SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2016
It’s Tomb Sweeping weekend in Taiwan, which means 4-day weekend for us! For the rest of Taiwan, this holiday is a time for families to visit their ancestors’ resting areas and clean or sweep. Because of the long weekend, we decided to travel a little further than usual.
HOW TO GET THERE
Coming from the north, Chiayi is pretty far. The best way to get there is by the high speed rail. The trip from Miaoli to Chiayi was a little under an hour and cost 680 NT. Note: Chiayi High Speed Rail is not near the city. However, they do have buses (free if you show your HSR ticket) that go to the city, specifically Chiayi Train Station. Also, pay attention to signs. There are two routes from the HSR on identical buses. Tracy and I got on the wrong one. Thankfully, we only were only on the bus for 15 min before we found out we took the wrong bus. We crossed the street and waited for the bus to come. While we were on the bus, we did encounter a gentleman who asked us to lower our voices. It’s interesting how public transportation in Taiwan often asks for passengers to be quiet and even to put your phone on to vibrate or silent!
WHERE TO STAY
Tracy and I booked in advance on Hostelworld. If I recall correctly, there weren’t many options at the time of our booking. But, we found a nice hostel called 5floorfun. It’s a 10 minute walk from Chiayi Train Station and was easy to find. The hostel was very nice. They had a hand drawn map of the entire city! I thought it was very impressive and very helpful. They also provided a lot of recommendations for us. One night was 550 NT per person.
CHIAYI PARK
The next morning, Tracy and I got up and followed the map to Chiayi Park. There’s was actually a lot going on. The park seemed big to me and there were a lot of places that made for good photo ops. You can expect a lot of children. I am guessing there was some special event that day, because as we walked around, we noticed lots and lots of people drawing and painting. Everyone was so talented! They were all painting Chiayi Park from the position they sat.
Walking and walking, we come across an arts fair. There were several red tents set up with some people selling hand made goods and others offering a DIY experience. We didn’t even walk 5 feet when a man yells for us to come over. He showed us how to draw a bamboo using wood burning tools. He then proceeded to give us each a wood piece to replicate what he just did. I’ll admit, I struggled a bit, but the end product turned out great and I had fun.
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SPONTANEOUS PHOTO SHOOT
I love travelling with people who like to take pictures, because there is always a chance of a spontaneous photo shoot and the pictures turn out gorgeous. This is exactly what happened on the way to our next destination. Credit to Tracy for having a good eye.
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CHIAYI PRISON MUSEUM
We walked about 15 to 20 minutes to the Chiayi Prison Museum. Please note the following times: Tue-Sun 9:30-10:30, 10:30-11:30, 13:30-14:30, 14:30-15:30. You can only see the museum by joining one of the 4 tours during the day. So, it’s not a roam as you wish kind of museum. The tours are free and offer a lot of information about the museum’s history. Unfortunately, the entire tour is in mandarin and Tracy and I could not make out 99.9% of what they were talking about. There are more than one group for each of the four time slots. Still, I would get there at least 10 min before.
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HINOKI VILLAGE
Our last stop of the day is Hinoki Village, recommended by our hostel. This place was lots of fun! We could have stayed there longer than we did, but we had to catch a train to meet Ariel in Tainan. Hinoki Village consists of 28 Japanese style dormitories. They’ve turned these dormitories into various shops. We walked into a souvenir shop with post cards cute stationary and toys. Next door was a shop selling sticky rice, which we also ate for lunch. We passed a chocolate shop, a tea shop, etc. I noticed that everyone was carrying/eating these egg rolls. I LOVE egg rolls. We found the place and this was by far the most crowded shop that we entered. They sell various types of cookies and crackers that were probably really delicious. Tracy and I each got an egg roll. Inside there was a cream-like consistency. It was really good! I highly recommend stopping by this place. 🙂
A little further down, we walked into a bamboo craft store, where everything in the shop was made from bamboo. I’m talking plates, bowls, chopsticks, candle holders, tea scoopers, etc. If you have time, you can try out the Japanese clothing store. For a price, you can put on traditional Japanese clothing and make up and take beautiful pictures around the village. For me, I settled for a picture with superman and a cat on a pineapple.
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