And what a start it has been... After a 23 hour journey from London Heathrow to Kaohsiung Taiwan, we decided to 'pop' out to get a bite to eat. However, this was not such the free and easy outing as we had imagined. It was extremely hot, 29° and mix that with fatigue and ignorance it was a disaster. I panicked. I wanted to get out of there! And in the end it was too much so we leveled with eating a sandwich from a Subway we had spotted earlier. It was delicious. Guilty pleasure if you like. After this, we headed back to the hotel. I was slightly devastated by my first reaction, and was kept awake by doubts and regrets. But in the end I woke Ed up and confessed. He talked me through it, I had a little cry and felt a lot better. Our first sleep was sketchy, waking up every couple of hours, either in sync or alone. Inevitably, the morning came and I felt calm. I was looking forward to giving Kaohsiung another chance.
We woke later then originally planned, and rushed down for our free breakfast. I had two helpings of toast and peanut butter, with cold fruit tea, while Ed went for the brave option - pork flakes, spicy onion noodles, bbq'd pork chunks and some other unknown elements. Was he happy? I asked him: 'I started the day with a bang I tell ya! Doesn't put me off having it again!' Rather him than me, I tasted those noodles! And blimey, they were HOT.
For the day we decided to go and check out the department stores/malls, that were local to our hotel. The first one we went in was good, for a couple of reasons: the air conditioning and the Adidas and Nike sections. We didn't buy anything, but because it was so hot outside we spent as long as possible in there! We decided not to check the second mall out and headed straight to the Love River.
You can't really see Love River, it's just below the white railings!
We headed towards Houyi, where the famous Love River lies. Again we underestimated the heat and didn't manage to view much of the river, despite me purchasing an umbrella. However, we ate at a great restaurant nearby.
We got back to the hotel at around 4 and immediately fell asleep. We woke past 6, showered and went to our local night market where we got some food. The market was the most alive I'd seen Kaohsiung since we'd arrived. During the day, the streets were still and empty, but at night it burst into life. The street swarmed with people looking for a bite to eat, selling food or on mopeds, carefully weaving through the busy street.
Ed made a quick decision to eat some squid noodles, I watched nervously and tried some. They were fantastic!
When Ed had finished, we walked around a bit looking for something that I wanted to eat. It was the next door stall that I chose to go with, and ate a tasty mutton (but I think it was goat...) stir fry with noodles. We sat down, and was greeted by two local guys, one called Tony who was confident in his English and shouted, with his glass raised: 'Welcome to Taiwan!' He then gave us a couple of glasses of Taiwanese beer and told us how charming and beautiful we were! We were then given some clams by the cook (on the house!) - a Taiwanese delicacy. They were salty and delicious. We left the stall feeling happy and little more integrated. Something we had been waiting for. It's odd being the only two white people... but you get over it very quickly.
We got on the MRT again, and went to Formosa Boulivard to go and look at the most touristy night market in Kaohsiung. The station was beautiful!
This market sold everything! Purses, food, toys... It was busier then the food night market we had previously been at.
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They would have live shrimp below, and put them straight onto the grill, still alive!! |
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