Live Laugh Love Blest: Kaohsiung

Monday, March 10, 2014

Day 1: Kaohsiung

Realized I never completed writing about my Taiwan trip. This time round, we traveled via another route and fly straight to Kaohsiung (高雄) (instead of flying to Taipei). Kaohsiung is located in the southern-western part of Taiwan, and is the second largest city other than Taipei. I also have a special feeling for Kaohsiung because 五月天is the ambassador for this beautiful city.

The hotel I'm staying in 宮賞藝術會舘 Kung Shang Design Inn is about a 8 - 10 minutes walk to Kaohsiung Mrt Formosa Boulevard Station 美麗島站 entrance 8. Getting around Kaohsiung is pretty easy since the Mrt will bring you to most places you need to go.

Kaohsiung Mrt Formosa Boulevard Station 美麗島站 is the most beautiful Mrt station I've ever seen. The famous "Dome of light", is the largest glass work in the world, designed by Italian artist Narcissus Quagliata. According to Wikipedia, "It is 30 metres in diameter and covers an area of 2,180 square metres. It is made up of 4,500 glass panels". The dome of light is also one of the "must-visit" places in Kaohsiung.

The Mrt is not like the usual Mrt you've seen. It's totally like a art gallery with 3D art painting, and the breathtaking dome of light.

Entrance to Kaohsiung Mrt Formosa Boulevard Station 美麗島站

Dome of Light

3D Painting

Our first stop was to Dream Mall, which is totally like a magically wonderland, even for adults. I had so much fun there, especially since I'm a open-chan fan!

Open-chan is a character created for 7-11, but it has totally captured the heart of many (both young and old), and became a mascot of its own.

How to get to Dream Mall:

- Take the MRT and alight at Kaisyuan station 凯旋站

- Transfer Shuttle Bus to Dream Mall 統一夢時代購物中心

- OR Walk to Dream Mall from Kaisyuan station

When we reached Kaisyuan station, there was a super long queue waiting for the shuttle bus to Dream Mall, and also many cabs waiting to fetch people who are not willing to wait to the mall. We saw alot of people walking towards a direction, so we decide that they should be walking to Dream Mall, and follow suit. It's quite a long walk (around 15 -20 mins walk), but the weather was pretty nice and cooling so it feels alright. And thankfully for this walk, we came across the Open! Run which looks so adorable.

One of the Hello Kitty exhibits we saw at the entrance. They were having a Robot Kitty exhibition in the mall so there's lots of Kitty madness around.

One of the must-visit places in Dream Mall is the Open! Ferris Wheel located on the top floor. The top floor is a wonderland for kids, with lots of games and rides. I remembered during my previous trip to Dream Mall a few years back, the Ferris Wheel was a Hello Kitty Ferris Wheel. Now it have changed to Open! Wheel. I'm a Open! fan, so of course I must catch a ride!

Some of the capsules are decorated with Open-chan and his friends' figurines and toys. I heard you need to pay quite a bit of money if you want to take these specially decorated capsules

View from the top. It was quite a misty day.

Say Hello to Open-chan from the capsule next door!

The Dream Boardwalk

You can find StayReal there!

Ok..these are very random but here's my favorite 关东煮 from 7-11。I can eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

The bakery shops puts the ones in Singapore to shame imo (dunno la, maybe I'm one of those that thinks the moon is rounder else where). I'm not a bread person, but I find myself being lured by all the super yummy looking bread there (and they are indeed very yummy)!

Look who I found at one of the MRT station? But I'm unable to locate Ashin's board. =|

爱河 Love River

How to get to 爱河 Love River

- Take the MRT and alight at YanChengPu station 鹽埕埔站
- Follow the signs and walk to Love River

After strolling along the love river (honestly, I'm quite disappointed about it, but it's probably how tourist feel when they visit Singapore River and realized it's just a river), we strolled over to 瑞丰夜市. and that's the start of eating, eating and more eating!

Handmade Fried Onion Rings. Just looking at the onions makes me hungry!

Fried Quail Egg 煎鸟蛋 (similar to the one in BKK). You can even choose sauce of your choice!

