I woke up at 6.30 and with breakfast at 7.30 I first checked the information place which I found out opened at 7.30 so I went back, showered, packed and waited for breakfast which was bread with 4 different spreads. I went back to the tourist information place and they tried to contact the people who organise the walk but they opened at 8.30 so I went round the park I'd been to the day before and there were lots of people there mainly older doing Tai chi, exercising and even dancing. The weather looked nice again and I got back to the information place and they got me on the tour. It was getting close to 9 and the tour started at 9.30 so I moved my suitcase to a storage area grabbed another sandwich and left the key. I got near to the starting point at 9.15 so I went to another temple nearby called Koxianga's shrine. He turned out to be a Chinese general who defeated the Dutch in the 17th century. I made it to the Confucious temple a few minutes early but I couldn't see a tour group. I wandered around a bit and a women called Lydia with a blue hat found me and said I was the only person which confused me as someone else had booked it for me to join. She thought I was American but I said no English and we started the tour. About 10 minutes in and she had a phone call from an American sitting nearby who had booked the tour. He was called Michael and was from Northern California where he fermented things. We went round the things we'd already seen and Michael asked quite a few questions and was interested in every detail but it turned out he was here for 3 weeks in Taiwan which he didn't think was enough so he was on a very different style of travel to me. We carried on from the temple which was the first educational establishment in Taiwan (academy) and went to the temple of Literature I'd been to the day before. We zipped through and she didn't explain anything before going to a Japanese rest area which was quite nice. The Japanese were not hated in Taiwan and had ruled there peacefully from the early 20th century and we went to another Japanese place afterwards. After another temple Lydia decided to just walk throuh some alleyways not to see anything in particular and we finished at a department store, the first building to have an elevator in Taiwan built in 1932. We said our goodbyes and I headed East as it was 12 and I wanted to see the old town of Anping before getting the train back to Taipei. There was not much to see on the way, maybe another temple and some decorated cartoon shop and I walked next to the river for a bit. The fort looked ok when I arrived so I paid the 50 dollar entry and went in. There were 2 museums there with more on the history of Taiwan and some on Tainan and the fort itself had been mostly destroyed but rebuilt less than 100 years ago with a tower added in the 80's. The place was ok and I left and went to the Anping tree house which included an old merchants building and also cost 50 dollars but it didn't look so good and wasn't historically important so I gave it a miss. I headed West towards the beach along a walkway next to a wetlands area. I walked for a bit but the wetlands did not have much to see as it was mainly a row of trees and the beach I was going to was still a fair distance. As every minute I spent walking this way meant another minute walking back as well I turned around and went back to a temple next to the fort then a graveyard which looked nice being on a hill and a viewing platform with no real views. I walked back along the other side of the river then through town and got to some temples which were in the national geographic book I'd looked at the day before. The temples were nothing special and the fort there again didn't look much but I saw one last temple on my way back to the hostel. I picked up my suitcase, got some water and went to get the train. I checked my email and I had one at about 3pm saying that the tour needed to be booked 3 days before so I couldn't go on it. I asked at the station at a counter how to get a ticket and she pointed me to some machines but they were not only confusing, I think they also required a card (like oyster) to be topped up and it was all in Chinese. I went to a ticket machine and it didn't sell a ticket to where I was going that I could see. It did sell one to Taipei but that train would arrive at 10pm, in 6 hours. So I queued in the normal ticket line which took a bit but my train was in 20 minutes anyway. Then I went to 7-11 and bought a pot noodle. I used the station hot water machine, filled up some hot water so the noodles would cook while I emptied the sachets. A guy came and used the machine for cold water, looked at my pot noodle and said I would need more water, he was trying to be helpful but he was kind of just in my way at the machine. I sorted out the pot noodle and the guy came with me and pointed out the lift across and said he was going to Taipei as well but then when we got across he was on a different platform for the slow train direct to Taipei. I think that train cost 700 so I could have saved money if I had more time. The train and took me to HSR where I got a ticket for 1,305 and waited for the train. I was in the wrong section when it arrived so had to go along the platform quickly to get to non reserved but there were at least lots of seats free. The train went for a few minutes and stopped and lots of people got on and filled up the train. After that I dozed off until close to arrival just after 6pm at the main station. I checked my map and I couldn't find the hostel and it had been running slower for a while now. The station was busy and after a bit I guessed where the hostel might be based on the address and went one stop on the train. I got above ground but it was a big busy place and I didn't know where to go but I managed to get wifi and found out the hostel was another block away close to another station. I walked there and checked in and the guy gave me a room key and a locker key and said I must return the locker key whenever I go outside as someone had lost a key. I tried to say that most places take a deposit instead but his English was bad and I wasn't worried about people getting the key and taking my stuff which can happen at hotels where they do this. I left soon after to join a walking tour a few stops away on the subway (MRT) and arrived 10 minutes early and a tour guide identified that I might be doing the tour so we talked and others joined us and soon we started and all introduced ourselves. There were 13 of us and 2 guides who are students and took it in turn to talk the first few stops were nothing special, a place where there used to be a river, a deserted hostel and an abandoned old cinema - nice. Most people got some tea and later some tried the snake soup where the shops had the snakes on display. We went back to the actual Longshan temple and they led us round in prayer and had people read their fortunes and such. Apparently the god of examination is important for them to pray to which is Taoist and most people mix the religions.
Finally we went to a night market for food and I had a few things as I'd not eaten much. We finished quite late around 10.30 and went our separate ways. Back at the hostel I did a few things and went to bed before 12.
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