09.04 - Day 12 - Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Thursday 9th April
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Temperature - Min 19, Max 29
20,404 steps
I pop out early walking down to Formosa station to admire the Dome of Light. The station opens at 6:00am and at 6:30 it is still only a security guard and me.
Walk back up to another Metro stop - Kaohsiung station - also seemingly overbuilt for its needs today, the roof spreads like an octopus up the four cross roads. I'm joined walking over the roof by various other people on their morning walk. Inside and down the spiral staircase into the main atrium, the ceiling is covered in large oval stones with occasional oval openings to the sky. More investment and regeneration in action.
Back at Joho Hotel, I have a quiet coffee on the roof before we all plunge into breakfast - xiao long baos and Chinese omelettes (closer to a pancake than an omelette) along with all the trimmings we're getting worryingly accustomed to.
Mema has a cold she doesn't want to antagonise so rests in the hotel whilst the five of us catch a local bus 30 minutes to get to Lotus Lake. Google Maps has us walking down a very narrow series of alleys to deliver us to the waterfront and our first temple which, over the water, has a 30 foot high statue of a garish and imposing character inside which we can amble. The inside is covered as small gold shields each individually lit with writing on that we assume is a blessing.
Picking up some fruit from a market stall we walk 5 minutes south to the Goddess of Mercy - standing on top of a large snake dragon through which we can walk onto a long pier to a small pagoda at the end.Here we perch in the shade overlooking this 1950s man made lake about a mile round. At the entry are dozens of small turtles either in the water or pushing each other away for a spot in the sun.
We've planned for the least amount of walking to see the three main temples and the last is also the most famous. It too has a main temple building on the mainland, but on the water after traversing a zig zag walkway, are a large tiger and dragon each guarding a seven storey pagoda. In through the dragon mouth and out of the tiger mouth for good luck.
No mention of luck for climbing the double helix stairs all the way to the top. The colourful artworks are on every surface, wall and ceiling and the tiger and dragon has certainly had more than one coat of paint since being built in the 1970s. It all makes for an arresting sight.
By now lunch is on the mind and so I have us walking to Daim Daim, a chicken burger outlet of a chain only currently in Southern Taiwan. There being no chips on the menu and the addition of noodle soup to go with my burger raises eyebrows but everyone left empty plates wrappers.
An Uber whisks us back to Joho for a brief rest - MKSS then catching the metro to the main library, whilst Pawpaw takes himself to the Museum of Fine Arts which I think was summarised as “some good some art, some questionable art, housed in a huge building with plenty of artistic gumph for the descriptions of it all.”
Meanwhile we find the library, all seven floors of it, its extended floor ledges abound with small trees. We start on the rooftop which is too hot to spend much time on, Kate and Sienna heading inside whilst Seb spots a small climbing wall in the next building which we can access on a walkway.
It seems to be part of a hotel but no one comes to admonish Seb as he runs and climbs all over it. The English books are down on level B1 in the library under a tree-filled central atrium and Sienna and Seb are content for an hour reading on the soft matted flooring.
Kate, Seb & Sienna head back to Joho for afternoon tea while I walk out and pass the library's neighbour the Kaohsiung 85 Tower.
Designed by the same gang as Taipei 101 (and similar naming convention) it also stands taller than all around it. Build it and they will come - they might, but they might also leave again as they've done here the front entry derelict. Not that that's seemingly stopping them from building another pair of tall towers next door.
Down to the waterfront I amble, past the Exhibition Center and into the Port Authority / Cruise terminal. There's a few people out exercising and a few trying to catch the sunset behind the lighthouse we visited yesterday. I catch a bus back to Joho Hotel and that wraps up the day.
