Kaohsiung December 08

On the Kaohsiung Harbor Ferry

To see our Kaohsiung pictures, Click Here.

Last weekend we went down to Kaohsiung in the South of Taiwan for a few days. We had an amazing time. This is the second time in a year we have visited Kaohsiung for a vacation and both times were fantastic. The city has really grown and developed over the years. I remember the first time I went to Kaohsiung way back in 99, I couldn't wait to leave. But the city council has really developed the city and we now think its a wonderful place for a short trip outside of Taipei.

Liu He Night Market and the Love River

Liu He Night Market

We started out by going to the Liu He Night Market on the Friday night. The night market is a regular Taiwanese night market with the usual food and delights. We walked around for a bit and tried some of the food on offer. The best snack we tried was the Beijing Roast Duck. It was absolutely amazing. We also saw the Shakespeare book stoor that was on the Chung Shan Road side of the night market.

Xinjiang BBQ

Beijing Duck

Appropriate Name for a Bookstore

Of course no self respecting night market in Taiwan would not have some snake delicacies and this one was no different. There was one vendor offering what I believe was snake soup, but I might be mistaken!

Snake Soup Apparently

After finishing up at the night market we went back to our hotel and walked over to the Love River. We have walked around the river before but this time just decided to enjoy the view. There are some restaurants and pubs next to the river but we never bothered to try. It was late and time to go to bed.

Love River in Kaohsiung

Queenie and the Love River

Chi Jing Dao

Saturday was busy. In the morning we took a taxi to the Guishan Ferry Pier and took the ferry to Chi Ching Island. Of course the ferry allows motorcycles and bicycles to be taken accross the harbor so it was fairly crowded. The pricing structure was also fairly interesting with locals being allowed to travel on the ferry for free.

Ferry to Chi Ching Dao

The island is in the Kaohsiung bay and has been developed as a tourist destination. Right outside the ferry pier are a few bike renting shops. They of course didn't have a bike big enough for me so we rented a two person bike and spent the day cycling around the island.

A Bicycle Made for Two

The funniest/worst incident occured when I tried to go over the edge of the pavement and my seat snapped off. Since it was a two person bike Queenie's handle was attached to my seat and when my seat broke, poor Queenie fell of the bike. She was not too impressed. A bus driver waiting for his tour group came over to help but there wasn't really much he could do. Anyway, the bike shop attendants came over with a new bike for us and we spent the rest of the day being very careful.

On the second bike we rode as far as we could. We got to see the part of the bay where the ships come in and out. For me there were many nostalgic feelings as it felt a little like the bay in my hometown of Durban. The weather was fantastic and riding next to the ocean on a sunny day was a great experience.

Temple on the Road

Wind Park

Queenie on Chi Ching Dao

Coming into port

Sky Fish

Lunch

We went back to the main tourist town on the island. We had been riding (and occassionally falling off) our bike for three or four hours so we were hungry. Of course the only food on offer was seafood. We chose what seemed to be a fairly decent restaurant with a good selection of food and sat down for a well earned break.

From all the available options, we chose pineapple-shrimps, crumbed fish and oysters. All of it was very delicious and probably, for the most part, the only seafood we ever really eat in Taiwan.

Oysters

Crumbed Fish

Shrimp

As I said earlier, we don't normally eat seafood, but when I do, strange things happen to me....

The joy of seafood

The other side of the island...

After lunch we got back on our bike and headed towards the other side of the island through what can only be described as the "space invader" tunnel. Some kind of audio signal mechansim had been installed in the tunnel and if people clapped their hands loud enough then strange neon lights would glow and strange sounds reminiscent of the old space invader arcade game would start to play. A very odd thing to have indeed. Once through the tunnel however we had some great views of the ocean, the city and ships coming into the harbour.

Dark Sand on the Beach

Kaohsiung

Coming into port

Afternoon Tea

We then handed our bikes in at the rental shop and found an outdoor teashop in the small tourist town and watched the crowd go by. Actually, as time passed it seemed the town filled up more and more. It seems we were there in the early morning but the most popular time for going there may be late afternoon/early evening.

Back to Kaohsiung...

We decided to head back to Kaohsiung but this time on an unofficial barge. It must be said the seaworthiness of this barge may have been questionable but they filled up pretty quickly with once again people, cyclists and motorcyclists. The trip back to Kaohsiung was uneventful but the views of the city were also pretty amazing.

Motorcycles on the Barge

Kaohsiung Harbor Ferry

Massages and Walking

We next decided to go for a hair wash. NTD300 for two people for a hair wash and head massage seemed to be a pretty good deal. The massage was relaxing and once finished we were reinvigorated and ready to walk. We headed off through the city, crossed the love river and after about 90-minutes of walking stumbled onto a spa and massage. Queenie had a foot massage, I opted for the full body massage which was absolutely painful. But it is incredible how great I felt after something as painful as that. Anyway, it seemed the massage was good after all the excercise earlier in the day.

