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Kaohsiung looks like a fun and eclectic port city, with a unique identity to that of Taipei, but our time exploring was unexpectedly limited due to some unfortunate circumstances that will be described later…
On the day we arrived we managed to take a quick 5 minute public ferry ride to the island of Cijin, and had some glorious weather that highlighted the harbour, beach, and lighthouse areas. Now at the south end of Taiwan, there is a little more ruggedness to some of the coastline, and the rocks around the scenic boardwalk trail briefly reminded us of Ireland. Peak Kaohsiung!
The next day we decided to go slightly out of town to visit the Fo Guang Shan Monastery, which unwillingly ended up being an almost all day event. We boarded a bus and tapped in with our card to pay right before the bus driver decided that there actually weren't enough seats for everyone on the bus, and since we were the last on, had to get off. We tried to plead that we could stand or sit in the aisles (hello, southeast Asia), but some patient riders explained that that was against the rules as the bus was going to travel on the highway. Our paid fare somehow wasn't able to be refunded either, so it was a double whammy. When we eventually made it on the next bus to the monastery, we had to rush a bit through the enormous complex, wary of the threatening skies. When they finally did open up, we (im)patiently parked ourselves under a shelter and waited and waited until we could do a mad dash to the bus stop that would leave us only partially drenched. Back in Kaohsiung at the underground station we tried to use our card to board the subway only to realise that having not tapped out correctly on the bus, our card was now frozen. A staff member gave us a small map in Mandarin and instructed us to go to the circled location to get the card fixed. Not understanding the map, we wandered around outside the station completely confused before a passerby helped us out and directed us to what appeared to be a motorcycle repair shop. We held out the transportation cards to the man who nodded, went inside his shop, and returned them to us. It was the most bizarre transaction. (But there was a very sweet French bull dog at the shop who gave us a sweet lick while we waited. French bull dogs are very popular in Taiwan.) We walked back to the subway and gratefully discovered that the card was, in fact, unlocked, but….this is not very Taiwan-esque - this country is the picture of order and clarity!
But the annoyance of that whole experience became irrelevant the next day when Clare sat up in the morning, and proceeded to put her feet on the floor into a puddle of water. Confused, she thought her water bottle had tipped over and spilled, but to her horror quickly realised that there was water all over the floor of the room. It turned out that it had continued to pour buckets all night, and the whole 6th floor of the hotel (and presumably others) had giant puddles of water, everywhere. Troy, the organised and wise one had safely and habitually stored all of his belongings up off of the floor, and had no damage. Clare was extremely lucky that most of the things that got wet were clothing items, and things that could be dried out. No damage to any electronics. And so instead of finishing our sightseeing of Kaohsiung, the next few hours were spent trying to dry/pack-up our stuff as well as possible to get on the train to our next destination. Clare wandered the now eerily abandoned soggy hotel rooms on the floor to use different hair dryers when ours burned out, and Troy remained calm (well, one of us had to), and made frequent trips back and forth to the dryer in the laundry room. Ugh. It was a miserable situation, but one that obviously could have been much worse damage wise, so we are grateful for that. Beware, the rainy season.
- comments
Carrie It can’t be all perfect right? You need a story or two like this thrown in to remind yourself you are still subject to the potential downfalls of being tourists on vacation instead of seasoned world travellers lol.
Clare Hansen We are now very vigilant every time we check into a new room about looking around to see where potential water could come in!