Kaoshiung Day 1

 Woke up and it wasn't raining, but the ground was damp. The mountains were covered in mist, and the fields are as beautiful as ever. Somehow I got bitten after waking up??? RIP

After I pooped I headed out to grab breakfast. I got takeaway since there were people inside. I got 焦糖奶茶 (recommended), 玉米蛋餅, and 熱狗 which was deep fried. I stopped by the post office on the way back and waited 5 mins in line to drop off my postcards.

The hotdogs (3 small rolls) tasted more like the corndogs I used to get when small. 玉米蛋餅 was good and they gave me soy sauce packet. Yummy. The 焦糖奶茶 was on the sweeter side but very good. So full. 

After breakfast I started packing up. And then needed to poop again. By the time I packed up and was done, it was 10:45am so I decided to strip the sheets for the hosuekeeper. Their pillows and blanket are nice and new. 

Check out was just to drop the keys into a box. 

I sat down in the communal area for a about 20 mins, and then decided to head to the station while it wasn't raining. Man I'll miss you Chishang. I sat by the doors for a bit before heading in 15 mins befor the train was due. The paintings in the hallway were done by older people, some were painted by a 80 year old! The air is so nice on the platform. I took my mask off and I had already sweated into the inner frame. The mountains are so beauitful no matter where you look. The train arrived and boarded. A lady was sitting in my seat but she moved without any problems. I put my luggage down and settled in (ew warm seat). 

The moutains were all misty and the sky grey. I was sitting on the right hand side (should be left hand for coastline view). I feel asleep for a tiny bit at some point. The lady next to me was Indonesian, and she got told off by another passenger when she was doing a video call and talking a bit too loud. She was trying to get a photo of the mountains, and I said to her that she can reach over for a photo (this was just before we entered the tunnel at the tail end of Taiwan, to Pingtung). But she kept missing the opportunity - she got one eventually though. It rained harder as we went around the tail, and once we were in Kaoshiung territory the train line is all underground. 

The lady next to me asked if Fengshan was Kaoshiung and I said next stop. She showed me her ticket and she got on at Hualien. I said byebye to her and wished her 玩得愉快 but I don't think she caught what I meant. I got off at Shin Zuoying and the station is so so bloody big. I got my stamps first and then went to the toilet. And then got lost trying to find the entrance to Shinkon Mitsukoshi. I was keeping Lin-jie waiting... and she ended up calling me and giving me instructions. We got there in the end. 

I opted not to eat on the train as I heard a few coughs and since there was lady next to me... and once I got into Lin-jie's car I devoured the half bento from Yilan, and was still hungry though... it was like 3:30pm now. We headed to 886 and the traffic was pretty crazy. 

We passed an old city gate of Kaoshiung and once we got to 886 it was fairly quiet. It was $50 to enter but I was happy to do that. We had about an hour before closing. There's a total of 4 buildings. Later I learnt that each building was an individual house and the original builds did not have any walls or fences in between. A lot of the buildings were built during the Japanese colonial period, and it was around 1943, and lived in for 2 years before the Japanese left. They had a lot of story and museum inside. I will have to come back to watch the videos thoroughly. There's so much info.

There's a building with a shop inside. I bought some postcards. Each building has a number stamps (street number), and I only got to 3 of them. 2 of them had big stamps. 

The volunteer aunties were quite knowledgeable and talked to Lin-jie. For me to watch all the video and listen to the audio, I'll need more time. We left at 5pm closing.

Then we walked around to the other row of houses that were either some sort of business, like a super fancy restaurant that cost $240 for an entree and like $1680 for a main. Wooop. Mum had to call me and she had broken a interdental brush in between her teeth... I told her to try use the knotted floss method to get it out.

Next door there was a man tidying up a light up deer decoration, and Lin-jie started talking to him asking what the building was for. He ended up offering to show us what's inside, and they had 2 Shiba-kens that were super friendly inside the gate (don't let them out!!). Mum had to call me again... and said she can't get it out, but it's like 10pm there, so you will have to call tomorrow morning to ask the dental practice to try fit her in for an emergency.... I hung up.

The man's partner was napping inside so we just had a look outside but she ended up waking up and we were let inside. Their front door were originally sliding doors, but they changed it to swing doors. It was a Japanese style house, with tatami. We learnt a lot from this interaction. The original doors inside were all the mint green, but they repainted it to a earthy green so it looks more navy-ish. The original house was dilapated so they fixed it up themselves. Last year at the annual celebration festival, a previous resident of the house visited (75 yrs old) and said that she lived here when she was 5 yrs old, but not for long before her family moved north as they were moved to be stationed there. Back then the neigghbour wanted to buy the house but they couldn't as they weren't of a lower general rank. So it was sold to someone (the prev owner) in a position of a lower rank but would be guaranteed to rise in rank. 

The original owners who built the house were a Japanese couple, and the house isn't big. They had a hallway for the servants and the kitchen and washroom/laundry were built out of sight as the servant wasn't allowed into the owner's living quarters. The cleaning was done by the female owner. I think the couple had no kids or their kids were abroad. This house and the one next to it on the right (facing the house) escaped bombing. There's a mini bomb shelter across the road, can fit like 3 people. Old bombs didn't have that much firepower. This was done by the Americans over the Pacific war with the Japanese. Other houses that has a different roof or 2nd storey were likely bombed and rebuilt. The corner roof tile has a star, designating the rank of the house. The big general house of the main 886 4 houses are a plum flower. There's so much history and flavours behind the houses. The current wife and husband run a dressup photoshoot location, that requires prebooking (dress up in qipao, but only in the cooler months). We were lucky enough to be let inside.  We also had a look at their back garden. This is also when we learnt that originally the houses had no fences, and was built in by the ROC govt. Their dogs were super keen to meet use whenever when we were about to leave. They paw you.... please you are big dogs please calm down1!!!

Since it was 5:50pm now, Lin-jie had to go meet someone to sort out something for work. We just walked around the block and the original community signboard was still there. They used to show posters for 2nd chance movies showing at the 2nd chance theatre. There's still two faded posters inside. 

It took about 30 mins to get to where she needed to be in the traffic... and they tried to sort stuff out for like an hour. I was so thirsty I ended up trying to figure out her boot and grab my supau, which I only suceeded in opening the back window... but it was enough to reach into my suitcase and find the thing. I drank it all in one go. I was also super hungry at this stage. It stopped raining too.

We finally went home. I got to meet her brother A-chen bro. He showed me his room of figures which were all huge ass Diorama type resin ones, manufactured by Chinese makers. Whoa. Never seen these before cause you can't buy from NZ. The boxes are giant and shipping to Taiwan costs about $1000 for 1 fig (that's damn cheap for us). He had mostly Ghibli and Kimetsu no Yaiba. Some of the Ghibli ones light up and have audio. I thanked him for showing me. He was watching Kusuriya no Hitorigoto. Dinner was ready. I washed my hands. It was dumplings (we discussed this in the car). I mentioned mixing lemon juice instead of vinegar for the sauce, and Lin-jie had lemon juice. Yay. It's good. Black pork cabbage flavour. They had some tofu skin too. I had 3 rice bowls of soup after. Lin-jie had dragonfruit and peeled a ba-lah. Thank you.

I then took a shower, and started blogging. I am so tired. Potehi event tomorrow, I hope it doesn't rain....