Kaohsiung, Taiwan - February 16

18 degrees…halleluiah!!! cloudy, a moment of misty rain

burning money for ancestors

Every morning the first thing I do is step onto our balcony to assess the weather. Today was the first day since the beginning of our time in Asia when I wasn’t hit with heat and humidity – it was actually cool. Today was also the first day of the trip that I haven’t at some point been drenched in sweat – it was glorious!

Kaohsiung is a city of about 2.3 million on the southern tip of Taiwan. What I expected to be a bustling city was a whole lot quieter than I expected.

fresh fish ready for lunch

We spent a lot of time on the bus today which wasn’t so bad. It took quite a long time to get from one site in Kaohsiung to the other, but that meant we saw a lot of the city.

temple over lotus pond

A temple was our first stop today. The main thing the guide described to us was a system of praying. There yin and yang blocks are thrown, sticks pulled, paper read…honestly I couldn’t hear all of what the guide was describing – I wish I had. Outside this temple was a fire burning where people brought fake money they bought inside the temple to burn for their ancestors. There was stacks and stacks of this fake money inside the temple.

Confucius temple

While walking from the bus to the Confucius temple we walked along Chijin Old Street - a typical market street. There were stalls selling fresh fish where you would buy and then take across the street to another stall where they’d cook the fish for you and you’d eat there. This street is also sprinkled with temples here and there. This place was on the quiet side in the morning…would have been interesting to be here later in the day.

Next was a photo stop at another temple with a huge tiger and dragon at its entrance. It’s fascinating to hear about these temples…so different from the Buddhist temples we have seen plenty of recently and so totally new to me. The attraction of this temple is that it is built over a lotus pond. Apparently temples are or were built with lotus ponds near so that in case of fire there would be water near by the wooden temples.

foggy day

Our last stop was The Confucius Temple which is like a school to teach how to be a good person.

lotus pond temple

many lanterns

money to burn

I don’t think many tourists visit Kaohsiung as the guides we used today came from Taipei last night and were going to be our guides tomorrow in Taipei.

Dave – there is Blackjack, 3 Card, Roulette and Craps in the casino, no playing at all for me, Chris has played Blackjack, Craps and 3 Card

Lori – nope, no Hammer Pants…I think I missed my chance, for a while they were everywhere…not anymore.

Confucius temple