六合夜市

My first time trying 鸡脚冻. It sounds and looks pretty scary, but surprisingly, it taste really good! It's cold (obviously), and you can choose if you want garlic, or spicy (and even the level of spiciness). 鸡脚冻. is apparently good for the skin as it helps to boost collagen. :)

Can't remember the name for this but you can find this anyway in Taiwan. It's like a meat ball with very Q skin and it's pretty awesome! actually, most of the street food in Taiwan is pretty awesome since it's so competitive.

Back to hotel!

Friday, January 10, 2014

Kaohsiung 高雄: 宮賞藝術會舘 Kung Shang Design Inn

We were so busy with work, wedding and house reno that we did not have time to plan for our honeymoon. not wanting to join any tour group (think: wasting time on touristy shops pushing you to buy local delicacies, not being able to go wherever we want, however we want), we decide to go to a place we're most familiar with: Taiwan since we are sure we'll love our time there.

It was so last minute. flights booked a few days before we flew off so that few days was a mad rush to book for accommodation and many places are full house since it's the peak year-end season!

Air tickets were really expensive during the holiday season, especially when booked last minute. Even budget airlines are super ex! In the end, I booked one-way to Kaohsiung by Cathay Pacific. It stopped over at BBK (stupid me was unware of this, thank god it's a short one and not transit), transit at Hong Kong, then a 1 hour flight to Kaohsiung. It was quite a deal since I paid only about S$400+/pax, Much cheaper than Jetstar during the same time.

Coming back, I booked Jetstar from Taipei to Singapore. OMG. this is the wierd one. The cost of flight if I booked via Taipei (after conversion), is around 300+. If I booked via Jetstar Singapore, same flight is 400+. this I do not understand.

Anyway, once flight is settled, it's time to source for accommodation. I'm very used to doing research before making a decision. and with Google being my best friend, I google for everything. This is my attempt to avoid being caught in the situation of booking/buying something that is well-known for it's flaws etc. so I strongly encourage everyone who's planning for their trips and booking their own accomodation, to take the time to do some research. Yes, it may be time consuming. Comb through tripadvisor for fellow travellers' reviews. You'll get to know if the place is near the malls/mrt/food centers or have bad security, is near to some stinky drain, is hard to find, very far from XXX, very dirty room etc. Use your own judgement when going through the reviews. Some reviews sounds like the owner owe them money like that and is out to get back at the owners, some give very valuable feedback. so based on your requirements and budget, make your choice wisely. In my personal experience, Agoda.com offers pretty good deals and usually cheaper (even if it's by a few dollars) as compared to booking.com etc.

For kaohsiung, I wanted to book a 民宿at the famous 85大楼but all the ones that I googled and found to have okay reviews are fully booked! In the end, I found this hotel on trip advisor that has good reviews with decent prices: 宮賞藝術會舘 Kung Shang Design Inn

Very arty-farty name, that even the cab driver that we took from the airport didn't know that this is a hotel. it's located on this dark little road, and it's under renovation when we arrived. since the name is so un-hotelish, even the cab driver was unsure if we arrived at the right place since there's like no proper reception lobby or anything. when we alight, and tried to walk to the door, this guy came up to us and asked if we are staying in the hotel, that's when we know we found the right place. we were too tired to think straight and went straight for the lift, only to realise we didn't know which floor is the lobby! went to level 2 and it's dark and creepy. so we went back to where we came from, found that guy, and learnt that's the lobby! eh-okay. registration is swift, and we were asked to choose our breakfast from Macdonalds.

Finally, we went to the room. What greets us is a pleasant surprise. The room is pretty big with a nice little living room. what we booked is the business suites. they also have concept themed rooms like cars, majong etc (go check out in their website. very cool!)

The room is pretty clean and cozy, and even provides l'occitane bath supplies! There's also a small little balcony (but very dirty and cannot lock). Overall, this is a nice place to stay in. It's about 15 min cab ride from Kaohsiung Airport and costs around NT 335. It's also about a 8-10 minutes walk to Formosa Boulevard Station (美丽岛站）exit 8, which will easily get you around the city. quite a convenient location.