Tag: taiwan

TUESDAY MARCH 8 2022

About a half hour Easty (Northy) of downtown Kaohsiung there is a pleasant lake called Chengcing Lake. There’s lots of very pleasant park area around it.

Here’s the 2-star hotel “Chengching Lakefront Resort right next to the Ocean Fantasy Museum.

The lake looks nice, but don’t touch

Ooh – Lions Club lion looks different than the one in Canada

There’s a nice walk along the edge of the lake with many things to see!

Check out the marvelous Nine-Cornered Bridge! I think corners are supposed to confuse ghosts, so they made the bridge zig-zaggy? Maybe? I guess watch out for ghosts when you’re not on the bridge.

Finally, the Ocean Fantasy Museum, built from a converted anti-nuclear underground bunker!! It’s fascinating as a piece of cold war history, and also as a fairly humdrum aquarium with sad animals.

And now, a gallery of sad sea creatures

Tragic octopus.

Here’s a video I found on youtube touring the facility:

In conclusion, the park and lake are lovely to visit and a nice walk. I found the museum fascinating due to its history, with kitschy art, but the octopus and other marine animals in small sterile cells made me feel sad inside. I feel like this would be a nice park to bike around if I had the chance.

Monday March 7

A ‘rest’ day today so we went to the FE21’ Mega Far Eastern Department Store Kaohsiung Branch to watch The Batman and do a little shopping.

it’s got The Enterprise int he little window but it looks like the Infinity Gauntlet.

I love these Japanese Hotwheels – they’re very interesting

a closer look

Did not buy

Back home I wandered around the nearby night market and got a Taiwanese shawarma. Quite different than what I’m used to in Vancouver, but tasty

Next time: Ocean Fantasy Museum at Chengching Lake, Niaosong District, Kaohsiung City

SATURDAY MARCH 5 2022

Drove the car to Taiwan Sugar Factory Museum in Qiaotou district (North Kaohsiung). Took many photos of rusty textures and post-apocalyptic structures. Enjoyed a Taiwanese sausage and Pocari Sweat.

The site was quite interesting also because it was build under the Japanese occupation. The main office building had gun holes to defend people resisting Japanese authority. Also according to this site https://topics.amcham.com.tw/2020/07/taiwans-sugar-industry/ US bombers targeted Taiwan sugar factories because they also produced ethanol.

For less crappy photos check out https://www.taisugar.com.tw/english/Attractions_detail.aspx?n=11997&s=318&p=0

In the evening we went to a Japanese BBQ place where the service was slow, unfriendly, and a homeless guy selling stuff kept coming and the staff yelled at him. A barking dog sat nearby. We were there OVER 2 HOURS and I was very bored so I walked around outside to stertch my legs and take photos of things!

Next – bike ride to Lotus Pond!

FRIDAY MARCH 4 2022

It’s time for my #1 recommendation for visitors to Kaohsiung.

We took a train to Sizihwan Station 西子灣站 and had breakfast at Sanwa Bank, which has been turned into a cafe

The very short ferry to Cijin Island was fun! KUMAMON!

As soon as we got off the ferry we grabbed a little electric bike for two!

They gave us a little map of the island and the best way to get around. First stop: Cihou Fort!

We missed the lighthouse, unfortunately. Next time!

Then we biked along the beach path. It was longer than we thought!

We hit the Sunset Bar appropriately at Sunset. The servers spoke perfect English!

The Cihou Market had some fun stuff… like Avengers!

What a great day! Here’s some other misc photos from that day

As always, minimum amount of room is provided for pedestrians

Because people in Taiwan tend to park anywhere they want

Took the train to Taipei Zoo! I was very excited to see some pangolins!

I guess I just follow these pangolins!

It must be near now! Should I call to see if he’s there? Is this the direct line to the pangolin exhibit?

So many Taiwan Treasures at the Taipei Zoo!

Finally got to the pangolin exhibit…it was closed. Sad face. But got to see these 2D representations.

Some marmosets attacked us! Well…not really

Had a close encounter with a coati!

I touched the dung beetle

We wandered around a bit and found a place to have lunch

Oh that’s fine, just park anywhere….

Found some game stores but was too shy (and time-pressed) to join. Also, can’t speak or read Mandarin!

Finally to Raohe Night Market!

Get the scholar’s cake if you can! My video was crap so here’s someone else’s:

tomorrow: Hiking Elephant Mountain!

THURSDAY MARCH 3 2022

There was a big power outage through many cities of Taiwan today, and here’s an article to prove it. This was apparently caused by an accident but parts of Taiwan are vulnerable to brownouts during the summer when demand for A/C is too much for the system.

We walked to the Jilin Street Night Market for food but it was crazy crowded so we took a 5 minute cab ride to Liouhe Night Market instead.

Look at how crazy crowded it is!

I got sour green mango!