Taiwan Trip Day 2: Tainan (Annan, Anping)

I think the vinegar drink and the honey milk yesterday were somewhat effective to help me pass motion since I went to toilet 4x although I kept feeling incomplete bowel movement. Luckily nothing happened throughout the day. Haha..

The taxi that we booked arrived at 9am and we started the day by going to Sicao green tunnel. I don't usually enjoy this kind of boat ride although I enjoy nature. The pictures online are quite amazing but unfortunately the reality is not the case. You can only get those views if you sit at the center of the boat. The boat has no seat and we were sitting on stools. I feel that they are trying to squeeze as many people as possible and that is already a bad first impression. I saw sandbags at the sides and immediately I felt turned off. It felt so artificial and no longer something natural. I know it is not fair to compare but this experience is so underwhelming compared to my previous experience in Australia.

Sandbags... -_-"

Sicao Dazhong temple is just next door. I don't normally enjoy visiting places of worship as I always think it may be disrespectful to take photos an so on. I have to admit that this temple is grand and has pretty impressive decorations. Too bad the pink tentage just ruins the whole thing.

From here we went to Taijian National Park Visitor Center. Across the carpark, there is a lookout point but the view is not amazing. The Visitor Center itself has a nice modern architecture: white buildings surrounded by bodies of water provides pretty reflection. I am not a fan of modern architecture so I am ambivalent about it. We spent some time at the souvenir shop and I was happy because the friendly girl at the cashier speaks great English too. Hehe..

Next stop was Ninao Gelato which my friend said is an award winning ice cream. I am not a foodie so when people ask me about food, my usual answers are "okay" or "yucks". It is seldom that I will say something is very good or amazing or those kinds of superlatives and Ninao Gelato deserves its popularity. I ordered honey brandy raisin which I found to be pretty good. It had the flavours of all three, although they are more on the lighter side. A friend ordered pistachio and that pistachio flavour was really strong and authentic. The building also deserves a special mention. It is a 3-storey-building with large windows for amazing natural lights. The ceiling is all the way up on the roof to give an airy vibe. At level 2, there is a covered outdoor balcony as well.

Salt is a famous produce of Anping and there is a salt museum (Sio House). It has 366 different colours of salt i.e. one for each birthdate. It is quite a spectacle to see that many colours but with no context whatsoever, the whole place just feels like a tourist trap. It is meant to appeal to tourists to get merchandises that represent their colour or birthday. I would be tempted if my colour is nicer haha.. My colour is shit green so it is not that appealing. My friends said that I should be happy that at least it is still a shade of green instead of a colour that I dislike.

Seeing this colour spread, it made me feel quite shiok despite the hot weather

We had shrimp rolls for lunch. It is a famous food at a famous place. I am not usually into shrimp or seafood in general but I think the shrimp rolls and the fish balls were not bad. We visited 2 pudding shops along that road and at both shops I tried the chocolate flavour. My friends laughed at me for trying something so generic but I had the last laugh in the end since my chocolate was pretty nice.

We went to Anping Tree House after lunch. I hate to compare but this is so lame compared to one of the temples in Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Even the skybridge at the back is not as great as what I imagined. The view from the bridge was meh too. I wanted to pedal and take photos with the waterwheel but an inconsiderate family was there hogging the spot. Bleah.

Quite meh for me

Anping Old Street is not too far from the Tree House. On the way, we dropped by at 7-11 and finally there were so many nice designs of the Easy Card. I decided to get the shiny/hologram Pikachu face design. Anping Old Street is also similar to night market but I definitely enjoyed it more with small crowd here. I bought a washable facemask with cute design and tried Xing Fu Tang bubble tea. I did not find it that special so it is just overhype in Singapore as usual. Anping Old Fort is next to the Old Street but we did not go in as from outside, it does not look that good to take photos.

On the way back to Tainan, we were brought to the beach at Yuguang Island. Nothing is special or unique but it was a crowded beach so it must be popular with the locals.

I consider this structure as the landmark of this beach

We went back to hotel before going out for dinner at the area near to the Tainan train station. We had McD for dinner and visited random shops along the way since a friend was crazy about those claw machine games and there were so many along the way. It was an eye opening for me as I only know now that nowadays each machine as minimum guaranteed amount to 'kiap' one thing. Think of it as a 'buy out price' haha.. I had quite a bit of coins so I decided to turn a Conan gachapon once. I got a small tote bag with Ran's uniform design. I was actually gunning for Akai's design (shaped like his cap) but at least I did not get the hannin's design.

With it being the last night at Tainan, I am overeating again. I am not going to take a risk at Kaohsiung so I decided to buy the other Lays' KFC flavour. I prefer the ridged ones yesterday.