Sunday,
June 1st, 2014 (Morning)
Surprise, surprise, I haven’t slept much
over the last few days (well, years, but I don’t want to talk about that). I’ve
been staying up to watch movies and do laundry and clean in a futile attempt to
de-mold my apartment. This weekend we have the Dragon Boat Festival on Monday,
which means a three day weekend! I’m on the way to Kaohsiung right now. My
itinerary for Sunday: 3 hour train from Taichung to Kaohsiung, 3 hour bus from
Kaohsiung to Kenting, hang out on the beach in Kenting (the southernmost point
in Taiwan) for a few hours, bus back to Kaohsiung, sleep. For Monday: Train to
Tainan, watch the Dragon Boat races, see some historical sites (Tainan is the
oldest city in Taiwan), train to Taichung, sleep.
Before
7:30am/since last night I…
-roasted carrots and mushrooms, bought a
baguette, and made barbecue chicken sandwiches for Sunday.
-booked my train ticket online, printed out
the information at a 7/11, and got to the train station.
-had a Zhongwen-filled conversation with my
cab driver after misreading the bus schedule.
-did a lot of laundry (towels, backpack,
etc.).
-watched a few silly, yet somewhat
interesting, movies.
-finished one book and started another.
-charged all of my electronics and hid my
computer from scoundrels.
-washed dishes.
-packed.
-Skyped with my NYC-bound sister.
I can’t wait to sleep on the train and bus!
Both have my destination as their final stops, which means anxiety-free napping.
I booked my train online, which means I guaranteed myself a seat AND was able
to pay in advance, thus accruing airline miles (travel rewards card—such a good
idea. If everything works out, I will have a $30 nonstop flight from Istanbul
to NYC next year when I finally come back to the US).
Sunday,
June 1st, 2014 (Night)
I slept for a little while on the train,
but not much because I accidentally over-flirted with a baby who then decided
that my sole purpose in life was to entertain her. I was happy to oblige. After
that, I read a book until I fell asleep (and finished it when I woke up).
It was easier than usual to find the bus
station, and I was able to board almost immediately upon arrival. Two and a
half hours, a few naps, and a quarter of a book later, I arrived in Kenting!
The beach itself wasn’t the nicest I have
ever been to, and wasn’t as nice as I expected it to be, but it was still
wonderful. I’m sure if I were on one of the resort beaches it would have been
nicer. Nevertheless, I took a few spectacular naps, read about half of a book,
and dunked in the water a few times. I watched the sun set over the water, and
then left as it started to get dark.
This time around it took a little while to
find the bus stop (it was in a random hotel on a street with a busy night
market), but everyone was really helpful. The bus took *forever* to come, and
then the ride itself was an hour longer than I expected, and ended at a station
further away from my hostel than I had anticipated. Near the end of the ride I
talked to this girl and her friend from Cornwall, ON. The girl has been here
for two weeks and is (shocker) teaching English. Her friend was visiting.
Three cabdrivers and an English-speaking
man in his 30s ultimately figured out how to get me to my hostel, where I
promptly ate some Thin Mints I had smartly packed in my bag, and wolfed down a surprisingly
delicious bowl of ramen (one of, if not, my first).
Monday,
June 2nd, 2014 (Afternoon)
Today I went to Tainan from Kaohsiung to
see the Dragon Boat races. It took a while for me to find them, but I settled
in a shaded spot with a Taiwanese family who had two exchange students—one from
France, and one from Poland. We watched the races, and then I left to see
historical sites in Anping District (but not before stopping to watch a
European crew team stretch).
Before heading to the sites, I stopped for
lunch at 7/11. I kept telling myself, “Your American is showing”, because I ate
pasta with carbonara sauce (yum—good going, 7/11) and drank a beer (to be fair,
it was a Taiwan Beer).
I keep reading books about women who go on
epic journeys to find themselves (which, by the way, is not what I’m doing—I just
want to see and experience as much of the world as possible before settling for
anything). Common themes which I have experienced in my own travels include
otherness (duh), and women getting help. Not help in the “AHH, I HAVE NO IDEA
OF WHERE I AM OR WHAT I AM DOING” sense, though obviously that is sometimes the
case. In my experience, people will go out of their way to help travelers,
especially if you are female, you are alone, and you look like a teenager. Oh,
and smiling helps.
A lot of people like to strike up
conversations, too, which means that as much as I protest this fact, my small
talk skills and ability to talk naturally with strangers have improved by an
incredible degree over the last few years. I have also gotten a lot better at
asking for the help that people so willingly offer up. Oh, and I am well aware
that things would be different if I didn’t appear to be the least threatening
person in the universe, but there isn’t much I can do about that—short of a
Dauntless transformation (can you tell what books I have been reading lately?).
Monday,
June 2nd, 2014 (Night)
The historical sites were kind of cool, but
not incredibly noteworthy, and most had closed by the time I got there. While
waiting for the bus, I had a lovely conversation with a French woman and her
Taiwanese boyfriend; they were around my age, and were on their way back to
cheer some of his teammates on in their next dragon boat race.
I got on the wrong bus after a failed
attempt to see one of the historical sites, so the ride to the train station
took an hour instead of 20-30 minutes. Ironically, it was the historical
shuttle, so while breaking my heart by going who knows where, it showed me all of
the sites I hadn’t gotten to see, including the one I had been trying (and
failed) to see. Trains run super-late, anyway, so everything ended well.
I didn’t have a seat for the first leg of
the train ride (they are assigned), but that was only for the first 45 minutes
of a two hour and forty minute ride. At the end, the door was locked, so we ran
to the next train car in order to exit. Yikes. That part was terrifying.
All in all, this was a great weekend, and I’m
glad I got myself in gear and actually took the trip instead of choosing to
stay home and sleep for the entire weekend.
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