Day 40 - Lotus Lake and Cijin Island

Woke up in the morning to head to Zuoying and walk around the Lotus Lake, this got recommended and the temples and pagodas looked very nice in photos.

The temples built on to the lake looked great, especially from a distance but from close up  found them a bit kitschy in a way and they reminded me of fun fair attractions where you walk through the mouth of a tiger or dragon to get to your ride.

It was very interesting to see and quite a departure from other temples I have seen in China or Japan but I was not quite sure what to make of it. I could not shake the feeling that they looked fake and a bit commercial rather than being proper temples.

There is also nothing much to see around the lake otherwise and there are not even a lot of shops or cafes nearby, especially at the north end of the lake.
So after walking all around the lake and seeing all temples, I figured I had seen enough and headed back to Kaoshiung to take the ferry to Cijin Island before it got too late.

Cijin Island was very nice with the market, lots of nice seafood restaurants, the sea and people out and about. It is certainly worth seeing and I should have gotten there earlier as the lighthouse was already closed by the time I got up there. I still managed to find my way in the darkness from the lighthouse to the fort, which provided a great view over the island and Kaoshiung. So despite t being late, I would say the view from there is worth going up even after dark.

Once I took in the view and some long exposure photos, I headed back to Kaoshiung and had a nice ice dessert before taking some more pictures at the Dome of Light (I really like the colours there).

Tomorrow morning, I will be heading back to Taipei for a few days before taking the ferry back to Xiamen.

As you would have noticed, keeping my blog up to date (or even close to that) proves quite a challenge and with me being around so much, I hardly have time to sort through pictures and internet access is also patchy when I do have time to post.

Day 39 - Jade, Flowers and Kaoshiung Art

I thought I got out of my hotel way too late to see the best of the flower and jade markets, turns out that Taiwanese are not morning people so they were still setting up their stands when I got there mid morning.

Both markets are well worth a look and seem great for buying souvenirs, the jade market probably more as I don't think flowers will survive a flight back or my round the world trip intact. The markets are fairly big and are right under a elevated highway, the flower market even has a cool air humidifier system. As mentioned before, you don't need to get up early for either as most sellers seem to arrive at around 10 am to set things up in the jade market.

After exploring the markets and the nearby park, I got to the train station and bought a ticket for Kaoshiung in the fast train, this only takes 90 minutes to go from north Taiwan to the south of the island. During the train ride it occurred to me that the island is not very big given that even the slow train gets from north to south in 5-6 hours.

In Kaoshiung my first stop after checking in to the hotel was the Formosa Boulevard station to see the Dome of Light. I have to say it's pretty cool with some nice motives and colours. It's definitely worth a look and it's central enough so you will be going past when in Kaoshiung.
Everything was set up for a wedding of sorts so there were banners and a piano in the way but I tried to include some of the decorations and piano in my pictures. If you can't get rid of it, might as well make use of it.

The next stop was meant to be Cijin island but I got sidetracked by the Pier 2 Art District, the Lovers Pier and Banana Wharf. After spending quite a bit of time walking around there and taking pictures, I decided Cijin Island would have to wait for tomorrow.