Exploring Tainan by Scooter

Hello again,

so as the title says we rented another scooter.
We saw the sign in our hotel yesterday that we could rent a scooter with the help of the front desk and we decided we wanted to try that today.

After our breakfast at the hotel, which was very similar to the breakfast in our last hotel but with a little more options in terms of vegetables and such (we opted for toast however...) we went to the front desk to ask for the scooters.
Since JJ wanted to try to lend a scooter we first tried to do so with his international license, however they talked to the motorcycle rental place and said that he would only be able to rent a small scooter (50 cc) and there were no more small scooters available. So we decided to rent a bigger one (125 cc) using my license again. This time the rental cost us 300 NTD and the woman from the rental place even paid for our taxi (100 NTD) from our hotel to her rental place, since they seem to have some kind of agreement where normally she would bring the scooter to the hotel, but she couldn't do so at the moment.

Our first stop was Fort Zeelandia, a reconstructed and redesigned fort originally built by the dutch in 1624 to 1634. The fort you see today is not the same as the original. They have a small exhibition about the fort's history which is also in English. This was however the first time we were charged an admission fee (around 50 NTD I think).

View from the tower

Visiting Sunset Platform, a short ride away from the fort, we noticed that Taiwanese are not too fond of beaches. Which is understandable since they aren't too keen on getting a tan. We had the beach almost to ourselves.

Afterwards we made our way into Taijiang National Park. Since we saw that there was a restaurant on our way into the Park we decided to eat lunch there. We missed the entrance though and had to turn back. And I am so glad we did!!! Not only was the restaurant's garden super cute with all the Totoro themed things and flowers, but the food.... Oh my god. It was SO good. For me it was the best food I've eaten here so far. And that says a lot, since I loved almost everything here.
We had the set for two, which could have also been easily eaten by three or four people. Sadly I am not 100% sure what we ate, but I'm quite sure that the fish we ate was taiwanese milk fish, and the fish soup also consisted of milk fish and pickled winter melon. Then we had some noodles with oysters and some kind of seaweed with lots of ginger and garlic. I am not a big fan of seafood and fish normally and can be picky about the kind of fish I eat. But let me say, the fish soup was one of the best things I ate in my life! The soup itself hadn't a strong flavor, but the fish... It had a very smooth, subtle flavor and melted in your mouth. And the pickled winter melon was a great contrast flavor.
The grilled fish was also amazing, and so was the rest.

the food

the entrance as seen from the road

I highly recommend you to check out the place if you are in the area... It is called Coconut Atrium view restaurant. They seem to also have a lot of dessert dishes with tapioca that they make themselves, however we were too full to try one.

After that delicious meal we headed to Sicao green tunnel and Sicao Dazhong temple. There we did the touristy thing to do and boarded one of the green tunnel boats, which was fun and beautiful, although we did not understand a word the woman was talking about (all in Chinese). Also she had a laser pointer with which she occasionally pointed at certain trees or animals (there were a lot of crabs there), presumably to explain certain details. The boat ride is kind of expensive, as it cost around 200 NTD. The tour lasts about 20 min maybe. But we really enjoyed it. You get a life-vest and a hat for the tour.

can you spot the crabs?

can you spot the bird?

Since it was getting late we decided to drive to the Gold Coast in order to see the sunset. We arrived a bit early and again, had the beach almost to ourselves, but as it was getting later and the sun was setting a few more people came to view the sunset.

Testing the water temperature. It was actually quite nice

 

There were many little crabs on the beach that you could only see if you looked for them.

 

Lastly I wanted to show one delicious dessert we tried in Tainan in the evening. It was some kind of shaved Ice with caramel on top. Underneath there was some kind of mochi filled with ice cream, red beans and jello. On the side it came with warm taro balls, mochi and tapioca pearls.

Tomorrow we will be heading for Alishan! So see you then.

Pia