On third day in Taiwan 4th April 2018, we took train to Tainan. I was still able to get two seats to Tainan from Kaohsiung. But two separate seats. One in cabin 5 and another in cabin 6. I didn't realize they have public holidays on Children's day and Qingming Festival in Taiwan. The locals from north and south started flocking to Tainan.
The distance from Kaohsiung to Tainan is 34 mins by train. Ticket costs NT$106 per pax.
We arrived at Tainan train station at 12:40pm.
The hotels in Tainan are expensive generally. Took me sometime to search on Booking.com and Agoda. Booked one called South Traveler through Booking.com but the hotel emailed me privately and asked me to cancel it because they don't have room available during that period. The cheapest option is Airbnb. Found this room with bathroom only RM70 per night. I paid total RM276.85 for 3 nights including the Airbnb charges.
It took us roughly 10 minutes by walk to the guesthouse. The host was good and prompt in reply. The room is exactly the same like the pictures shown on Airbnb. Clean, got TV in the room, and the hot and cold water dispenser is located outside the room. But the aircond is old-fashioned and quite noisy. They provide an extra mattress too. Security wise, quite safe as there are residences along the alley.
We spent 3 nights here, the block with red wall tiles.
After unloaded our luggages, I asked the host the name and location of the famous food street in Tainan. He gave me maps, it's Guohua Street 國華街. Based on the map, it looks "not that far" from our guesthouse. It's a straight line. So we headed out, asked two locals for direction at different timing. Both of them were quite shocked that we wanted to go there by foot. They said the same thing, it's quite far. One suggested me to take taxi because the fare is not that expensive. Meter starts at NT$80. Based on the short distance, maybe we only need to pay NT$80. We ignored, and continued to walk. Here again I learnt the lesson. In Tainan, don't be a cheapskate to save on the transport cost. You will suffer, that's my advice.
Passed the alley next to Cactus & Cat cafe, we finally arrived at Guohua Street.
It was very crowded on Guohua street. The queues were super long, especially those famous food which have been introduced on media before.
We were starved, didn't want to queue so I just randomly chose one without queue for a quick fix. Yongle Pork Rice 永樂燒肉飯. I forgot how much a set of this rice was. But it comes with a bowl of salad and miso soup too. Quite worth it.
I have seen this Fu Sheng Hao 富盛號碗粿 on TV before. Decided to queue for the rice cake. It's local delicacy in Tainan, certainly a must-try. The store front as shown below is catered for take-away order. You can dine-in here too but the capacity is quite small. There is two rows of queue line, one for dine-in and one for take-away.
The store front facing the main road as below is catered for dine-in customers, two storey capacity. If you want to dine-in, can choose to wait here for better comfortability.
Bought the starfruit drinks to quench my thirst first before queuing up for the rice cake.
The rice cake from Fu Sheng Hao.
Next, we chose the attraction place nearby Guohua Street, Chihkan Tower 赤崁樓. It is quite short walking distance. The admission fare is NT$50 per adult. Just do as a tourist, take photos and read the history of the tower. It's constructed by Dutch in 1653.
Next stop, it was almost 4pm. This time we decided to take taxi to go to Blueprint Culture & Creative Park 藍晒圖文創園區. This park is quite small in size. There are some drawings on the walls and you can take pictures with 3D effect.
Flea market, selling preloved items such as soft toys and clothing.
Found this quite interesting, a residence between the commercial units.
We stopped here at Our Bar Gelato and bought popsicles for a break.
Can't remember the price, range from NT$90 - NT$120.
First day in Tainan, I have my pocket list ready. I had been looking forward to try Ah Xia Restaurant 阿霞飯店 which serves the authentic Tainan dishes. I watched it on Youtube before, introducing the history, the chef and the dishes. We got there by taxi. Walked in without any reservation at 5:30pm. Asked for a table for two but the manager asked us to come back at 7pm. Before leaving, the manager reminded us that the minimum spending amount is NT$500. Since it was still early, I decided to take a quick walk to the attraction nearby, Hayashi Department Store 林百貨.
The oldest department store in Tainan, Hayashi Department Store 林百貨. It was bombed by the United States airplanes before during World War II.
Queued up to take lift to the top floor.
The top floor is selling postcards, you can mail your postcard here.
The shrine on the top floor.
Walking back to Ah Xia Restaurant, the building of Land Bank of Taiwan is unique.
I received call from the manager at 6:25pm, we finally got a table near the kitchen.
The service was quite good. The waitress went through with us the menu. I chose the dinner set for 2 pax NT$1500 which comprised all of their famous dishes.
The first dish served, salted fresh shrimps and charcoal grilled wild mullet roe. One person only can have one item each. This is the portion for two.
The second dish, assorted platter.
The scallop and pork tripe soup.
This is what I had been waiting for, rice cake with mangrove crab 红鲟米糕. After tasted it, I was rather disappointed. Perhaps I had too high expectation on it. The crabs were quite dry, not as juicy as I imagined it to be. Anyway, I satisfied that I have tried it and I don't have to revisit again.
Fruits plate was included too.
The signature desserts, almond tofu. This soup is really too sweet for me. After a sip or two, we gave up. I don't like the almond taste too.
The wall hanging the photos taken with the well-known Taiwan politicians.
The map to Ah Xia Restaurant 阿霞飯店:
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