Kaohsiung

3:02pm, outside 文武廟@日月潭, feeling sick
Damn, just threw up my entire lunch. Stupid tour guide telling me the boat ride on 日月潭 was going to be okay. Freaking hell.

Yesterday we met up with the rest of the tour group at 9:10am for the hour and a half plane ride to 高雄. Got there just after 1 pm and omg, it was so hot! Going through customs at the airport was a breeze even though I forgot I had a bottle of water under CLM's stroller. He gets me places! Stupid me forgot to pack his diapers so including the little baby packet that we got on the airplane, I brought all of 4. My quest to buy diapers in Taiwan started as soon as we got there.

CLM's cute little 包包

Kaohsiung is more old fashioned than I thought it'd be. The airport is small but quite clean, definitely bigger than the one in Taichung. After a quick exchange of NTD (yes, I'm paranoid I won't have enough cash although I had brought $4100 with me, leftovers from last time) we boarded the tour bus and started our Kaohsiung sightseeing right away.

I wonder if this Buddha is bigger than the one on Lantau Island?

First stop was 佛光山, a huge Buddhist temple.  The outdoor big Buddha is massive, and the individual temples/shrines indoors are very impressive. The head monk sure knows how to run his business. There's even a "franchise"of this temple in Mississauga, none of which any of them in the world was paid to be built by him. The were all donations, which means he'd be rich if he wasn't a monk but a businessman. One can spend an entire afternoon at 佛光山 just to see everything but we had all of 90 minutes. Which is one thing I really don't like about travel tours.

Now doesn't this phrase sound familiar?

Next stop was 龍虎塔, two big pagodas in the middle of a man made lake. Smelled like crap there, so it wasn't too appealing, not to mention it was cloudy and the sky threatened to spit on us.  Would have liked a bit more time to wander off further to see a few more statutes up close and personal. Oh well.

We were instructed NOT to enter from the tiger's mouth

Dinner was next and being a group dinner that was included in the tour, we ate less than mediocre food. That, is the other thing I can't stand about joining tour groups.

Taiwan is all about night markets and what is a trip to Kaohsiung without visiting their biggest night market 六合夜市. We got there early enough but unfortunately, the streets filled up very quickly and once again, there wasn't enough time to get anything as the lineup for a skewer of grilled prawns took 40 minutes. I had to run back to the bus and didn't eat my shrimp until after getting settled in to the hotel and as a result, I couldn't enjoy the shrimp as it's supposed to be eaten. It was good nonetheless because they were so fresh they were still twitching on the grill!

People waving around money, attempting to be the "next in line" for these massive prawns

雞 pet pet and 雞皮.  Nope, not my thing at all.

Now isn't that a monster?! The prawn, not me.

The hotel we stayed at was very modern and new. I was so tired I just crashed and didn't even bother to shower. Eww.  Wake up call was 7 am and I took a shower before joining mom and 太上文太 downstairs for the buffet breakfast. Surprisingly enough, it was quite decent for a breakfast buffet. Eastern as well as western breaky fare plus stuff you'd see for lunch like fried rice and noodles. The taste was only meh, but I liked the selection.

Honorable mentions is definitely the shower head and water pressure. Very very relaxing! I like!

We hopped onto the bus at 8:30am and proceeded to Taichung. Bye bye Kaohsiung! (Jan 27, 12:37am, Taichung)

Really nice shower!