Meinong fiasco

Meinong is a Hakka village in Kaohsiung County that has a pretty setting and good bicycling. It is 1.5 hours from Tainan and 1.5 hours from Kaohsiung. It is a little far for a day trip. At my insistence, we decided to spend a couple of nights there to fully enjoy bicycling, even though the village seemed a little spread out.

From Tainan, we got the bus at 9 o'clock and transferred at Qishan. By 11 we were in Meinong. We walked to a nearby guesthouse. The rooms were barely acceptable for one night. John suggested that we leave the backpacks at the station and then walk around. In three hours of walking under a hot sun we were able to locate just three out of the six homestays, but no was home. The kind people at the village folk museum called them all for us. No one answered except for one that was 2 km outside and named an outrageous price. Meinong is in a pretty enough valley but did not give off good enough vibe for me to stay in a cell or be fleeced. After a quick lunch, we got on the 2:20 bus to Kaohsiung, which had been in and out of our itinerary many times. It is now in by default.

I pride myself at sniffing out tourist traps like Meinong. Never ever have we showed up somewhere planning on staying the night and ended up leaving for the next town. I re-read guidebooks, online info, but still could not figure how I misjudged Meinong.

A field of cosmos in Meinong.


Our tasty lunch; the local noodle specialty prepared vegetarian.