Angel's Story

Tuesday, 13 October 2015

4D3N Kaoshiung Itinerary - Day 2

On our second day after a good night rest, our first stop was to Chengqing Lake. Entrance ticket to this park is 100NTD each.

Chengqing Lake is located in Kaohsiung City's Niaosong District. It is the largest lake in the Kaohsiung area, developed originally as a reservoir to meet the need for water for industrial use. Later on the lake was improved through environmental landscaping, until today it offers the beauty of a forested park. It was opened to the public as a tourist destination in 1960.

The gate to enter Chengqing Lake

To our surprise, this place is huge!! It would take us about 4 hours if we wanted to walk the whole course but of course we didn't have the time so we hired a taxi driver cum tour guide who was at the gate to bring us around. The tour was 500 NTD for 2 hours. We went to a couple of the highlights in Chengqing Lake - the deep sea creatures aquarium (entrance ticket 200NTD), the tower, the bridge...

The aquarium with deep sea creatures... cost us 200NTD each. Quite expensive and not worth it.

A mini tower before we walk to the bridge that connects to a tiny island in the middle of the reservoir.

The short bridge to a tiny island in the middle of the Lake

The Tower

It was getting pretty sunny so sunglasses is a must!

I personally think Chengqing Lake is quite worth while going but it was a bit troublesome getting there coz we followed the directions from a website and got to the wrong station. The station staff directed us to Houyi Station and we were to take the Bus 30/33 to Chengqing Lake. Basically it would be in English but if you just tell the bus driver to tell you when u reach Chengqing Lake, he'll let you know so no worries, Taiwanese are awesome!!

After spending the whole morning here, we took the same cab cum tour guide to Cijin Island from Chengqing Lake for 500NTD. Of course taking the bus-metro-ferry route would be cheaper but we couldn't bother since it was freaking hot and we didn't want to waste much time. The ride from Chengqing Lake to Cijin Island was about 45 minutes.

Cijin Island Kaohsiung is a small island just a 5 minute ferry (Cijin Ferry) journey from Kaohsiung Harbour (it is also reachable by car from a bridge further down). It’s a very exciting place to visit with lots to do and see. Cijin Island is reputed to be the best place to eat fresh seafood in Kaohsiung. As well as the attractions and food, the island offers a nice clean beach where the sea is lovely and warm for swimming. There is an excitement about Cijin Kaohsiung that makes it a tourist attraction worth repeating.

Some of the attractions within the island are: Tianhou Temple & Cihou, Cihou Lighthouse, Cihou Fort, Cijin Seashore Park, Windpower Park, and the YM Museum of Maritime Exploration.

Welcome to Cijin Island! Look at the SEA <3

Me trying to be photogenic LOL!

Cijin Seafood (100NTD per dish)

Cijin Beach (is it me or is the sand of this beach naturally darker in colour..)

Tunnel across the hill

Can you spot the guy cliff climbing behind me??

Love the view of the city from Cijin Island

Cijin Light House, Cihou Fort and Seaside View

About 5pm ish, we took the ferry back to the mainland (25NTD). The ride was really quick, just 5 minutes. After you disembark from the ferry, just cross the overhead bridge and make your way to the Former British Consulate at Takao.

The consulate was built in 1865 with more than a hundred years of history. It is now the most antique western building preserved in Taiwan. It was the western building designed by a British engineer and built by Chinese craftsmen, and it is the most meaningful ancient building of Chinese modern history with graceful and elegant proportion. Semicircle arches are rhythmically arranged in order with considerably rhyming. At the corner, the circle arch is smaller and the wall pillar is bigger, which has reinforced function in dynamics. It is the Baroque typed building of the Renaissance era. It emphasizes on the stylish regular pattern and its hollow pattern railings were built with excellent bricks.

For some reason, the road signs were pointing us to a super dodgy route to the Former British Consulate, but than again, what better way for adventure than going through shady looking paths surrounded by trees and temples...

Fortunately for us, it wasn't a the wrong route, but the BACK route to the British Consulate (we later found out there was a main entrance facing the main road)

The sun was beginning to set when we arrived so we had to quickly take some pictures before all daylight is gone...

Sunset seen from the Former British Consulate

The architecture is really pretty, love the colour of the bricks...

We can see Kaohiung City from the top of the hill...

Entrance ticket price: 66NTD
How to get here:
Take the MRT to Sizihwan Station, continue by Kaohsiung Bus (No.99 or Orange 1A) to Syongjhen north gate Station.

