Guanmiao District, Tainan

I still have midterm exam this week and next week; therefore, I decide to introduce a place which I recommend you to charge your battery after your midterm exam.

Guanmiao District

Again, I would like to introduce one of the district in the past Tainan County, Guanmiao District. Guanmaio is in the south of Tainan City. When it comes to Guanmiao, pineapple or Guanmiao noodles may spring to your mind. Exactly, there are three specialties in pineapples, Guanmiao noodles and bamboo shoots. However, it is a pity that I didn't try any of them this time, which made me make my mind to go there again.

Guanmiao Market

My friends and I took the red line bus to Guanmiao District. It took us about 40 minutes from Tainan train station bus stop to there. The first place we went is Guanmiao Market. We saw many people waiting in line in front of a joint. As Taiwanese, we decided to follow the local people and tried to see how special the joint is. "Look at the menu, it is so cheap!" my friend told me with ecstasy. The braised pork rice cost only 15 NT dollars, and the Four-Herbal soup (四神湯) is only 20 NT dollars.

I ordered both of them. While I waited for our meal, I observed that local people added sweet chili sauce in their braised pork rice. I had never seen people eat pork braised rice in this way, but I still added some into mine. Fortunately, it tasted not bad.

After our lunch,we went to the most famous bakery near Guanmiao District, Chia Fang Toast. Despite its name, there was no board for it. The tips to find it was to find the queue. I could smell the aroma when I approached the bakery. The texture of the toast was soft and silky. The crust of the toast taste like MacDonald, but I had no idea what cause this flavor. Anyway, the toast is freaking delicious.

It is hard to believe that this is the well-known bakery.

Hsin Kuang Painted Village

The last place we visited was Hsin Kuang Painted Village(新光里彩繪村). Why I liked the place so much because there were not so many tourists, so I could enjoy the serenity of little village and the beauty of the old buildings. Taking a stroll in the village, I saw some locals dry and sell Guanmiao noodles which was also cheap, 70 NT dollars per bag. I couldn't wait to bring them to my home and cook it!

How to get there

Guanmiao Market→Take Red Line bus, and get off at Guanmiao Market Station.

   

Hsin Kuang Painted Village→Take Red Line 11, and get off at Hsin Kuang Elemetary School

Guanmiao Transfer Station is gorgeous. It looks like a pineapple. 

Take a trip to Thailand (3) Ayutthaya

To begin with, I’m sorry that due to my midterm exam, I was so busy this week that I didn’t have enough time to prepare the information of my plan to Thailand. Therefore, I will introduce the historical site I visited instead.

The place we visited is Ayutthaya Historical Park which is named as Cultural Heritage by UNESCO and situated in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Province. Since it is not available on foot, by bus and tuk-tuk (autorickshaw), we took a train to there. Walking out from Ayutthaya Station, some local people welcomed us because they wanted us to charter tuk-tuk from them. There was no doubt that it was convenient for us; however, we were still careful because sometimes they might require relatively high price. (Having a bargain with Thai people is a must-learnt skill in Thailand). After bargaining with the driver, we began our journey.

Ayutthaya used to be the capital city of Ayutthaya Kingdom in Thailand, at that time the King build a lot of magnificent buildings. In fact, the traditional Thai architecture is come from Ayutthaya Kingdom. Unfortunately, many of the buildings were destroyed by Burmese army. Now we could only see some remains and pagoda(佛塔) there.

If you want to enjoy the Thai architecture to your heart content, I recommend you the Grand Palace; I have been there, and I also plan to introduce it in following weeks.

I would like to share some tips if you want to visit there.

Step one: time management

Ayutthaya Historical Park is large, although you can go different sites by tuk-tuk, it still takes amounts of time to visit all of the place. In my opinion, one day is not enough to visit all of the site if you want to gain deep insight into every historical sites. Therefore, I recommend to do some preparation and make a plan: looking at the map and deciding which place you want to visit most.

Step two: understanding the history

To be honest, many of the buildings look alike, and sometimes you may even don’t know the name of the place you visit, so I strongly recommend you to know the background of the historical sites you visit.

Step three: knowing the design of the sites

In front of each site, you can see the model which represents the origin of the site. Since lots of buildings were devastated, sometimes you may have no idea where you are or why the buildings were constructed in this way.

