Taiwan - South

Hey ppl~ I am back to Auckland. Guess in the next few days as I sort out my travel photos, I'll post them out there, so expect ot see a lot of photoblogs. I'll try to do it chronologically so here's my first trip. For some reason my parents have the notion that since i'll start working soon, the chances of me going back to Taiwan is pretty slim. So they took Emily and I along with 2 of their best friends to a trip to the South. The trip was really nice, nice to revisit places that I haven't visit for a while.... in fact, the last time I went to those places was during the study tour 2000.

Anyway, our first stop was Lukang (鹿港). Lukang is most famous for its 天后宮 which is a Taorism temple. Almost all the cities in Taiwan is associated with some sort of local snack, this was the same for Lukang, as it was equally famous is the foods sold infront of the temple.

See all the names of food advertised on the temple gate.

We arrived around lunch time, so it was the perfect chance for us to eat. :D

Introducing oyster noodle soup . This is different to the normal ones because the soup is clear and not viscous like the normal ones. Think i would prefer the normal ones tho.

Then there was my favourite oyster omelette. This one is special in that they gave you 2 different type of sauce! YUMMY

And lastly, there's this... oyster cake thingy... it's made with egg, oysters, herb fried together. I've never had this type of snack before, but according to dad, it's a very traditional local Taiwanese snack.

Next we visited the temple, it's quite a historic temple, and like most Taorist temple it's got lots of statues. This is the more popular one "月下老人" which is the 'god' you go to if you want to find your better half, or anything regarding relationships.

After that we took a walk in the historic streets in Lukang.

There's the famous half well, you can't see very well in the picture, but this is the view from the street. Basically on the other side of the wall lived a really rich family, and in those days only rich people can afford to have a well. So basically they designed the well in the way that their neighbours can also share the water.

In Lukang, you can join a tour where you get taken around in a bicycle like this. Pretty good for a hot humid day I'll say.

Our last spot was the historic museum, basicallly it was a mansion that was donated, and well, it's got heaps things that ppl in those days used.

After that we drove further south. We went to Tainan and visited a bunch of relatives I've never met. They were my grandpa (my dad's dad)'s elder sister's family. my grandpa's sister was really old when we met her, she couldn't move nor talk. It was really sad, there were nothing wrong with her in terms of illness and stuff.. it's was just all muscle deterioration due to old age. She also passed away just last Wednesday, according to my uncle, she passed away peacefully.

Then we went to Kaoshung night market for dinner, I LOVE night markets ^^ food, clothes, accessories, all the SHOPPING ^__^

The second morning we visited the Love River in Kaoshung. In a few years back it was a seriously polluted river, but now it's really clean which is a great sight to see.

Then there was the salt refinery, it kind of reminds me of Chelsea sugar refinery, just piles and piles of salt. :P

and here's more salt. They were even selling salty ice cream :P which was not too bad, the salt just enhanced the flavour.

Our last destination was the seafood market in Taichung. Dad goes there everytime he comes back to Taiwan to buy heaps of fishballs to take back to NZ. :P

And that concluded the trip to South of Taiwan. It was a really pleasant trip to revisit many places as well as tasting delicious local snacks.