Like usual, I was up before the dawn. I decided to go out to the Widow's Walk , to see the view. It was really peaceful and the view was beautiful. The cool breeze coming off the ocean felt really good. On the horizon, I could just make out the lights from a passing ship as it disappeared from view. I wondered if it was bound for Hong Kong. I didn't stay too long because soon I became the target of many a hungry mosquito.
We decided to get up early again, as there were still many places to see and the scooter had to be returned before noon. The hotel office wasn't open yet and we knew we'd be back before checkout, so we drove up the street and bought sandwiches at the 7-Eleven for breakfast. The clerk snapped at me for taking a photo of a coffee sign written in Chinese. I apologized and put my camera away. I'm not sure the reason, but most businesses do not permit photography in their stores. I had the same problem in Starbucks in Hong Kong.
We sat at the outside tables and ate. Discussing where we would go first. JiaJia had asked the clerk how long it would take to reach Cape Eluanbi. He told her an exaggerated amount of time. I didn't believe it and we finished our breakfast. We climbed on the scooter and off we went.
Being that it was very early on Wednesday, the tourist traffic was nil. We owned the road as we wound around the coast. It was what I would consider a priceless moment, that cannot be bought by any travel agent. No real set schedules, although we knew where we wanted to go. It's the journey, not the destination.
It was already beginning to get hot in the sun but the breeze helped. Still I could feel myself sweating, regardless. We stopped along the way and took a couple of photos of some fishermen on a reef, at low tide. I wondered how they had gotten there as the shoreline was very rocky and jagged. We reached Eluanbi in a third of the time the clerk had mentioned, about 15 minutes. At 8:15 AM, it seemed that we were the only ones there. I parked the scooter and we went into the park.
Cape Eluanbi is the southern most point of the Taiwan mountain range. It is popular for the scenery and also it's lighthouse. There are trails that wind through the jungle of vines and prehistoric coral, long dead from time and receding water millions of years ago. The sun was really getting hot and we opted to take a path through the jungle to the shore. It was shaded, with many intertwined vines and tree branches. At the beginning of the trail, there was a sign warning of poisonous snakes and insects. JiaJia didn't want to go, but I told her the path was clear and we'd proceed slowly and watch our step. It was almost like a dream. The path disappeared into the jungle. I would have hated to have been on the crew that cut their path through it years ago. Periodically, there would be a fork in the path with signage indicating which path led where. "Prehistoric Creatures" or "Shoreline Trails" ? We opted for the Shoreline Trails because even though it was shaded, it was very muggy and the Prehistoric Creatures path looked like it went upward. Occasionally, I'd spot a lizard or gecko scurrying away in the leaves. I did not see any snakes. As we neared the shore, you could hear the waves crashing and the jungle became less dense. Walking around a large reef, we were presented with a set of stairs going up. When we reacted the top, a sign pointed out the rock formation on the left. "親吻石", Qīnwěn shí or Kissing Rock, is a formation of two masses of land that have been eroded to now appear as if they are kissing. More photos. I could hear more people in the area now and the stairs continued upward.
At the top is a covered viewing area with wooden benches. The view showed all around the shoreline with all the reefs and rocks. A large family of tourists arrived up the stairs and broke any enjoyment of the peaceful moment. They were of all ages, young and old. Most of them definitely out of shape, even for the single flight of stairs to reach it. Some took photos, some sat and rested while others smoked and bickered. "Alright, let's go!", announced one other older men. "Go?!? Don't you want to see it?", a woman answered. "We saw it, now let's go!", replied the man. It was all in Chinese, of course. I saw a similarity that made me chuckle, the cultures may be different, but the same exact conversations take place all over the world. We left while they were still arguing.
