Miranda and my trip around Taiwan Proper Pt. 1

Hi again!

As mentioned in the before posting, I got an entire week off for travelling with Miranda. She proceeded to Tainan a day before me, since I had seen that already. Then, Friday night (Aug 24), I followed her. At this point, I would like to make a recommendation. Never buy a train ticket at a vending machine in Taiwan. Everybody has seat reservations, which you cannot buy at machines, and there is no sign anywhere indicating which seats are taken and which are not. But it doesn't really matter, since all seats are taken anyway. For me, this meant standing for 2 1/2 hours, until an old man insisted on yielding me his seat. He said it would be easy for him to find another one.
Miranda had stayed at the other German guys' dorm in Tainan, whom she met the weekend before when we all went out in Taibei. Matthias, Peter and Miranda picked me up from the train station and we walked back to the dorm where I had also stayed during the first week in Tainan. It was really cool to see it all again and of course it was very cool to see the other folks again, as well! Thanks guys for letting Miranda stay over that one night!
On Saturday, Miranda and I started our trip. First, we took a train down to KaoHsiung, Taiwan's second largest city hosting the world's sixth largest industrial port.



There, we met Andy, my colleague, who is originally from there and who drove us around the city, showing us some stuff and telling us stories along the way. Thanks Andy! And thanks for the green tea with the grapefruit juice and pulp! That was really delicious! Our first stop was KaoHsiung's Martyr's Shrine, which, oddly enough, had a Karaoke party of its own.


Here's the main gate, the main shrine and its interior in that order.





It was really nice there and I even got a free foot massage! You find these all over the place in southern Taiwan, by the way. It hurts and feels good at the same time!


Don't you just love these hats? People wear them everywhere. There's even neon-colored ones for people working on road construction.


After visiting the shrine and a little tour of a university's campus facing Taiwan straight (the ocean), we went to the small island on the other side of the harbor. There's lots of sights there and we had a really good time just walking around, eating and seeing stuff...



We checked out a temple, which I believe is devoted to the sea goddess whose name I constantly forget and had both Zhou Dofu (stinky tofu - yes, it smells like ass, but it actually tastes quite good!) and squid on a stick.




Then, we walked to the beach which, one week after the Tayphoon, was still full of trash, and continued through a beautifully painted tunnel to a bay where we watched the sunset.




Taiwan's flag, in case you didn't know it.


Then we took the train back to Tainan, where we picked up our Toyota Vios. But instead of a Japanese car, I will show you the typical mode of transportation for Taiwanese people. Notice the keys.


On Sunday, we commenced our road trip around Taiwan. Taiwan Road Rage. Grrrr!


After a three or so hour drive, we arrived at the southern tip of Taiwan. Trying to watch our step while gazing at distant view kept us really occupied in Maobitou. So did the climbing through the amazing coral rock formations.




Since the weather was really bad - talking tropical rain showers - we went to check out the largest museum for marine life and aquarium in Taiwan. That was really cool, too! And these so-called jet towels are quite amazing!



After visiting the museum, we drove to the very southern most point of taiwan where we watched the last sunrays disappear and the moon light up the ocean. Crazy to think that you'd arrive in the Phillipines, if you swam that way... that is, if you didn't drown before.



Our hotel in Sail Rock, close to Kenting, was quite "der Burner" (sorry for the Engleutsch), with a beautiful view of the ocean. Here, Miranda and I could finally watch The Da Vinci Code, which we hadn't finished back in late September last year. A risotto, some dumplings, sushi and Taiwan Beer from 7-11 were our dinner. Yes, we have plenty of style!



And what better thing to do on a Monday morning and noon than to body surf in the ocean? What smarter way to go sunbathing than without sunscreen? Uhm... obviously, we don't know. Yes, it hurt. And now my skin is coming off... sigh.


After this refreshing dip, which caused second degree burns on Miranda's shoulders, we headed north, first up the west coast, then across the southern peninsula and further north along the east coast toward Taitung. Here's your average road side stop in the mountains.


And that's me, with nothing but the Pacific Ocean behind me, covering about a quarter of the Earth's surface. Impressive.


As we continued north, we came by this beach / river valley with pitch black sand.


An old aboriginal fisherman got stuck with his tiny FWD truck, so I helped him out.


After another couple of stops in random scenic areas, we arrived in our hotel in Taitung.

---- Ok, I've been updating this for over two hours now, it's 10:08pm right now and I'm heading for a party. Guess, I'll have to continue with this tomorrow.

Good night, party people!