Taiwan Day 12 (Kaohsiung 1)

 This morning Mr Lin came at 7am instead of the usual 6am.

At like 1:30am I'm pretty sure a stray dog barked multiple times and ran up and down the corridor chasing probably a cat. It was hard to fall asleep.

Breakfast was served and it's also fantastic. I also really, really struggled to finish my desert and took me 50 mins. 

There was another new foreign couple here today. I handed back my tray and asked Mr Lin about buying tea bags. It's 20 pk in a box for $400. I said I'll purchase when I check out. 

Once finished, I went back to my room and passed a lot of poop... And then finished packing.

I used this time to finish blogging. And then at 10:45am I got ready to check out. Mr Lin was pretty much waiting and he took me down to the bus stop.

On the way there I asked if the dogs were aggressive, and he said they actually are scared of people. These recent years there has been an increase of city people abandoning dogs, without neutering, so there's a lot of strays. I also complimented his cooking and he said it's usually his mum who cooks.

He helped me with my bag and I thanked him and said I have a lovely time, and would come again.

The bus was late and whilst waiting I chatted to a local lady who doesn't take the bus often and later she got off at Chukou Stop.

There were only 6 seats left on the bus, and luggage had up be put in the wheelchair area.

I feel asleep for part of the ride. I could smell cypress faintly, and even when we got off the mountain the smell lingered for a bit longer.

It took 2 hrs to get to the station and we got there almost 1:30pm.

Once off, I could finally breathe again. Went to the toilet, then I was definitely hungry but wasn't feeling like eating much. I got a onigiri and 2 PingTung bananas from 7-11 and headed back outside to eat. An uncle asked if I needed a taxi and I shook my head.

Finished my meal, the banana was very tasty! 

Went inside, got my stamp, and bought a ticket, asked for seating near the luggage, for $410 to Zuoying. It's now 2pm and we can make the 2:14pm train.

The platform is open air. The ride was pretty uneventful and I just updated Airspot map. 

The platform at Zuoying is closed but the ppm was green, and yellow when in crowds?! That isn't bad! 

Went up and got the stamp (again since I got it last year), and then heard towards the MRT. 

A lot of people get off and on at Formosa Bvld Station. 

I got so confused at the elevators to transfer to the yellow line, I went up and down again. Turns out there are 2 elevators on the platform level. 

I got to Cianjin Station and it wasn't too bad a walk to the hotel. 

I checked in, and went to my room. 

And was horrified to find that the HVAC only runs when you put your room key card in. 

The ppm is 1800!!! Da fuq! At least the window can open! But even with it open for 2 hrs, the ppm is still 1500ppm+ with no one in the room. It's red everywhere in eye building. This is gonna suuuuck. 

I offloaded my luggage and my bag, and then headed out to Formosa Bouvard Station again for the anime con. 

It's kinda amazing they just have it, inside the station. 

There seemed to be a lot of stalls selling 2nd hand merch. You can see who has graduated from fandoms or had regret. Some were selling kuji prizes they didn't want or had to do to get the one they wanted. 

Some were doing a kuji for their merch! That's a pretty cool idea. Someone bought their cat.... 

And some stalls seemed to be retailers? Bit hard to tell. There were a couple artist stalls but not a lot. 

Look at the Touhou... 

Then I saw Ashi tabling?! And mused for a moment and decided to say hi. Hello Ashi... I decided to speak Mandarin LOL. I said to them they might but recognise me but I'm Alice! From NZ! They did recognise me and we had a chat and Ashi told me about Dandan Hamburger, a 南部 special.

We took a selfie and omg my dishelleved hair lol.

The a friend of Ashi's came so I excused myself to look at the rest of the stalls. 

I got to one and there was a really talkative girl behind one of the stalls, and she talked about Shingeki no Kyojin and how she marathoned it on 1.5x speed to try and catch up a few days before seeing the movie with her friend. But she unknowingly went over the episode where the movie picks up, lol, gg. So she spoiled herself haha. 

Only like 20 mins left, and a lot of the stalls were packing up. I ended up buying a print of older mahou shoujo series collage for $100, and then I saw a ditto sponge for $30 but I only had $29 in coins. They were like, it's OK!! Are you sure? Yes! TToTT

After that I headed back out, found the station stamps, and headed towards the exit but saw Ashi chatting to their friends. I decided to let them be and go back first. 

I debated whether to eat at night market or... Actually there is a Dandan Hamburger (upon recommendation of Ashi) nearby so that's my dinner! I also looked up a bakery nearby and went there first. Got some breads, and then went to Dandan. When I ordered I accidentally changed my chicken to a drumstick instead if a piece by saying the wrong word. Oops. 

The wait wasn't that long, and I got another banana from PinTung and a yoghurt from famimart on the way home. 

The hotel's HVAC is just horrible. Dinner was yummy! They had a spicy sauce packet which went down well with the noodles. 

Chicken was so crispy and tasty??? How is the bone so tasty????? Yes please... 

And a lemon cake from the bakery for dessert. 

Then after dinner I went to the coin laundry, but both machines were in use. One was almost done though. I realised I didn't have enough coin so went up a floor to reception to exchange some. 

Cool vintage in the laundry room

Made in Japan! 

Then went back down and the same foreign guy was there that arrived as I left. 

His load was just done and I put mine in. I was gonna wait but the air was just so bad I went back up. 

30 mins later I came back and it was finished. The same guy was there for his dryer load. I said to him I am top tired I'll air dry, as I left. He laughed. 

I went back and had just enough hangers for the clothes but the socks and undies I had to find places for... Undies went on the bathroom hooks and socks onto the basket tray that housed the mugs. 

Then took a shower, and blogged. Sleep now. I'm gonna have up leave the window wide open overnight...