Taiwanese Baseball Game

With one month left before leaving Taiwan, I organized some of my friends to attend a Dragons baseball game at Tianmu Stadium.  It felt full circle since right before leaving Baltimore, I’d gone to my first Orioles game with all my local friends at Camden Yards.  Baseball in Taiwan is a legacy of the Japanese colonialism period.  In the past, teams had been disbanded due to game-fixing by gangs, but now there’s 6 major league teams around the island that all play each other.  The biggest difference between MLB and the Taiwanese league is that the fans dance and sing the whole time.  Starting from the first inning, fans were on their feet dancing along with the renowned cheerleaders of Taiwanese baseball.  Even while the home team is up, the stadium is blasting the batter’s walk-up song, and everyone is singing that batter’s specific chant and dancing their specific dance.  There were fewer breaks between innings so the game overall went a lot faster.  The stadium allowed you to bring your own food and drink, so rather than eating overpriced hotdogs we were eating 滷味 (night market stewed veggies) and guava with plum powder.

"The Hot Zones" are the sections right in front of the cheerleaders on either side,
infamous for being full of men taking photos of them

Also, I recently went outdoor climbing for the first time (besides via ferrata in Kentucky).  This time, it was in 龍洞 Longdong right by the ocean.  After bouldering indoors frequently over the past year, it was exhilarating to climb on real rock with birds flying around me and waves crashing below me.

Finally, I visited the Water Treatment Museum, which is a popular wedding photo destination but otherwise a bit dry.  They do have a children’s water park that opens later in the summer.