Taiwan

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Arrived in Taipei around 6:00 A.M. and it was raining.  We knew that there was a Typhoon warning in Taiwan and wondered how bad it would be.  It was raining but didn't seem unbearable.  We were able to find where we could buy a bus ticket to take us to the Taiwan High Speed Rail station.  The bus driver told us that yes it would drop us off at the station.  When the driver announced it was our stop there was no station in sight.  When asked where it was he pointed and said something to Travis.  It was about 3 blocks away and by that time it was pouring rain and the wind was blowing making our umbrellas rather useless.

Airport bus stop to take us to THSR

We arrived at the THSR and purchased our tickets to the township of Zuoying.  The high speed train's are very nice and fast.  They travel about 187 mph.  We were the only people in our train car.  We had added an international data plan to Travis phone so we would be able to use the GPS system to get around on our trip.  It was not working.  Of course.  So when we got to Zuoying we spent quite a while on the phone with Verizon trying to get it to work.  About five phone calls later it did start working.  What a relief knowing that we would be able to get around easier.  We took a Taxi to Kaohsiung and to our hotel, the Mirador.  We discovered later that the metro station was a few blocks away from our hotel and we could have taken that instead of a taxi, oh well.  It would not be the last time we opted for a taxi instead of the bus. 

 We arrived at our hotel around 10:00 a.m. knowing that we would probably not be able to check in until 3:00 p.m.  Unfortunately that was the case so we stored our luggage and started on our adventure.  Our first meal in Taiwan was an outdoor corner food stand.  They are all over.  It reminded us of a Panda Express but with very different food.  Our first experience with the food was a good one.  It was tasty but different.  Chopsticks or soup spoon were our only utensil options and tea to drink.  Travis ran to the corner 7-Eleven to get bottled water and a coconut drink that was much to sweet for my taste.  7-Eleven's are everywhere along with the Corner Mart stores.  We all opted for chopsticks except for Wade.  He never did use chopsticks the entire trip.

After lunch we headed to the MRT and then a bus to the outskirts of Kaohsiung to Lotus Lake and the Dragon, Tiger Pagodas.  You must enter through the Dragon's mouth and exit through the Tiger's or you will have bad luck.  We entered and exited the correct way.

You can walk to the top of the two pagodas that make up the entrance and the exit.  From the top you can see the detail on each of the pagodas.

Travis invited this lady to stand in the picture

 

Temple across from the Lake

A million turtles in this little lake that were crawling all over each other

At the entrance of this last statue there were some people doing Karaoke.  They invited Travis to come up on stage and join them.  He declined which surprised me.  Travis said they were singing in Taiwanese and didn't know all the words.  There were about three people in the audience and they were all asleep. 

After walking around the lake, we were pretty exhausted, not to mention wet, trying not to let the jet lag win.  We opted to take a taxi back to the MRT and back to the hotel.  Paul, Wade and I opted for a nap while Travis met up with a friend to go play.  After a couple of hours we met up for dinner at an American Style restaurant.  Paul and I just had a salad which hit the spot and then we headed to Baskin Robbins for ice cream.

Most of the day there was a light to moderate drizzle but the wind had mostly died down.  After ice cream we headed to bed.  Exhaustion had set in and the bed was calling.  During the night we could hear the wind and rain hitting our hotel window and wondered if we were in for another very wet day. 

In case you had not heard, there is a giant duck that is traveling around the world.  It happened to be in Taiwan while we were there.  No, this is not the duck.  We did not go see it but everywhere in Kaohsiung there were ducks.  This small one was at the entrance to the MRT.  Our hotel even left 2 little ducks on our bed one night.  This giant rubber duck is on a mission to sail around the world spreading peace and goodwill. The hotel employee told us that in one day 200,000 people had gone to see the giant duck.  Google it and you can see the size of the duck.