After taking the taxi down from Alishan, we hopped onto the HSR once again to Kaohsiung, which was about an hour's ride from Chiayi. Okay, so this part of the trip starts to get fuzzy as I didn't record down anything at all during the trip >< lazy me...
Anyway, our hostel was found at Sanduo Shopping district station and was a short walk away. Susan's {and now also my} favourite stationery shop, Guang Nan Stationery shop was just a 2minute walk from our hostel {yipee!} and I couldn't wait to explore it. But that was an adventure for the next day. It was already quite late by the time we reached Kaohsiung too.
Here is our backpackers hostel. We chose this hostel because it had really cute decoration and we thought it would be really cosy. However, it was rather more strict and uncomfortable than we expected. There were plenty of rules such as strictly no eating in rooms and lights out at 11pm, and we certainly weren't quite willing to adhere to such rules especially when you're on a journey and your stomach can start rumbling anytime and who wants to sleep at 11pm anyway! There were no locks on any of the room doors either but there were lockers provided to put your more precious belongings. The worst part? There was a bathroom attached to our shared dorm but we weren't allowed to use it for bathing, only for the plainest of toilet-going. What! Why can't we use the shower when it's there, I just don't understand. Instead, we had to go to the 2nd or 5th storey to share showers with the other people in the whole hostel. {We were on the fourth floor}Our dorm was a 6 bed dorm and we had 2 other girls join us later in the day. They were nice people so it made the stay much happier. The old auntie guarding the hostel interrogated poor Susan so thoroughly when we were leaving to go out and it was quite annoying to say the least. I certainly wouldn't advise anyone to stay here, much less stay here myself again.
Anyway, on to more pleasant experiences!
1st stop: Lian Chi Tan 莲池潭
- Alight at Zuoying station from Sanduo Shopping District Station. Take bus to lake.
So this is the place with the stunning pagodas and I think we got there at such an awesomely spot on timing that after we finished exploring, we were not only rewarded with a display of fireworks at the temple opposite the lake, but also a gleaming sunset that reflected golden sheens onto the buildings in the distance. What a sight it was...
Edit: I was the only one with energy to climb the pagoda so climb I did and what a worthy climb it was...
Sunset coating the buildings with a golden sheen.
A further walk down the lake.
I would certainly recommend coming here near evening time. Not only is it more bearable to the body in terms of the elements, but you get treated to a most splendid view of the pagodas basking in the glow of the end of another magical day.
2nd stop: Liouhe Tourist Night Market 六合夜市
- Alight at Formosa Boulevard Station from Sanduo Shopping District Station
I think only the MRT station is worthy of a picture because as Susan had warned us in advance, the night market itself would not be a very pleasant experience. Sure, the food was tasty, but the people were downright nasty! I mean, they have a grudge against China but it just boiled down to having a grudge against all tourists that were Chinese, regardless where in the world you came from. They automatically assumed you were from China and gave you the fiery eyeballs and looked so smelly to be getting business from you. Honestly folks, you just gotta treat people right you know? Anyway, we experienced getting our food thrown down onto the table because we did not order like 4 portions when there were 4 of us, because obviously you come to a night market to share and try various kinds of food right. We were denied full sitting because we did not order full portions {only 2 of us were allowed to sit}and their faces were blacker than batman's suit when the pair standing took munches from the pair sitting down.
Tasty food, but a pity, nasty shop owners.
Anyway, once is enough to get a taste of nasty night market to contrast what is a good night market. And we did visit a good night market the following night.
3rd Stop: Carrefour
Lol. Yes we made a deliberate stop at Carrefour that very night because we left the night market so early {I think within 15minutes we were on our way because it was so terrible.} and anyway it was about time that Marmee Noodles and I found our sharing luggage for checking in our stuff for the flight back. We managed to find a medium sized luggage for ~S$45 and Chair also bought mountains of instant noodles to bring home. We took a cab back and the driver was nice and patient with us although we didn't know the exact address of our hostel. Made it back safely with our truckloads of stuff and crashed for the night.
