Ingmar goes to Taiwan: Cross-island travels

Friday afternoon I rushed home to pack my stuff and cleaned up my room until I realized that I would not make it to anywhere down south until late at night so I changed my mind and rescheduled my departure for Saturday where I left so late that I could only take the high speed rail (poor me).

Taiwan’s high speed rail is quite convenient and so fast that it covers almost the whole island in 90 minutes. On the way south I got to see a lot of the landscape of Taiwan’s west coast and I must admit that despite years of traveling and living abroad it struck me as being not particularly beautiful. The landscape on the west coast is essentially flat and there is hardly any spot from the train where you would see some undeveloped area. Bulks of high-rise apartment buildings line much of the train tracks and scattered in between are some orderly arranged rice fields. Admittedly this judgment is most likely a result from a culture shock but I simply couldn’t stop a feeling of loneliness when I was watching these anonymous apartment blocks pass by my window. It’s possible that I am also a small-town child who likes the sight of a pretty old town, which Taiwan’s cities are entirely void of.

Tainan

Facemask fashion

Anyway, I arrived in Tainan around 5pm and was picked up by my couchsurfer. This was my first time on a scooter in Taiwan, which made me feel like I finally moved through the streets like I was supposed to: in the middle of the road with a breeze in my face. Selena is an English student from Tainan who – unusually for Taiwanese people – shares an apartment with her sister. Traditionally, Taiwanese people will share their home with their parents until they get married, which is when they move into a new home with their spouse. Not so Selena and Lili who live in sisterly harmony and have a whole room to spare for me.

Selena’s street.

Taking the trash out is a neighborhood activity.

Tainan impressions

Selena

The first night we just spent walking through the neighborhood and getting some local Taiwanese hot pot and tea. We talked about typical Taiwanese evening activities and I was surprised that she had trouble coming up with anything but watching TV or going to the night market. So for that night we stuck to the former and watched some good old-fashioned Taiwanese shows. The next day I explored the cultural highlights of Tainan and there are certainly some pretty amazing highlights. As a book-lover I just had to go into the museum of Taiwanese literature. There was an impressive overview of different themes and epochs in Taiwanese literature and the museum is housed in a building from the Japanese era designed by a famous architect who apparently had some pretty darn good skills. Inspired by the literature on display I went to the small library in the basement and delved into some genuine Taiwanese literature about Taiwan’s history of poverty and the divide between village and city.

The Confucius temple

An amazing ferry tale tree

The old city gate

Make-up for the concubines

A local hero with a dog on his horse – I found that funny

The rest of the day I spent looking at temples, relics and statues of famous Taiwanese people. I had to return the scooter early because Lili needed it to have dinner with Selena and her dad. When they came back we decided to do something together and went to Taiwan’s biggest night market, where we played darts, bought more and less tasty food and simply had a good time chatting and wandering around.