Onto day 2 of Taiwan. I woke up around 6am to get ready for the day. After checking out of the hotel, I walked over to Taipei Main Station to purchase my return ticket to Taoyuan for the day after, then bought myself some breakfast. Since I still had time before meeting Y & J, I leisurely sat outside station enjoying my spicy meat bun and my milk tea watching the crowds come and go.

After we met up, we were off towards Taichung. From Taipei, there’s a few ways to travel to Taichung. Going there we took the Taiwan Railway, which is half the cost of the High Speed Rail, but takes twice as long. That was sort of an accident on our part, but it wasn’t a bad option. I guess it’s a preference of whether you favour your time or your money.

Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable two-hour train ride to Taichung. I got to catch up with Y & J along the way. Once we arrived at Taichung Station, we hopped on a taxi to go to our first stop – Rainbow Village. I must say that while this was only my second time taking the taxi in Taiwan, all the taxi drivers are super nice. Our driver, Mr. Liu, was very friendly and kept pointing out places of interest to us while he was driving. I was unfortunately given the task of translating between Mandarin and Japanese. Let’s just say it wasn’t very pretty…

Once we arrived at Rainbow Village, I was immediately amazed by all the colours that seem to jump right off the buildings. The walls, doorways and gates were adorned with tons of illustrations that seemed to cover every inch of space. What’s more impressive is that all the drawings were painted by a 92 year old Rainbow Grandpa. Such an incredible feat for someone his age.

Another highlight inside was this character we appropriately named Iron Man. I’m not sure if he’s a full fledge street artist or just an over-eccentric musician, but he took a ton photos with all the tourists. Between him and our driver helping us take photos, we ended up with a million photos on our cameras. Such nice people!

Afterwards, we ask Mr. Liu to drop us off at 台中肉圓, which is a couple blocks away from Taichung Station. (In case anyone is wondering, we paid our driver $600 for a return fare to travel to Rainbow Village.) We got to the restaurant before the lunchtime crowd, so we sat at a table near the back. They were super quick bringing our food to the table. We each got a bowl of 肉圓 (NT$40) and a bowl of fishballs (NT$30) to share. The food was incredibly yummy.

Once we left, we stopped at Taichung Station, then headed on foot again to sightsee in the city centre. In Taichung there are many famous shops with multiple branch locations like Miyahara and Chunshuitang. We stopped at the original Miyahara store which used to be an old eyeglass shop. The interior is breathtaking with all the wooden bookcases and cabinets. With the added Christmas decorations, the entire shop felt magical the moment you step in.

While most visitors were there to buy souvenirs, we were there for one reason – ice cream. Hehe. We made our way up the staircase to eat at one of their restaurants on the upper levels. We each ordered one of their famous star pavilion sundaes, which was nine times more expensive than what we ate for lunch at NT$450 each. While the price might be expensive for Taiwanese standards, I thought it was pretty reasonable because it was the most elegant ice cream sundae I had ever eaten.

We were each allowed to choose four scoops of ice cream and five toppings. I ended up picking their blue sky blue, vanilla milk, raisins mascarpone and passion fruit & citrus white chocolate yogurt flavours. The ice cream was served in waffle cup, placed on top of a glass with mascarpone cream at the bottom. I knew when I saw my sundae that it was a little too ambitious of me to try and finish the entire thing, but I gave it my best effort and had zero regrets. =P

After we left Miyahara, we continued strolling along until we reached the historic city hall building. Since we still had some time, we walked inside the building and peeked into the centre courtyard. It’s amazing to see so many different architectural influences in Taichung.

Later that day we made our way back towards Taichung Station, thinking to take the BRT towards my hotel. It was insanely busy at the station so we decided to just grab a taxi to take me straight towards Forro Cafe, where I was staying that night. I quickly checked in, then waited for my driver to show up to take me towards Kaomei Wetlands that evening. When my taxi didn’t show, I had to ask one of the staff members at the cafe to help me call. When it finally came, I hastily bid farewell to Y & J then hopped on the taxi towards Kaomei. They were heading back to Taipei, while I was staying in Taichung for the night. While our time together was short, it was fun to travel with them!

After I parted ways with them, my day seemed to go a little downhill. Because of the delay and the traffic, I didn’t end up making it to Kaomei to see the sunset. I was disappointed since I had made the effort to arrange it into my schedule. At least I got there before it was completely pitch black.

Later that night my driver took me to see this Fisherman’s Market nearby. But because it was already 6pm by then, most of the stalls were closing, so it was also a waste of time. Finally I got dropped off at Fengjia Night Market, so at least I got to try some yummy street food.

After exploring the market for two hours, I decided to hail a cab back to my hotel to call it a night. I had been up since 6am that morning, so I was tired even before it was 9pm. As luck would have it, my driver ended up dropping me off in the vicinity where my hotel was. (Forro is located in a residential neighbourhood with really narrow streets.) I was in such a rush leaving the cafe that I forgot to get a good look of the surrounding area, so I had no idea where it was. After walking in circles for 20 minutes, I gave up and took another cab which thankfully dropped me off right in front of the cafe. After an exhausting day, I was finally able to call it a night. More travels in Taichung coming up!