Day 19 - Slow train to 苗栗

Yesterday we went to Elaine's hometown, to meet up with her. Drove around in her little Nissan March (equivalent of a MICRA in Australia). This would have been excitement enough, but we had the complications of Elaine's CRAZY driving and the fact that we started the day on EMPTY! It was a fun day - as all adventures with Elaine have been.

We first went toa disused train station in the mountains which is now a bit of a tourist destination. Ate some traditional Hakka food. This consisted of what looked like a fern salad, stirfry Pork, and a noodle dish that was very delicious.

After eating, and walking the street area, we ventured on to pick strawberries. This was a soggy experience which was very muddy (not a good idea in brand new WHITE shoes). I utlised the gum boots which were on offer.

We finally caught the train down to Taichung to meet with Scott & Hyatt. We also met with a couple who were their close friends - Jacob & Vicky. Together, we enjoyed a hot-pot, with WAY (way way) too much food. I don't know how we fit in the peark milk tea later - maybe it was the stop-off at the sportswear store which worked up a further appetite.

After all this, (at midnight) we started the look for a place to stay for the night. This turned out to be quite a mission as the only hotels which were on offer were "love motels" or similar. In our quest we had a look at some - they were really unsuitable as they only had one bed (couples really do not require more) and no doors to bathroom areas. This was also complicated by the fact that it is CNY meaning expensive season. Some of the rooms we looked at had interesting chair like contraptions in them which were a bit shocking.

After a through search we finally found a room for a reasonable price and bedded down for the remaining hours of the night.