So last we left... me... I was leaving Kending to start my trek back north to Tainan. To get there I had to go through Kaohsiung, the 2nd biggest city I visited a few months ago. I got a shuttle back from the aquarium to another small hamlet that was on the main bus route back to Kaohsiung. When I got there the timetable said I had to wait another 50 minutes to catch the next one. Damn.

While waiting, a dude in a van pulled up and asked where I was going. I knew he wasn't going to Tainan, but from Kaohsiung I could get anywhere, so I said there. He said he would take me for 300 kuai, compared to the 220 the bus was. Seeing as how I had a 50 minute wait ahead, I agreed. I went to open the door, and I swear this is true, when I opened the door the van was full of girls. Worth. The. Extra. 80.

Only one of them spoke English, and were on their way to Kaohsiung to see some sort of art thing. I had no interest whatsoever in that. They asked me if I wanted to come along and I said definitely. On the way they taught me some phrases in Taiwanese, which would've been like, super helpful back when I was with that group in Taidong. I didn't tell them I had been to Kaohsiung before and knew exactly where we were going, because the one girl seemed to enjoy telling the silly foreigner all about her home.

Anyway the art show was like...ice cream? Or something? God I don't understand art. I mean yeah, it looked like ice cream. I guess it's art. WHATEVER.

They asked me where I was going, and I said that actually I was on my way to Tainan. There was a "Oh no way, so are we!" moment. It's funny how that works - so we took the MRT back to another train station I was not aware of, and then took a short trip to Tainan. I didn't realize it's basically a suburb of Kaohsiung. They were nice enough to walk me to my hostel and we said our goodbyes.

Which, by the way, this hostel is bar none, the best hostel I've ever been to. It has like a European, villa style vibe to it. It was super clean and super cheap with a giant kitchen. The next morning, I wanted to rent a bike to see the sights. The front desk guy said that actually they don't have bikes to rent anymore.

"Tell ya what... I work until this afternoon, just take mine."

So the clerk literally just gave me his bike for the day. Tainan isn't too much of a tourist area. A suburb, Anping, was the capital of Taiwan back in the days of Dutch rule. As such, there's a few things to see out there. The first is an old fort, which is honestly just a walled park with some fake guns on them.

Next is the main museum in the area, where the Dutch had their governmental office and basically ruled from there. There is a tree house. Because... well I don't know why. And last a big ol fort near the city center.






The pictures kind of speak for themselves, but really Tainan isn't much of a tourist destination. I just enjoyed a bike ride around the city, and the it's easy to navigate. They also have a pretty amazing night market that oddly had a lot of Mexican food. I got a pretty great burrito, and then there was this dog. I don't know why this dog was there. But he didn't need any reason to be this cool.