I headed south and away from the rain. It was warmer down here, and I could use some of the clothes I'd brought with me!
In a city of 234,000 people, I expected the train station to be big and modern, not cramped and dirty and full of sweaty taxi drivers trying to get you in their cab. They chew on betel nut and have rotten, stained teeth (those teeth that were still left). You could see the red juice oozing from their lips. From my bag they knew I was travelling and were all looking at me and shouting, but I didn't know how to say, "My hotel is right across the street" so I just smiled and shook my head as I scurried past.
The town itself felt like it had been left behind while Taipei had modernized. The plaster on the buildings was crumbling off and streaked with black pollution stains; the streets were covered in a layer of dirt and belting up in places; there were peddlers selling things from carts and men that looked homeless sitting around on the sidewalk. It reminded me of towns that I'd visited in rural parts of Northeastern Thailand, or the dirty parts of Tijuana, Mexico.
The Hotel
This town was so cheap! For starters, the hotel cost the same as the hovel I stayed at in Taipei, but I had my own room with a bath, a refrigerator, air conditioning, cable TV, and free long-distance calls. I loved the Taiwanese style of the room, and the lady at the front desk was so kind. She couldn't speak a word of English (I had the tourist office in Taipei help me make the reservation) so we communicated by writing things down on paper and I used my knowledge of Chinese characters to make out what she was trying to tell me.
Food
Interesting contrast from the day before. In Taipei there were lots of modern-style restaurants that had things like menus, waitresses, cleanliness. Here in Changhua there were lots of carts selling scary-looking food, and being vegetarian made it hard for me to just try things randomly. I memorized the phrase, "I'm vegetarian." and said it to a cart lady to see what she could give me, but she shook her head and pointed down the street. I walked a little further then asked someone else, who again pointed down the road. Eventually I ended up at a shop with this in front.
Yes, it looks gross and dirty and not vegetarian, but the lady didn't point down the road when I said I was vegetarian, and the sign above the food had the Chinese character for "vegetarian" in it. I didn't know what anything was and the lady seemed to think that speaking extra loudly would make me understand, which I thought was kind of funny. Plus it was kind of chaotic with people ordering from all around me because there wasn't a line. Then she grabbed a handful of noodles and gave me a questioning look, so I smiled and said, "Yes!" in English. Then she pointed to the bubbling pot with all kinds of stuff in it, and honestly I had no idea what I would get but I said "Yes!" anyway. I got this:
So cheap! It cost about $1.50 and was pretty good. In the left bowl, the red thing on the noodles that looks like meat is some kind of pressed and marinated tofu that feels like biting into bits of chicken. In the right bowl of soup, the stuff that looks like chicken skin and pork is made from the thick layer that forms on the top of soy milk when you heat it.Behind the food cart was a small sitting area. I shared a table with a lady eating alone and watched her closely, copying how she ate. I used the sauce she used, mimicked how she put sauce in the spoon and used chopsticks to dip the noodles into it. She smiled when she realized what I was doing.
I discovered there were basically three things you could order here: a bowl of noodles, a bowl of soup, or a bowl of soup with noodles. For dinner I had all 3 plus another bowl of noodles and thought my stomach would burst (it actually hurt). All four bowls cost less than $3. You can't beat that.
Confucius Temple
I thought I couldn't go into the grounds because the giant front gates were closed, but there was an opening in the wall around the corner. It was so peaceful with no one around. Below on the left you can see the groundskeeper, who seemed to be keeping an eye on me, making me wonder if I shouldn't have been there.
On both sides of the main temple were empty classrooms. The groundskeeper came in and stood at the back of the room to see what I was doing in there (pretending to be a good student).
Old Dutch Well
Hundreds of years ago the Dutch had control of Taiwan, and you can still find some remains of those days, like this old well. The guidebook made it sound interesting, but seeing a woman washing her clothes in it kind of took away from the historical experience.
Big Buddha
The third and final thing to see in this town according to the guidebook was the Big Buddha at the top of a hill. Instead of following the main road I walked up the dry riverbed and enjoyed the scenery.
The Buddha was huge (in the foreground there's a man to the left of the tiger statue) but was pretty tacky up close. The pink base looked old and faded, and there were windows in the Buddha's back. You could go inside and see mannequin-like displays depicting the main points of Buddha's life, but the explanations were wordy and strange.
Monkly dude chilling on the blue chairs.