Fisherman's Wharf

Fisherman's Wharf

After our massage we went for a short walk through the town and then jumped into a taxi and went to (what we think is the newly developed) Fisherman's Wharf. Now Fiherman's Wharf really brought back wonderful memories of a great little bar on the mouth of Durban's harbor called Thirsty's. Well, Thirsty's is long gone and Fisherman's Wharf in Kaohsiung had the same feel. We found a nice little restaurant, sat outside and enjoyed some of the live music at the Lounge Bar next door.

In addition to sitting next to the harbour, the enjoyable food and the chessy lounge bar music, the weather was absolutely fantastic. The temperature outdoors was perfect: not too hot, not too cold.

Kids in Fisherman's Wharf

Fisherman's Wharf

British Consulate at Tagao

The Name Says it All

On Sunday morning we took a taxi past the Guishan ferry pier to the British Consulate at Tagao. My father would be especially proud of this building as he is an incredibly patriotic Englishman. He would have felt proud to see the Union Jack hanging over a building in Taiwan. The next time he visits I will be sure to bring him here.

Union Jack

The consulate building overlooks the most of Kaohsiung and the restaurant at the back of the consulate has fantasic views of the city. Must be a great place to eat at night with a wonderful night view. We spent some time wondering around the consulate reading some of the historical comments. The one disappoinment on this day was the pollution and smog. It was so bad we couldn't really get a great view of the city. Kaohsiung is notorious for air pollution and one only hopes the local authorities will work to get the air cleaned up. We did take a picture of the city, but sadly the pollution blocked most of the view.

View from the consulate

Cafe on the Edge...

Cafe Business Card

We next took a bus through Chungshan University to the end of the bus route. Once again the views of the ocean and the vegetation were very reminiscent of home. We got to the end of the bus route and walked about half a kilometer down a very steep incline to get to the ocean.

Walking through the trees

Queenie

At the bottom was a rocky outcrop with a small cafe/restaurant and once again great views of the ocean. We hung around on the rocks for a while watching the fisherman and some folks in the trees behind us doing Taichi (or something similar). What did disappoint here were all the cigarette butts on the ground. It did detract a great deal from the natural beauty of the place. We then went to the cafe for some tea and enjoyed the early afternoon sun.

Taichi on the Sea

The Cape

Ocean View

Going back was a surprise. We decided we didnt have the energy to walk back up the very steep hill to the bus stop. So we called a taxi to take us back to our hotel. The taxi fee back was only NTD180. We were expecting it to be much higher and it did show us that these remote places were not as inaccessible as we thought.

Lotus Lake

Our last stop in Kaohsiung was Lotus Lake. We checked out of the hotel. Dumped our stuff at the storage area in the High-Speed Rail MRT station (Zuo Ying) and hopped into a cab to Lotus Lake. The lake is always beautiful and is surrounded by pagoda's and temples. This was one part of the city that did seem to be taken well care of and there was not much pollution to speak of on the ground. Last year when we visited Lotus Lake the confucian temple had a tea house on the lake. Sadly this tea house has been temporarily closed. We were hoping to enjoy a final cup of tea in Kaohsiung on the lake.

Pagoda's on Lotus Lake

Lanterns

Don't eat me...

The Lake

Temple

Girl in Confucian Temple

Sun on the lake

Final Thoughts on Kaohsiung

Kaohsiung is a great city for a weekend outside of Taipei. The air pollution was pretty bad, but not much we can do about that. There are a lot of great tourist spots to visit (we didn't visit them all) and a lot of local Taiwanese culture to enjoy. As always in Taiwan, the local food is incredible, the night markets vibrant and the people are friendly. The addition of the MRT (subway) makes commuting in Kaohsiung that much easier, and with two MRT lines, most places in the city are acessible. The downside is that the weekend was a bit pricy, but if you need the break who cares. It is a great little get away and we will certainly go back in the future.

More pictures Here.

Mykonos - A Taste of Greece in Taipei

(All of us in Mykonos)

Mykonos is a great Greek Restaurant that used to be near Yong Kang Street, close to Ta An park. We used to go there fairly often as their Greek food is really great. One day three or four years ago we went along for our monthly dose of Greek food and the restaurant had vanished without a trace. No advertising, no news of what happened. We naturally thought they had closed down, as so many restaurants in Taipei do. It so happens they moved. They first moved to An He Road and have now moved to Si-Wei Road. We found the restaurant quite by accident a few weeks ago when we went for a random walk in our neighborhood.

We were pleased to find them. The food is still great. The menu seems to be almost the same as what we remember and we think the venue is much better. Its more spacious than before and outside is more pleasant. We have been back three times now. Tonight we went to Mykonos with Doug and Pamela, two of our long term friends in Taipei. We also took our niece Charlene with us and we had a great time.

