Taiwan Part 7 - Kiaoshung, Beer, and The Road Home
The ferry ride back to Taidong was notably the smoothest ride of all three boat rides. We acquired a very nice group seating area with a table for us to use as both an eating platform as well as a card playing area. Miniature garbage bags were far more conveniently locatable, as they were hung from above for each row of the boat (feel free to very easily guess what purpose these served).
It was the final leg of bracing ourselves and gorging on snack foods. We played more cards. We continued our streak. Not much more to be said, other than this ferry ride was as smooth as a baby’s behind. I don’t think anybody on the boat vomited, which was a very welcome surprise. Megan was the happiest I had ever seen her after a ferry ride.
Having prepped ourselves earlier by calling our trusted taxi driver from days prior, we arrived in Taidong and scuffled ourselves into a nice taxi van. He drove us to the train station, whereupon we found out the train Evan, Megan, Jeff, and I wanted to board was leaving in 2 minutes. I hurriedly paid for us and bid Jenny and Dylan adieu, the former as a final farewell (for now) while the latter we’d be seeing Tuesday for dinner. We rushed to the train and made it in the nick of time.
The train ride was a welcome break from transportation nerves, as we swiveled two chairs to form a nice communal seating area from which to converse. I won a game of hearts (I crushed them, seriously), followed by losing a game of hearts miserably (though, I did not come in last!). Eventually, I fell asleep. Mmmm, sleep.
I woke up shortly before we arrived in Kiaoshung. Kiaoshung is Taiwan’s second largest city, and has its own MRT system, along with being the southern most stop on the high speed rail. We would be experiencing that wonder later in the night, but first we were going to have dinner with Evan and Megan’s friend, Morgan, who’s studying to be a doctor. I never asked him if that meant he was going to stay in Taiwan to remain as a doctor, but I purport now that he likely is as I doubt his medical degree would be accepted in North America — a shame — so he will likely remain in a foreign land. Not really a problem, however, considering his amazing fluency in Mandarin. Apparently, locals become extremely surprised when either Evan or Morgan actually speak, much to their amusement.
We arrived at the Kiaoshung station. Upon arrival I noticed a “Coffee Bun” stand. My desire for one came immediately, and I purchased this unknown, potentially-caffeinated food item. It most certainly satiated by appetite for both food and caffeine.
Anyway, we find Morgan and head out of the train station. Palm trees laced the environs, much to my surprise then. In retrospect, it makes a lot of sense, since Kiaoshung is actually within the tropics and is close to the equator. Jeff took a bunch of photos as Jeff and I learned about Morgan’s history here in Taiwan. I am also drilled to repeat all the Mandarin I had learned (there are a few more sayings I didn’t provide earlier — “Gi Ro”, “Neyo Ro”, “Hun Hao”, “Hun Hao Ni Na”, “Hun Hao Chir”, “Hun Hao He”, being chicken, beef, I’m good, I’m good and you?, That food was delicious, and That drink was delicious, respectively — I’m probably forgetting some, but those are the other important ones, along with Pi-eh-jo (pronunciation), which is beer). Morgan pointed out I probably learned as much Mandarin as Megan had in two years. Proving grounds established, Megan displayed she knew more. Oh well, I still feel good by how much I have retained in 10 days.
We walked around for a little bit, noticing how flourished Kiaoshung appears. We arrived at the restaurant by which we’d be entertained for the night. I forget the name.
Anyway, once it opened (about 5 minutes later), we sat ourselves down on the patio — it was a fantastic, sunny day, by the way — and looked over the menu. Engrish was prevalent, as we delighted ourselves over sayings like “Sea urchin stabs the body”. I have, to this day, no idea how they couldn’t get a proper translation — they have more than enough bilingual speakers in Taiwan to properly translate that menu. Some of them, like the aforementioned, do not provide any inclination as to what the option actually is.
En tout cas, we also observed that they had a special today — 4 1L bottles of Asahi for 150NT. 17 large bottles of beer (we won a free one) and about 11 plates of delicious food (all for the price of about 400NT each, i.e.: 12 US dollars) is the feat we accomplished. We spoke of… I don’t remember, there was a lot of beer involved that night. It was funny stuff, I assure you, and it was definitely a good time with everybody being at least well buzzed. Good conversation with good friends over good food and drink. For what else could one ask? Also, the beer girl was really good looking and had a really cute face. Thumbs up.
For some reason, Jeff insisted we drink that crap deer liqueur, and without permission poured some into all of the men’s drinks. As a result of this deception, Jeff is no longer allowed to be near beer and crap liqueurs, since he is also the slowest drinker on the planet and therefore doesn’t actually experience the pain of drinking his potions of death. After having tasted this atrocity, I pulled the switcheroo on Megan when she least suspected. After a strange turn of events, somehow my drink ended up in Morgan’s hands, who had threw out his disgusting batch for a fresh batch of beer (and only beer). So it ended up that Megan and I had only beer while the other three had the weird concoctions. Megan and I high fived in victory over our luck. Good times.
Side note, I will admit today that the restaurant’s bathroom was a little odd — the male and female bathrooms were not distinctly separated, but rather you had to follow a sign to which side of the bathroom belonged to your gender. I told them all at the time I understood it, which I definitely did with no problem, but I will admit that it’s strange (I don’t remember if I agreed on its strangeness then).
Anyway, we paid our large sums of money (hah!) at the cash (they didn’t accept cards — seriously?) and headed out. We got bubble tea (definitely what I drank most in Taiwan) before saying bye to Morgan and cabbing back to the train station.
After that, there wasn’t a whole lot more to note. The high speed rail ride took an hour and a half from Kiaoshung to Taipei, which is from one end of the island to the other. 300 km/h is pretty fast, folks. It was super smooth, and we all fell asleep at one point or another (though not all simultaneously). Very cool form of transportation. I wish North America would learn to build one of these in various areas, because they kick a lot of ass.
Also, count it: 7 forms of transportation since we left Taipei on Thursday. MRT (Subway), train, cab, bike, ferry, scooter, high speed rail. 8 if you count walking. Score.
We arrived back in Taipei, and very happily all collapsed in our respective beds / cot.
