Later start which was a mistake. The temperature is better today at 29 but the humidity is actually worse. Sweating just breathing!
Usual uber to the Anping district. Firstly to the DaZhong Temple to catch the Green tunnel boat ride.
It was quite a drive to Anping, passing lots of farmland, fish farms and new developments. Tainan is the old city (used to be the capital of Taiwan) and the surrounding areas are being developed for the population growth.
Da Zhong temple was another impressive temple. Its been a wonder that we have been in the country for nearly 2 weeks and have only done the first temple last night. I had bought the tickets to the boat ride online with an app called klook. Another essential travel app as you can get a bit of the discounts on the tickets but it is also veyr convenient and you can pay things with google or apple pay. Anyway, even though everything was paid for, we had to go into the temple, scan the QR code and have paper tickets printed!
Very impressive carvings
Creepy clown type person
You guessed it! Guardian Lion
Deb was the only whitey around. everyone else was, you've guessed it, Chinese. The ride was only about 30 mins and takes us down a canal under a tunnel made of overarching trees of mangroves. along the way, everyone got really excited to see a dead crab on the bank. Astounding! I don't know whether they are excited because they have never seen a crab (dead or otherwise) outside a buffet or they just wanted to eat it! I bet the crab was placed there anyway. Very suspicious that the guide knew exactly where to find it!
The departure lounge
They are very risk adverse because no asian tourist can swim! I'm sure you can stand up in the water anyway
You just sit on this incredibly little plastic stools which are likely to slide around the deck. No risk there!
The Green Tunnel
We all had to wave at the passing barge
Duckin' and weavin' to stay alive
As the raft motored through the tunnel, some of the branches was so low that we had to duck low to avoid losing your head. All very touristy and allowed a tick off the list.
After that, we went to the anping Tree house. This is not a house built up a tree. It is actually an abandoned salt warehouse which has been overgrowm by Banyan trees which appear to have strangled the house with their roots. Very similar to Ankor Wat. Thankfully it had a little cafe with pretty good aircon. It is now bloody humid. By the way, entry to theser tourist attractions is free today as it is apparently a public holiday.
I'm sure a bit of roundup will help
Next stop was the Old fort. Good thing that entry was free as it was a bit ho hum. If you have seen on Dutch fort, you have seen them all. One thing about the Dutch, they do not have much imagination in the the design of their forts. The grey mortar was made of Glutinous rice juice, syrup and crushed oyster shells! Very good cement. Again it had a great cafe/souvenier shop with great aircon.
not many shots here as I was being cooked!
Monkey God at a nearby temple.
This guy is absolutely buggered. Know how he feels, mate!
By now, we have had enough. Back home to chill in the free booze and free food lounge.
I was having a cig with this fellow from Panama who is in Tainan with work. He is a software designer and works for the company which made the pagers, walkie talkies used by Hezbollah. We both had a bit of a laugh and agreed that he may have to find a new job as the company is unlikely to be selling much product!
Some Scenes of Tainan:
Debbie pretending that she is not at KFC :-)
Deb looking dubiously at the KFC meal. Best thing about the meal was the complimentary Portuguese tart.
No safety regulations here! If it was Australia, the unions will want her to wear a harness and to be rigged with a safety line
The police don't seem to care
Street BBQ. Back home, the firies will be here by now!
I would have put that poor dog down. There is something wrong with her back, she could hardly walk. Bloody cruel
alice in wonderland
Granny scooter chick
We leave for Kaohsuing tomorrow.
This featured blog entry was written by wilson.lim61 from the blog 2024 Taiwan.
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