Day 5 (Kaohsiung) - part 2 of 2

While at the Confucius Temple in Kaohsiung a Taiwanese man standing next to us asked where we were from.  We've been telling people Indiana... near Chicago because most Taiwanese we talk to have no idea where the state of Indiana is but they've heard of Chicago.  Anyway, the man was noticing that Kevin was wearing a Butler University t-shirt.  He said that he went to the University of Indianapolis.  Haha!  I pointed to the shirt and told him that I was the Butler Alum (Butler is located in Indianapolis a few miles north of the University of Indianapolis), and that we actually lived near Fort Wayne.  Is this a small world, or what?

After visiting the Confucius Temple in Kaohsiung we walked along Lotus Lake.  I loved traveling with our iPhones so that I always knew where we were and occasionally took screen shots.






Lotus lake is a man made lake in Kaohsiung that opened in 1951.  It is a popular tourist destination and is famous for the Spring and Autumn pavilions and Dragon and Tiger Pagodas.




The Emperor of the Dark Heaven, a Taoist God, is getting a paint job.  He is extremely large and impressive.  In Taoist mythology, he defeated the demon king and is now a reminder that good always defeats evil.  My iPhone photos of this place do not do it justice.  Please visit this site to view beautiful photos of Lotus Lake.  Would love to make another trip here at night.  The night time photos of Lotus Lake are just lovely.  For photographer friends, this was my favorite place that we visited on our trip.  One could spend all day here exploring the intricate works of art here.



Kevin is getting is fortune from one of the fortune telling machines.  I've seen things like this in movies and on tv, but never in person before.



Hannah always enjoys feeding koi.  I really liked feeding the turtles and watching there little heads snap up the food. The first second photo below was borrowed from Amanda. (Thanks, Amanda!)  Aren't the two baby turtles on top of a big turtle cute?



Kevin went for a little scooter ride while the ladies walked along the lake.





Amanda is going to be such a good mommy!  She had lots of stroller practice today.



Of course, we have photos of what we ate while we walked around the lake!  I had never heard of these before.  These are wheel cakes, and are a one of the most common desserts in Taiwan.  They were piping hot and so so so good.  I've read that they are a popular treat a night markets.  The flavors that we had are pictured below.  First is custard, taro, and traditional red bean.  Liked them all!  Then there's a photo of the shop that sold them.  Yum yum yum.




It started raining pretty hard, so we sought shelter at an elementary school and hung out in the courtyard. It was Saturday, so school was not in session. Amanda took this photo of all of us on our smart phones at the same time. Hannah's frustrated because she wants to be playing with one as well.  (Photo credit to Amanda!)

Below are photos of the elementary school, their track, and playground. Notice the really big kid on the playground equipment.

 

Our favorite stop were the Dragon and Tiger pagodas.  It was raining quite a bit, but I'm so glad that we pressed on and got a little wet.  Dragons and tigers are favorable auspicious symbols.  The dragon’s throat is the entrance and the tiger’s mouth is the exit. Entering a dragon’s throat and coming out tiger‘s mouth symbolizes turning bad luck to good fortune. Inside the bellies there are paintings that depict China’s 24 most obedient sons and scenes of heaven and hell to inspire people to do good deeds during their lifetime, and to provide threatening examples of retribution for wrongdoing.  No kidding!  Some of those paintings were pretty scary!



Kevin and Hannah enjoyed climbing the steps up the pagoda. It started raining pretty hard again at this point. Can you find Kevin and Hannah?



There they are!  Hey, guys!  Climb down and let's get a taxi and call it a day.  We're getting soaked.  We went back to our friends' home, ordered a pizza, ate some lychee fruit, and spent the rest of the day indoors while it rained... and rained... and rained....

Other thank meeting Hudson, this day was my favorite day of our trip. Thankful to be blessed with such fabulous friends!

Day 5 (Kaohsiung) - part 1 of 2

Day four was so bad, so a wonderful but very rainy day five made up for it. Started the day with a great breakfast. Our gracious hosts help select some yummy items off the menu. The Taiwanese call this toast, and that it isn't a sandwich. A sandwich should have three pieces of bread and is cut in sections. I don't get it either. We went to a morning market to see how the traditional Taiwanese buy their fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs, and seafood. The items below are prepared and ready to be put Ina hot pot at home. Below: blood cake. We bought some Taiwanese pineapple all cut up in a little bag with two kabob like sticks to eat it with. Taiwanese pineapple is less tart and sweeter. Way way way better than Hawaiian pineapple. A taxi driver told us that 20-30 years ago Taiwanese pineapple tasted like that too, but they cross pollinated and worked very hard to create a less tart pineapple. Wish we could buy this at home!