As far as I am concerned, only understand the history and design of the historical sites can I truly enjoy them. I was regrettable that I didn’t prepare enough.

shot by my friend, Jessie

shot by my friend, Jessie

shot by my friend, Jessie

If there’s any mistake in my article please comment below to let me know. Thanks for your reading.

Take a trip to Thailand (2) Breakfast

 Last week, I categorized the breakfast into four types: vendors, breakfast joints, bakeries and convenient stores. This week I’ll keep introducing the breakfast I ate in Thailand.

Besides vendors, there are other options you could choose for your breakfast.

Breakfast Joint

As a college student, I wanted to see how the university in Thailand is. Therefore, my friends and I visited the first class university in Thailand, Chulalongkorn University(朱拉隆功大學). 

The buildings in Chulalongkorn University are grand, and students have to wear uniform: white shirts and black pants or skirts. 

Why I mention the university here is because I went to student canteen there to have my breakfast. The student canteen is like a food court, so was ours. There are several cafeterias and joints serving phở(河粉). Since I was afraid that eating too greasy or spicy might make me not well, I opted for the phở as my breakfast. 

Although the soup looked oily, it was not greasy at all. The thin phở was also tasty. Most important of all, there were several delicious pork which tastes like siu yuk(燒肉) . Guess what, the fantastic phở only cost me ฿25

Facing the front gate, the literature faculty is magnificent.

The bookstore there is also well-designed.

student canteen

my breakfast

Bakery

Unlike Taiwan, it is hard to find bakeries in Thailand. I only found bakeries in department store and BTS station. 

I was overwhelmed with ecstasy when I saw my favorite bakery, YAMAZAKI in BTS station. Although Thai YAMAZAKI is totally different from Taiwanese one, the bread I bought was still yummy.

Convenient Stores

Convenient stores, particularly 7-11 is also ubiquitous in Bangkok, so you don’t need to worry about being unable to find something to eat. 

Personally, I don’t recommend you to buy bread from convenient stores there. In fact, I bought raisin toast and it seemed that the toast was adulterated with artificial flavoring. The flavor was so strange that I only sampled one bite. 

Except the bread, I suggest you to buy the freezing food. If you choose the freezing sandwich, the clerk would help you to roast it with a specific machine. This kind of sandwich(熱壓吐司) is highly recommend by my friends and me.

Next week, I'll briefly introduce our plan to Thailand and the transportation there. 

If you want to know more local delicacies, historical sites or tourist attractions in Thailand, please let me know.  

Take a trip to Thailand (1)

Spring break has already come to the end. Compared to the past two spring break, I did something special this year. I took a graduation trip to Thailand!!! It is my third time to go abroad, and it is the first time for me to have a self-help travel. There were so many interesting I experience; therefore, I would like to share something about Thailand and hope you would enjoy it.

I believe that enjoying local delicacies plays an pivotal role in most people’s trip; therefore I would like to introducing some food I ate in Thailand.

Breakfast

As a rice-oriented country, there is no doubt traditionally, Thai people eat rice for their lunch and dinner. However, when it comes to breakfast, you may as curious as I am about what do they eat for breakfast. According to my observation, breakfast stores in Thailand are not as common as in Taiwan, but I still could find some, and I divided them into three categories: vendors, breakfast restaurants, bakeries and convenient stores.

Vendors

Vendors are ubiquitous in Thailand. Walking on the street in Pataya and Bangkok, I can see a variety of vendors offering roast meat, fruit, beverages, pha, etc. Also, there are vendors selling breakfast. The breakfast I ate at first day is pig pluck congee. The vendor was near the hotel I lived, there is a big pot filled with congee with some ingredient such as pig pluck, green onion and ginger, and seasonings beside it. The owner put pig pluck and an raw egg in a bowl, and then scooped up the congee to top up the bowl. Afraid of have diarrhoea, I told the owner that I don’t want an egg. The congee was stew for a long time, so it is hard to see the rice clearly in the bowl.

Beside the congee vendor, there is a vendor serving fried bread stick and soy bean milk which are also similar to traditional Taiwanese breakfast. Nevertheless, they are still different. Unlike Taiwanese fried bread stick, that in Thailand is not so crunchy but more chewy; Taiwanese one is hollow while Thai one is concrete.

Have you ever been to Thailand? What are you interested in about Thailand? Comment below and I’ll share as much as I can.