Day 10: Lealea Garden Hotel, Kending...

~ 23rd March 2014 ~

After being driven through quiet highways and lonely towns, we finally see some live on the road. Will show you the night market along the shoulders of the road soon. The van driver dropped us by the road side and our hotel was really by the road side. We wanted to pamper ourselves with better hotel stay so Pinky booked for us Lealea Garden Hotel in hope of a sea view and sea breeze. Such were our imaginations gone totally wild. We really pictured ourselves in a hotel room with such beautiful view that we were quite shocked to find our hotel by the roadside. When we were in Sun Moon Lake, we saw that Lealea Hotel and we told ourselves, we needed to be rich people to stay there as it has such expensive and classy-look. Our words came to pass so soon and before we knew it, we were standing in front of Lealea Garden Hotel. Such was the blur-ness of my travel buddy who didn't even realize what sort of hotel she booked and it's a four-star hotel with no garden view at all.

None-the-less, we were really excited and we were on top of the world. Forget about any garden or sea view. It's not like we would stay in the hotel room to enjoy any scenery outside. Do you know that we wouldn't even realize whether there's a window or not in our room? Even if there's a window, we would make sure that the shades are drawn and our room well-shaded from the sun or from the outside world. Hermit-living we enjoyed :D

We were greeted with this welcoming board, people penning down their wishes. We stood there for some time, reading and laughing at some funny phrases.

The lobby might not be top notch like some hotels but after staying in so many minsu without lobbies, we were quite happy to see one. We imagined ourselves sitting there, resting but that never come to pass. We never even rest our butts on the sofa set. We were too busy running around.

We wanted to tour Kending. Mind you, what's written in the tourism board was so unlike what we experienced. All those beautiful printed coloured photos with holidaymakers were not even real. As the Malay saying goes 'Indah khabar daripada rupa'. What you see is not what you get. Since we did not make any plans, smart me told mi madre and the travel buddy that since we were staying in a 4-star hotel, definitely they will be able to arrange something for us. Thanks to my Kuching experience where I got the hotel to arrange for me a driver to drive me around. So, in less than a minute we got ourselves a driver for the next day's tour. 

When we entered the room, our mouth were gaping open like a fish out of the aquarium. There were two queen size beds for the three of us. Usually we would only have one queen size and one single bed for the two of us. The bed looked so inviting but we were cautious not to jump straight onto the bed lest we break our bones if those mattresses were rock solid hard like those mattresses in Alishan Gou Hotel, made of solid rocks. 

We looked behind the door and there was another queen size bed. We were so excited to see three queen size beds. 4-star hotel it was! We looked a few times thinking it was the reflection of the bed through the mirror but it was really three beds in one room with ample of space for us to mess around.

We hardly stay in hotels because we have the same kind of thinking whereby we would only need a place to sleep in and the next day, we would be bouncing off already. So, why bother paying so much for just a few hours of rest? Well, now I truly understand. You pay for the comfort if not the service. That's all.... comfort. The travel buddy said that according to the Chinese mentality, everything must be taken home no matter what. Therefore, being Chinese, we helped her grabbed everything into the luggage. No wonder our luggage were exploding.

Then, the mini coffee area was fantastic as well. The whole room was painted in apple green. I could accept that colour but I like the red of the door most.

We had more than enough towels but in the end we rescued the room from being flooded as there was a big leakage from the bath tub and the water spilled out of the bathroom. We used the towels to soak the water. Instead of calling the hotel service department to make a complain, we changed up to go for dinner. We're not those fussy people who complain but when we do complain, it's not good news anymore.

We like the table lamp and that standing television remote control. Shouldn't we take those two home as well? Nah... there's not enough space in the luggage and it's equivalent to stealing. We've heard a lot of stories where the Chinese tourists would take everything home including the toilet rolls. They took so many rolls home that by the time they reached home, they could keep those toilet rolls in the storeroom to be used for another month.

The only view we had was facing the lobby area. The next morning, we didn't need an alarm clock to wake us up. There's one whole bunch of Chinese tourists who spoke so loudly like they were talking in the marketplace. That really messed up our mornings. We did not like our sleep to be disturbed before our alarm clocks rang. That was the only incident that spoiled our stay there. Such unaccounted for morning calls of loud, rambunctious talking. Overall, the location was perfect for those pining for food.

