Wichmann Stories: Kaohsiung Part II

As Mark mentioned, I spent the weekend with him in Kaohsiung, Taiwan so it gave me an opportunity to spend time with my husband and explore a new city.

My first and lasting impression of Kaohsiung is that it was clean, well organized, and a city that was relatively quiet of automobiles and people. I am of course comparing this to Taipei and Xiamen. High rises are few compared to the size of Kaohsiung. Most of the buildings are low-mid rise structures, so you can get a very good view of the city if you are in buildings higher than 30 floors.

Love River

Traffic is minimal, though there are plenty of scooters. Apparently there is a law that was just enacted which the drivers of these beasts must wear helmets. Why the children don't wear any, I don't know. The majority of drivers wear masks to cover their faces from pollution or perhaps to keep the sun from their faces. We're not really sure, either way, they do a pretty good business in selling these masks to the locals. They come in an array of colours and patterns.

You can have a different colour for each day!

These masks cover you neck as well

Take note of the kids with no helmets!

Saturday, Mark and I walked around the city, and the idea was to go to Shoushan, the mountain to get a view of the city and see some of the sites that were situated on this mountain. Unfortunately, it was a dull grey day, and we opted to go to the island that was just off of Kaohsiung, that was recommended by every Taiwanese we met.

First we needed food, and the one thing that Mark and I keep encountering when we travel is the lack of restaurants we find when we decide we want to eat. Oh sure, they're everywhere when you don't need them, but as soon as you throw it out there, that one of us (usually me) is hungry, and the hunt begins, we can never find a place to eat. We always seem to be in an industrial area for some strange reason. This time we ended up in an area that was selling scooters and tires. After 45 minutes of walking around, we found a place, a small stall that seemed appetizing and it was. We then took a ferry to this highly recommended island. We wandered around for awhile and decided to head back to the hotel. Gu Lang Yu it ain't.

Lunch; tasty and inexpensive!

One of the many temples in Kaohsiung

Later, we decided to go the Sky Tower only to find out you needed reservations. Makes sense considering it's a Saturday night, so we opted for dinner at an Indian restaurant and then later went to a British pub, that Mark knew, to join in the St. Paddy's celebration. Seems rather wrong going to a British pub, but our choices were limited.

The next day, turned out to be a much warmer, and sunnier day. We spent most of the day wandering around snapping pictures of Kaohsiung going to the Lotus Pond and then off to the airport to snap photos of planes landing and taking off.