Friday,
12 September 2014
We
checked out after breakfast this morning and stored our bags at the reception.
We then walked along Jianguo 3rd Road and almost by accident,
stumbled upon Sanfengzhong Street, a long food market street. It sells onions
and garlic, dried mushrooms of every size, seaweed, packed snacks, pickles...
the only thing I thought was strange was the absence of customers. We then
turned into Zhonghua 3rd Road and walked until we hit Central Park,
and on to Kaohsiung Star Place where there are LV, Gucci and Ferragamo
boutiques (we wanted to enter but the boutiques only opened at 11 and it was
only 10:30 then) and then we took Wenwu 3rd Street and turned here
and there until we reached Kaohsiung Sky Tower. We stopped for a short while
before turning back and heading to Far Eastern Department Store. We went in to
find a washroom but when we saw the elevators, I had an idea and suggested we
take the elevator the highest floor for a bird’s eye view over the city. So we
rode the elevator to the 17th floor and there were doors leading out
to the deck where we enjoyed a view of the sprawling city. How fantastic is
that?
We
browsed the bookstore at that level before taking the elevator down. We crossed
over to Sogo but there was no supermarket there so instead we bought some buns
from a mini bakery outside Sogo. Then we took the MRT from Sanduo Shopping
District Station to Weiwuying Station (EasyCard not accepted in the Kaohsiung
MRT though), changing train at Formosa Boulevard where the Dome of Light is
(the largest glass work in the world). At Weiwuying, we took the exit that led
us to Kaohsiung Mosque. We met a few Mainland Chinese Muslim women outside the
mosque and although we couldn’t communicate at all, we somehow managed to get
together to have group photos. Haha, that was quite funny actually. We then
went in to perform prayers and as the Friday prayers started just after we
performed ablutions, we joined in the prayers too. After lunch, we dropped by
the halal Indonesian restaurant next door and had beef noodles for lunch.
We
took the MRT back to Kaohsiung Station and went to collect our bags at the
hostel. After a brief rest, we set out for the station and bought tickets for
the 15:29 train to Tainan. We reached Tainan after 63 minutes and went to our
hotel after dropping by the Visitor Information Centre at the station. The girl
at the Visitor Information Centre had pointed out the building to us and I must
say my heart sank when I saw the drab ugly building. Fortunately, this is one
of those instances where we should not judge a book by its cover. The building
may be drab outside but the hotel and our room are at least brand new, or at
least recently refurbished.
We
went out in the evening and went to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi and Focus Square
before crossing the street to the food stalls opposite. I didn’t buy anything
though and had buns instead for dinner in the room.
Saturday,
13 September 2014
After
breakfast, we checked out and left our bags at the reception. We then went to
wait for the 88 Anping bus (waited at the wrong bus stop at first, no thanks to
the hotel people). The 09:30 bus came at 09:50 and we boarded it. It cost only
NTD18 one way and it took us more than an hour to reach Sunset Platform, the last
stop. We got down and walked for a brief while before getting on the 11:30 bus
to Anping Fort.
We
walked for an hour in Anping in the hot merciless sun. It was 36C and blazing
hot. We reached the bus stop for the bus back to Tainan City just seconds
before it came along.
Back
at the hotel, we rested and enjoyed the lobby air-conditioning comfort before
dragging ourselves over to the train station. We bought the 15:03 train tickets
to Taichung and sat at the waiting area. There was a 7-11 and a Sushi Takeout
outlet and we bought sushi for our late lunch. Sushi Takeout accepts EasyCard
by the way.
We
arrived at Taichung at 17:09 and were met with a huge crowd at the platform, in
the station and outside the station. Wow, I thought, this must be a huge city
indeed. Even Kaohsiung, the second largest city, didn’t feel that crowded. We battled
the crowd and made our way to our hotel. I was happy to find that the roads in Taiwan
are all have English scripts in addition to the Chinese characters and finding
our hotel was such a breeze that we didn’t even need to resort to asking for
directions (I had earlier printed off maps from Google Map for locations of our
lodgings and we relied solely on those maps. Thanks Google Map!).
We
checked in, had a quick shower and performed prayers before venturing out. The
Restaurant District was literally a few steps away from the hotel although we
only saw Vietnamese stalls there. Oh, we did bump into quite a few Indonesians
in Taichung. We stumbled upon Wellcome Supermarket (the first we came across
thus far in Taiwan, all others had been convenience stores) and bought some
groceries for the following day. We then returned to the hotel and rested. I relied
on tweets (WiFi is fast in Taiwan!) for footie updates.
To
be continued
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