Taichung was an easy one hour high speed rail ride from Taipei. Again I have to mention that being from a country that is 50km wide, the idea that one can take a train and end up in a different city somehow still boggles my mind. I have chronic envy for people in europe who can travel to a different culture in less than an hour.
To my surprise while reviewing my photos I didn’t take many street photos. I took many more photos of food, but those would probably appear in a different post. We were less inclined to walk due to temperatures getting much warmer. I like Taichung: there were plenty of alfresco dining options (we only eat outdoors due to covid cautiousness), and we had fun browsing stationery shops. We even had dinner from the original inventor of bubble tea, and they had a ton of alfresco seating.
In Taiwan there are fixed timings for rubbish and recycling collection – they play this jingle and everyone lines up for their turn at the trucks. We think this may make people more mindful of their consumption:
We were dining at a restaurant during a weekend, and owner told us everyone would be at the square. It was such a wonderful sight to see people just playing and having fun:
This reminded us of Cheonggyecheon stream in south korea:
Sometimes the moment happens too quickly so instead of my camera I take quick shots with my phone:
We have been here 7 years ago, and I have almost zero collection of the place. It was meaningful to revisit it with a new consciousness, to see it through a different set of eyes. Both of us were not bullet journalling yet, so there wasn’t any documentation to refer to. However I had swarm checkins, and I kept getting surprised when the app tells me that we had visited certain places before. I appreciate that at least we have a set of photos, though again due to a heat wave back then we didn’t take that many photos.
I think the desire to remember is a form of hoarding life, the unwillingness to let go of what we’ve experienced. But similar to comparing differences between versions of texts, I like to contrast the textures and feelings between the versions of my selves, however vague those impressions may be. Some people may find it meaningless to visit the same place again, but for me the experience is always different and yet somewhat familiar, and that in itself is a form of travel.
Each city has a soul, and it can be a meditative experience to interact with it. I like Taichung’s soul, more than I had originally expected.