We continued on the trail which opened up to a clearing and restroom facilities. Breaks were taken and the "family" caught up and some of them stopped too. We continued up a vast green expanse of neatly groomed grass, resembling the beautifully manicured fairways of Augusta. The path led up to the Eluanbi Lighthouse. The lighthouse had been built in 1888 because there are hidden reefs that stretch out beyond the shore. The water is fairly shallow in the region. The lighthouse is also called, "The Light of East Asia" because it is the most powerful of all the lighthouses in Taiwan. We started to walk back toward the entrance, as we still had several other stops before we went back. The grounds of the park were really beautiful with rolling lawns, papaya and banana groves. It resembled a grand resort in Hawaii or Tahiti, but without the hotels. Just as we were starting up the scooter to leave, two Chinese tourist buses entered the parking lot. I was happy that we missed them.
The bike ride cooled me off a bit. We entered the parking lot for "The Southern Most Point" and it was deserted. JiaJia asked the guard about the point and he pointed to a side road, just beyond the lot. I quickly got on the scooter and met her near the road. We rode about 300 meters to a sign that pointed the direction. We would have to walk the rest of the way. The path here was very wide and shaded by large trees. It was tiled in terracotta, giving it a more tropical feel. When we reached the point, there was a long deck that took you to the monument, a large, cone-shaped, concrete monolith. There was a group of girls there from Hong Kong, on their college graduation trip, taking photos of each other. They asked if we would take their photo. So I took their photo with two different cameras. We, in turn, asked the same from them. They agreed and then we left them to their school-girl shenanigans and walked back. We looked at the map and it appeared we could drive up the coast a bit and then there was a road that cut across the mountain and place us right near Kenting.
We started to drive up the east coastal highway, which is only a two-lane road, seeing an occasional car or truck. The eastern coast was quite different from the west, as the mountains rise out of the sea, creating breathtaking cliffs. Because the shoreline curved off to the east, you could see far ahead of the coast. At one point, we passed a film crew photographing a bride-to-be with the mountains and shore as the backdrop. She was dressed in a beautiful dress that made me think she was really uncomfortable in the midmorning sun. I knew the road we wanted was near there, so we continued on. Finally, I took the first main road that went west because most of them transverse the mountains and we'd be nearer Kenting. It would take too long to go back the way we'd come. We stopped at several villages and JiaJia asked the route to Kenting. Someone told us to take this last road we'd crossed when we stopped and that would take us there. We thanked them and she called the hotel to tell them we were on our way. She said the owner sounded annoyed but that we'd make it ok. I drove as fast as I thought safe, and eventually, I saw the familiar main highway to Kenting. Once we were back in town, we still had 30 minutes left on our rental. We decided to visit Kenting National Park. Which I swore I knew where the entrance was. After wasting about twenty minutes trying to find the entrance, we were told that it was almost across the street from the hotel. Typical man, think I know everything. The clock was ticking as we drove up the very winding mountain road to the park entrance, only 4 km away. Once we arrived, we were out of time, but I wanted to see it, if only briefly. We paid, went in and took a photo and left. $200 NT for admission for a photo. I didn't care. We quickly rode back down the road and brought the scooter back with about 2 minutes to spare. It would be about an hour before the shuttle/taxi would arrive to take us back to Kaohsiung so we went back to "Wonderful K.T." for lunch. JiaJia really liked the noodles and the way they had prepared them.
The shuttle/taxi was different this time and the driver was not as friendly. Also, we weren't going to have it all to ourselves. As we waited for the other passengers to arrive, at the first stop, I noticed a man sitting on the curb, chewing a betel nut. Betel nuts contain a stimulant/euphoric and chewing them produces a blood red juice, making the person appear as if they had recently been in an accident. As the man chewed, he looked like someone in a stupor with blood at the corners of his mouth. I motioned to JiaJia and she didn't want to look at him. After three stops, the minivan was full and we all headed for Kaohsiung train station. I tried to sleep but I began to dream that we were headed for a mountain turn and couldn't stop before we went off the cliff. It jerked my body awake and I stayed up after that.
