Kaohsiung was my second trip to Taiwan, but it was my first time actually picking it as a vacation spot. (The first time I went it was purely for a concert, so it wouldn’t have mattered if I had flown to any other part of Asia.) Initially I wanted to go to Shanghai, but because I was too lazy to go apply for a visa, the next place on my list was Kaohsiung. The sad thing is, we actually booked our trip really late and since it was the new years holiday, a lot of the vacation packages were sold out. Luckily (or maybe not so luckily for my wallet) we managed to find a package with business class seats on our flight!

Since we were traveling light to Kaohsiung, we left the house around 6:15 in the morning and took the MTR straight to the airport. We got to use the Cathay Pacific Business Class lounge, which was quite exciting. We stuffed ourselves with breakfast there, then ended up eating a second breakfast on the flight to Kaohsiung. LOL

After arriving at the airport, we crossed over to the subway and headed towards our hotel. The downside of paying for a business class flight was compensating it with a really shabby hotel. The Toong Mao Hotel was pretty ancient and it was a good 10-15 minute walk from the nearest subway station. However it was still pretty comfortable for our two nights stay, so I can’t complain.

Once we dropped off all our stuff and freshen up, we headed over to the subway and took it towards the Gushan Ferry Pier where we boarded for Cijin Island. It was a nice sunny day out so there were a lot of school groups heading towards the island. I was surprised seeing two separate line ups for the ferry – one for pedestrians and the other for mopeds. I had forgotten that everyone in Taiwan travel on mopeds around the city!

After making it to the island, we went exploring on the main streets. First we stopped by the Tianhou Temple, then walked over to seafood street, and eventually the beach. Later we took a hike through the tunnel passage and made our way up towards the Cihou Lighthouse. It was sweltering hot in Kaohsiung that day. Even though it was February I definitely worked up a sweat by the time we made it up to the lighthouse. The view from above was nice, but I was dying from the heat.

Once we made it down, it was off to find a place for lunch. My sole purpose of going to Cijin was to try their seafood street, so we ended up eating an entire meal of seafood. Everything was super cheap and fresh. All you have to do is point to the tanks of seafood out front and they’ll ask you how you want it cooked. We ended up eating seven dishes for three people. So yummy~

Later on we were back on the mountain trail, except this time we headed over towards the Cihou Fortress. I actually enjoyed this place a lot more than the Lighthouse because the entire layout was so neat. You can walk up and down the steps and across the bridges in the fortress. The view of the beach from the top was breathtaking.

After our long trek it was back to ferry. Once we got back, we headed over to Pier 2, which is an art district in Kaohsiung. Pier 2 used to be an old warehouse area, but the government turned it into art galleries with sculptures and painting all around. My friend Tammy had recommended visiting Pier 2, but it wasn’t until I noticed that Mayday had a concert exhibit there that made me really want to go. Hehe. Unfortunately by the time we found the exhibit, we missed the last entrance. I’ll write more about my experience in the next entry. =P

Afterwards we took the subway over to Formosa Boulevard and took photos of the Dome of Light inside the station. I’m pretty sure it’s one of the main tourist spots in Kaohsiung. Later on we headed up to the streets to visit the Liuhe Night Market. It was too bad that I was super stuffed from lunch, because I had absolutely no room to eat anymore. One of the biggest problems in Taiwan is that their food is so good and so cheap, but my stomach is so small and so slow at disgesting. (T_T)

So after strolling for more than an hour, I managed to find some space to eat a bowl of beef noodles. The owner was really nice even though it was near closing and we were the only customers at the restaurant. I had a very fun first day in Kaohsiung and there’s definitely more to come for part 2 of my entry.