We woke up late and before we left for our city tour, I took some pictures again of the love river from our balcony. It seems there was a bike race going on that morning.
We first ate our lunch at a Mcdonald's located at the intersection of WuFu 3rd Rd and Jhonghua 3rd Rd. I liked their grilled chicken sandwich that is not available in the Philippine outlets. Their fries and drink servings are also huge, quite comparable to that in the US.
While walking towards the Central Park MRT station, we chanced by this restaurant named Pupu (which means something else in the Philippines). We can't resist taking a souvenir pic of it.
Our itinerary for today was to go to the following places:
1. National Sun Yat Sen University
2. Sizihwan Bay
3. Former British Consulate
4. Syongjhen North Gate
5. Sijin Island
These are all situated in the same area based on the city map. To get there we had to take the MRT from R9 (Central Park) to O1 (Sizihwan) station. To transfer from the Red line to the Orange line trains, we got off at O5/R10 Interchange (Formosa Blvd). Interestingly, at the top floor of the Formosa Blvd station (actually called the ground floor with 2 basement floors below it), there is a beautiful ceiling called the Dome of Light.
Our colors actually match!
The MRT stations in Kaohsiung are very spacious and interesting due to their unusual structures or artworks such as what we have seen in Central Park and Formosa Blvd stations. Arriving at the Sizihwan station, they also have this long wall painting.
We walked from the station to the National Sun Yat Sen University through a tunnel. It's quite a long walk I might say. And this is only part of the many more walks we were about to do that day.
From the University, we walked a long way looking for the Syongjhen North Gate. At some point, we felt we might have already been lost and asked a few people along the way if we were on the right track.
The pic actually matches the mosaic we saw at the University awhile ago!
Great views of the Sizihwan Bay Beach and the Sijin Lighthouse
Our next walking tour is towards the Former British Consulate which should not be too far from here. There were very few signs along the way so when we saw these stairs going up, we were not sure if this was it but decided to check it out as well. It was cold and windy at the top.
We were met by a temple upon reaching the top. And we finally saw a sign that says this is the location of the former British Consulate! We rested for awhile in one of the benches and tried some of the hotdogs (black and orange) being sold there (NT40 each). Their texture is somewhat hard like our local longganisa. The black one looked weird but tasted better.
The building proper of the old consulate is a small, well-preserved red-brick building. It is now used as a mini-museum showcasing some small-scale model of the building itself and the old ship used during the olden times. They also have this re-enactment scene of sort where Rene pretended to whisper something to the guy on the right.
Our next stop is Sijin Island. From the British Consulate, we walked back towards the pier harbor where we passed by awhile ago. This is the Kushan Ferry station. The fare to get to Sijin Island is only NT15 per person (Exact coins required). The ferry trip only takes a few minutes.
Upon docking to Sijin island, you will immediately feel the festive atmosphere. A lot of vendors line up the streets and different food snacks are being sold everywhere. We're planning to spend the rest of the day eating.
For the first snack, we saw a lot of people eating these huge tomatoes dipped in a sauce with some sort of powder. I am not a cook so I cannot determine what the ingredients are. Overall, it was sweet and the tomatoes are mildly sour. We shared this 1 order which cost us NT25.
The next food we tried was the 2 for NT50 squid. It was a bit spicy with sesame seeds. After awhile it started to taste salty but overall it was good.
We walked for awhile to check out some of the sights and took some pics of the Tienhou Temple. The red lanterns looked really nice (my favorite color is red) and cannot resist taking a pic of me with it.
We walked towards the Seaside park and walked a bit on the gray sand beach. Further along the way, we saw another magnificent looking temple. There were vendors in front of this temple and tried again a tikoy tasting snack worth 3 for NT20. Also bought a pure sugarcane juice which was too sweet. Planned to freeze this and add more water back home. Unfortunately I forgot this at the ferry on the way back.
For dinner, we checked out the variety of seafood sold fresh on the street. Unfortunately, we were not sure what they are called and how they are cooked. The language was also a deterrent for us. We settled for the familiar and ordered shrimp, clams and a fish soup.
The food we ordered was a lot and it seemed good enough for 3-6 people. We were able to finish them all except for the fish soup though. We paid NT550 for all.
We were so full and tired and decided to call it a day. On the way back, we tried to take some pics of the Love River sign just below the Soaring Dragon Fish statue. Unfortunately, my camera's evening snapshots are not very clear and this is the best we can do.
Related posts:
A few days in Kaohsiung, Taiwan (Day 4 - March 10, 2009)
A few days in Kaohsiung, Taiwan (Day 3 - March 9, 2009)
A few days in Kaohsiung, Taiwan (Day 1 - March 7, 2009)
A few days in Kaohsiung, Taiwan (Preparation)
1 comment:
Turns out the bike race that day was the 2009 International Tour de Taiwan race.
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