When we arrived in Kaohsiung, it was about 3:00 PM. I had heard about the "Dream Mall" from reading and being one of the largest in Taiwan, I wanted to see it. There was a free shuttle from the station to the mall. Once we got there and the bus left, I remembered that I didn't have the squid balls from last night's dinner. I had left them on the bus. "Oh well", I thought, as we walked inside. The air conditioning was a tremendous welcome. I wanted to see if there was a Starbucks there so I could increase my collection of localized mugs. There was and I purchased a Kaohsiung Starbucks mug. We didn't stay long and had an ice cream cone from McDonald's. We caught the shuttle bus back to the station. There were several places in Kaohsiung that JiaJia wanted me to see. First was the shopping streets of the Sanduo Shopping District. We hopped on the MRT and arrived two stops later. We walked around and looked at the different vendors selling, mostly, clothes from America. We boarded the MRT back to the Main station to see the decorative dome in the center of the station. It was very beautiful and the images reminded me of some astral/biblical theme and left me wondering if the artist might be a bit disturbed upstairs. After taking some photos, we decided to go get something to eat. This meant my addition would be satisfied as we took the MRT to the famous, Liouhe Street Night Market.
Liouhe Street Night Market is voted the Best Night Market in Taiwan, and for good reason. It was very clean and well organized. The Liouhe Street was as wide as a major city street with vendors displaying wonderful foods and a wide variety culinary choices. The usual street foods were offered, like fried squid and stinky tofu, but there were many foods that the Taipei markets didn't offer. Kaohsiung is a coastal city and the selection of seafood eats was impressive. JiaJia pointed out a vendor that was famous for his papaya milk. The marquee above his stand was filled with signatures of famous Asian celebrities that visited him. There was a crowd waiting to be served. Once I had my drink, we noticed a group of local kids posing for a group photo. One of them asked me if I would take their photo. After that they asked me to join them for a photo. I was happy to oblige and JiaJia took the picture. I presented the common "Peace" symbol that everyone in Asia uses, but in Taiwan, the symbol represents the ears of a rabbit, being that 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit. I thanked them and we continued on our market adventure. I took photos of the various vendors as we walked. We came upon a vendor that JiaJia said was a local dish to Tainan, and did I want to try it. "棺材板", "Guāncai bǎn" or Coffin Bread is similar to a bread bowl filled with various vegetables and meat in a creamy sauce. It is cut on the top, like a "coffin lid" and tastes almost exactly like a Chicken Pot Pie. It was definitely "comfort food". "Hao chi ma?" "Hao chi" It was filling enough that we didn't eat anything else there, besides it was still hot and humid.
Our train for Tainan City didn't leave until about 9:00 PM, so we took the MRT to Yanchengpu Station. From there we walked a good distance to the "愛河", "Àihé" or Love River. President Chang-Kai Shek renamed the river to Love River for his wife. It is said to be comparable to the Thames River in London. It is a canal that links downtown Kaohsiung with the Kaohsiung harbor. At night, it is truly magical. Hotels on the opposite side of the river are lit up with beautiful lights of different colors that dance off the reflective water. There is a park like walkway that runs down part of the river for people to enjoy it's beauty. After snapping some photos, I needed a rest. My feet were killing me, "hen tong tong". I knew we had to walk all the way back to the MRT station before I could rest again. I mentioned that as much as my feet hurt, if someone offered me ten million NT dollars to walk down the street cross the bridge to get it, or if I could forfeit the money for instant relief for the pain, I'd choose the latter. JiaJia never laughed so hard. I guess my description of the hypothetical scenario really amused her. I was really serious. After a few more minutes, we made our way back to the MRT station and then the train station to catch the train to Tainan.
Back in Tainan, I was so happy to sleep on the bamboo mat as it meant that I didn't have to stand up or walk anymore. I rubbed my feet and fell asleep quickly.
Tomorrow is Thursday and a authentic Taiwan meal followed by my own solo adventure around Tainan.
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