December 2008 Trip: Day 1- Jason’s grandparents’ place (ShinWen) → Kaohsiung

After spending about a week with Jason’s parents in Taichung, we began our 10-day island trip by visiting Jason’s grandparent’s place in ShinWen (新溫), a small village in the Chiayi county near the ocean. We visited his grandparent’s fish farm and it was very nice to meet his grandma in person. Jason’s grandma is this tiny cute lady, and I bet it was her very first time seeing a real, live Caucasian girl! We went to a local restaurant nearby with his relatives and had tons of seafood (including prawns from the grandmother’s fish farm that had just been caught that morning). The food was so fresh and so delicious. I think everyone was surprised at how much I could eat, how I could use chopsticks, and how I enjoyed trying new things (and without always knowing what they were!). I must say, I was quite proud of myself! It was obvious how much Taiwanese people enjoy eating (I was in good company!)

After lunch, Jason’s parent dropped us off at the High Speed Rail station and we were off to our second stop of the trip, Kaohsiung, to stay two nights with his aunt, uncle and cousin. Kaohsiung is Taiwan’s second capital, and from what I saw of Taiwan, I felt like Kaohsiung looked the most like Vancouver, being a harbor city, having a subway system, a bike lane, and wide roads that are arranged horizontally and vertically.

In the evening, we all took a small ferry to a local attraction where there is a night market and many seafood restaurants. In British Columbia, we have ferries that will transport passengers and cars from Vancouver to nearby port cities such as Victoria and Nanaimo and to different islands nearby, so it was quite interesting to see a ferry transporting passengers and scooters! We had dinner at one of the delicious seafood restaurants and enjoyed looking at the various shops.