07.17.2009 Kaoshiung

7:30pm FGS
I may run out of time, so I'm just letting you know I'm here.

Kaoshiung is really hot. The typhoon is coming soon. You can feel it in the air. It is like the calm before a storm.

I succumbed and took a nap, and now I am forever tired. My sis was telling me how I should rest and not exert myself too much because Japan would be tiring. Now that I've napped I want to keep sleeping until the next day.

I was really paranoid this morning about not waking up in time and missing my train to Kaoshiung, so I woke up periodically at 6am, 7am, etc. until I figured I should probably start packing.

metro station entrance

Originally I was going to travel to Kaoshiung myself but I got lucky and someone else was heading in the same direction as me, and taking the same high speed rail as well. If it wasn't for her, I think I wouldn't have made it far from Taipei.

highspeed rail car

highspeed rail ticket, metropass card

To get on the high speed rail, we had to go to Taipei main station. I was given a metropass card, so that saved me from having to talk to the ticket office in broken Chinese. When we got to Taipei Main Station, we got lost. Which is funny because I assumed the lady coming with me knew where she was going. (at least better than I did) In the end, we had to run for our train!

The train is really clean. I asked and apparently it is only two years old. It is spacious and nicer than an airplane. There are two kinds of seats, apparently. Purple, and turquoise. I don't know the difference, but I sat in the turquoise section. We also discovered a drink vending machine inbetween two cars.

Some other nice things to note were the little ledge for your cellphone by the window and the wall hook that disappears into the wall. It'll only stay out if you have some sort of weight hanging from it. It's kind of like those Umbra clothes pegs.

This was also really cool... The juice box straw EXTENDS instead of being bent in half the way Junior Juice does it. I was so amused!

I love sitting in trains. I like just sitting and staring out the big windows and watch the world go by. It's different from sitting in a car I guess because in a car ride, you see other cars on the road with you and that's not that exciting. However, on a train, all you have is your car on a rail and boundless landscape starting from right beneath your feet.

I arrived at Kaoshiung at around 11ish. Taking the highspeed rail takes about an hour and a half to get to Kaoshiung from Taipei, meanwhile by car, it takes about five hours. My sis came to pick me up from the station. The car we rode in to return to FGS was pretty run down. Apparently in Taiwan if you sit in the back seat, you don't have to wear a seatbelt. And in order for us to drive up the mountain, we had to turn off the A/C. or else the car would stop working as it putt-putted up the steep slope.

I roamed around FGS. And what's a visit to FGS without a picture of the giant Buddha statue?

remains of the Scout camp. I don't know what it is supposed to represent.

I also went to the "Pureland cave" to avoid the hot sticky weather.

1. He reminds me of a SF character... 2. I thought this might make a fun photo 3. People crossing a rainbow bridge

Proof that wizards exist

"Dragon Eyes" plucked right from the trees on the mountain! really!