台灣之行第五章 - 搭高鐵囉 Taiwan Trip Chapter Five - Taking High Speed Rail

禮拜三我們依照原定計畫搭乘高鐵前往高雄拜訪小肉包的曾外婆, (是這樣稱呼嗎?) 此行祉均阿姨也和我們同行. 我不知道在台灣的朋友們對高鐵的評價如何, 但是我和阿里都覺得高鐵弄得很棒. 我們從板橋站上車, 月台又寬廣又乾淨, 而且指示很清楚, 還有好多工作人員怕大家第一次搭乘, 不知道該走哪一邊, 特地在車站及月台帶領大家. 我們因為推著嬰兒車, 所以工作人員指引我們搭乘殘障電梯. 我覺得從捷運到高鐵的無障礙系統都設計得不錯, 讓我們推嬰兒車推得很輕鬆, 紐約的地鐵感覺上就差多了. 這張照片是阿里和小肉包等列車進站的時候照的.
Wednesday we took the High Speed Rail to Kaohsung (in the southern Taiwan) to visit Hasan's great grandma. Aunt Rebecca came with us too. Ali was very excited when he learned that we were going to take the HSR, and we both had very good impression after taking it. The platform was very wide and clean with very clear signs. There were also many employees helping people getting onboard. We had Hasan's stroller with us, so the employee told us to follow the sign to the elevator. Compared to New York's subway system, Taiwan's MRT and HSR were much better designed. This photo was taken when Ali and Hasan were waiting for the train.

兩個小時左右就到了高雄左營站, 真的很快呢! 比起以前五六個小時的車程, 有高鐵真是幸福.
We arrived Kaohsung in 2 hours. It was much faster compared to 5-6 hours of train ride before HSR launched!

到了左營站, 小肉包的表舅舅和表阿姨已經開車等在那裡了. 我們上了車, 前往小肉包的姨婆家去看曾外婆. 這是小肉包第一次和曾外婆還有姨婆見面, 不過因為姨婆一家人都是小肉包部落格的忠實讀者, 對小肉包一點也不陌生. 曾外婆送了小肉包一面金牌, 希望小肉包平安長大, 還餵小肉包喝奶.
Hasan's uncle and aunt picked us up from the station and took us to see Hasan's great grandma. This was the first time that Hasan met his great grandma and his great aunt. However, they were very familiar with Hasan because they were very loyal subscribers to Hasan's blog. Great grandma gave Hasan a gold necklace, which was a symbol to wish that Hasan grow up safe. She also fed Hasan a bottle of formula.

表阿姨和男朋友抱著小肉包合照了一張.

This was Hasan with aunt Yuan-Yuan and her boyfriend.

姨婆好喜歡小肉包, 小肉包則是對姨婆脖子上那顆超大的寶石比較有興趣.

Great aunt loved Hasan so much, but Hasan seems to be more interested in the stone on great aunt's neck.

晚上我們住在號稱南台灣最棒的汽車旅館. 我這輩子還沒有住過汽車旅館, 真是大開眼界了. 這家號稱南台灣最讚的汽車旅館真不是蓋的, 舒適豪華, 燈光好氣氛佳, 而且什麼都準備了. (真的是 "什麼" 都準備了喔! 如果你知道我是什麼意思......) 我看我們大概是開館以來第一對帶小朋友來住的夫妻吧! 小肉包可興奮了, 因為按摩浴缸好大一個, 洗澡的時候還有電視可以看呢! 這張照片乍看之下有點三級, 但是只有照到爸爸的腿啦! 我們上床前洗了一次, 早上起來又洗一次, 真的是給他物盡其用的很徹底了. 汽車旅館還有一個特點是超隱密, 從住房到退房, 可以都不用見到服務人員, 早上的早餐直接送到門口來, 按了電鈴告訴我們送到了, 等我開門要拿, 送餐的人已經走掉了. 現在終於知道爲什麼那些明星們都愛到汽車旅館了.

Wednesday night we stayed in the best motel in the southern Taiwan. This was the first time I stayed in a motel, so everything was interesting and surprising to me. Not only it gave us a very "romantic" feeling, it also had "everything" prepared. ("Everything," if you know what I mean......) I think we were probably the first couple who brought their kid with them to the motel since they started business. Hasan was really excited because it had a very big tub with a flat screen TV in front of it. We had a bubble bath before going to bed and after waking up the next morning - really trying to make use of it as much as possible. This motel also cared about customers' pravicy. We didn't see any single employee from the time we checked in until we checked out. The breakfast was delivered right to our door. The waitress buzzed us after the breakfast was here, and when I opened the door to take it, the waitress was already gone! Now I finally know why those super stars like to go to motels......

(Motels in Taiwan are a little bit different from the motels in the US. They target very specific customers.....mostly people with affairs.)