We had beautiful weather our first morning in Kaohsiung! Blue skies, palm trees, flowers, and the occasional whiff of raw sewage greeted us on our walk from the hostel down to the pier. It was a scorcher of a day. We walked for a couple of hours and we passed by the commercial docks as well as through a very cool bike/walking path area where local artists had put up some beautiful tributes to Kaohsiung’s dock workers and to the city’s commitment to sustainability. B will add some photos to this blog entry for me right away!
We scampered up a steamy, jungly path to the “Former British Consulate Residence” but unfortunately our four hours of liesurely walking meant we missed afternoon tea. It was still great though, and an adorable tourist from mainland China spent several minutes filming us and trying to get us to give him the peace sign (which we obviously did because he was SO cute). He even went so far as to follow us with his camera into a gift shop while B bought a post card. We speculated after Brett talked to an English-speaking guy from the same tour group that we might be some of the first white people our paparazzo had ever seen up close.
After that we caught the subway back to the hostel where we met the owner, Sam, for the first time. He was much younger than either of us expected, and so friendly! (We’ve really lucked out with our accommodations so far. If you ever want to book a hostel internationally, definitely go to
Hostel World). After talking to Sam we gussied up and headed out for B’s birthday dinner! Wherever you are in the world, I hope you’ll take a moment to eat an enchilada and think of el Bojo today.
We're going to continue the celebrations tonight by drinking some of the millet wine Sam gave us! We’ll let you know how it tastes!
Oh, and before I end this, I wanted to point out how troubling it is that we are the only people here who seem bothered by the heat. Brett is usually the only guy in a given venue wearing shorts, and I haven’t noticed anyone who looks as sweaty as we do. And what’s with the leather jackets and sweaters?! It’s 30 degrees out!
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| Kaohsiung's version of the Calgary Art Cows? |
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| The Tuntex Sky Tower in the background. |
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| Painted on the wall of a house that we walked past. |
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| Painted on the wall of a house that we walked past. |
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| View of Kaohsiung harbour from the former British Consulate. |
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| Detail on a small pagoda at the former British Consulate. |
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