Southern Taiwan

Monday, June 11, 2007--Lugang to Tainan

I was out of the hotel room at 9:30 and was able to immediately catch a bus that stopped across the street. Then when I got to the next town, I was able to get a train ticket for a train leaving only 5 minutes later!! What luck. I was also lucky that it was another decent day weatherwise. I relaxed and enjoyed the scenery.

At 11:38 we pulled into Tainan station with a dark cloud just beginning to drop rain. But I was lucky again. The hotel I had chosen was just half a block from the train station and I could get there under a covered walkway. The hotel was even nicer than I had expected (and nicer than the one from the previous two nights) with a modern entry, central air conditioning, cable tv, hot water, etc.

By the time I got settled and left the room the rain had ended. I found a sidewalk eatery and was disappointed with what I ate--rice with a gravy containing carrots and potatoes over it, some type of green vegetable, tofu, and a thin pork cutlet fried in a batter and spread with a little chile sauce. It just didn't have much taste. I wandered with no aim for a while. Then I searched for the tourist office and got some questions answered. One was where I could find a cyber cafe.

I returned to the room and then went out again around 5:30 to a nearby park. It was wonderful with old trees throughout, a lake with a white pavillion with an orange tile roof in the middle, nice trails, etc. I wandered a while. Then I stopped and read. Then I wandered more.

Before returning to the hotel, I stopped and had fishball soup, a specialty of this city. It was tasty, but oh, so hot with heat! I almost burned my tongue. But the lady serving it spoke English. And I watched what others were eating. I told her I would return to try the dumplings.

I finished reading Life and Times of Michael K by J. M. Coetzee. It's a small book with an interesting story about a main with a hairlip who lives in South Africa during its civil war. I gave the book 3 stars out of 4.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007--Tainan

Well, the rain has returned. I imagine that many of you reading this have seen the TV news reports of the flooding in southern China. Well the same clouds that have been causing those problems come over us after they leave the coast of mainland China. Everyone here agrees that it is so unusual to have so much rain at this time of the year. The low pressure systems just seem to be lined up one after another along the same path. Today, there has been lightning and heavy thunder with the rain.

I stayed inside the hotel room all morning. I watched a low-quality film on TV. Then I went to the same place where I had soup last night and ate a bowl of 10 dumplings. Ummm! The quality of the food is good at this place. And since one of the women speaks English and can recommend other items from the menu, I will probably keep going back there regularly.

I've lost quite a bit of weight since leaving Alaska. I doubt that I lost any in Alaska, since Wes was always wanting to eat meals and snacks between meals. But my shorts which fit perfectly back then now are very loose. And I can feel and see that I look better. That's one of the best aspects of my travel--the fact that I always lose weight. I hope to be down to 72 kg (about 160 lbs) soon. I was less than that when I returned to the U.S. last year. My guess is that I am around 78 kg (about 172 lbs) right now.

The forecast is for more rain in the next couple of days. Will see how that goes. I have planned outings if it will just dry up some. I hate always having wet, slushy sandals. Besides that, my sandals have a bad smell when they are damp. It must be the leather or some other product they used to manufacture them, but it is a smell somewhat like animal dung. Yuck!