Day 10: Goodbye Kaohsiung, Hello Kending~!

~ 23rd March 2014 ~

By the time we crossed over back from Cijin Island, the sun has set. It was getting dark and we still couldn't think of how were we going to travel to Kending. We were not even worried about that. There were some stalls along the road and we stopped to get something to munch. There was a temple there, must be the famous temple where everybody visited. No photos, as not to defile the camera. We took our own sweet time to walk. There's no more element of rushing. It just disappeared.

I think I had the sausages while Pinky had that flattened fish cakes on skewers. I have no idea what we ate but I saw something that made me lose my appetite.

I wonder whether that big huge pot was the famous oyster rice vermicelli. Sometimes, my brain works overtime when it shouldn't be doing so. I looked at the brim of the huge pot and it was stained with gravy which has splashed out while stirring. The pot was so big, it was bigger than our nasi kandar's kawah. Then, I was thinking if they couldn't finish selling, what would they do with the unfinished food? Recycle or throw away? It was a really huge pot and really if you need to throw them away, it can feed a whole village. Thus, I didn't dare to even try a sip.

After getting our food, we had to take the train back to wherever we came from . Again, I have no idea where we came from. Don't even know where's the minsu. Don't even know the name of the minsu. Oh, well. I saw this advertisement in the train. I had a good laugh at the name Curry University. I was thinking to myself, why would anyone want to study in such a university? I can cook better curry, should I open one as well? Curries worldwide taste differently, and I have a book with 500 curry recipes. In the end, mi madre translated that it's a restaurant where you can get your food delivered with 5 or more orders. A moment ago I thought Taiwan has gone crazy with their food that they needed a university to experiment with food. As crazy as how Beijing has Fengshui University.

Then, I turned my head and had another good silent laugh. The guy was wearing a floral-printed shirt. I wouldn't even wear that. I know I'm mean. Okay, but I like his tiger backpack. I saw that in Danshui's night market but I had no idea how to carry that bag home. We were already overloaded with so much excess baggage and if I get this one, I think we'll all be thrown out of the plane home. I prefer the Siberian tiger's bag.

While we're approaching the minsu, actually still very far away, we saw a group of taxi drivers sitting around and talking. One old man approached me and asked whether we needed a taxi service. I told him yes and when he asked where to, I straight away told him - to Kending County. He asked us to wait while he asked around for us. While waiting, we 'robbed' Patty of whatever cash she has in exchange of Pinky's Renmimbi. Yeah, we're poor again. We needed cash to travel. After we got our cash, the taxi man came and said there's a van sending a few passengers to Kending and it's so perfect that the van has three more empty seats. You see why were we not worried at all? Keep calm, God is in control. The van driver even took us back to our minsu where we parked our luggage and Patty has to take back her scooter. The van driver was also very nice to wait for Patty and I to go to the nearest and largest electrical shop to get a few memory cards. Yeah, I blew my memory cards to the max after ten days.It was a hurried goodbye to Patty and I'll always remember her for her kindness and hospitality. Before we knew it, we had our luggage packed up in the van and off we went for a two hours drive down south.

Day 10: 2.5 Hours in Cijin Island...

~ 23rd March 2014 ~

The moment we stepped out of the ferry, we saw so many people walking around and also riding on bicycles~! We took a map and it was not that big an area. The way they drew the map like some kids' activity book, the whole place looked like you can finish it in 20 minutes by walking. Actually it was a big place and if you were to Google map the entire island, it was a very long island and you would end up going towards the airport, at the end of the city. We were thinking of renting bicycles but the travel buddy and mi madre both couldn't cycle. Funny how mi madre could ride a motorbike but couldn't ride a bicycle. The travel buddy *sigh* totally couldn't balance herself on anything with two wheels. 

We were given only 2 hours but I trusted my gut feeling that 2 hours wouldn't be enough so I asked for kindness from the person in charge and he extended another half an hour for us without extra charges. *Thank you Lord for such kind person* We were contemplating whether to take the quad-cycle where the four of us would work our legs but after a second of serious thinking, we decided to take the surrey bike. There were so many people that we had to leave the front of the shop at very low speed. Then, when the coast was clear, we fired up the engine and lo and behold, it would only go 5 km/h. Dang!~ It was so slow any long distance power walker could have overtaken us. It was so slow to an embarrassing level that I was very sure if it's in Penang, I wouldn't bother riding on it.