Day 5
1st stop - Guang Nan Stationery Shop
- Walk from hostel
This is where I spent so much I didn't even bother to take a photo! I spent like S$100 on stationery inclusive of notebooks, stickers, files, pens, goodness knows what else I bought but I realllyyy held back and still ended up with a huge hole in my pocket. Dam.
2nd stop - Dream Mall 夢時代
- Take KRT to Kaisyuan Station then shuttle bus to Dream Mall
Lucky, lucky us! We were able to see both types of buses while waiting for our turn to go up the shuttle bus. Open is the good character and Lock is the antagonist and they are the Taiwan 7-11 mascots! 7-11 is really big here in Taiwan and that's no surprise considering how much more considerate they are of people's need for cheap and instant food. It is certainly not to be compared with Singapore's 7-11 where everything is overpriced and you usually step in it as a last resort. In Taiwan, breakfast is just a 7-11 away and you never have to go on a hungry stomach because you can get a whole lot of wholesome stuff for just S$1 in the stores. We had plenty times of breakfast in 7-11 throughout our trip and it really served well on our stomachs and pockets.
We went to Daiso and Sophisca mainly, although this is the second biggest mall in Asia, because our pockets didn't allow us to explore any further. Sophisca is a sweets and gifts franchise that you can find scattered around Taiwan and the packaging of everything is really cute! They really make perfect gifts and I just wish I could have bought every single cutely packaged item...
Of course, the main goal of the trip was to eat at the Magical Open kitchen! Although the prices were pretty steep {came up to about S$20 a person} we just had to eat here. The whole shop is decorated in such lively colours and there are giant soft toys that you can play or take photos with randomly sitting in the shop. The main point of eating here was to take photos haha, because the food was only so-so.
After lunch, we visited the basement of the mall for the pet shop. CUDDLY CUTE BUNNIES FOR ONLY S$25, makes me wanna cry really. And a Peter Rabbit merchandise store!! Had to resist greatly!! Marmee Noodles got all excited about it and did most of the buying here! Who doesn't have a soft spot for Peter Rabbit, I arsk you la. It took great resistance to peel away from such classical cuteness okay.
When we were queueing for the shuttle bus to leave the mall, Susan got really excited about the Door Boy. I shall call him that because I have no idea what's the proper name for it. He simply stands at the door and bows as the bus leaves. It was really funny cuz she couldn't quite hold in her emotions and Chair and I were spamming pictures of the fellow for her XD.
3rd stop: Rui Feng Night Market
- Alight at Kaohsiung Arena Station
Piggies get the big picture because they were oh so tasty. Must try okay!!
So this night market was the HUGE contrast to the previous day's, where the store owners actually treated you like people and all's fair and square.
Did not quite like this as I'm not into gula melaka!
LOVED this chicken on a stick thing! Sooo crispy was the skin of the chicken I would fly back just to eat this.
Cute socks
Spot the living things.
It was crowded like flies on a banana so we had a really hard time getting through the whole thing, but I was just so hyped up about it that I pushed through from lane 1-5 until the others really wanted to get out of the heat. So we left and along the way....
MY DREAM FOR THE TRIP CAME TRUE!!
It was soooo crazy difficult to find a gong cha along the whole trip and we actually found one without even looking for it! Really a treat for the last night here in Taiwan!!! So I got a cup and it was only S$1.50. Tasted the same as Singapore's but the cup was like twice as large and price is like half. I was so happy at this point I was ready for anything Anything!!
So we pranced off to our last destination of the day...
Last stop: Shinkuchan!
Again, all I did here was shopping so no photos to show except maybe pictures of what I bought. Susan specially brought me to a shop where everything was dirt cheap and I got 10 pieces of decent clothing for just S$50. I literally spent all my last pennies here. Man, this is another place to fly back for!!! I will be bacckkk Shinkuchan!!!
Day 6 - Last Day
The last day was simple. We checked out, took a taxi to wherever it was that we went {I forgot ><} and made our way back to Taoyuan Airport... and home sweet home it was.
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