Tasmania to Tokyo – At Sea – Day 53 can be found here.
Today’s Chronicles can be found here.
I slept terribly last night. Not sure why. Sometimes stress builds from all the various left-behind tasks that are slowly, sneakily piling up while we’re on the road. I suspect the four-or-more cappuccinos I had yesterday didn’t help either.
So this is a day that I hope just goes without any undue effort on our part. That’s not too much to ask, is it?
We have an early morning bus tour today. No QR codes or face-to-face meeting with immigration officers, so we’re hoping for a smooth disembarkation. The port building in Kaohsiung is beautiful:
And it takes only a few minutes before we have boarded our bus and are ready to head on our way. Our guide Sam seems like a seasoned operator – he provides his WhatsApp number and provides a mneumonic so that we can remember our bus’ license plate number. (6098 – if you live to 60, you’ll live to 98. We can hope!)
Sam’s quite funny too – he tells us about the nearby ‘monkey mountain’, and notes that the monkeys near the university are getting quite smart. They’ve learned to break into dormitories. One stole a girl’s phone – perhaps to take a selfie? He further jokes that if it’s not an iPhone 17, they’ll throw the phone away.
He also recounts the legend of the Dove River, which was so-named because two star crossed lovers took their lives when they learned they could not be together. He adds that the river was badly polluted for more than 30 years, and that no other lovers drowned in that river during that period – the river was too stinky for them.
We soon arrive at the Spring and Autumn Pagodas – but first, a visit to the Zuoying Chiming Temple:
The temple is primarily dedicated to Confucious and Lord Guan, a Chinese military general who was deified during the Sui Dynasty for his many achievements toward the end of the Han Dynasty.
Divination blocks are used in combination with fortune sticks for those seeking answers. Worshippers are to focus on a specific question before selecting a particular fortune stick.
That fortune stick should then be confirmed using divination blocks. If one flat side and one rounded side land face up, then that stick is confirmed. If both sides are flat, it means ‘No’ and both sounds rounded means ‘Uncertain / Laughing’.
The stick then corresponds to a particular oracle and its advice. It can take upwards of an hour to confirm a stick!
We move on to the back of the temple:
And move up to the second floor:
The third floor is dedicated to money-related prayers:
We then carried on to the Spring and Autumn Pavilions, a Taoist temple complex that also commemorates Lord Guan:
There is also a statue of Guanyin, goddess of mercy, riding a dragon in front of the pavilions.
The majority of Taiwan’s spiritual practitioners are Taoist.
From here we head across to the dragon and tiger pavilions:
Entering the dragon is said to offer good fortune, while the tiger is believed to offer protection, but only if you exit from it’s mouth.
There are some lovely views from this side of the lake:
And from the top of the pavilions:
We head down the second pavilion and exit from the tiger’s mouth:
And it’s soon time to rejoin our guide and re-board our bus.
We usually turn off our Quiet Voxes, but Sam is so entertaining that we leave them on throughout.
Next up is a visit to the Dagang bridge:
The bridge itself is beautiful, but the view from the bridge is even better:
We arrive just in time for the bells – Echo Across the Harbour – to play:
There are a host of shops and restaurants both on this side of the river, and on the other side too:
The pink trumpet trees have started blooming, adding to the ambience:
We also walk through the Dayi Warehouse area, checking out the street art along the way:
We’re tempted to walk back to the ship from here – it’s less than 30 minutes away – but we still have central park to visit. They have a much larger playground, which is always a priority for the kids. So back on the bus we go.
Five minutes later, we arrive at central park:
We go down to the metro station to check out a model of this part of the city:
And then the group heads off to parts unknown, while our kids enjoy the playground.
We initially plan to head back on our own but we’re ready to head back at the same time as the group, so we reboard the bus once more – and we’re soon reboarding the Moon. But had we wanted to stay a while, Silversea was running a shuttle from the nearby Hotel Indigo.
We were tempted to go visit the Dome of Light – the largest work of glass art in the world:
Photo Credit: Taiwan Tourism
…But we just don’t have it in us today. I would definitely prioritize that – and a trip to Shousan (‘monkey mountain’) for a return visit.
Something else that stands out to me is the vibe and aesthetic of Taiwanese street scenes:
I just… like it. I’m not sure how else to put it into words. It makes me want to spend a week or two here, just hanging out.
And the verdict? While we’re not usually huge fans of bus tours, this was a solid overview of Kaohsiung with both historic and modern elements. I wish there was had been some way to work in a quick visit to the Dome of Light but realistically we could have done this ourselves with minimal hassle.
Back aboard the ship, we head off to our respective lunch restaurants. I try the ebi (shrimp) nigiri for the first time:
Very tasty.
There’s a scavenger hunt on at 2:30 pm. We missed it previously, so we’re excited to take part this time around. Only twenty minutes is allocated, so we need to book it! (Without running, of course.)
The biggest challenge is finding out where Future Cruise Consultant Ana is from – we leave the question with Reception while we dash around to take pictures with paintings, Arts Cafe bartenders, and Observation Library board games.
The end result:
And a whopping 30 prize points for coming first! (I hope the woman who handed hers in shortly after us got a nice stack of points too – we were amazed by how quickly she finished.)
No art class today, so we had a bit more time for homework / reading / writing. Bingo at 4 pm where our daughter gets a row.
And then off to trivia. Our usual crew is absent today, so we add on a few new faces. Our son correctly identifies what England received from the Spanish in exchange for Havana (Florida) and the home of asado barbeque (Argentina). We learn that Federal Reserve Bank of Manhattan is the largest reserve of gold in the United States and that Al Capone claimed to be a used furniture salesman. This performance is sufficient for second place – back on the podium!
During trivia, my wife snaps a great shot of Shousan during sail away:
We saw these beautiful views during trivia, but very glad she was able to record them.
We then have a drink on the verandah and watch the sun set.
Then something appears on the horizon – some sort of helicopter?
It looks like it’s military… ENHANCE:
I thought it might be Chinese, but it looks more like a Taiwanese S-70 Seahawk-type helicopter. Interesting…
Off to dinner at La Terrazza with Cruise Director Zaid and Future Cruise Manager Joshua this evening. They have some absolutely hilarious stories. Our favourite was when Zaid first joined Silversea as a cook, and mixed up ship’s time with shore time. He was just returning to port when he heard the ship’s horn as it sailed away.
Zaid was sure he would be fired – and indeed they had unpacked all of his belongings and left them on the dock – but he was able to get a lift with the pilot boat, and climbed the outer ladder to get back aboard the ship. He was given a warning by the captain, but allowed to keep his job. Usually missing the ship leads to an automatic dismissal and you have to pay for your own flight home so he was quite lucky indeed.
We then head down to SALT Bar for one last drink.
I remember to take a picture of the menu for once:
My wife has the Good Fortune:
While I have the Umami Old Fashioned:
It’s lovely – you really don’t taste the shiitake in the tequila.
Here we run into some readers of the blog – hi, Phillip! – which is always a pleasure.
But night is wearing on – and we’re losing one more hour of sleep, so it is definitely time for bed.