While the travel buddy had a good try on the surrey bike, the guide was reading the map. We couldn't decide where to go because at first we thought that with this motor-powered bike we could go anywhere and conquer the whole island. But with such sloth speed, there's no where to go and the straight road was so long, it took forever to reach a destination. There were just too many places to go to. I checked out those who went to Cijin Island, and most people went to the tunnel with stars and most went to the beach. I couldn't stand sand in my shoes so let's forget about the sandy beach. 

The whole place looked like our Penang Heritage area with so many stalls selling this and that. Reminds me of the Guangzhou morning market which I went to years back with so many stalls along the road, it felt like walking along a highway and there's nothing that I would like to buy. I'm not a shopper. So, we drove straight while I took photos from the left and the right.

When we came to where we wanted to stop, thank God our guide knew how to lock up the surrey bike using the bicycle lock. Not that I don't know how, but when I'm on holiday, I hardly use my brain in case of emergency. I can't even remember some of the English words when I'm in Chinese-speaking mode most of the time. Since I was the one riding, I decided to park the surrey bike at one of the lots meant for cars. I couldn't figure out where else to drop such a huge bike for four.

Finally, we got to see what was at the  Wind-Power Park. The park is using wind to power for electricity? I'm not very sure about that but the sight of those yellow beams with three-blade fan looked beautiful and there were so many kites flying high up in the sky. Now, I feel like flying kite in front of the house since it's so windy everyday. But I also feel like buying for the hubby a quadcopter so that I can play with it, too. Anyway, this place is filled with tourists, tell me which part of Taiwan isn't?

Looks cute. Never seen this before. There's none in my village. We're from the village so we were fascinated by the sight of fans powered by the sea and land breeze. If only we could have it here.

I went to have a good look at the sea. It's the South China Sea, the same as the one which mi amigas and I had a good dip in for 4 days snorkeling in Big and Small Perhentian Islands plus Redang Island. I'm still wondering until today why was the shoreline being barricaded. The waves must be pounding hard? There's no sandy beach to walk on like the other end of the island. 

We saw this egg-ed ice from the night markets. We didn't try any because it looked kinda lame. But when the weather was so hot, why not get one? I thought it can only be found in Taiwan until I went to Malacca and saw the exact same thing there and I think I saw it in one of our night markets *faint*

We left the place and then we got ourselves lost even with a map. That kiddy map was not good enough. We came to this Fishing Port and I thought we're gonna see lots of 'exotic' fish for dinner. But ended up the road was so secluded which then we confirmed that we were totally lost. We stopped by to ask some people who looked like they were locals there. But after asking for directions to get on to the main road from where we came from, we just couldn't understand where.

In our midst of being lost, we gained some experience in sight. It was definitely my first time seeing an unused fishing vessel being torn to bits and pieces. The body was being scraped part by part. How much was the vessel when first bought? Well, it became an old junk after serving its master and working hard on sea.

We found our way out and we were so smart. Our guide has a good sense of direction. I had none, I would have used other roads to get myself out of the maze of t-junctions. The more I looked at this country, the more I don't see anything different from our heritage area.

We came to this night market with lots of stalls and tourists, of course. There's this stall spinning out fancy looking cotton candy. It was so fancy and he was really good that the travel buddy had to get one which I suspected she wouldn't be able to finish on her own.

It was so huge and yeah, it was beautiful but it's not meant for photography purposes. It started to melt after 3 photos so we had to help eat that flower power cotton candy. 

We decided to find our way back to the rental shop because we were almost reaching to 2.5 hours. The moment we saw another surrey bike we knew we were on the right path. It's our first and last experience on such slow bike. Well, we're tourists so tourists ought to do what tourists ought to do.

We came across this sundry shop. A thought just came into my mind that a Chinese, will always have the Chinese way of thinking. No matter from which country's Chinese, they have the same kind of thinking. How did our sundry shop looked like theirs if none of them were ever in contact? This must be the Chinese style from the ancestors.

The houses looked like those in town but I think our pre-war houses looked nicer. I'm bias. And they also hang their clothes outside. No need dryer, just need sunshine. When we have upgraded to using steel poles to hang our clothes, they're still using bamboo sticks? Or did it just happen to be those staying in rural areas? I prefer to adopt the China's Chinese mentality of everything needs to be big but at the same time... I don't know what I'm thinking.

