This post is really just memories of a really nice couple of days in two really nice cities. I arrived in Tainan via train with just enough time to walk the ten minutes to my hostel, off the main road and hidden away in one of Tainan’s many windy narrow lanes, and get settled in. This is actually Tainan Part 1 as I decided to come back later in the trip. I needed a bit of a rest so indulged in doing my laundry at the hostel for about 50p (I’m not sure why but I find doing laundry in hostel really satisfying, enjoyable even), treated myself to a western style avocado brunch at the ‘Australian’ cafe over the road and signed up for a walking tour in the afternoon.

I then set off for the Amping Fort area, walking along the riverside for an hour which sounded lovely but was actually just walking along a busy road with hardly any pavement and stopping to cross the street every 5 minutes. It was interesting though to see the residential areas next to the river.

Walking in Tainan isn’t the easiest as what looks like a pavement is actually a moped parking area, or seating for a restaurant and often just abruptly comes to an end. It also takes forever to cross the road as like Japan, nobody ignores the little red man and the timers on the traffic lights run for a couple of minutes. I spent ten minutes backtracking as I missed my hostel entrance, mistakenly crossed the road, tried to walk along one side and literally came up against a brick wall then had to wait to cross back again, all whilst being only a few metres away from the hostel the whole time. In fact Tainan has a huge roundabout in the middle of the city which is impossible to cross without waiting to cross five lanes of traffic.

Tainan is Taiwan’s oldest city and has a rich history spanning 400 years. Initially established by the Dutch East India Company as a trading base known as Fort Zeelandia during the Dutch rule, Tainan was the capital city for 260 years. It gained the name ‘the Phoenix City’ due to the number of changes that it went through – from the Dutch rule, to being seized by the famed Koxinga (the most highly respected saint known for getting rid of the Dutch – the “original ancestor” for a free Taiwan) in 1662 and surviving under the Chinese Qing dynasty until 1887, followed by the Japanese Empire until 1945.

The old Dutch Fort therefore is at the centre of this history. Built in 1624, Fort Zeelandia (meaning the place where land meets the sea) was one of the most important sites for trading in East Asia due to it’s location. Now known as Amping Old Fort, the Dutch style buildings were completely destroyed during Japanese rule and it was reconstructed in red brick.

The streets around the fort are filled with food stalls and Bubble Tea shops. I tried a peanut rice ball which was not the sweet treat I expected – instead it was filled with veggie meat but I had to eat half of it as I was sitting next to the woman rolling them in banana leaves – and an Oat Milk Tea which turned out to be milk tea with thick sweet porridge oats at the bottom.

I didn’t want to miss the walking tour so I rushed back to the centre on the bus, helped out massively by an old couple who told me which bus to take and exactly when to get off, in fact half the people on the crowded bus were involved in making sure I got off. The lady also told me ‘you are very courageous!’.

It was only when I arrived at the meeting point at the Chihkan Tower and nobody was there that I realised I had mixed up the two walking tours and it actually departed from the Fort. Exactly where I had just come from. With nothing else planned, there was time for a massage at the spa next to the Australian cafe with the most attentive masseuse I’ve ever had. It was just less relaxing when I could feel him looking at me intently every minute to check if I flinched and to constantly ask if the pressure was OK (it always was).

Something else worth a look is the historic Hayashi department store from the 1930s and it’s ‘granny lift’ with the floor number pointer that everyone wants to see. This meant everyone was queuing take the lift up, which I thought was a bit unfair on the actual grannies who actually did need to take the lift.

Rather than wait, I just walked up the four flights of steps and all the way up to the rooftop which houses a Shinto Shrine, and where bullet holes from WW2 are visible (although I couldn’t see them), then hopped straight in the lift down and out past the queue.

One of the things I loved about Tainan is the amount of plants everywhere. Plants of all sizes in flowerpots, clearly being looked after by someone. The food is also great and there are plenty of interesting independent cafes – Oreo tofu pudding is a new favourite.

With a trip booked a couple of days later to a place I was really looking forward to, the Alishan National Forest, I left the next morning via train to the smaller city of Chiayi – the jumping off point for buses and trains to Alishan.

I expected Chiayi to just be a stopover but it was a nice surprise. I paid around £10 at the Planet 23 hostel for a hi-tech style pod with different coloured lights and individual air con controls, a big clean common area with free coffee from a proper coffee machine and toast and peanut butter for breakfast. You would expect it to be fully booked but I only saw one family.

The train station separated the area where the hostel was from the rest of the city. Since the station was under some sort of construction, in order to cross to the other side of the main road, I had to pass through the station by taking a fake ticket, showing it to station staff and going all the way through the platforms and up and down over passes. This meant I again spent a long time trying to get out of the station.

I spent a very pleasant afternoon wandering around the Japanese inspired Hinoki village, which is not cheap but has lots of cute Japanese shops and I had to try the peanut latte coffee which cost me the same as a meal over here.

I ended up walking all the way through the city streets, past the old prison and up to the lovely Chiayi Park and the Sun-Shooting Tower. The park was pretty parched looking but filled with older locals exercising as is common in Taiwan, including women stretching on bars like ballerinas with their legs higher than people half their age could manage, a Tai Chi group and a man power walking backwards.

The other demographic out at sunset were younger people with cute little handbag sized dogs. I wasn’t sure what the Sun-Shooting Tower was all about as it was closed, but it was nice to walk around! There would generally be more to see on a day other than Monday when things like the art museum are closed.

That’s all I had time for in the South of Taiwan for now – but I’d already decided to extend my trip and spend a bit more time here. Moving on to the mountains in the centre of Taiwan to the Alishan National Forest…