Week 55 - Tainan, Kaohsiung, Bangkok (Taiwan, Thailand)

On our last day in Tainan we headed to Anping, the oldest area of the city a couple of kilometres from the centre along a smelly, dirty, yet fish filled waterway. We were pretty hot and sticky after the 45 minute walk in blistering heat and headed straight to Fort Zeelandia, the first castle to be built in Taiwan by the Dutch in the 17th century. After a refreshing drink in the shade of the walls we wandered around the fort and gardens. Our next stop was at the Anping Treehouse, a crazy old warehouse that has been completely taken over by Banyan trees. After a stroll around the area and a few photo stops at some brightly painted temples Rhys bought a giant bag of prawn crackers and we caught a bus back into the centre to our hostel. 

Banyan trees at Anping Treehouse, Tainan.

The next day we left Tainan and took the bus to the train station from where we caught a local train back to Kaohsiung. Kaohsiung is Taiwan’s second city and is pretty much just a big commercial harbour with limited attractions for the tourist. As we were flying out from Kaohsiung we thought it was worth a stop and spent 3 days in the city. The first night we ventured out to the Liuho Tourist Night Market. It was fantastic. We spent a couple of hours wandering up and down the busy street, lined with vendors selling all sorts of tasty curiosities, buying a variety of snacks as we went - dumplings, beef wraps, pork buns, Rhys even bought a chicken neck (or it might have been a pork penis, we’re not entirely sure, he thought he was buying a rib).

Liuho Tourist Night Market, Kaohsiung.

The next day we walked over to Shoushan. It was further than we thought and again we were pretty tired from the heat by the time we got to the start of the mountain trails. Nevertheless we spent an hour and a half walking around the forested slopes looking out for macaque monkeys. We’d only seen 3 when we decided we’d gone far enough and turned back, a little disappointed in the monkey turnout on the so called ‘Monkey Mountain’. Then we found a group of about 30 monkeys and a little further along the trail another 20 or so. Far happier with our monkey sightings we walked back, crossing Love River, to our hotel by the main station. On route we walked through a great little market selling all kinds of dried food (like Korea, dried food is very much the thing in Taiwan although there is less pickling) and Rhys treated himself to a kilo of beef jerky. Dinner was more dumplings from street stalls around the corner from our hotel.

Rhys's favourite monkey. Shoushan, Kaohsiung.

More monkeys, Shoushan, Kaohsiung.

Rhys buying jerky, Kaohsiung.

Our last day in Kaohsiung and in Taiwan we took the short 5 minute ferry ride over to Cijin Island where we hired bikes thinking it would be a really scenic ride along the beach. It wasn’t. There was a pretty cliff area at one end and a small stretch of grey sand, but after that we were either riding alongside building sites or commercial docks and steel works. After a couple of miles we realised it wasn’t going to get any more scenic and headed back to the ferry port. The main street was full of people it being a Saturday, all crowding around the hundreds of seafood stalls. On our way back to the hotel we stopped at Formosa Boulevard station to admire the Dome of Light, the world's largest stained glass installation created by Italian artist Narcissus Quagliata. We returned to the Liuho Tourist Night Market again for dinner, this time sausage in a sausage and slithers of pork belly, before turning in for an early night.

The Dome of Light, Formosa Boulevard, Kaohsiung.

We had a flight at 8:30am from Kaohsiung to Macau and jumped in a taxi to the airport. It took 40 minutes to check in due to some problem with our reservation and the flight was only 1.5 hours. We then had to wait 9 hours for our connecting flight to Bangkok which was delayed by an hour. Macau airport is tiny, not somewhere you really want to be stuck but the saving grace was the one restaurant did serve amazing dim sum. We made it to Bangkok, cleared immigration in record time and jumped on the MRT to our hostel. 

Taiwan isn’t somewhere we’ll be rushing back to, it’s not particularly backpacker friendly and although the scenery from the train was spectacular actually getting out to see some of it proved difficult without having our own transport or hiring a driver. The street food was a definite highlight and the people are really friendly but the lack of pavements and the necessity to get permits to hike anywhere kind of balanced it out.

We set the alarm for our first day in Bangkok and started the day queuing at the Myanmar embassy, forms filled out and passports in hand, ready to get our visas. It was a very speedy process, we were back at our hostel just up the road in about an hour and a half. Our next chore of the day was buying train tickets for a couple of weeks time when we go south to the islands. Another tuktuk ride and we were at the famed Khao San Road, backpacker central, stopping by tour agencies to find the best offer for a day trip with Karen and booking a floating market trip for us before Myanmar. After a delicious street side duck and pork lunch we headed back to our hostel across town. There was a Hindu festival focused on the temple next to our hostel that night and lining the streets nearby. It was absolutely hectic and ridiculously hot. We fought our way through the crowds marveling at all the people, candles, incense and gilded statues. There were lots of flower petals, limes and dancing, it was quite a sight. Once we emerged at the other side we carried on and walked to Patpong, a lively area of bars, market stalls and of course, as you would expect in Bangkok, strip clubs and ping pong shows. We stopped at a couple of bars before heading back to bed.

Hindu festival, Bangkok.

The next day we allocated to shopping. We jumped on the Skytrain and headed over to the MBK Centre, a huge shopping mall with one floor full of market stalls selling fake everythings. We’d given ourselves a budget and spent the next couple of hours renewing our wardrobes and treating ourselves to Paul Smith wallets and Mulberry purses. Clothes are so cheap here it’s ridiculous, we’re talking £2 for a really nice t-shirt and £4 for floaty hippy trousers. Back at our hostel with our piles of bags we chilled before heading out for dinner, Thai curry from a street stall.