My trip South.

So Friday morning I packed my bags and headed South for my first official getaway from Taipei. My destination was a place called Douliu. My language partner invited me down to spend the weekend at her house with her family, and I was happy to be able to get away from the city and was really, really looking forward to a nice home cooked meal. To get down south I took the train. I had a window seat, which made the three hour trip a little more interesting. I got to see a bit more of Taiwan, it all honesty I saw a lot of run down buildings, and more rural environments.  It was nothing like the poverty that I had witnessed in Indonesia, the stacks and stacks of 3 walled shacks, but it didn't seem to be nearly up to the standard of living that people are used to in Taipei. The train ride itself was rather interesting, so many people traveling south to visit families that they stood for the whole trip, because there was no more seats available on any of the trains.

When I arrived in Douliu I was actually a bit surprised to see just how big the city was. Sure it didn't come close to Taipei, but it does have a population of 100,000 people, which means that I had escaped the city life of Taipei, but not by much. This actually turned out to be a good thing as I learned a little later on in my trip, because had I been in a rural town almost nothing would have been open due to the Chinese New Year. I was picked up at the train station by Irene (my Language partner) and her mother, who I quickly learned spoke Mandarin Chinese with a very Taiwanese accent making her much harder to understand when she spoke. We got to their house and the two of them started working right away on a giant Vegetarian meal. Their house is 3 stories tall, and the top story of the house is home to a small temple, where people come to visit and worship. I was told that people usually come on Saturday but because of the Chinese New Year people were coming all the time time.

Shortly after we had arrived to their house 4 older men came to spend some time in the temple. After they had done their worship they sat with me in the living room where we all shared a giant feast accompanied by a fair amount of Chinese. For parts of the the conversation i was totally left out however because I don't understand any Taiwanese what-so-ever, but it down sound like a beautiful language. After our meal Irene and I went into town to walk the downtown area and have a look around. Most of the shops down South sell clothing an other items and since the prices seemed rather cheap I thought I would have a look around. It was in Douliu that I got my first glimpse of shirts that had actual Chinese on them. Of course this story didn't just sell shirts with Chinese on them, but also T-shirts filled with bad english. Shopping has never made me laugh so much.

After shopping it was back to the house, were we watched a movie and spent the rest of the night just hanging out. The next day we were planning on going to a amusement park in the area (weather permitting). Of course much to my luck, I awoke the next day to crappy cold rainy weather. It appears that even going South could not allow me to escape the wonderful weather. So we decided instead to head into town and hang out at one of the many coffee and tea houses that stay open 24/7. After the coffee shop we walked to a kind of indoor market place and found a restaurant that served hot pasta and Taiwanese style pizza. The food hit the spot, and while Taiwanese style pizza is not close to what I am used to from back home, it still was pretty darn tasty with a coke.

After dinner was over it was time to go and check out Douliu's night market. The night market was the most different experience from what I was used to in Taipei. The main reason that it was different was just the feel of the market, it was in a open field set more in the center of the town that just amidst the streets. You could walk the rows of foods, games, music, crafts etc, without feeling overly crowded by the people around you. The other thing was that being down South, and being a foreigner I was a bit of an oddity there. In Taipei, I think people are rather used to foreigners, but being down south, waiguoren (foreigners) are not something that people see everyday. I had kids and adults alike walking by me and pointing out the fact that I was either a foreigner of that I was very tall. I made a point of telling them in Chinese that I was not sure why I was so tall, which seemed to get a nice laugh from people. After the night market it was back home to hang out and watch some TV and relax before bed. Sunday morning we boarded another train and headed back to Taipei, again with tons of people standing the whole train ride home. The night market was a good way to end the trip South for me, and it has made me want to explore more of Taiwan. Taipei is a wonderful place but there is so much more culture on this small island that I just don't want to miss out on while I am here.