Chasing Summer –

September 20-22nd

Our last stop in Taiwan is in the south at Tainan. Tainan is the oldest city in Taiwan and was developed 400 years ago by the Dutch for the salt trade. It was Taiwan’s capital for 200 years before Taipei.

It was originally supposed to be a two-day stop, but due to a tropical storm changing into a typhoon near the Philippines, we needed to adjust our itinerary. The captain made a call that, in order to stay ahead of the worst of the weather and get shelter on the west side of the Philippines, we would need to leave as early on the 21st as possible. Before we could leave, we needed to finalize immigration, so the earliest departure would probably be at 11 or 12.

With only one day in Tainan, I needed to shrink my expectations about what I could see. First off, I grabbed a taxi to Sicao Green Tunnel, which is a mangrove behind the Sicao Temple.

I wasn’t sure what to expect except heat and probably mosquitoes. I was bang on about the heat, but didn’t have any mosquitoes bothering me. It was approximately 360 Taiwanese dollars in a taxi to get there and another 200 TND for the 30-minute scenic boat ride through the mangroves.

The taxi dropped us right in front of the ticketing office, and we purchased the ticket and went to the waiting room, where we needed to wait approximately 10 minutes for the next boat. Several boats are running continuously up and down the canal, and people on the latter boats reported being excessively full and unpleasant. On our boat, we were able to have seats near the front and sides. They provided a conical hat and hand fans for the sun and heat. Everyone also needed to wear a life jacket.

The boat driver and tour operator had a continuous narrative in Chinese that bothered some of the other foreigners, but I was fine with it. Several people complained that they couldn’t hear the nature sounds with the continuous talking.

Along the canal were many small crabs, birds chirping, and low-lying branches. In several spots, the branches reaching across the water from either side created a very green tunnel, hence its name.

Once the mangrove visit was finished, we went to check out the temple. This temple is under reconstruction, and the interior was mostly blocked off. There is a small suburb here with an area for restaurants and bathrooms very close to the tourist locations.

To make the best of our time, we hopped in another cab and went to the Tianen treehouse. A city used to be a major player in the salt industry, and the tree house was originally a factory where salt sellers and buyers would do business. When it was abandoned, a banyan tree slowly took over the building, but rather than tearing it down, its branches and roots encased the entire building. Thus making it a very large treehouse.

Much to our delight, it was Monument Day, so all monuments in the city were free to enter. Along with the tree house, there was also a souvenir shop, a small museum of daily life 400 Years ago, and a cafe.

From the tree house, we walked two blocks to the old street and Fort.

The Old Street is the oldest merchant street in Taiwan. Today, it still houses shops and restaurants where people are busily buying and selling things.

We stopped to try some samples and bought a goose egg soaked in tea, a handheld motorized fan, bubble tea, spicy pork jerky, dried tofu, and other trinkets. There were several temples scattered throughout the area.

The Fort remains were also free, but it regularly cost 70 Taiwanese dollars. The original is from the Dutch settlement 400 years ago. There was also a special craft beer created to celebrate the 400-year anniversary, which I purchased but haven’t tried yet.

Next to the Fort was yet another large temple, Confucius’s Temple. It was larger and more elaborate than the smaller ones in the area.

At this point, we had been out for 5 hours and decided to return to the ship before going out again in the evening to the night market.

At 5:00 PM, Becky and I headed off to the Wusheng night market. There are several famous night markets in the city, with the Garden Night Market being the most popular and largest, but the Wusheng is less touristy and should be less crowded, so we chose to go there.

There was a fairly large line in front of one of the food areas with many people waiting to try whatever food they were selling. We weren’t sure what it was, but we decided that we’d give it a try. So we stood in line for quite some time, and when we got to the front, we saw them make it and realized it was basically a hash brown with an egg broken and fried on top, and then seasoned. Nothing that we would get overly excited about, but it must be a novelty there because of the crowd and photos with their snack.

Since it was a hot potato, literally, we couldn’t eat it immediately. We wandered down slightly further and saw some mini corn that was deep fried, and wanted to try it. The potato snack was 60 Taiwanese dollars, and the corn was 40 Taiwanese dollars.

With our hot snacks in hand and rain lately falling lightly, we continued down the aisles. Becky saw some picnic tables that were covered and wanted to sit to eat our treats. The catch was that we needed to buy something from the vendors right there. So we ordered some noodles and chicken. It came with some free sweet tea. The noodles were 80, and the chicken in it was for 120 Taiwanese dollars.

With an overabundance of food in front of us, we ate what we could and then tried to give the rest away. Becky really wanted a watermelon juice, and I wanted a beer, so we went to the end of the aisle where we saw the watermelon juice. I had looked up a craft beer place, and it was a 10-minute walk away.

So off we went to find this beer place. Winding through old and sometimes darkish alleys and streets, we came to another large temple, and across from it was the lounge and craft beer building. It doesn’t seem to be the kind of place someone would stumble upon, and with very limited signage outside, I’m not sure how much business they get. Inside were two levels, but small. Luckily, the bartender spoke English, and they had 12 different beers on tap.

Of the twelve beers, nine were Taiwanese beers, one was Australian, one was UK, and one was American. Half of them were ipas. They didn’t have flights there, even though he knew what I was talking about, so instead I did some half pints so that I could try more than one. The beers were tasty and refreshing.

After spending the last of my Taiwanese dollars, we had a curfew because the port closed at 10, so we made our way back by Uber.

The next morning, starting at 8:30, all the passengers and crew members needed to go through immigration to clear our departure. With the storm coming, the captain was eager to get on his way. The tropical storm had been upgraded to a Super typhoon, and we would need to go full speed to make it across the strait before the high winds reached us.

Interestingly enough, we picked up the Philippines immigration officials and they would be clearing us for entry into the Philippines before we even reached the country. This is the first country that has done it this way.

Internet also seemed much better today, so I don’t know if our ship just finally paid their bill or if they increase the bandwidth that we were allowed to use.