(Doug and Pamela)

(Queenie, Paul and Charlene)

The decor in the restuarant is great, they have painted some of the walls with Mediterranean scenes, have some traditional musical instruments on the wall, some great photos of Greece and other interesting pictures. The restaurant is really spacious, the chairs comfortable and they even provided a high-chair for Charlene. The staff are also super friendly and very helpful.

The food we ate tonight was great. We ordered a hummus platter, lamb chops, mushrooms and a Greek salad. All the food was wonderfully cooked. Of course Doug and I washed it down with a couple of beers and finished the meal with some baklava. The whole meal set us back NTD2,300. Not bad for four people in a pretty good restaurant in Taipei. Some of the food is shown below.

(Greek Salad)

(Mushrooms)

(Lamb Chop)

So, if you feel like a little Greek fare in Taipei, head out to Mykonos. You won't be disappointed. The contact details are below:

Address: No. 19, Lane 76, Si-Wei Rd.
Phone Number: 2704-2960

If you do get down to Mykonons, please let us know what you think too.

A Day in Keelung

(Our Feet)

After finishing my exams Queenie and I decided to go on a day trip somewhere. The initial plan was to go to Ilan but the bus was full and the next available bus was late in the afternoon. We regrouped, went to the Pot Pie Cafe for an English breakfast and thought about where we could go. After much consideration and stumbled decision making we decided to head out to Keelung. We had also thought to go to Kaohsiung, Hsin Chu and Taichung but we felt those places were too far.

After breakfast we went off to Keelung road to take the Keelung-Panciao bus to Keelung. This is the craziest bus in Taipei. These drivers are the real mavericks of the road and they fly. I used to take the bus to Jong-He when I worked there and sometimes take it to Shi-Zhi where I work now. I always wanted to take the bus to Keelung. When we got on the bus and told the driver we wanted to go to Keelung he insisted his bus doesn't go on the highway and we should reconsider its use. We were already there and wanted to take it anyway.

Two hours later we emerged in Keelung after one of the bumpiest, stop-start rides we have ever taken. I am not sure if this is a compliment but the bus ride reminded us of the long bus journey's we took in China.

Once in Keelung we went to Hoping Island Park, a small ocean-side park with many interesting rock structures and a view of Hoping (Peace) island. We haven't been to the ocean for a long time and therefore just going there and watching the ocean and the waves was a brilliant.

(Entrance to the Park)

(Paul and Queenie in Hoping Island Park)

I first went to Hoping Island park way back in 1999. I went there during my first Chinese New Year in Taiwan and I went back twice shortly after that. Since then I have never returned and Queenie had never been there at all. The first time I went was a rainy day in winter and we couldn't get onto the rock outcrops. We could just stand and watch the violent movement of the sea smashing into the rocks. The other times I went there we could jump around the rocks and look at the fish, crabs and sea-cockroaches (what fun!).

Nevertheless, the views of the oceans and the rocks are spectacular. A lot of Northern Taiwan has many instresting rock structures. The most famous place is Yeliou. Hoping Island Park is not as famous or popular but the rock structures are still interesting.

(Hoping Island)

(Strange Orb)

(Three Toes)

(See Shore)

(The ebb and flow)

It was very hot on the day we went to Hoping Island Park, especially on the rocks, and therefore there were very few people out on the rocks. There were few kids smoking (at 10 years old!) and other couples going for a lunch picnic but the midday sun does not attract many people to rocky shores of Taiwan. We therefore could have a fairly peaceful walk along the rocks and enjoy ourselves in relative quiet and calm.

(A Couple)

(Another Couple)

(Some Kids on the Rocks)

(Sea Dog)

After bouncing around the rocks for an hour or more we headed back to the entrance and found a small shop serving drinks. We sat there for a long while chatting and cooling off in the shade. We recommend though that you take your own food and drinks. There were three food outlets, of which only one was clean. The other two were filthy and not worth trying. The clean food outlet had limited options and therefore it is best to bring your own snacks.

The one disappointment was the pollution. There seemed to be a lot of trash in the water. After paying an entrance fee one would expect the park authorities to keep it clean, especially since the idea of the park is to promote environmental friendliness. There was honestly too much trash and a little effort could solve this problem. Once we got onto the rocks, the trash was less but still distracted from the natural beauty of the place.

We then headed off into Keelung city and right next to the port discovered the Yangming Maritime Museum. We went to take a look and we were duly impressed. The museum is not large but there is enough interesting information in both English and Chinese. Its a good way to kill an hour waiting for a train. The museum is mostly geared towards kids with a few interactive displays and some childrens movies about the ocean, but the visit was rewarding enough.

(Weekend Yacht)

(Museum)

After the museum, we got onto a train and headed home to Taipei. All in all it was a pretty good day. If you can ignore the pollution at the entrance, the park is worth visiting for an hour or two, especially if you love the ocean.

(More pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/durbanbay/DayTripToKeelung)

See our Taipei and Taiwan Travel Guide for more day trips outside Taipei