On more serious note, going to be heading for first ICT (in camp training) right after I get back from the trip. Guess my unit finally caught up with me! Will be back to familiar grounds in the West so just like good old/bad? times.

0900 Our first stop of the day whilst still in Kaoshiung was Spring and Autumn Pavilion (春秋阁). Here, there are three different pagodas that we visited (Long Hu, Guan Yin, Xiong Di Gong).

1000 Our next stop was to visit a fresh water cultivated pearl factory. Had to sit through a short video and explaination of how consuming pearl powder is beneficial to complexion. It was all rather interesting but again another expensive luxury item

1230 Fo Guang Shan (佛光山) was definitely a more interesting place to visit as we opted for a short climb up the slopes while some other members chose to take the golf buggy up. Definitely well worth the effort since the view of Buddha was breath taking. It was also Fo Guang Shan’s 40th anniversary, made me wonder how they constructed all this 40 years ago! We also visited another temple with 3 Buddha’s inside that was very grand and spacious.

1400 We hit the freeway as we left Fo Guang Shan for our next destination.

Taichung (台中)

1645 Chi Lin Fong Hot Spring (麒麟峰温泉) was our very first hot spring! There were a couple of mild 35°C baths but the one that really kept my attention was the 40°C bath… In the cool weather, it was a godsend to soak one’s tired body into it. In our excitement at the public bath, we forgot to take photos and in the end ended up with only photos of the exterior and 2 eggs cooked in the hot spring

1845 We had a chance to visit another night market called Fong Jia Night Market (逢甲夜市). As usual, things were beginning to look the same to us at the night markets so it was a quick walk around. There was a lot of activity and would be interesting to visit the smaller lanes if we had more time. Walking along one of the roads brought us to a snack I first had 3 years ago when I first visited Taipei.. Hot Potatoes mashed up and served in its skin with toppings of your choice. It was definitely great to try it again

2100 Our hotel was right next to a shopping centre and so being night birds that we were, we headed right over to have a look. Everything’s pretty much the same as Singapore except that it was much larger and definitely pretty empty, guess the week day night had a lot to do with it. Had a quick shop for supplies at Carrefour and it was time to get some snooze time.

0830 After breakfast and half hour bus journey, we arrived at a local doctor’s shop to view Wild Ling Zhi that’s picked from the nearby Qi Lai Moutain. Apparently, consuming Ling Zhi involves immersing slices of 天 (horizontal cut) and 地 (vertical cut) into hot water to make tea. Ling Zhi has the effect of detoxifying the body (takes 100 days to change the immune system and 300 days to raise the level of immunity). Its pretty expensive stuff since it takes a long time to grow in the wild.

1000 We headed towards Taroko Gorge and visited 长春桥 and 天祥庙. It was a pretty interesting short walk and took the opportunity to take some photos. 天祥庙 was built to commemorate the engineers who built the bridge at Taroko. Well worth a visit if you happen to be headed towards the area. 

1230 After a hearty lunch, we travelled doing Hua Dong Road towards Kaoshiung.

1600 Lots of country side farms and small towns later, we’re finally near Kaoshiung but there’s still more travelling to go! We even passed a place where there is white water rafting.

Kaoshiung (高雄)

2000 We’re finally in Kaoshiung.. After a brief rest stop, we finally got into the city area and headed for dinner at a restaurant. Food was so-so with a tiny morsel of lobster as the “highlight”.

2100 One of the tourist spots is Shinkuchan Shopping Centre (新掘江商场) on Wufu Road (五福路). Its pretty much like any other night market so can’t say we really enjoyed our hour there. We did however catch sight of a building that looked mysteriously like Vivocity!

2230 Since the previous night market didn’t quite satisfy our curiosity of the city, we headed out right after unloading our lugguage into the hotel room. This time, our destination was Liuho Night Market(六合夜市). It was brisk 15 minutes away although we did ask for directions once and realised it was just one street away Liuho is a long road of food stalls and definitely very lively at night. After a nice supper of 豆花, it was time to head back and get some rest.

Yet another toilet break! We stopped at a temple 4 hrs after lunch and 2 hrs from the last toilet break on the way to ?? after a brief stop at taroko gorge. Been travelling and drifting in and out of sleep whole day. It’s so tiring! More tired than travelling up the mountain yesterday. 3 hours to go! Looks like we’ve hit the coast.