OK so, I got to Kaohsiung late at night, and after checking into my hostel there wasn't much I could do except go to a night market. Fortunately it's the most famous one and recommended in all the guidebooks.

Liouhe is pretty cool, but it can't hold a candle to most of Taipei's. They do have one amazing thing though. You see that picture? That's a corn dog. The spiral thingy is fried cheese. The one next to it is minced garlic. Then they dip the whole thing in BBQ sauce. America... we lost. The corn dog arms race is over, and we have soundly been defeated. We might as well bow down now to our corn dog overlords.




So after that I passed a bar, and well... Why not? It was actually a karaoke bar, but everyone there was Hakka. At least I think Hakka. Anyway they weren't Chinese. I met a cool guy named Phillip who used to live in Texas, so his English was quite good. He has a company making lights that can be controlled by your smartphone. Interesting dude. The bartender told me this is the first time a foreigner has ever been in the bar, and gave me a tequila shot to celebrate.

So the next few hours are a bit of a blur. I went back to the hostel at some point and chatted with some Koreans about my trip to North Korea. They do not care or know anything about the current sabre rattling coming out of there. "Business as usual."

So for my first actual day I went to Qijin Island. While taking the subway to the ferry, 3 girls sat across from me. One was wearing shoes with the English flag on them, so I asked her in Chinese if she was English. She laughed and said no. We got to talking, and it turns out they're students from Taichung going to Qijin Island as well. They suggest we go together, which I'm more than willing to. Then, on our way they whisper to me they're not actually Taiwanese, like its a secret. I respond "Me too." They laugh and say they're actually from Shenyang, the city I flew into on the way back from North Korea. I tell them I used to live in Hangzhou. Instantly we swap QQ numbers and are BFFs.




The 4 of us had quite the day at Qijin. While waiting for the ferry it started raining. Like, open the heavens and drown the infidels heavy. We got soaked, and our umbrellas did jack shit. But it was a short wait and off we went.

Qijin is cool, but nothing amazing. It's a tourist area for sure, with somewhat dirty beaches and endless stalls of food and souvenirs. Mostly it was just a chance to walk around with my new friends, and we had some great soup from a street corner. They commented the noodles here are not as good as China's, which I had to agree with. The octopus was awesome though.

Back on Taiwan proper, we weren't sure what to do next. One suggested the Art Pier, which is a bunch of weird art pieces down by the dock. Somehow we got talking about children and they jokingly asked me if I had any. I said I have 3, and they bought it without any convincing. They asked me questions about them, and I said I was just joking. I called them all gullible and they said they want to kill me. But they had their revenge - when we made it to the pier they said they filmed parts of Titanic here. I believed them as they told me why the director chose Taiwan. Then a few minutes later they all turn to me and simultaneously say "開玩笑!" (Just kidding!). Grr, they got me good.

Later we said goodbye as we went to our respective hotels. After checking in I walked around looking for dinner but came up empty. I decided to go back to Liouhe, and wouldn't ya know it? I run into the 3 of them there. Not a minute later another crazy deluge comes, and I blame them for jinxing the weather. We went around the night market together and said goodbye (again). That night I added them all on QQ to keep in touch.

There's still one more day to go in Kaohsiung, so that'll be tomorrow's post. It involves sugar and "monkeys".