Monkey Mountain: Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Day 2 had us waking up to a beautiful sunny day in Tainan. Our mission for the day: a day trip to Kaohsiung! After so many hours in flights and then trains, I figured we would be a little jet lagged, but we woke up fairly refreshed and excited for our day. This is one of the few nights that we stayed in a hotel for our large north-south trip, with hostels making up the balance of our accommodations. The breakfast offered at most places were comparable - not large by Western standards, but definitely enough to start your day. Lots of couples and families with small children were traveling and sharing breakfast with us.

We finish breakfast and hit the street and are greeted by a beautiful, warm, sunny 17 degree weather. It's such a pleasure to be able to feel the warmth of the sun on our skin after the dreary weather that we left behind in Toronto. Note that there was actually a massive ice storm blasting Toronto at this time of the year, so we were lucky enough that our plane even took off. We definitely counted ourselves lucky.

This is the weather in Tainan

This is the weather we left behind in Toronto

This second day in our Taiwan trip took us on a day trip to Kaohsiung, Taiwan. 高雄市 is apparently classified as a special municipality, meaning that it has the rank of a province. Wikipedia tells me that the earliest evidence of human activity in Kaohsiung goes as far back as 5000 years ago! This makes sense given the proximity to water, and the large river that flows out to the ocean in this region. There is a history of indigenous people that dates far back, and then also history of colonization, starting with the Dutch in 1624. The popularity of the Kaohsiung region is due in part to the Takau
 port, which was particularly popular for fishing.

Taiwan is very well connected and so we were able to take a bus to the local bus terminal and then hop on a train for our day trip to Koahsiung. The prevalence of buses and taxis and the general good weather made travel planning a breeze.

Our stop at the local train station and the 7-11 reminds us that it is indeed Christmas time. Hard to think of Christmas when it is sunny and nearly 20 degrees out already!

Taking the typical tourist photos

Waiting for our train!

The whole process of buying train tickets is relatively painless and then we are on our way. By the time we get to Kaohsiung, it's nearly noon already so our hours in Kaohsiung are somewhat limited. Knowing that the daylight hours are a lot longer in Taiwan than we've been having in Toronto, we aren't too worried. We grab a map at the train station and make a bee line to the West, in search of our first location: Shoushan (壽山) mountain. It was affectionately named "Monkey Mountain" by the Dutch in the 17th century, who noticed an abundance of monkeys on it when they first explored the area. 500 years later, it is still crawling with our distantly related cousins.

Our first sight when we get to the base of the Shoushan monkey mountain

The monkeys are generally quite peaceful and not troubled by humans, which is in part due to humans feeding them

We start hiking up the mountain, and are again surprised at how easily the locals outpace us, even while they make it look like leisure. Both Melody and I are quite warm at this point, and are having trouble keeping up with the locals.

There are quite a few good lookout points on the way up, which show the size of the city. There is a little bit of smog to contend with though.

We make our way up to one of the higher points on the mountain and take a short detour,and we find this beautiful, quiet little hiding place where the large banyan trees have all but blocked out the sun. You can see below that some of the roots have taken very wild routes on their search for water and anchorage, suggesting that some soil erosion has taken place over the years.

Lovely, quiet place we found along our hike, which shows the supremacy of the banyan trees

Right near the top of the mountain, we stumble upon what I can only think of as a monkey convention. The little guys are everywhere! They are just relaxing, looking for food, and grooming one another.

It's hard to properly see the view of the city in the mid-day haze, but it's still a relaxing sight

We had a few patient monkey models

Our trip down is almost as difficult as the trip up, because our legs sore and we are getting hungry! 

Some well thought-out designs to aid traction

We make our way down and find ourselves at the base of the massive Martyr's Shrine. There appear to be several Martyr's Shrines throughout Taiwan; we found one in 2012 in Taipei.

Martyr's Shrine, Taipei, 2012

Martyr's Shrine, Taipei, 2012

This Martyr's Shrine looked quite different, and looked right out over the city. It's as majestic as any I've ever seen, so it never gets old for me.

I love big temples - Martyr's Shrine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 2013

These courtyards always take my breath away. So peaceful

The gates to the Martyr's Shrine

We wander around the Martyr's shrine for a little while and then wander a little closer towards the coast where we see a massive display with the word "LOVE" in big block letters.  Part of the reason for this is that the river that runs around the base of the mountain is literally called the "Love River"

Picture of the Love sign with Kaohsiung in the background

Photo time

By the time we were finishing up taking photos on the mountain the sun was going down. Time to start making our way home, or at least get some dinner! We also had to make our way back to the train station to get back to Tainan! Luckily the train is running pretty frequently throughout the day so this didn't require a lot of planning.

Melody enjoying her Dorayaki

Dorayki (銅鑼燒 or Tóngluó shāo) is the favorite food of Doraemon - Melody's favourite comic of all time. Can you see the resemblance to the photo above? 

