Never Bored in Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung (pronounced gow-shung) is the second largest city in Taiwan, after Taipei, and is known for its many Universities. A college town, fun! The standard, quick internet search for accommodation before I left Kenting led me to a rooftop in the city center. I found a great deal on AirBnB for a “tent on a rooftop” which, to me, sounded like a dream come true. I sent a hopeful, last minute request and the host responded almost immediately, explaining that he was currently tending to one of his orphanages in Vietnam, but to call one of his roommates who would sort me out. The next morning, I was on my way, thrilled to know that I’d be in a place with roommates! Taiwan isnt' a typical "backpacker" destination. That, combined with it being low season, made it difficult to meet people in hostels. The simple joys in life. :)
On the bus ride to Kaohsiung, I made friends with a mother-daughter travel combo that, when I got off at my stop, left me feeling a little bit homesick, lonely, and missing my favorite travel buddy. But alas, I pressed on. I walked the couple miles to my temporary home, stopping for a chocolate bubble tea on the way, and got ahold of Alex, who showed me to my rooftop.
Instant happiness! The mattress and pillow were memory foam. I was in heaven.
Kaohsiung proved to be a city full of life and surrounded by beauty. I ended up spending six days there instead of the three which I had initially booked.
Here's a quick photo roundup from my first couple days.
There's a reason it's called "Monkey Mountain"
Lotus Lake
I went out with a few of my new roommates one night, an Israeli guy working for a skin care company who had plenty of funny stories to tell about how he convinced certain people to buy his products, an Alaskan girl whose mission was to party as hard as possible every night, and a fellow midwesterner who had recently moved to Taiwan looking to get into the import/export business. Diversity didn't stop any of us from wandering through the night market, stuffing ourselves with seafood and mystery sticks, then finding a random rooftop to cheers to a beautiful city view.
Over the weekend I met up with ZEE GERMANS again, sang Karaoke, drank, laughed, danced, played foosball, snuck cheap 7-Eleven beer into the expensive bars, and partied 'til the lights came on. It was "student night" at the Brickyard, so I showed the doorman my Wisconsin driver's license which must have seemed legit (or he didn't read English) because he stamped my hand and let me in. Win.
Over the weekend, Melanie came to visit. We met up on Saturday for a stroll through the city and a visit to Cijin island, just a five minute ferry ride away, and chilled on the beach.
We also ate this:
This is a deliciously deadly combination of peanut butter shaved ice (I can only describe it as fluffy ice cream) topped with chocolate sauce. Put it in front of me and I lose all control. NOM NOM NOM
We hit the sack early to be fresh for Sunday. We took an hour long bus trip outside the city to visit Fo Guang Shan, the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan.
The monastery was opened in 1967 and remained so for 30 years, until Hsing Yun, the original founder, decided to close it to the general public in order for the monastics to have the secluded atmosphere they needed for their Buddhist practice. Three years later, in 2000, Hsing Yun, at the peaceful request of Kaohsiung officials and the President of Taiwan, decided to reopen a portion of the monastery, granting the public access to practice Buddhism.
Melanie and I estimated (there was a lot of counting and math involved) that we saw something like 13,000 Buddha statues of various sizes that day.
The largest was 36 meters tall!
Amazingly, we had the place to ourselves for the fist part of the day.
Walking by this area, I thought "a garden of Buddha emoticons!"
33 stairs lead up to the main temple. I had previously heard 33 is a significant number in Buddhism and after a moderately extensive internet search, I'm still not totally clear on the reason. I have read that 33 represents the number of heavens, the levels of heaven, the number of years that the "dark time" for the Buddhist Dharma spanned, that it takes 3 years, 3 months, and 3 days of solitude in order to become a Tibetan lama, and various other ideas and legends. Insight on this, anyone?
This is the largest Buddhist temple I have encountered yet (and I've been to numerous). Unfortunately photography was prohibited inside, but fortunately it gave me a chance to put the camera down and soak up the moment of this magical, peaceful place.
A view of Big Buddha from afar.
We walked slowly through the grounds, admiring the beauty and colors until we were satisfied. Upon returning to Kaohsiung, I was feeling some extra zen, so after I gave Melanie one last hug goodbye I did some yoga in my own cramped little space.
Alex had Monday off, so he and I hopped on his scooter and headed out of town in search of waterfalls and nature. Alex is Portuguese, very well traveled, and has been living in Taiwan for a few years now. He has one of those brilliant minds that are always cranked to maximum output and I never got bored listening to his stories and ideas.
So we hiked and swam and got lost.
Not much of a waterfall due to the drought, but we went swimming anyway and even saw a snake!
After taking the 'ped down an empty road, through a deserted village, and hiking down to another stream hoping for waterfall (and not finding one), we raced the sun back to the city, making a couple temple stops on the way.
Lastly, we grabbed a snack and enjoyed one last look at the city by night from Alex's favorite viewpoint up on monkey mountain before I snuggled up in my tent with plans to catch a train north the next morning.
Namaste, Kaohsiung
