My mom is convinced that I'm a secret morning person, but nothing could be further from the truth. (In case you need convincing, check the time stamp on this blog post--I'm beginning it just after 2:30am.)
To some extent, this has worked to my advantage here, 16 hours ahead of the vast majority of my friends and family. In a course of cyclical reasoning, my family and the time difference are actually why I'm up right now: I've been Skyping with my mom, dad, and younger brother for a few hours, watching my mom's always-alert morning self in contrast with my brother's squinting just-woke-up face and my dad's slow ascent from awake to functioning, over the course of a cup of coffee. (Yep, that's where I got it from.)
But by all accounts, I shouldn't be up right now, since I was up late last night talking to family, too, but was still up early (for me) this morning, ready for a trip to Tainan with my wonderful host family and Rachel. The getting-ready process definitely involved chugging a bottled latte in 7-11 right as my host family pulled up, since I'm fresh out of coffee beans and I recently discovered my non-caffeinated propensity towards headaches.
We had a fabulous day, visiting such landmarks as the Eternal Golden Fort,
Anping Old Fort, Anping Tree House (probably my favorite place EVER),
Chihkan Tower, and the Confucius Temple. Unfortunately, we were dogged by what seemed to be a whole-city celebration of some Daoist deity's birthday, complete with a multi-pronged parade of gongs, drums, horns, incense and firecrackers--SO MANY FIRECRACKERS--but aside from that, the locations were gorgeous and the weather could not have been better. Rachel described it well by saying it reminded her of the first day after the snow melts in New Hampshire. I, of course, have never experienced that particular day, but it reminded me of the first day in May that reminds you that eventually summer will come. Glorious.
Of course, with any Taiwanese city, the main event is the food, and Tainan didn't disappoint. Their famous shrimp rolls, which I was a bit nervous to try, since I tend to steer clear of seafood, were absolutely DELICIOUS, tasting mostly of onion. So was the shaved ice we had later (though it tasted of strawberry and sweetened condensed milk, thankfully). And the coffin-cover bread with which we finished out the day.
Probably the highlight of my day was the Anping Tree House, which is actually an old warehouse from the early days of European-Asian trade which has been abandoned to the banyan trees, which in turn eagerly incorporated themselves into the floors, walls, windows and even roofs of the giant building. The even coils of banyan root run everywhere over the old brickwork, giving the impression that you've stumbled into ruins much older than a few hundred years, and perhaps at the center of an Indiana Jones film.
Also at Anping Tree House (and everywhere else), Rachel and I re-encountered the blatant stares and paparazzi-like photo-stalking of us which we had seen in mainland China in our various excursions there. It's interesting, really: for the most part, Taiwanese people are largely unphased by our clearly-Western presence (though not enough to stop the steady flow of 'hello's which sound oddly like the speaker is half cat-calling, half proudly practicing his one English word that we got multiple times today), but mainland Chinese tourists are still awestruck and fascinated by us. Go sight-seeing in Taiwan, and you feel like you're back in mainland China--and you realize how very normal your life in Kaohsiung is.
But here I encounter once again my as-yet-unnamed situation in which I have no energy left to write about my day because I simply had too much fun living it. And, while I have no school tomorrow, thanks to Sports Day yesterday, my morning should still be at least existent, if not early. And this is a very late night.
Showing posts with label Tainan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tainan. Show all posts
Monday, December 5, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
Mud
It's become a sort of paradigm with me that, on days which I actually have something exciting to write about, I have no time in which to write about it. Today is one of those days.
In sum, I went with Karina and her LETs to mud springs, where we got to live out every kindergartener's dream: smear mud all over ourselves.
The trip there was pretty epic itself: we left my apartment at 2pm and got to the springs at 6pm, though we weren't going too far, just a bit north of Tainan; in the process, we used four different forms of communication, including MRT, walking, train (not HSR, just regular train--my first time here!), and car. In addition, both MRT and train cars were more full than we had ever seen them (looked like Taipei!), so we were standing for the entire first portion of the trip.
When we finally did reach the mud springs, though, it was fantastic. They had a bowl of mud and a mirror for you to watch where you smeared the thin, blue-gray mixture all over yourself, and then you entered the mud spring pool, which was already mud-colored and the perfect temperature in which to bask and let the mud do its glorious thing on your skin. Needless to say, a series of wonderful mud-related photos also followed. (Unfortunately, said photos are on Karina's camera, but I'll add them when I can.)
UPDATED 11/18: PHOTOS!
When we recovered from our childhood ecstasies of playing in mud, we moved on to the other pools (which did not have mud in them), our favorite of which was tinted blue-green and smelled like tea, or lemongrass, or some such herbal mixture. It was heavenly.
After the mud springs, we headed down the most adorably quintessential Chinese/Taiwanese street on a winding street which reminded me, by turns, of Huangshan in China, the area around the Great Wall in China, Kenting in Taiwan, and Maokong in Taipei. (Please note that only one of those links shows what I really mean: a twisty green road with little shops along either side--same at the Great Wall, and also at Maokong, with tea shops.) It was all of these things and none of them, a mystical place shrouded in mist and serving up some delicious roasted chicken and fried rice, once we picked a restaurant. Fabulous.
Well, after all that, our long journey back began; I walked in the doors to my apartment a little after 11:30pm and, of course, I have class tomorrow. So, epic day though it was, that's all for now! It's just one of those days.
***
Bonus moment: I've had this song stuck in my head in the best possible way, and feel like sharing it with ya'll:
In sum, I went with Karina and her LETs to mud springs, where we got to live out every kindergartener's dream: smear mud all over ourselves.
The trip there was pretty epic itself: we left my apartment at 2pm and got to the springs at 6pm, though we weren't going too far, just a bit north of Tainan; in the process, we used four different forms of communication, including MRT, walking, train (not HSR, just regular train--my first time here!), and car. In addition, both MRT and train cars were more full than we had ever seen them (looked like Taipei!), so we were standing for the entire first portion of the trip.
When we finally did reach the mud springs, though, it was fantastic. They had a bowl of mud and a mirror for you to watch where you smeared the thin, blue-gray mixture all over yourself, and then you entered the mud spring pool, which was already mud-colored and the perfect temperature in which to bask and let the mud do its glorious thing on your skin. Needless to say, a series of wonderful mud-related photos also followed. (Unfortunately, said photos are on Karina's camera, but I'll add them when I can.)
UPDATED 11/18: PHOTOS!
 | |||
| Bekah: "I can't believe I'm actually doing this..." Karina: "I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M ACTUALLY DOING THIS!!!" |
When we recovered from our childhood ecstasies of playing in mud, we moved on to the other pools (which did not have mud in them), our favorite of which was tinted blue-green and smelled like tea, or lemongrass, or some such herbal mixture. It was heavenly.
After the mud springs, we headed down the most adorably quintessential Chinese/Taiwanese street on a winding street which reminded me, by turns, of Huangshan in China, the area around the Great Wall in China, Kenting in Taiwan, and Maokong in Taipei. (Please note that only one of those links shows what I really mean: a twisty green road with little shops along either side--same at the Great Wall, and also at Maokong, with tea shops.) It was all of these things and none of them, a mystical place shrouded in mist and serving up some delicious roasted chicken and fried rice, once we picked a restaurant. Fabulous.
Well, after all that, our long journey back began; I walked in the doors to my apartment a little after 11:30pm and, of course, I have class tomorrow. So, epic day though it was, that's all for now! It's just one of those days.
***
Bonus moment: I've had this song stuck in my head in the best possible way, and feel like sharing it with ya'll:
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