Taiwan Day 4

Taiwan Day 4 - Mei Nong + Kao Shiung

Today we went to Mei Nong Hakka Village, which is a small rural town, famous for its heritage and erm...flat noodle. So we took the train to the Kao Shiung main station and from there, we boarded a bus that would bring us straight to the village.

The bus station where we took the bus is behind this another bus company

The actual bus station. Not the most fanciful but definitely the most functional. I believe the cool weather helps a lot in making everything not so unpleasant 

And our breakfast for the day is from none other than...7-11. Lol. This is the omelette rice hamburger

And our favourite from the last time we were here in Taiwan. Chilled noodles where the magic, is in the sauce

And Mayday, darling's favourite, joins in the fun en route to the village

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It was an hour and a half journey so there was always going to be plenty of time to catch on your sleep. That's why the most important thing is to wake up early to save precious time!

The bus station at Mei Nong, with a map that indicates the places of interest. And this is where we realised that we weren't prepared for the form of transportation here. There was neither any scooters for hire nor do we have any idea if there's any buses available

So the most common mode of transport here is the bicycle…as we were informed very kindly by a Mr Policeman here. But the problem is that my dearest darling does't know how to cycle. So how? I had to paddle around with her as a pillion...ROAR!!!

And no, it wasn't easy cycling that way. I swear I lost 1.2584kg at the end of the day

And sometimes I would only get to see amazingly nice photos taken by the cat only until when we get back home.

This one is very nice too. But I reckon the reason is probably because I was dead beat after all the cycling, that I wasn't really paying attention to what she was up to. Lol

The East Gate is one of the places of interest. And it was literally a gate standing there

And of course, this is for all the little historian living in us

Mei Nong , a place filled with mountains, lakes and littered with farms

And farmers working hard 

So that mountain tortoises like us can see an actual eggplant growing on the vines

We headed over to the Hakka Village Museum but sadly it wasn't open. It was a Monday.

But along the way, we met Mr. Radish and...

…the real deal...

Catching a break while on the way to the central town area for lunch. And this is another one of the artistic shot by the cat that I am proud of

Lunch, is of course at this famous stall, carefully researched by the cat, selling the famous flat noodles that the town is known for

I ordered the braised pork rice, just to fill the stomach and of course to replenish all the energy used in paddling two people across a town. Felt like a farmer, so hungry after a hard day's work in the fields

This is their stirred fried platter, which was actually very nice

And the flat noodles they are famous for but the taste was only average. Boo…

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It was still a good meal overall. I think it's because they were home-cooked and they are the best somehow. And one of the plus point to this little eatery is that they do serve complimentary ice tea, which I felt was awesome, especially after paddling for so long in the sun. But there was only going to be more paddling after…

Along the way to the Mei Nong Folk Village, we've decided to stop by this traditional umbrella shop, whose umbrellas are supposed to last 100 years, of course if you do not use it negligently

You can make your own umbrellas, but that might cost you half a day. So in the end, we only bought a small ready made fan

And the Folk Village we've finally reached. I think I was probably running on low battery at this time already

It appears to be a slow day. There wasn't a lot of people around and lots of shops weren't open either. Probably due to it being a Monday. But ain't Monday a work day?

So the buzz is only at the end of the alley way where there's a large store selling home made ornaments and furnitures

And they provided a few of their very own childhood games for visitors to try, like these rocking horses

And a local grandpa showing us how to spin and walk a metal ring with just a rod. He made it look easy but it was really tough

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By then, our three-hour rental for the bicycle was almost up. But it was also about time to start our journey back to Kao Shiung to raid some more of their night markets. Hee hee...

First up was Nan Hua night market, which was so boring that we didn't even stop to look at any of the stalls, much less take any photos. There was simply nothing to see or to do. Do not even consider this place, it was an absolute waste of time.

And so we made our way to Liu He night market, which was such a stark contrast to the earlier one we went.

The sign at the start of the street, aptly named with a subtext "The Tourist Night Market"

Because the tourists come by the bus loads, it was so scary...

…the street has to be closed, a common practice around the world to provide for more walking space at popular tourist spots

The first dish we had was the soup dumplings, the taste only made better with a generous dip of vinegar. Lol

We were always game to try out new food creations

And so we went for this deep fried oyster ball. And this was how it looked before going into the fryer. Juicy, succulent and messy

But to our dismay, it wasn't that great. But do take into consideration that we both hated corianders and there was plentiful of those evil bastards inside. Sad to say, we didn't finish it

And of course, there would always be a highlight at each of their night market. And this is the one for us. Literally translated as House of BBQ! 

We went for a small wing to try out the taste. Nice tender meat, coupled with the juiciness in it all. It was our pick for the night. We came back for a second round, this time buying a bigger piece of the chicken wing. Be prepared to get a queue number for your food though.

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The Liu He night market only runs along one street so it wasn't that big a place to explore. It also focuses mainly on the food. So once we had our fill, we were on our way back to the hotel, which was only one street across the road. After having to do so much manual work in the day, this felt awesome.