We had a day to explore Kaohsiung today. So we started off with the tallest building in sight, the Kaohsiung 85 Building. There was only one main attraction here which was the viewing deck on the 75th floor. The lift raced up the building in no time, so we had ample time to admire the 360 degree view of the city and port from the vantage point. This building has been surpassed by the Taipei 101 Building since, but the clear skies in Kaohsiung helped put one over the cloudy Taipei skyline.
Panaromic views of the city
Next up was the Dream Mall, located just a few blocks away. This was supposed to be the biggest shopping complex in Taiwan with a Hello Kitty Ferris Wheel on the roof. Yes, we did rode on it. It was purely for the view, I swear, and not for the cute Hello Kitty inspired cabins or the Cinnamon Roll pilow in ours. The rest of the mall was not much different from the ones in Singapore except for a few interesting shops. There was a particular one which combined fashion, collectibles and dining, and had moving display shelves.
After our shopping stint, we headed to the countryside for a visit to the Fo Guang Shan Monastery. This is just a monastery with big grounds, lots of buddha statues and one really gigantic one. The walk under the hot sun made us sweat out and we were glad to be back in the air-conditioned bus again. Our next destination was to be some distance away, so we had time to take a nap while the scenery slowly changed to one with a rugged coastline.
We were heading to 'Cape No.7 ' country, the Kenting National Park. This place is down at the southern tip of Taiwan and boasts many sunny beaches. But now it is even more famous as the filming site of the Taiwan's hit movie of 2008. We made a pit stop on the way to savour some local fruits, namely the 'Jambu Air' and local Mangoes. It has been a long time since I tasted Jambu Air and these Taiwanese grown ones were as big as Fuji Apples and really sweet.
After dropping our bags at the hotel, we headed to the town for yet another night market. For a small town, there were quite a number of people walking around the stalls. There was a difference between this night market and the previous ones in the major towns. People were less hurried and walking at a leisurely pace as you would have expected of a 'Beach' town. Our only buy at this market was a foldable bag which could fit the rest of our buys and potential ones. Yes, our luggage space was bursting at the seams and reinforcements had to be bought in.
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