~ 22nd March 2014~
I may not like Taipei and I may not fall in love with Alishan and definitely, I have no feelings for Sun Moon Lake, but the moment we arrived in Kaohsiung, I felt such joy at that place.
We took a taxi to our minsu. If the driver has no idea where our minsu was, we were equally as blank as the driver. With the help of GPS, he found his way to drop us safely. While driving, as usual, we always have small talk with the driver. That's one friendly driver towards tourists. *I like* Kaohsiung was the second busiest city after Taipei. From what I read, Kaohsiung became developed because of its industrial background.
While we were chatting with the driver, we asked the driver whether it was wise for us to take a stroll along Love River. The driver immediately strike that plan out of our mind and out of our sight. He drove along the Love River and asked us to wind down the window. We gagged at the smell of the river. It smelt like Sungai Pinang back at home here. The smell was so revolting I wonder whether aquatic organisms could survive in such condition. Fancy capturing the walkway which looked like the Helix Bridge in Singapore? It was really beautiful and we were thankful that the driver drove along that stretch so actually we did not miss anything at all. Instead of using our energy to walk along the smelly river, we were given the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the 'famous' river while being driven in a taxi.
Those two in front were so used to walking, mi mama and I were left far behind. I have to always remind my travel buddy that back at home, we don't walk along the streets or we would suffer from heat stroke. The travel buddy's on the left while our Kaohsiung private tour guide's on the right. We made her stay with us for the night instead of going home. We were actually walking in search of dinner. We told our private tour guide, actually my travel buddy's friend, that we have no intention to visit any night markets instead, we only want to dine in expensive restaurants because we have no cash.
It was quite a long walk as we were undecided where to go for dinner. It was getting close to 9p.m. and many places will stop taking orders at 9:30p.m. That's understandable. We were walking from one street to another but I felt so relaxed there, so unlike walking around in Taipei. I loathe every corner of Taipei especially the sight of the buildings. It's so much different in Kaohsiung. It's spiritually more relaxed in Kaohsiung, if you can understand what I mean.
So, we became those uncivilized tourists who snap photos by the roadside. One would be thinking what on earth there was to snap. When you're in a foreign land, even the rubbish truck looks adorable. The rubbish trucks in Taiwan has the 'Paddlepop' music playing all the way. When I first heard of it, I thought the ice-cream man on motorbike is the same as back home but in the end, the ice-cream man never came but the smelly rubbish truck came. Anything common to the locals become unusual and surprising to us. Okay, confirm we're from the jungle, just venturing out into a city.
You see, even the road is beautiful, according to me. There's a rectangular box for the motorists. Imagine we ask our motorbike handlers to squeeze into that one box, during peak hours, that box would be redundant. And zebra crossing was so broad and wide and the blue track's for cyclists. They're so prim and proper, makes our driver looks like hooligans~! But I still cannot understand their traffic lights rule where for turning left, it's the same as when people crossed the road. Whatever is it, I enjoy Kaohsiung the most. Wished we stayed a day or two longer.
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