Renting the Gogoro (electric scooter)
Upon arriving in Tainan, I realised that quite quickly that it was going to be difficult for me to get around since I no longer had a car, so I decided to see if I could rent a motorbike. I found a shop that rented me a Gogoro which is an electric scooter (like the motorised scooters throughout Asia) that would allow me to ride around the city and keep up with the pace of traffic. I had quite a lot of fun riding around the city exploring the local’s way of life in this uncommonly travelled to part of the world.
Tainan was a little tricky for me, as there did not appear to be much information about the city that existed in English, so I was not able to take part in many tourist activities. Instead, I spent the earlier part of the day riding around on my Gogoro stopping only to get lunch and bubble tea from a Chun Shui Tang in a local shopping centre. Sometimes when I am travelling, while this is probably a little uncommon, I enjoy the simplicity of riding around just observing the locals and their way of life. This city must have also had an airbase close by as there were many jets flying low over the city throughout the day.
Forgetting my umbrella
When I was researching Taiwan before my trip, one of the things I kept seeing was that when travelling to Taiwan, you must never forget to bring an umbrella. Up until this point in the trip this had not been too much of a problem as I had a rental car to keep me dry and the weather had been mostly clear blue skies, however this would change on this day. In the early afternoon I was riding around on my Gogoro around 30 minutes away from my hostel and it started to rain. As I found out, when it rains in Taiwan its often no laughing matter as it really rains! It started to bucket down as I made my mad dash back to my hostel trying not to slip on the wet roads whilst becoming increasingly drenched by each car that would pass beside me on the flooded roads. By the time I made it back to my hostel, as you could imagine, I was completely saturated. Some adventure that ride was, and you will later read that I didn’t learn my lesson from this.
Chihkan Tower (Fort Provintia)
After the rain stopped, I went on a short ride to look at Chihkan town to have a brief look at the rebuilt Dutch outpost. It was a little interesting despite my lack of understanding of its history, but sadly most of it was under renovations so I was only able to explore the front section and the surrounding garden.
Dadong Night Market
At night, I road to the Dadon Night Market for dinner, where I enjoyed walking around the local market taking in the aromas of the many different kinds of food on offer. I purchased a seafood hotpot at the market for dinner that was quite tasty, and also a watermelon juice that was also nice. It was even better because I ordered the juice in Chinese.
