This morning we went for an American brunch. It was not bad, nothing to our meal yesterday. Run by a Taiwanese-American and with plenty of other Taiwanese-Americans filling the tables, and the decor and feel was also very American. The GF had a French toast with hash browns, salad and an egg; I had a […]
Third time lucky
Today, our third attempt was successful. The first two had been during the week in which I absconded, to go to a tiny Japanese restaurant with 10 seats, which we had heard was very good but didn’t take bookings. The first time, we arrived before it opened and found it shut. Instead, we found another […]
Buddha vs stegosaur
This morning we hired a car and driver and went to Fo Guang Shan, a large monastery and Buddhist site outside Kaohsiung and home of the world’s largest seated Buddha, as well as (it turned out) a menagerie of animatronic animals including a mooing stegosaurus. The place itself is immense, set on a hillside overlooking […]
City gods
Yesterday we went first for lunch to perhaps Tainan’s most famous export, the home of slack season noodles, Du Hsiao Yueh. Quite tasty, and they had some very nice fresh bamboo served simply with a bit of mayonnaise. This is in one of the two historic centres of Tainan, about a 10 minute walk from […]
Stinktown
Tainan is, well, not a pleasant smelling city, at least on its larger roads. The stink is varied too: drains, rotting vegetables, mould, vermin, stale food and oil, other forms of filth. I felt a bit ill last night as we went for a post-dinner stroll, our first real exploration of the town. We went […]
Good luck tiger
We took the commuter train out to a suburb which was very KL like, at least like the parts of KL that are dominated by sterile condos and no pedestrians. It was very, very hot. We’d found a rather nice dim sum place, and then went on to the Kaohsiung art museum which proved rather […]
City life
Today, Saturday. A searing hot afternoon, and we went off to the Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art. There was an exhibition on, called City Life, with the low entrance fee that is usual in this country, a pleasant change from London museums and galleries. It turned out to be one of the best contemporary art […]
More people
After moaning yesterday about too much sociability, today was even worse: the GF and I both felt we had been in hiding too much and so we made a plan with our flatmates to go for a stroll and visit the national museum (not the National Palace Museum) and then meet our linguist friend for […]
Practicality
Sunday was meant to be a day of practicality. I went out with the intention of purchasing three new tops, one of them black, cleansing oil, face wash and a few other bits and pieces. I returned with a black linen top and the intent to return and buy a linen shirt. Plus two bowls […]
On my own
A very pleasant day today, on my own terms for once. It was a working day but unexpectedly light as something didn’t come in when it was supposed to. Meanwhile the GF had a meeting at lunchtime, so I went off by myself, first to a very well known lo rou fan place where I […]