23 March 2017
The modern north side
The Tainan flower night market
Its my last night in Tainan, so I went to a night market. This night market is only open on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, and I had read that it is impossible to get into due to being so busy. I think that must be the case on the other days cause this Thursday it was just reasonably busy.
The flower night market is just one of many such night markets in Tainan, they seem to go hand in hand with temples, and theres a hell of a lot of temples here.
Getting to the market took me to the Northern part of the city, a side I had not been to at all previously, and it is quite different.
The streets are wider and more modern, its greener, there are more parks and modern looking apartments. Using my detective skills, I have therefore worked out that where I am staying is the original old part of the city, and the north part is the new part of the city.
Of course this being Taiwan theres the possibility the north part of the city used to be the old part and was at some point destroyed in a natural disaster.
Anyway, I enjoyed my long looping walk around the northern part of the city, everything is bigger over there, less claustrophobic, a bit less neon.
Tainan as a whole is a very clean city. It goes on and on forever. There are indeed lots of temples, and lots of food places. The food places are mostly outdoors, this is something I dont really enjoy, which leads me to two outdoor food stories -
1. I watched a scooter repair man empty an entire can of WD40 onto a bike chain strung from the roof, and most of the overspray just went all over a food stalls vegetable buffet.
2. I watched some people sitting and eating some kind of pigs blood soup with oysters in it, whilst a construction crew armed with angle grinders sprayed sparks directly into their soup. They never flinched.
Here are some new apartments, on the north side of Tainan, the south city of Taiwan. The northern south. BEI NAN.
After quite the walk, I am at the night market. Note the flags. I think you walk around the outside and spot the flag of where you want to go, then head that way.
Not too busy!
Tonights blow torch options include whole cuttle fish.
Plenty of seating at the steak houses. I think I have worked out the steak houses always have the seats cause you need to use a steak knife, and thats not easy to do whilst standing.
Where as eating these bugs can be done whilst wandering around. You can get them with chilli. I like chilli.
This Singapore laksa house is by far the most popular place. Taiwan is very popular with Singaporeans, half the time I research where to go its written by a girl from Singapore (always a girl). So I am wondering if all the people eating Singapore style laksa are from Singapore.
If you are going to eat east mountain duck heads, you might as well eat the best east mountain duck heads.
You can also make yourself up a bag of mixed lollies, now with added night market flavour.
Or you can have some fried bacon wrapped cheese. Good for the healthy.
I predictably ended up back at a steak house (plastic table), to enjoy somewhere to sit and eat.
Now it was time for a long looping walk back. Here is tonights night temple.
This almost looks like Singapore, except there are scooters. Its a kind of indoor / outdoor hawkers hall.
And here I am, enjoying a discount clothing warehouse that goes nearly as far as the eye can see.
Last photo for tonight comes to you courtesy of a convenient overpass. Enjoy a bit more neon.