October 25,

I woke up at 0330, too much water right before bedtime! Unfortunately I woke Jeff!! I was able to go right back to sleep, but Jeff didn’t until two hours later. I for real awoke at 0630, but was able to not disturb Jeff this time and he slept until 0730. We are not sleeping well here due to the bed situation. Anyway, we got about and had our Javas and breakfast of oatmeal with Nutella.

Around ten we set off walking about Chiayi. We set out for a Botanical Garden. Along the way we passed a big statue of a baseball player in the middle of a roundabout. Is baseball a thing here in Taiwan? Google says yes. It is their national sport and they have their own professional league, called the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). Interesting… then we went by a baseball stadium with a giant bat and ball artwork to designate what kind of stadium it was.  This was right next to the Chiayi park that has the gardens and an impressive Chiayi Tower.

We entered the park and wandered. It is Saturday and there are many families with kids playing in some  playground areas. One area had a cement slope and a grass slope for the kids to go down as slides. What fun! Then I remembered the Giant Slide in Wichita when I was a wee lassie. 🤭

We went to the Chiayi Tower or Sun-shooting Tower. It is 62 m (203 ft) tall. The middle of the main floor is open all the way up to the 11th floor, and there is an awesome metal art piece that is incorporated into the building itself. The work is symbolic of the Legend of the “Sun-shooting.” The legend, modified from a placard, tells: 

     Once there were two suns circling the sky with no separation of day or night. One sun, larger and hotter, was bringing devastation to crops. One tribe decided to shoot down this sun. Three warriors were selected and set out with three babies. The way was long and the warriors died along the way, but the babies – grown up – took over the mission. They finally arrived at the sun’s hideout, and shot with bows and arrows piercing the biggest sun causing burning blood that killed one young warrior. The other two returned the long way back. Upon arriving at the village these two were old men. But there was now one sun, causing day; and the moon remnants of the other sun, causing night… Huh, interesting.

Anyway, it is open to the public to explore here, but there’s a fee to go up- 60 TWD ($1.95) each. We paid and went up by elevator. The views over Chiayi city of 268,000 population were pretty good. We also saw a view of the “botanical gardens” and decided not to go there – no flowers and a lot of bare dirt. We walked through the rest of the park. Most of the attractions per the map we acquired at the tower were run down or missing – was supposed to be a steam locomotive here. But the kids were having fun, running about the playgrounds.

It was getting hot and we decided to move on. We went toward the Chiayi Loco Shed Park, but first found an old Hinoki Village. It was built during Japanese rule, but it was underwhelming. Now we decided to grab lunch, and just then Jeff saw a Turkish flag. It was a Turkish restaurant, called Blue Eyes. It sounded great, but did not take credit cards, so we had to go find an ATM. One was not far, thankfully and we went back. The lady laughed. We had a plate of Grilled Lamb ribs with rice, french fries, stewed veggies, salad and buns; and a Chicken Kebab Wrap. The food was most excellent with Turkish seasonings! Quite a change!! I had a Turkish apple iced tea, and Jeff had a lemonade. It cost us 720 TWD or $23.34. We left and walked now to the Chiayi Loco Shed Park. We did see some sort of procession of a band playing, with people following carrying some sort of statues. What it was about… no idea. 

At the train park, we saw old engines and passenger cars that were used in the past for the Alishan train route. There was even an old railway turntable. Some of the engines were very small. It was a fun park, especially if you like seeing trains. They were blocked off for any entry though. After we finished we basically walked back to our place by way of a convenience store for wine. We also stopped as we came across an older man playing a kind of harp – it was beautiful and we donated him some money. Back at our place, we had snack stuff for dinner – cheese and crackers with the wine.  

P.S. – This is crazy but there’s only FIVE days left until we are back in the USA!