I went to Kaosching and Tinan and met the oracle.

Well I went to mandarin class again on Friday and met some more Canadians, now 5 Canadians in our class, and a genuine Indian from India who invited me to a vegetarian dinner at a yoga school he instructs on saturday.

Unfortunately, on Saturday I went to Kaosching and Tinan and was unable to attend the vege indian dinner. Tinan and Kaosching are cities on the otherside (southern end) of taiwan. Basically like going from Toronto to Ottawa, Kasoching is 4 hours from Taipei, and Tinan is 1 hour north of Kaosching (closer to Taipei). I left at 3 on the train for Tinan, but the train was soo ghetto, it cost me about $25 for the one way train trip, decent but the thing is they had no seats left. Unlike Canada, when a train is sold out, they still keep selling tickets and you just stand for the duration of the trip in the aisle!! no j/k, and this train was completely filled, defenitely a fire hazard. People were standing in the aisles, and between cars and on the floor outside the bathrooms, defenitely really ghetto.

The train food card did have a decent selection of food, and it was priced relatively decently, but going around the food cart when standing in the aisle was defenitely a hazard. I uploaded a picture of the aisles of the train, check out the picture update section. As the train made stops in various cities on the way to Tinan (my first destination) people got off and on, so I kept switching seats as they became available. I was pretty pissed at first, that I didn't get a seat reserved for me for the 3 hour train trip, even though I paid the same price as other passengers, and my friend told me that she didn't tell me before we boarded the train otherwise I wouldn't have gone with her....she was right, hahahaha.

I practiced my mandarin on the train, getting some odd stares from passengers, as what i thought was hard was naturally childs play for the natives. Imagine someone practicing english on the GO train...

In Tinan, I met the Oracle. Anyone seen the matrix? In the movie there is an Oracle who can see the future. Well my friend Alisa met up with her friends in Tinan and we all went to see the Oracle in Tinan, I couldn't take any pictures as she lived in a sacred budhist house. After performing some budhist rituals burning incense, each one of Alisa's friends as well as Alisa took turns talking to the Oracle about their problems. They wrote the problems on some paper and than after getting advice on the future outcomes, their paper was burned. Apparently this oracle is really good, they talked to the oracle about their job and carreer possibilities, whether to get married, change jobs or move somewhere else. After getting advice from the oracle, we left and went for dinner and dessert. Check out my online pics for pics of the train, city and dinner place. Tinan is really small and bascially like a rural city, even by Canadian standards it was pretty quiet, defenitely a big change from Taipei, most places were closed by 9. After dinner we took a train to Kaosching ($8) and got there at about 12 midnight. Alisa and I visited a nightmarket in that area, everyone else basically went home as they lived in Kaosching and went to sleep.

The night market in Kaosching was pretty big, but not as big or as good as the one at Shilin in Taipei I think. Koasching is pretty small as well, but it is the 2nd biggest city in Taiwan. There was even some talk of moving the capital there. The food in the nightmarket was not that good, but I took pics of it, so you can see it.

Around 1:30 a.m. we left the night market and took a bus back for Taipei which left at 2 a.m. and got to Taipei at 6 a.m. The bus was excellent, even had a stewardess that brought blankets and lemon biscuits and water or tea. Each seat in the bus had its own LCD t.v. and i could play Nintendo games (classics like Tank wars :) as well as other old skule games. Much better than the train I think, and the cost was the same as well $25 for the trip back to Taipei, cheaper if you consider from Kaosching to Taipei farther than Tainan to Taipei.

Well, the trip to Kaosching and Tinan was pretty fun, a lot fewer foreigners in Tainan and Kaosching, and the natives were not used to seeing foreigners so far south. I guess outside of Taipei, foreigners would only show up at english schools, as most international companies only keep offices in Taipei (the country's capital). I got back to Taipei at about 6:30 a.m., got some Dambi for breakfast and chilled at my friend's house until the afternoon. Got some lunch/dinner and practiced my chinese.

I went to a grocery store, and found that prices for most things there cost more than in Toronto. No wonder everyone eats out, it really is cheaper than eating at home.



Tomorrow should be busy, I have chinese class, than YWCA volunteering and badminton afterwards...