Green Tunnel, Salt & Lemon Coffee?

On the next morning, we left the Chill Chill House quite early and headed south. The first order of the day, as always, was the search for good coffee.

And of course, we found it. This time in a small, rather unremarkable spot: 寓林庭園咖啡. An older couple runs this small garage café, both actually already retired. And that’s what made the place so special. The woman promptly offered to show us her large garden. We couldn't say no to that. While she guided us through the plants, her husband calmly continued working on a bonsai tree. We communicated using Google Translator, which added a unique charm to the moment.

After this little, unexpected highlight, we continued south and arrived in Tainan after about three hours. Right at check-in at the U.I.J Hotel & Hostel, we noticed one thing:

The scent in this hotel is next level. Hard to describe, but you notice it immediately.

On the evening of our arrival, we got ourselves some Thai food from TAI YA and enjoyed it leisurely on the terrace of our hotel. Exactly what you need after a day of travel.

The next day, we took it a bit easier. First, a small chill and shopping session before we headed to 窟仔kula咖啡. There, we had some really good and especially refreshing coffee drinks. One of them was with soda and lemon juice. Sounds unusual at first, but for the tropical climate, it's just perfect.

What we generally noticed in Taiwan is that tea culture is present everywhere. It felt like we always had a tea to go in our hands, usually in those typical cups with straws. Whether classic milk tea, green tea, or something in between. It simply became part of our daily life.

After that, we continued to Sicao Green Tunnel. A pretty amusing experience. You ride a small boat through a kind of natural tunnel made of mangroves. The branches hang down so low at times that you really have to duck. Especially with the sun hats you get when boarding the boat.

To end the day, we really wanted to see the salt fields of Jingzaijiao. So we drove there relatively quickly because it's supposed to be particularly beautiful at sunset. And we just made it in time. These white salt fields, small hills, and then the warm light from the sunset.