We took a few photos and observed a stray dog family. 

And then when we came down from the observation deck it started raining. Like real rain not misty drizzle. 

Mrs Lin was coming out front the front and asked us if we needed umbrellas. She gave us two. 

And we were gonna head out but observed the cats as it was feeding time... I crept closer to the back door of the kitchen and Mrs Lin was getting their food ready. 

I ended up asking about the cats and she was happy to talk. 
The cat dad was on the stool and the mum has already passed away. She got them neutered and commented about 3 cats hasn't been cause they weren't old/heavy enough yet, and skittish. 

One cat saw the other get put into the cage and taken so is extra wary now, Mrs Lin wants to get them neutered as they are a girl. 

She also commented the stray dogs had puppies recently and they may be a bit noisier at night. And not to put our shoes outside as the dogs come to eat the leftover cat feed, and sometimes if they don't get any leftovers they get a but grumpy and take a shoe.

Mrs Lin also said to go to the restaurant a little earlier as they may shut early if no business on a weekday. And offered to pick us up if the rain is too heavy - but I think we should be alright. Also to be careful of the cars in the mist and they may not see us, and if I am wearing white it's easier to spot me. M went to change a white jacker. We thanked her and headed to dinner! 

We went to Tong-Xin, the same quickly fry shop I liked a lot last time. 

We ended up getting a lot of food lol. I made sure to get my 酸菜炒羊肉 that I wanted but didn't get to last time.

We got... To share... Pineapple fried shrimp (which came with a sweet mayo??? And sprinkles), crispy tiny shrimp with garlic and herbs, Makao sausage, fried rice, 龍鬚菜, and a small pot of chicken and mushroom soup (which also had some cockles in it!) which was not small at all! We managed to finish 90% of the food, the soup we left half... I couldn't even fit a piece of chicken from it inside... Total was $1350 and we split it into 3.

Then we went to Hi-Life and 7-11 for some drinks that L and M wanted. No bandages in Hi-Life for M but I found my vita C candy for $25! The staff who served me said there's a pharmacy 5 mins up the road. I think this lady may be Indigenous. I thanked her and left. 

Then at 7-11 L and M found everything they needed. 

I hopped outside as I could hear coughing. One staff was changing the banner over the main entrance. They used magnets to fix it in place, the banner scroll itself is that plastic material. 

And then back home. When we headed back, the sky cleared up quite a lot.  We could faintly see the rest of the sunset. Just chill now. I get to have oolong tea... And boiled the jug for it. Then I checked Pokemon and realised one gym was empty, just up at the observation deck at the start of the mist trail, and an egg hatching in 5 mins. So off I go!! Climbing those stairs in quick succession was oof. I got there with a min to spare. 

Like 3 cars passed me by. 

Then back and finally some tea, and relax. Decided to shower first after flicking through the TV - only the basic channels here. 

Showered and now blog, then bed. Breakfast and tea ceremony tomorrow! I am quite tired. 

Taiwan Day 11 - Tainan 2 (spring)

 Today we are going to hit all the Anping stops.

First off we went to Anping Fort, but before that we stopped for lunch at one of the restaurants outside. They had streetside tables and I got danzai noodles which were vermicelli, bean spirits, one prawn, some vege, and a fish ball.

The smell of stinky tofu kept wafting down and I asked the shop lady if they sold stinky tofu? No but they're just up the street so you can bring 外食 here to eat if you want.

After everyone ordered I went up and bought a serving of tofu for $70 and boy was it stinky good. Hit the spot.

L had oyster omelette with oyster rolls? and M had a regular omelette. Pigs ear for side dish as well as some 海帶芽.

After lunch I got some 冬瓜茶 and we headed to Fort Zeelandia. I found the stamps and finished my tea first before going for a walk around. The pits are cool but someone has been down in the pit and moved all the bricks. Later when we left I let the staff know and the groundsman said it's likely to be kids that went in there to play.

The wall has been covered up for maintenance so you can't really see it, which is a real shame. 

I got a good nui photo with some blooms and then eventually made it to the shop at the top of the fort. I found that they were selling portable soap, with a roll on type container (like a glue stick) and got one for the office days. 

Later I went to the toilet and tested it, and then went back to buy the other stick for $50. 

After we were done at the fort, we headed out towards the Tree house, but stopped at the outer wall remnant and also discovered a new historical house open for viewing. Yang house. They had some art painting exhibits inside, available for sale, and a DIY area for kids (but no classes today). They also had a back courtyard. 

Then we kept going and wandered out to a Yang Shin Trading House which is open with heaps of different DIY experience projects. I found an embossed and embossed a page in my stamp book with it. 

Finally we made it to the Tree house lol. 

I opted to skip to buy prawn crackers and then got myself a egg popsicle (plum flavour) to lick while waiting for L and M. The shop lady at the store was so patient with me. 

Soon after they were done, and it was about 3:44pm at this stage. We called a taxi to go to Eternal Golden Castle and I entered so I can sit in the grounds for a rest. I did have a look around, carrying my 10 bags of prawn crackers around with me haha. 

The little shop was moved to a different location and the building has changed as well. They sold out of the t-shirt that I bought in 2023. 

I bought a Kongzhi noodle snack and munched it and L and M joined me shortly. We had a rest and decided to go back to the Old Street for dinner. We ended up Youbiking there and looked up and down the street with temples. 

We settled I'm on a beef noodle soup place with seating on the street. I got a hot plate braised tofu with plain rice. It was so good?! It was sweet, but the sweetness was just slightly caramelised and not too much. The tofu was full of flavour and the plate sizzling. It was great! M had 魯肉飯 and L and a sausage fried rice with prawn rolls. And fresh prawns.

Yummy. This was really good.

Then a taxi home - the driver who accepted our request was driving a Benz 9 seater today and forgot. So he called to ask and make sure it was OK. 

Fare was about $230. The driver was trying to hint I should download another app for taxis as 55688 is hard to get taxis with. But I find it's ok? And then he kinda left it there. But did give me his card for future tours or trips.

Once home it was laundry time. The dryer isn't very hot and took ages, even 2 hrs later it was not completely dry. This was now 10pm. I did postcards in the meantime, and before that one of the reception ladies were curious about NZ so I told her a lot about what she wanted to know. We had a long chat. 

I ended up sleeping st 11pm cause I couldn't shower until the laundry was done, as it was on the ground floor. Their laundry area was outside at the back of the building though.

I just hung out my laundry as best as I could and sort it out tomorrow.