Long time no see....

It's been two weeks since Mark left to go to Kaohsiung for work, but I am happy to report he's coming back to Xiamen late this afternoon.

So, for the special occasion, I went to the market to buy some groceries, so that I could use my culinary skills to prepare one of our favourite dishes, stir fried garlic prawns.

I picked up a little more than a 1/2 kilo of large prawns, vegetables which included, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and garlic. The total cost of the above mentioned was 60 kaui, which is about 9USD.

Yea, it's going to be tough when we move back to the U.S.

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.

Lotus Pond

We enjoyed Taipei when we went to visit with Emily, and Taipei has more to offer regarding sights than Kaosiung, but we preferred Kaohsiung.

... back to posting.

It's been a tough week where I left Tina all alone to handle writing blog post for all of you to enjoy. It's not that I was purposely slacking on the posts - last Sunday I left the cold and dreary Xiamen for the slightly warmer island just across the straight. For the last week I've been in Kaohsuing, Taiwan enjoying this view from my hotel.
Looks nice right? Yes, but I'm here for work and this trip other then looking out my window I haven't gotten a chance to see any of Taiwan.

I was initially planning on returning to Xiamen on Friday but plans have changed and I'll be here throughout the next week. Tina found this change in plans unacceptable, I understand as I missed her too, and she decided to take the ferry from Xiamen to Kinmen and then fly herself to Kaohsuing for the weekend.

It was a very welcome break, and we got to enjoy the weekend and everything that Kaohsuing has to offer together. And because of that you all now get to enjoy some photos of the Lotus pond that we went up to this afternoon -

Dragon & Tiger Pagodas

Qing Shui Temple

Another fun thing that Kaohsuing has are restaurants set up just across the tarmac from the airport. It's listed as the closest you can get to an airport to view landings and takeoffs anywhere in the world. Problem being that there are not a lot of flights as say a Chicago or Shanghai, but we still managed to see a plane land and two take off while we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset...

Small plane coming in for landing

Taking off at dusk

Tina leaves first thing tomorrow morning to return to Xiamen, and I will head back at the end of the week. So, once again, you will be left with posts only from Tina - that is if she decides that she has anything worth sharing with you.....