Lotus Lake and the 85 Building

This week was “test week” at my part-time school so Mel and I were able to make an early getaway to one of the most southern areas of Taiwan, Kaohsiung- the second largest city in the country. We took the high speed railway to Kaohsiung, which was almost as exciting as the trip itself. The whole trip took us only 1 hour and 27 minutes, which had us at our destination before supper time. The alternative would have been a lot cheaper but a 4 hour ride, with the possibility of standing the whole way. No thanks!

When we got off the train we took a shuttle bus to Lotus Lake which is only about 5-10 minutes from the high speed rail station. First impressions of Kaohsiung? It’s a good bit hotter than Taipei. Taipei’s temperatures have been in the mid-20s for about 3 weeks now, and the temperature in Kaohsiung was well over 30 degrees. But back to Lotus Lake… what a cool place!! The lake is surrounded by walking trails that connect the large statues and pagodas that looked so great along the water. First, we visited the Dragon and Tiger pagodas, being careful to go inside the dragons’ mouth and exit through the tigers’ mouth for good luck.

Inside the tiger and dragon were some colorful murals and burning incense. Favorite part of the mural can be seen in the above photo.

Next we walked down the pier to this pagoda and took in the view for a little while.

On the way back, Mel put a few cents in this fish-shaped vending machine just to see what in the world it would dispense. Fish food, of course- with the helpful label “don’t eats”. We fed some big fishies and moved on.

After passing a random pig which was tied up to a tree, we arrived at this giant gentleman. There was a little incense burning/temple area inside of him and a karaoke/shaved ice place at the end. We decided it was time to check out our hotel so we headed back to the main road, hailed a cab and travelled to the Union Hotel.

The Union Hotel had a few things going for it. First of all, it was about $24 CAN a night for a decent sized room. Plus, it was directly across from Kaohsiung Main Station so it was really convenient for getting around. However, there are a few ways to tell that you’re not really staying in the nicest place- sign number 1 is when you turn on the TV and it immediately loads porn. The rooms were really aging (though not especially dirty), our bedroom’s view was of a brick wall, and the elevator made this unnerving dropping motion when it started and stopped. Other than that, it was fine but I don’t think we’d stay there twice.

Suddenly starving, we walked to the nearby Liohe Night Market for some food but couldn’t find anything that wasn’t made of organ meat that we recognized besides stinky tofu (which we weren’t really craving) so guess where we wound up? Good old McDicks. It was good, I have to admit.

We decided to take the MRT to the 85 building, which is the tallest building in Kaohsiung. We bought tickets to the 74^th floor observatory and headed up after being screened for H1N1.

There was no one in the building!! We had the whole observatory to ourselves right up until the time we went to the lounge. Not sure why, because it was a cool view.

The 75th floor lounge was probably the swankiest place I’ve ever had a drink… definitely had the best views of any bar I’ve visited for sure. I’m not really sure where else in the world it would be so cheap for us to do something like this- I mean it was only $3 CAN to go to the observatory and we were able to use that admission price as money off our drinks. I think we spent $10 for the whole night. Crazy.

The lounge singer was very awesome, and there was a group of older couples (and one awkward older foreigner) who really knew how to tear up the dance floor. Let me leave you with one of my favorite cuts of the evening: the loungiest version of “Spiderman” you’ll ever hear.