I found the web site called meetup. I know, sounds like a dating site but it’s not. It is a site that allows you to meet others that have the same hobbies as you do. I found the site about a week ago and it was exactly what I needed. There are groups for hiking, biking, and nearly everything that you can think of. I joined about 10 groups and yesterday was the first event that I attended.

We met at 9am not that far from my hostel, and were on a bus by 9:30. There were four of us going, two guys and two girls. The trip to our destination was about an hour and a half. The trip was uneventful and I spent most of the time just chatting with the others in the group.

My assumption of the hike was that we would spend most of the time hiking towards the final destination of a cave that had bats in it. I was kind of disappointed to find out that we were going to a theme park that had some hiking trails. I don’t think that the description was misleading, but it wasn’t what I was looking for.

As I was looking for some money to pay the entrance fee, I realized that I had lost my wallet. The panic set in immediately. The leader of the hike talked to the park officials and they called the bus company to see if the driver could check to see if I left it there. That was the case and after about two hours I got my wallet back. No harm done, but the panic was awful.

Most of the time at this park was spent just walking around, they did however have some actual hiking trails. They weren’t very long, but it was nice to actually get the blood flowing and get away from the tourist feeling of the park. I think we hiked for maybe an hour total.

I did have a good time even though I was slightly disappointed that I didn’t get to hike a long distance. I think what made the time the best was just being around others. The other guy in the group was from the US and worked at Apple so we chatted quite a bit about technology. The other ‘new’ person in the group was from Korea and she just loves to hike. She was probably the most upset about the theme park destination than any of us.

There are other groups on meetup that I think I’ll try either this week or next week. One of the fun activities that I don’t think that I’ve ever heard about before, but sounds fun, is river tracing. The idea behind it is, to follow a river by wading along it. You know, walking down the river/creek in the water. It looks really kind of fun and I think I may do it, about the only thing stopping me is that I would have to buy a helmet, gloves, shoes, and a drybag.

My next stop was Kaohsiung City, south of Tainan. Again my reasons for stopping here were more out of a sense of, “why not?” than a need to see the city. I’m not exactly positive, but I think it’s the second biggest city in Taiwan. It was only about a 1-hour long train ride from Tainan to Kaohsuiung and the train station was only about 100 meters from my hostel so the whole process went really fast. The train was more of a metro than a true train though and it was crowded. I ended up standing the whole ride which isn’t really important, but might give you an idea of the ride.

Again, just like in Tainan there wasn’t a plan of things that I should do or spots that I should see. My goal was just to ‘experience’ the city for what it was.

 

The city is for the most part just like all the cities that I’ve been to in Taiwan, crowded with lots of beautiful women and food stalls—both are becoming the endearing things I like about Taiwan. It was hot too, maybe a little bit too hot for me. It would only take a few minutes of walking before sweat would be pouring from every spot on my body. It is a situation that I find both uncomfortable and embarrassing.

 

On one day I went for, according to my GPS, a 15-mile walk (24km). I love long walks and although I don’t think I’ve written about it before, I consider my walks to be more of a chance to meditate than anything else. I do appreciate being outdoors and getting some exercise, but after about the 3-mile mark of a walk my mind starts to wander and I end up almost in a contemplative state similar to what I consider to meditation.

On this walk I just wandered around the city, kind of aiming towards a large building that was situated far in the distance, it looked somewhat unique but more importantly it gave me a destination. On the way I heard fireworks and a mix of drums and chanting. I could see about 6 blocks away a large group of people doing something so I decided to check it out. I’m still not exactly sure what the celebration was for, but it was a procession of worshipers making their way from temple to temple… I think.

 

I stayed there for about an hour as each group would march by, turn a corner and stop in front of a temple, ‘do their thing’ and then move on. After each group left a person would set off fireworks. There were many different types of groups, there were people carrying an idol, flag bearers, musicians, and my favorite, dancing dragons. Although it wasn’t, ‘fun’ in the typical sense, I had a good time watching. The whole process was maybe a little bit strange to me for a few reasons, the first being that they had to deal with traffic. Here’s a procession of maybe 500 people and they have to wait for a green light cross the street or stop to let a car turn left. Just funny. The procession left the one temple and I would later find out that it was going to all the temples in the area. I figured this out because after I left I kept running into them for the next hour or two, somewhat embarrassing considering that they probably thought I was following them.

“What did you do today?”

“Nothing much, just followed a parade for about six hours.”

 

I may need a life sometimes, but I don’t think I’ve been desperate enough to follow a parade before, especially considering that I had no idea what it celebrating. J

 

 

Most of my time in Kaohsiung was spent just exploring not too far from the hostel. Did some typical touristy things like go to the night market, wander along the river and maybe unique to only me, gorge myself on fruit. I love watermelon… I really, really do. I think it’s the best fruit ever… If I ever have a son, I’m going to name him Watermelon. J

 

 

 

 

 

 

I chose Tianan, Taiwan as a destination not because I wanted to actually see it, (though I didn’t not want to see it,) but I chose it because it was the only city south of Taipei that I was able to get a room that was relatively inexpensive. It seems that Taiwan room rates are on par with the US and with Europe, definitely the most expensive that I’ve encountered on this trip.

At first glance there wasn’t too much that stood out for me that would make me consider Tainan a good destination for a traveler. It took at least a day before I started to relax and accept it for what it was, just a small(er) city that can be very relaxing and enjoyable, if one didn’t expect too much. Once I did that, I really had a good time exploring. There are some great little restaurants and food courts that I happened on that were good enough for me to be a regular customer for the remainder of my time there. I still don’t know what I ate, but at one street vendor I had something that was so delicious. It was like a salad with a chicken strips on top. It probably wasn’t very ‘Chinese’ or even healthy, but it was really good. :)

There wasn’t a lot of ‘touristy’ things to see in Tainan, but I still spent most of my exploring the streets and shops. Since I’m writing this at least two weeks from the time I was there, I can’t come up with anything that I think is worthy of adding. It’s a shame but it happens all the time that I wait too long before writing and then can’t think of anything to write about. I remember the fruit stands that I went to about three times a day. It seems that every fruit stand around got to know me in the matter of just a couple of days.

I was in Tainan for about five days in total and in that time I felt a little bit of a connection with it, so much so that I have considered going back for a few days later on.