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Side Trip: Tainan


Coincidentally Des was in Taiwan about the same time I was slated to be there so we made plans to take a little side trip to Tainan, located about 300km south on the east coast of Taiwan. Her two cousins came with us, and all we did was eat eat eat — Tainan is reputed to have some of the best food in the country. Having her cousin, Tim, along was a tremendous boon as he could literally eat all day. I followed a guide from Synaptic, as well as Clarissa’s articles, and used Foursquare to navigate us around for back-to-back-to-back meals. Standouts was the 豆花 and shaved ice that comes topped with a pudding. I mean, c’mon!

There was also visits to some of the local sights like Fort Zeelandia, Anping Treehouse, a very unexpected Michael Jackson dance/music night at Legends Sports Bar, and my favorite, the National Museum of Taiwan Literature. Even though I couldn’t actually read most of the on-display items, the museum was one-of-a-kind (Taiwanese lit!) and the presentation and displays were wonderful and innovative. There was also a special exhibit highlighting detective novels in Taiwan that was wholly interactive and looked like a lot of fun.

Aside from that, Tainan offered easy transportation, great bike riding, and even in our short three days, proved itself well worth a longer stay.

I also got to do a test run of my prized new backpack, the Cotopaxi Allpa. So far the verdict is that it’s perfect for a weekend trip but I pack way to much to use it for the upcoming weeks-long trips to Bali and Vietnam. I haven't traveled backpack style in awhile, so it'll be a challenge to bring so little. Stuff that takes up the most room so far: toiletries (and hair stuff)!

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