A day in Taichung
Trip Start
Sep 18, 2007
1
17
28
Trip End
Apr 17, 2009
Taichung,
Taiwan
Sunday, December 16, 2007
We hopped on a train early on Sunday morning and had a scenic 2 hour ride south to Taichung. Upon our arrival we found the Tourist Information Center and loaded up on the maps and stuff. We began walking down this one major road, looking for the city park when this one store caught my eye. At first I noticed the big box of 'Fruit by the Foot' and then the 'Swiss Miss' hot chocolate. I thought to myself...hmmm...this place must surely have some other interesting international goodies. So Meghan and I walked in. What happened next was a series of what I like to call 'food-gasms'. The first thing we saw were the cans of refried beans. Now, this may not seem like much...but it was a Columbus-esque discovery for me cuz I had been living in Brazil for the past two years. Sweet Brazil...with it's lack of spicy Mexican food (which I lived off in Canada). Then we saw the salsa and the taco shells. We were squealing in delight with every sighting. The shop owners seemed unphased by the whole thing. I think that they see foreigners having food-gasms in their store on a regular basis. Meghan found some sauerkraut (which did not intererest me at all). There were Eggo waffles, English muffins and sour cream as well as feta cheese. I was in heaven. We asked the store keeper what time the store would close (7 PM) and assured her that we would return before its closing to buy all our goodies.
We resumed our hunt for the city park and finally came across it some 10 minutes later. It was a nice, hot day and we were really glad that we had gotten up early to travel. It was now around noon and we walked around the small park until we found these dudes who were renting row boats. I convinced Meghan to go on a boat ride with me (she was apprehensive...as she was worried about her lack of swimming skills). I assured here we would be able to find a life jacket for her AND that if for some reason the boat tipped over...I would save her. We got on our little blue boat and then I spent the next hour rowing circles around the large pond. After our hour was up we left the park and began the search for the Confucious Temple. It looked impressive on the map and I just wanted to see it. We rounded the corner and I decided to stop these two Taiwanese girls who were walking along. We asked if they knew how to get to the temple and they ended up becoming our tour guides for the day! One of them (Lou) spoke really good English and we actually spent a very pleasant day with them. They took us to this department store which sold international foods and we found all sorts of cool (and overpriced) things there. The one thing that had me cracking up was a can of 'Creaming Soda'. Now, those of you who know me and my perverted little mind can only surmise what the diabolical wheels in my little head were spinning. I was just laughing my ass off and the Taiwanese girls were just looking at me like I was nuts. I ended up explaining to them the concept behind my roaring laughter (which contained some obscene gestures). They were appalled.
We had a late lunch at the mall and then walked around for a bit just checking out the stores and stuff. The last 3 floors had thematic bathrooms and they just blew our minds. The first bathroom we saw was the 'Under the Sea' theme bathroom. It was all blue with tropical fish painted on the walls and stuff. The second bathroom we saw was the 'Forest' theme bathroom. This one had fake trees and vines and stuff everywhere. The last bathroom was the 'Coca-Cola' bathroom. The stalls were gigantic coke cans! There was a bit of red abuse though...that seemed to be the only color used.
We walked around town some more and then headed to the train station for the 2 hour ride back home. The train we bought our ticket for was all full...so it was standing room only. We ended up sitting on the floor near the bathroom for the entire two hours back. We did learn a valuable lesson though...next time...buy the return ticket as soon as you arrive at the destination!