More bizarre Christmas tree displays in Taiwan

So on December 26, Boxing day, we woke up to 20 degree weather, took a train from one city to another, hiked up a monkey mountain, found a giant Love sign, and then discovered random interpretations of Christmas trees that I've never seen before in Canada. Quite a different Christmas holiday indeed!

Lamma Island Outing! 南丫島

I woke groggily, stumbled as quietly around as I could without waking up my roommate, grabbed my toiletries and opened my door while rubbing my half closed eyes.

Sunshine poured in from the window across from our room. The view of the mountains from the balcony was clear, in HD and beautiful. Instantly I felt awake, and thought myself crazy that I wanted a few more moments in bed. Besides, we were going on an adventure today - to Lamma Island!

Lamma Island is the third largest island in Hong Kong, behind Hong Kong Island and Lantau Island. It is located southwest of HK island, and a 20 minute ferry ride from there. The island boasts great seafood, relaxing atmosphere and beautiful beaches! According to Wikipedia, the name 'Lamma' was given because of the shape of the island - it resembles a fork of a tree. In Chinese, Lamma Island is called 南丫. The first character 南 means south and the second character 丫...is not really a character in Chinese. However, it is still used and is pronounced as 'ah'. Lamma Island can also be translated to 'Southern Peninsula'.

Cheung Chau Bun Festival! 長洲包山節

The legendary Cheung Chau Bun Festival is a special day full of dancing lions, street food that allure tourists and locals alike...and buns. Lots of lots of buns. Buns all shapes and sizes, made from many materials (although you wouldn't want to eat the plastic ones really).

Happy Canada day! (belated post)

Although this day isn't part of our exchange trip to Hong Kong, I thought it would still be proper to include it here. After all, our exchange blog is about our travels to different countries in the world and once upon a time, I was a traveler to Canada :) This country is such a special place to me and I'd like to wish her a happy birthday while writing a bit of my own reflections!

My family and I immigrated to Canada in 1993; I was a wee three year old kid, unaware of the giant life change ahead of me. Due to his business, my father had to say back in Asia while my mom supported us here in Canada. It was difficult; although I couldn't comprehend it then, I now know the struggles my mother had to go through to raise 3  young toddlers while holding a job on the side. The three of us were lucky in that our mother is a strong and intelligent woman and gave up very much to provide us with the best childhood possible. We were also lucky that we were able to see family, such as our grandparents and father, every so often so we weren't completely apart from our dear ones.

Sha Tin - A Day of Culture, Heritage and Snoopy

This day, Feburary 26th, was a planned day. Jordan and I had discussed exploring around Sha Tin area for a while, and we invited a few friends that we knew that liked to explore. So on Sunday morning, Chris, Nigel, Jean, Jordan and I congregated at the Sundial at HKUST and left campus for a day of sightseeing. The weather was better than I expected - the whole week had been foggy, wet and misting. But today, it was relatively dry, and quite fogless. I was happy.

Lung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail - A step into the past

Lung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail is literally a step into the far past. Not far, far past in terms of China's history, but far back in terms of Hong Kong's cultural heritage. Located up by Tuen Mun MTR station, it's a completely different place, exactly the type of thing we'd been looking to find since we got here.


We got up in late morning and had our breakfast and met up with Chris, and began our MTR journey to get up to Fanling station. It's one of the very farthest stations from our east side of Kowloon, so it was quite a journey. Probably took almost almost an hour to get there! Once we arrived in Tuen Mun, we hopped on another little mini-bus and made up way up into the hills to find the heritage trail. Upon landing, the first realization we make is how spread out and new the houses look. Some of the houses look like they were built in the last 5 years. The siding is new, the metal railings are shiny. We're supposed to be looking for an ancient heritage trail, yet our first observation is brand new housing developments. The mysterious double story of Hong Kong history arises again.


Our very first stop is a map board that clearly declares the beginning of the trial. It is standing in the small courtyard of Tang Chung Ling Ancestral Hall, just a stone's throw from 6 tenant apartment building where a man is washing his patio. Here on Google maps. An old man is sitting in the courtyard, chatting away in Cantonese into a mobile phone, dispelling all conception that this area has been left forgetting by Father time. We look to the map board and see a description about the early walled settlements built by the Tang clan, one of the first clans to move into Hong Kong, settle, and proliferate themselves in history by the construction of walled villages, or "Wai", 圍)

 The Map showing the different wai

Outside Tang Chung Ling Ancestral Hall 

Macau!

Macau, as many people know, is just across the pond in terms of travel from Hong Kong is quite suitable for a day trip. Close enough for a day visit, but a distinctly different culture resides there. Hundreds of years of Portuguese influence still holds strong there, and the food, language and architecture are hallmarks of this small gem. We took an early ferry ride on the TurboJET, so that we could try to come back the same day, and avoid paying for a hotel room.

 Departing HKUST

On the TurbeJET!

After arriving in Macau, we made our way through immigration and out to the main entrance where a slew of tour guides, bus drivers and guys who drive minivans are awaiting the tourists. Many people approach us offering tours as we unfold our large tourist maps and try to find commonality in the sheet of points that we printed off of Google Maps.