Sunshine in Kaoshiung

We didn’t expect much from Kaohsiung. It was going to be another town on our expedited journey to Kenting. What a miscalculation on our part. I definitely wanted to see more of this city. For starters, the Liuhe Night Market 六合夜市 was good, filled with competing food stalls. That led to some good king prawn eating, freshly cooked and I mean fresh. They were swimming and skewered right before you eyes. Not for the squeamish. But in the end, definitely worth it. Firm and tasty meat after you pull off those hot shells. However, besides the fresh seafood it was a typical night market setting. Not saying it’s not worth a visit. It definitely was. For me though, I’m getting my fill of night market foods, not to mention the pounds. My arteries were hating me.

The really surprising thing was how new parts of the city were. They have this Dream Mall that housed a little amusement park on the roof. Pretty cool and I have to state, for the record, that I was forced into the giant Hello Kitty Ferris Wheel. Really! But hey, it’s no London Eye. It does tower over the city sitting on top of a ten story shopping mall. The rooftop would be a hang out for me back in my younger years (a long long time ago). The stores inside we all modern with high end shops and even some specialty pop brands like a 7-Eleven Open-Jung 小將 store. If you have no idea what that is, look it up. I had to. Nice to see the Hello Kitty shop next door get some competition. Not that I care. I was dumbfounded that a market for all the paraphernalia existed. Yet, I was even more confused by the amount of people at this strikingly lavish mall. There wasn’t that many. Even the movie theater floor felt empty. It was a Friday night! Strange. And let’s not blame it on the economy. From what I have been told an ex-president’s administration had been pouring money into the city. Nothing can go wrong with that, right?

I’m not going to talk politics here.

What I will talk about was our biking around town. Very good thing to do in this town. It may have been the fact that it was Sunday and there was less traffic, but getting around town on a bike was easy. Oh yeah, we had also taken it to the night market the day before. I’d recommend doing this in this town. We made our way from our hotel, who lent us the bikes free of charge (if you want more notes about the awesome place, feel free to send me an email), over to the old British Consulate building and came across a field of abandoned railway stops to a warehouse of art galleries. Definitely wish I knew about it to bye tickets for some of the exhibitions there. That’s what I get for not reading up on this city.

Food:
Food here was good. Back to traditional Taiwanese food, but with more emphasis on seafood. I’d avoid the $100NTD Izakaya style shops unless you know a local to recommend some nice shops. That’s $100NTD a dish. After having a whole meal for under this price at good local shops, it’s hard to pay more for mediocre bar food. Get out to the night market instead of the happy hour places.

And if you’re hungry in the morning, try a Taiwanese breakfast. It’ll only set you back $94NTD. And what you see above was for two people. But don’t expect it to be mind blowing. It’s meant to be carb heavy to get you through the day.

Getting Around:
By taxi, but mostly by bike. Decent bike paths by Love River. On the roads, be mindful. Cars don’t yield like they do in the states.

Overall Feel:
Great city. Can’t imagine how it’ll feel in the summer. But it’s a modern metropolis filled with expensive shops like your Prada and Louis Vuitton. Not my thing, but definitely my kind of town.

Costs:
$75NTD by normal train from Tainan to Kaoshiung (about 55 minutes)
$2380NTD night at the R&R Hotel (surprisingly upgraded to a 4 person suite)
$100-$125NTD for taxi rides to the train station