Lost in Lukang 鹿港
I was finished seeing the main sights of Changhua, so I decided to catch a bus to the nearby town of Lukang to see some sights there before it got dark. Knowing Chinese characters really helped in getting the tickets. The bus station was absolutely packed, full of students who had just gotten out of school and people who were heading home from work. There were only two ticket machines (and strangely no ticket desk with a human to help out) with about 50 people crowded around them. Once I made it to the machine I only had a few seconds to get my ticket, and everything was completely written in Chinese. I pushed the button for Lukang, got my ticket, and stood in line to wait for the bus. It didn't come for a while, and at 4:30pm I started debating whether or not it was getting too late to explore another town, and if I should just scrap my bus ticket and try again the next day. The guidebook said it was a 30 min. ride to Lukang, so I figured there was enough time to see a little of the town before hopping on a bus back to Changhua before it got dark, like around 6:30pm? This was my first mistake: even the best estimate only gave me an hour to spend in Lukang, and I was assuming everything would go smoothly.
After an hour on the bus I started seeing signs that told me I was in the town of Lukang. The guidebook must have meant a 30min. ride if there are no cars on the road, so it was already dusk when I got there. When the bus made a stop on a wide road (well, wide enough for two cars to pass each other without one stopping to let the other one swerve around) the majority of the people on the bus stood up to get off, so I asked the driver, "Lukang?" and he said yes. That's why I got off there, too. This is what I saw:
No English whatsoever, and nothing to tell me where to go. One of my problems was that my map was written in English, but the signs in the town were in Chinese. I could recognize the characters, but I didn't know how to pronounce them to find myself on the map. The sign says 三民 but which road could it be... Minzu? Minquan? Sanshu? Also, the signs were old and bent, and sometimes pointing in the wrong direction.I followed the crude map in the guidebook and counted the number of blocks as I passed them, turning left and right where appropriate. But I never reached the temple I was trying to find. In fact, I'd been walking in a straight line for quite a while when there should have been cross-streets already. Mistake number two: I'd gotten off at the wrong stop, and was lost.
I retraced my steps and made it back to the bus stop that I'd gotten off at. In the distance I noticed an arrow-shaped sign with characters I recognized on it. It was the direction of a temple that I thought I wouldn't have time to see because it was on the other side of the city. So then I understood: I was in Lukang, but on the opposite side of the city that I thought I was in.
If I could make it to the temple, then I could find myself on the map and get to the bus that would take me back to Changhua. Hopefully before dark.
Lukang's Longshan Temple
I found the ancient temple and couldn't resist exploring a little. Mistake number 3: I spent valuable time looking around when I should have been trying to find the bus stop. At this point I still thought I had time to spare. At least it was beautiful, being the best preserved Qing Dynasty temple in Taiwan.
I liked the pillars carved from stone. 
The ceiling beams were carved, too, and they were probably originally painted in bright colors.
Gettin' jiggy with it.
When I left the temple the sun was low in the sky and it would be completely dark within the hour. I made my way to the bus stop, but the roads were narrow and winding, and it was hard to tell what was an alley and what was a road on the map. After twisting and turning I had no idea which direction I was facing, but kept on my way.You guessed it, I got lost again. I'd been walking for a half hour and the signs for Longshan Temple were pointing in a direction that I didn't expect the temple to be. I'd walked in a great big circle. So I set off again, this time at a faster pace because of lost time. Then it got completely dark, and I was still lost.
It was a small town, and there weren't any taxis roaming the streets like in Changhua or Taipei. All the signs were in Chinese. I started to get nervous. I didn't know what time the last bus to Changhua was... what if I missed the last bus back? Mistake number 4: I lost my calm. I started heading into the general direction of where I thought the bus stop was at a fast pace. And because of the winding roads and lack of sun to tell me the direction, I was just guessing.
Eventually it occurred to me to write down the Chinese characters of the bus stop I wanted to go to on a sheet of paper. I looked for someone to show it to, knowing that I wouldn't understand the directions they gave me anyway, but I had to try something.
A woman about my age had been selling flowers on the side of the road and was putting her things away. I asked if she could help me, and showed her the characters for the bus stop. She pointed, then frowned like she wanted to tell me something but knew I wouldn't understand. She paused for a moment, then said in English, "I bring you." I'd been walking for a while and knew the bus stop should be closeby, so I gestured that I could head in that direction and ask someone else along the way. But she repeated, "I bring you" and handed me a helmet. I got on her motorbike and we drove. For longer than I'd expected. And made lots of turns. Holy cow, I was really far from the bus stop. Apparently I'd been walking pretty fast because of the adrenaline in my system, in the wrong direction.
We made it to the bus stop and I hopped onto one of the last buses of the night. If it hadn't been for the kindness of the flower lady, I would never have made it to the bus stop and back to Changhua.
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