Day 4 (Pingtung and Kaohsiung)

Friday morning we woke up before dawn, backed out things, cheched out do the apartment, and dragged our belongings to the high speed rail station. Kevin bought our tickets online with an HSR iPhone app and we picked them up at the ticket booth. Easy! We had 7-eleven steamed buns for breakfast again. Yum! We chose business class because they have outlets at the seats so we could keep our iPhones and Hannah's iPad charged up. Battery life is important when it is your vacation camera! Amazing how quickly these trains are! I would much rather take HSR than fly medium distances. Our friend Amanda met us in Kaohsiung and took our luggage to her home so we could adventure without them for the day. I wanted to go to the Taiwan Indigenous Peoples Cultural Park near Sandimen in Pingtung County to learn about these groups, especially the Paiwan, as Hudson is Paiwan. I researched how to get there. We can do this without a hired tour guide, right? Just follow the directions and the map. We got to Pingtung via rail. Then we needed to find the bus station to Sandimen that is supposed to be near the train station. It was starting to rain. We didn't see anything that looked like a bus station. There's not a lot of English help in Pingtung. People were looking at us. A very nice old man with no English approached us as we looked WAY LOST and WAY out of place. Kevin showed him the address of the cultural park indicating that we needed a bus. The old man walked us to the bus station in moderate rain, told the bus station attendant where we wanted to go, amd waited with us until the bus came because he wanted to make sure we got on the right bus. Now that's southern Taiwanese hospitality! Our first blessing of the day. I looked at the menu while waiting for the bus... but had no idea what to order. Haha! The bus ride might have been an hour or and hour and a half. We enjoyed looking at everyday life that we passed by. When we got off the bus, we didn't see any signs pointing us to the culture park. We used mapping on our phones to point us in the right direction. Then we saw a little brown sign in English and knew we were on the right track. The road out od town red us to this thing over the road that appeared like it was the way into the indigenous culture park, but a sign led to go up the mountain, and it was starting to rain. This was a very small town so there would be no taxis, and it was starting to rain. AND, Kevin had a 40-50 pound backpack on. He looked at me like he was ready to walk back to the bus stop and just wait for the next bus, whenever that would come along. I pressed us on, up the mountain. How far could it be, really? This is important, and we came so dar to learn about the Paiwan people. I pushed Hannah's stroller and urged Kevin to allow us to continue up the mountain. Cars were zooming by us every few minutes. The sprinkles of rain turned into big rain drops, and then it poured. I did not have a happy husband. This adventure was turning into a "marriage tester" kind of experience. We had safety issues with traffic, pouring down rain, Kevin's heavy backpack, and no really goof options for help, especially English speaking help. What to do? Oh, wait! There's a little village ahead. As we walked into the little village the first thing we saw was a itty bitty police station. The people inside we're looking at us and laughing. Not sure if it was with us or at us. Kevin went inside to see if someone could tell us how to get a ride. People us inside pointed across the street and I thought I heard them use the word "yellow" in Mandarin. The building across the street had a yellow metal roof. We went across the street to talk and the people just pointed us up the street, and up the mountain. This was not a good thing. Kevin was getting really ticked about whoever wrote this web site didn't provide a walking warning. This was quite a trek! After lots of marital strife, rain, and physical toils, we made it!!! Don't let that smile fool you. He was ticked! What ya gonna do? I'm going to skip the parts about the ticket booth appearing closed, yelling into the window looking for someone, Hannah getting biting ants on her feet, continued heavy rain, mosquitoes, that all of the indigenous exhibits were up and down little stairs (not stroller compatible), and that Hannah began to sob, "I wanna go home! I wanna go home!" over and over. An Enflish speaking man on our train helped translate for us to the tram driver. I wanted him to drive us to the front gate and ask an employee to call for a taxi or private driver to take us to the bus stop or all the way to Kaohsiung train station. We were leaving, and leaving now! This day quilified as the worst vacation day ever. Oh, forgot to add it was nearing 2pm and we had not had lunch yet. Hiring someone to drive us all the way was the best thing that happened all day. We rode the train back to Kaohsiung, Amanda met us at the station, and we went to the food court for a very, very, late lunch. Hannah had been up since 3am due to jet lag and was out asleep after dinner.we took the subway out for shaved ice with fruits. In my opinion, theirs shaved ice with all of the fruits was worth climbing a mountain with a weighted backpack in a monsoon. Kevin's not answering that question quite yet. I continue to marvel at the kindness of not one but three Taiwanese strangers. Exceedingly blessed. Very cool library vending machine, indeed.