Minoru's Diary in Taiwan: Finding a flat & getting to know a city.

On day two I embarked myself in the titanic task of finding a suitable place to live for my next months in the City of Tainan, Taiwan. And I say Titanic for two main reasons: 1. I don’t speak Chinese, and 2.  There are only two types of flats available for a short period of time; either very nice pricey places or very cheap “shitholes”. With the help of a Colleague and a Professor (both locals) I set up a few appointments and off I went. Most of the places I saw were small, dark, smelly and dirty, but very cheap, nonetheless, the first flat I saw was very big, bright, and in general, awesome. However, people continued telling me that the horrible places I saw were very convenient (more on this word on future posts) and that I should not take the first place because it was too expensive and far away from my place of work (around 1 hour commute). I start to get the feeling that the locals prefer not to move a lot, to be close to work rather than having a nice place to live, I guess everybody has their own priorities. 

So despite of the insistence of the locals not to take the nice flat I liked since the beginning, I decided to take it. I was advised to call all the landlords of the places I didn’t like and explain why I didn’t want to take their place, and to look for reasons that would sound euphemistic enough… In the end I decided that the “reason” I would give them would be that I absolutely needed a place with a kitchen. And so, before I knew it I was setting up my moving date; the land lady would pick me up at my hotel to take me to the flat and do the whole charade (moving, contracts, payments, etc.).

I now have a lot of free time (adding the fact that the jet lag keeps waking me up at ungodly hours in the morning), so armed with my trusty camera, my now Internet connected cellphone, a big bottle of water and some tourist brochures, I exit the comfort of the air-conditioned hotel room into the hot and humid land of wonders that is Taiwan. 

My plan is as usual; there is no plan. I just walk and wander as I please, taking turns whenever I feel like, in search of hidden wonders and off-centre places. This works awesomely, somehow I find myself surrounded by an overwhelming amount of temples, shops, restaurants, and well, Taiwanese. 

A view of the NCKU Garden.

I can’t help but notice the overwhelming amount of scooters sorting the streets, the obsession that the Taiwanese have with food and the fact that in every turn I took t here was a temple of some sort. 

Scooters in a Parking Lot.

A temple.

From what I have observed in  this week I’ve been here, I can tell you that the Taiwanese are a Religious bunch, but very respectful; you will see Buddhist and Taoist (the two main religions here) temples next to each other, and sometimes, as I have been told (and yet to be confirmed) some of these temples host more than one religion. 

Temple.

Dragon.

Fried Stinky Tofu

During my wandering I suddenly find myself entering one of the famous Night Markets; which I later discover is the Flowers Night Market. In indulge myself in tangy fried sticky tofu and octopus balls with wasabi (not the testicles of the octopus but dough balls filled with octopus and then fried). It’s been a couple of busy and tiresome days, I’m ready to go back to the hotel and rest.

Octopus Balls

The land lady picks me up right on time and hands me a little bag containing beer, tomatoes and juju beans (they eat tomatoes as fruits here) and some sort of spongy soft cake; a welcome gift and breakfast, she says. And off we went, she is jovial and friendly. She asks me if I have anything else to do today or if I have time to drive around; she would show me some nice places around and point me in the right direction. Awesome.

Parks, markets, restaurants, temples and other famous places and landmarks, I really didn’t pay much attention to what she was saying, I was just lost on the ambiance of the place, the strange feeling of something strange and homie at the same time.

We stop by a beach. Deserted and close to the flat, I will return for sure.

The Beach.

We finally make it to the flat, I take all my things; after years of moving around my life has been reduced to one big suitcase and one carry-on size bag. Take it upstairs and start the usual in this situation, inspection, cleaning, contracts and payment. I’m done. But the landlady offers me a bicycle I can use and takes me to buy things for the house. I’m starting to notice that even though its hard for us to communicate with words (there is indeed a great language barrier as I speak virtually no Chinese and their English skills are very limited), they understand if you need something and will go out of their way to help you out. I find that awesome and I’m thankful for that.

Finally, after some frantic hours I can sit down in my terrace with a beer and my hand, enjoy the view and say to myself: Welcome to your new home. 

The view from my terrace.