KaohSiung and the calm before the storm: Summer 2017

Kaohsiung is TaiWan's second largest city and the big port at the south of the Island. The train from HuaLian tok a little under five hours but the majority of the journey was spent on train tracks running right on the edge of the sea, which i thoroughly enjoyed.

I planned on three days in Kaohsiung but I could have stayed a lot longer. This was roughly the middle of my trip so I decided to splash out and get a nicer hotel (private) room, which turned out to be a mistake. I found a budget hotel on booking.com, followed the directions to to hotel, walked past it several times before giving up and asking in a dirty little laundry place. As luck would have it, the dirty little laundry place was the reception to my hotel. For future reference, carefully consult hotel descriptions and reviews on the internet before booking as they like to use photos from other hotels. It was too late and i was too tired to find somewhere else so I stayed. In the hotels defense, I did have my own room and that room had a bed, which is pretty much all that I can or will say in a positive review of the place.

Kaohsiung is a big city in that it is built up and spread out, with the sea on two sides its actually a long way to cross town. I spent a whole afternoon in the harbour before going up to the British Consulate. Honestly at this point, i don't remember the history of the place, all we need to know is that its the old British consulate from 1850 something that is now a museum. Its on the top of the hill so the views were beautiful, plus being higher up the breeze was incredibly welcome. They area is famous for its rose tea, so half way round the museum you get given a free cup and pointed at a table to relax for a bit. I sat there for nearly 2 hours perfectly content.

I spent the majority of another day by the lake, I found a little bar overlooking a water skiing training center which proved to be a great source of entertainment. In the time I was sitting there, two school trips turned up and gave it a go. Lots of fun!

It is on this lake that the dragon and tiger pagodas sit. The don't appear to have any history or function, other than being weird but cool things to look at and an interesting picture backdrop for lots of people.

Kaohsiung is no exception to the taiwan night market phenomenon, the only difference being the quantity of prawns on offer. i don't thing saying that 60% of the market was dedicated to prawns,  further 20% for crabs and the last 20% for everything else. It was unbelievable, cheap and so satisfying.


One of the final places i visited was the 'art district' by the harbour, which is an old load of warehouses that have been turned into an entertainment complex. Its mostly art gallery space available for rent and coffee shops. All of the outside apace was filled with sculptures. Add in the miniature train that you can ride around the whole area with and it all has a very chilled out, afternoon in the park feel.

My next stop was Kenting, the most southernly point of the island. Its only a few hours by bus (no train) which turned out to be very easy and cheap. This was the stop i was most looking forward to, as it boasts Taiwan's best beaches.

Luckily for me the weather was getting bad, continued on next page.