(Correction from my previous post, we actually went to Rueifong Night Market on Day 2, thanks to sis for the correction haha)

Located on Nanping Road in Zuoying District of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, Rueifong Night Market has a large scale making it the largest night market in Kaohsiung & Pingtung. Rueifong Night Market, even though it isn’t quite as famous as the Liouhe Night Market, but it is certainly a popular night market that has been favored by the locals for over 20 years.

Mind you, it is super super pack like sardin... I could hardly walk. For din din we got some sort of dumpling that looks like "xiao long bao" for 70NTD, pork meat mantou (45NTD), sweet potato balls (30 NTD).

Super super crowded, human traffic worst than LiuHe Night Market

How to get here:
Take Kaohsiung KRT to KRT Kaoshiung-Arena Station.

Saturday, 10 October 2015

4D3N Kao Shiung Itinerary - Day 1

Ohayo minna san,

Okay, seriously it has been forever since I am blogging about anything. Not that I am particularly busy with work... just that you know that lazy feeling that kicks in once you are on your bed? That's what happens to me ALL THE TIME!

So last September, second sis and I decided to have a break and fly to Kaoshiung for 4D3N. We bought the AirAsia flight like 2 months ago for RM550 return each when it was on sale. As for our hotel stay, we opted to stay at Centre Hotel, Sinsing District which is right next to Formosa Boulevard Station, the interchange station for the 2 main lines connecting Kaoshiung City.

Our total expenses for 2 are roughly as below:
Flight: RM550 x 2 = RM1100
Accomodation: RM107 x 3nights = RM321
All other expenses including food, entrance ticket & transport = RM1250
Grand Total for 2 pax = RM2670 (RM1335/pax)

It's like cheap right?

Okay, so now to the activities we did in Kaoshiung. Just so you guys know, Kaoshiung City is like a port city (near the sea) so they are particularly famous for SEAFOOD. And their agriculture is also their main economy so you'll see lots and lots farming land. It's very different from Taipei which is kinda more bricks and mortar - expect less crowd, less hype in this city.

We actually had like a whole list of things planned out but eventually we had to pick and choose since we didn't have much time and we booked a impromptu trip to Kenting on our second day - which ate into our schedule.

Day 1
Flight to Kaoshiung took us about 4 hours 30 minutes. Flight was 8.30am, arrived 1pm local time.

Yay we landed safely in Kaoshiung Airport!

Then we headed to the hotel using the train, one way from Kaoshiung Airport to Formosa Boulevard Station was 30NTD per person. Hotel was was fairly easy to find after we exit the station from Exit 2. Then we cari makan!!

Centre Hotel @ Formosa Station

We came out of the hotel and turned left and there is a little like kopitiam/stall selling kick ass rice and soup. Damn good and cheap!!

Me with my braised pork rice 30NTD

Sis with her shredded chicken rice bowl 30NTD

Everything we ordered here - braised pork rice (30NTD), shredded chicken rice (30NTD), 2 eggs (30NTD), pork bone soup (45NTD) = NTD135 (about RM17)

After mum mum we went to take some pictures inside of Formosa Boulevard Station - there is like a really pretty stain glass ceiling called Dome of Light

Dome of Light which is in Formosa Station

By the time we finished eating, it was about 3pm, our first stop in Kaoshiung City was the Pier-2 Art Centre. It's a must visit I would say in Kaoshiung as you get to enjoy many work of art for FREE!

Fat fat iron man?

Warehouse all around this place

Browsing around their cute bookstore

This place is great for taking pictures...

How to get there:
By Kaohsiung KRT:
Take Kaohsiung KRT-Orange Line (捷運橘線) to KRT O2 Yanchengpu Station (鹽埕埔站). From exit no. 1, walk along Dayong Road (大勇路) towards south direction. Kaohsiung Pier 2 Art Center (高雄駁二藝術區) is reachable in a 5min walk.

After visiting the Pier-2 Art Centre, we wanted to head over to Love River for the boat cruise recommended by Tripadvisor... we keep walking towards the direction of the river thinking it was very near but unfortunately we kept getting lost.. wasted like 45 minutes walking aimlessly along the roads. Thank goodness for the Taiwanese people who are so friendly and we finally found our way there but it wasn't the terminal for the cruise. So at the end we could only enjoy the view.

On that day there was a movie screening happening near the Love River

Around 6.30pm, we left Love River and again it's time to "jalan-jalan cari makan"! Since we had a long flight from KL to Kaoshiung (woke up at 6am for the flight at 8.30am) so we decided to just visit LiuHe Night Market which is just nearby our hotel.