That's the National Kaohsiung Marine University and I thought it looked like a hostel. Maybe that's the university's hostel?

We found the rental shop and returned the surrey bike and walked towards the jetty and we ended up in a long queue way behind where the jetty was out of sight. The sun was setting and we had not find our transport to get to the southern most county. Yeah, we're really brave tourists with no plan A or plan B. Totally no transport and we had already checked out from our minsu. We didn't have anything to eat except for a few bites of the cotton candy. I'm wondering how come we didn't get any food on skewers to munch along the way. While mi madre and I stood in the queue, Pinky and Patty went to look for cabs.Yeah, again we're rich. We can travel with cabs all the way to another county. Only the biggest problem now was no cabs were willing to take us to another county which required a two-hour plus drive and back. Money wasn't the issue now so it's okay, we just continue to stand in line with no cares at all.

After an hour plus, we could see the building of the ferry terminal. But it was still far from us. We just stood there, hardly moving to conserve energy. Our stomach started to rumble by then but there's no way we could jump out of the queue to get some food. The night market was damn far away and we would need a surrey bike again or a bicycle to get there and plus some time to get ourselves lost.

The ferry looked overloaded. That's the most it could carry and it had to go back and forth with another two plying the same route. It was a great relieved to be on board the old ferry.

Day 10: Off to Cijin Island in Kaohsiung...

~ 23rd March 2014 ~

After lunch, we started walking street after street. I totally have no idea where were we heading towards. I asked and the place sounded like Cingjing, somewhere in another county where you can feed the sheep and the yak. Then, we came to this Gushan Ferry Pier. Looks like we were going to an island. I was totally not prepared for this so I was really excited. Something that's not in our itinerary at all. I was really looking forward to see what's in the island. The ferry looked overloaded with passengers but it's just a short distance. I know, that's what everybody says until tragedy strikes.

Along Kaohsiung's waterfront, there were lots of cafes and places with chairs nicely arranged. Too bad that we never have the extra time to take a leisure stroll along the waterfront. We walked in big steps all the way.

That's how the ferry looked like. So unlike our ferries which were similar with those from Hong Kong. The travel to Taiwan really opened up my mind. I realized that life back home is somewhat backward living. There's just so much live in every corner of the country.

As I was looking through the photos, I realized I have captured the Tuntex Sky Tower without my knowledge. God is good, ain't He? It was in my itinerary to capture the tallest building in Kaohsiung from somewhere near and in the end, I have it in my memory card all along without knowing it. I can strike of Tuntex Sky Tower from my invisible list of 'places to go to in Kaohsiung' now. Finally, after more than a year... You know, it's really different seeing places with your own eyes than browsing through them from printed pages or just photos by others. It's just... different.

The port of Kaohsiung is mentioned is one of the busiest place. It was indeed really busy with boats and ships of all sizes going in and out from all directions. I wonder whether that's a fishing boat or not...

Thinking through, I prefer a quiet life now... with no traffic jam will be the best option.

Judz 16th Birthday *khok khok khok*

I'm the narrator of this story. Hi~! I'm Pink Piggy. It was time to celebrate Judz' 16th birthday. Mode of transportation?

 Of course we went with a rickshaw. You don't expect us piggies to drive right? Can you imagine facing to your right and seeing four piggies in a car chewing on carrot sticks? Funny there were only two piggies there where were the other two? The other two were pushing from the back. Can't see them coz' if you could see them then they were huge gigantic piggies, the whole city will fled upon seeing them.

Naaahhh... that story was all wrong. We were four cute colourful piggies. The story was like this, four little piggies hopped along Penang Road and ended up somewhere near Nagore Place. Us four piggies snorted our way to Naughty Nuri's Warung. One must always call ahead to book for a place or else one would be turned away due to lack of seats. Us piggies went head on and placed our orders. Of course the camera has to work first before the culling of pigs begin.

Pork ribs and pork chops and bebek duck.... the cheesy wedges was the best of all. I'm not going to comment on the food. We enjoyed ourselves....

Piggies were actually humans... hehehe.... Happy Birthday Judz~! This post is one month overdue. I'm no longer that up to date blogger. Quite a nice place with piggy deco... I like~!

Eat till fat fat~! Happy piggy~! Nice to be the four musketeers~!

You don't need a tripod. Just need a flat place to put the camera.... hehehehehe.....