Taiwan 2019 Day 1: Kaohsiung 高雄 // 18 Oct 2019

For those who have read my previous posts, you would probably noticed that I usually travel with friends. Somehow I felt that it was time to intentionally plan a family trip - this time involving grandaunt, granduncle-in-law (because I reside with them) and my mum. So here comes our long awaited trip!

We woke up bright and early, I think it was around 3am (and I barely slept at 12am because I was busy clearing work), quickly prepared and headed off to the airport! We called in a private van that could actually take 9 pax because we were concerned about whether the luggage could fit into a usual cab. It cost us $45 each way and he will pick us back when we return.

We are not affiliated to this company but just sharing the contact in case it may come in handy

After we checked in, dropped off our baggage and collected our boarding pass, we headed to Changi Recommends to collect our Wifi device.

Collected our Wifi Router!

There was some kind of promotion when I booked it so I paid about SGD $34 (average SGD $4.85 per day).

View in flight

Remember to fill in the arrival form

We headed out to take a cab to our hotel to drop off our luggage. The hotel that we booked for the first 3 nights at Kaoshiung was Urban Hotel 33. I choose to book this hotel due to its distance from the station. It cost us about NTD 320 (approximately SGD $14~) to cab from the airport to the hotel. Then we walked to 阿霞烧肉饭 (Ah Xia Shao Rou Fan) to have lunch (and our first meal here!!!).

The menu

Our order!

My favourite was their RICE!!! 😋😋😋😋

All gone in 20mins!

And guess how much this meal cost us? NTD 205! And that is just SGD $9 for a meal for 4!!! Such a good deal!

★★★★
阿霞燒肉飯
Address: No. 70, Fuxing 1st Road, Xinxing District, Kaohsiung City, 800
               800高雄市新興區復興一路70號

And then we went back to the hotel to pick up a pair of shoes from our luggage. So my uncle came over to Kaohsiung last weekend and bought a pair of shoes for his daughter but the size didn't quite fit. And since we didn't quite know where to go, we decided to fit it into our itinerary and we headed off to exchanged the shoes at FE21 Mega Mall. On our way to the mall, we dropped by Formosa Boulevard Station to see the Dome of Light.

Dome of Light

We were getting thirsty so we dropped by the nearby convenience store and was surprised by this refreshing fruit juice.

Nice fruit juice! 💯

We changed to the Red Line (Gangshan South - Xiaogang) and alighted at the Sanduo Shopping District stop (R8) (三多商圈). 

The first shop that caught my attention was CosMed and I bought about 6 boxes of masks? Then we headed up to level 6 to exchanged the shoes for my cousin from Sketchers.

Exchanged for the right size!

The Shopping Mall

Then we walked over to Tower 85.

We then took a cab over to Guobin Station to take the Love Boat. The cab fee was NTD 105 (SGD $4.60~). Unfortunately we were too early. The ticketing starts at 3pm but the first boat only leaves when they have enough sign ups (or around 3.35pm). So we went to the nearby cafe for a break. The Papaya Milk tasted weird so I would give it a miss.

After quite a wait, we were finally able to set off! This Route starts from Love river, then goes through Aisa new bay area, and goes into Kaohsiung Port finally. They provided guided service for  introduce Kaohsiung Port and it's history.

Boarding Point

The boats

Heard this will be ready in 2020

After the boat ride, we walked (about 7 mins) to the nearest station (city council station) to head back to the hotel for a break.

We checked into our hotel and rested for a bit before we headed out to the nearest night market. We took a cab which cost us NTD90 (SGD $3.95). 

We were a little culture shock by GuangHua Night Market (光华夜市) because it was a little different from our usual impression of a night market. The stores were lined up on two sides of a street, and it was flooded by patrons coming in their motorbike. After some walk in though, we chanced upon a great dinner place! 

Our delicious dinner

大陆妹

The tofu is so yummy!!!

This restaurant is definitely worth the visit, clean and air-conditioned with delicious food. It was so good we came back for it again on our last day of the trip. 

★★★★★

【品深海魚湯龍膽石斑專賣店】

地址：高雄市前鎮區光華二路307號
            No. 307, Guanghua 2nd Rd, Qianzhen District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan 806
Telephone Number：0938-389776

Opening Hours: 10am-2pm, 4.30pm-8.30pm (Closed on Monday)

Then we walked down the street and located a fruit store! Yay! It was supposedly part of our itinerary at first but because we detoured to change the shoes for my cousin, I decided to forsake that part of the itinerary but we ended up getting the chance to visit the fruit stop ultimately. Thank God for being at the right place at the right time. In case you are wondering why we would include fruit stores in our itinerary, it is because Taiwan has good land, that yields good fruits. So, no trip to Taiwan is complete without eating their fruits. 

上豐水果大賣場

上豐水果大賣場

Address: No. 404, Guanghua 2nd Rd, Lingya District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan 802

               高雄市前鎮區光華二路406號

What I liked about this fruit store is that they offer to cut up the fruits for you after you purchase them. 

And we continued to walk until we came to this Green Bean Soup store. 

庆中街绿豆汤

Address: No. 67, Guanghua 1st Road, Lingya District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan 802

With that, we flagged a cab along the street outside the store and headed back to the hotel to rest. 

Our Hotel Room

And that's all for Day 1.