Melby's Travels

DAY 1 When planning our trip to Taiwan, we had considered a bike tour of the whole country. Considering the forecasted rains and hot temperatures, we decided to bike a much shorter portion - 25km from Tainan to Gangshan on the northern end of Koahsiung. Our first stop was the Taiwan Soya-Stewed Museum featuring packaged stewed foods. We missed the turn to the museum so the ride ended up being a little over 2 hours (nonstop). The route was basically one long road. While we had to watch for motor bikes, there was usually a separate lane for two-wheeled vehicles. The bikes we rented via the bikeshare YouBikes were thankfully much lighter than Bluebikes / Citibikes in the US.  Since rain was on the forecast every day, we figured we wouldn't need sun protection. Wrong. By 8:30am the sun was already beating down strong on us. By 10am when we reached the museum, we were sunburnt. Nevertheless, it was a fun ride breezing through both fields and municipalities along the way. Photo break! No...

DAY 1 We continued our journey south, taking the train from Taichung to Tainan. Tainan is known as the country’s historical and cultural center. It was the seat of power for both the Dutch and Japanese. The architecture felt more Western and there was more evidence of Japanese influence (signs in Japanese, Japanese restaurants and shops, etc.) than Taichung. As we stepped out of the train station, a few other things stood out to us. Although the population of Taichung is larger, Tainan is more bustling - the people speak more loudly, the motor vehicles move with more urgency, and the spaces generally feel denser. There are also traffic circles, adding to the slightly European feel. They are also REALLY against jaywalking. (Got slightly annoying for two New Yorkers who didn’t want to wait in the beating Southern Taiwanese sun.) There are signs above the traffic lights telling you to be careful, etc. and ads on the buses reminding you of the rules. We also saw people get ticketed for tra...