Taiwan 2013 - Jia's Inn Liouhe

Base stop at Kaoshiung is at Jia's Inn Liouhe - It is near to Formosa Boulevard Station and Liouhe Night Market. Find the exit that leads you to Liouhe Night Market and from the stretch of road, just continue walking. You will find Jia's Inn at the right side of the road after 10 minutes walk. 

Read that the 70 rooms at the hotel are individually decorated - thus, your stay for the night is unique - A small hotel with small room but they are very clean with complete toiletry sets. For our room, there is a sofa with a coffee table - a nice way to relax after the long tiring day! Both the interior and the exterior of this hotel are real cool - give it a uptown feel. 

Breakfast is included in the price and the the breakfast area could be a little crowded - is a free-seating concept and thus, you will have to find a seat yourself without the help of the service crews. The self-service laundry service and free wifi are among the reasons for the choice.

Check out their website for more information -  for this hotel, we booked through some hotel booking website instead of directly through their website - thus, full payment was being made prior to the trip. No hassle at all. 

Jia's Inn Liouhe

Address:
No. 128, Liuhe 2nd Rd, Cianjin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
台灣 高雄市前金區六合二路128號 

Taiwan 2013 - Day 6 - Kaoshiung, Cijin Island

Today was a cycling day and off we went to Cijin Island (旗津島) at Kaoshiung area. The nearest station is Sizihwan Station (Orange line 01). Initially we thought of taking the ferry over to the island before embarking on the cycling trip. However, at the train station, we rented the bicycle for the whole day at NTD 90. Cheap deal but the catch would be we will be cycling along the cars and trucks to the ferry terminal. Really an experience which we would never do in Singapore. Cool thing was we could take the bicycle on board the ferry to Cijin Island, which will cost you NTD$15 NTD (less than S$1).

Here's the planned route within Cijin Island but well, since it was all about cycling, I think everyone could just go with the flow, not really a fixed route to follow:

旗津區風車公園 (Cijin Wind Turbine Park) – 旗津海岸公園 (Cijin Seaside Park) – 旗津天后宮 (Cijin Tianhou Temple) – 旗後山隧道 (Cihou Tunnel) -旗後燈塔 (Cihou Lighthouse) – 旗後砲台 (Cihou Fort)

As some places did not allow bicycles into the premise, we had to park our bicycle by the side and locked them with a chain provided by the shop. Ok, I guess no one really wanted to steal the bicycles. I simply loved the relaxing day with the nice weather - clear blue sky!

Beauty of Cijin Island

Almost spent the whole day at Cijin Island where we had seafood. There were a lot of seafood shops around selling fresh seafood. Not knowing which is a better shop, we just pop in to the nearest shop available. There, we ordered sashimi, calamari and some shell dish -  it was not very expensive and I can safely say that the food was really fresh. Thereafter, we went to a dessert shop to have some cold mango ice. Well, the shop is just next to the chinese temple near to the ferry terminal, you won't miss it. It was marvelous and refreshing - mango is indeed fresh as well!

Seafood Lunch and Mango dessert

Afterwhich, we went back to the main island and continued our cycling trail. As compared to Cijin Island, Kaoshiung's road traffic was heavier and so, please do take care when cycling along with the motorist. There, we visited the Takao Railway Museum, Love Pier/Pier 2 Art Centre (驳二艺术区) and any places that we happened to pass by which attracted our attention - a very random hop on and off kind of trail. The scenery was really a beauty! 

Beauty of Kaoshiung

After the whole cycling event, we went back to Liuhe Night Market (六合夜市) for dinner. Nearest station will be Formosa Boulevard Station which was near to our hotel. You got to try the papaya milk, it was really great with many famous people visited it as well. As for the other food, just buy whatever that caught your attention - Taiwanese street food is really up to standard. But do try out the dessert - red bean soy milk pudding - it was great especially after eating the main course. 

Food at Liuhe Night Market (六合夜市)

Time to rest for the next day - a day to see the sheeps. Like I said, weather at Kaoshiung had been great for us that my tan-line was formed. Boo-hoo!

Taiwan 2013 - Day 5 - Kaoshiung

Said Goodbye to the beach and off to Kaoshioung (高雄). Luckily for us, the weather had been great since we left Taipei.Time to leave Kenting. Here once last look at the place. Did I mention that the room come with a simple breakfast that we had to walk to a cafe blocks away.

Love sea 126

Like how we travelled to Love Sea 126, we took the car pool service back to Zuoying. We reached Kaoshioung before noon. Off to a Japanese Restaurant for lunch as we had 'enough' of Taiwanese food! After which, and we went to the Lotus Pond ( 蓮池潭) which is a a man-made lake and popular tourist destination. 

We started off the trail by taking a bus at the bus stop outside the train station to the Lotus Lake. It is a 15-20 minutes ride over, which only cost you NTD$15-20 (less than S$1). After alighting, we passed by the information centre. There, you can grabbed a map of the place. 

First, we visited the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas - zigzag entrance to the mouths of the dragon and tiger where you would pass by the pond filled with lotus leaves. I reckoned the view will be a beauty if the pond was filled with Lotus plants instead. When visiting the pagodas, we entered through the Dragon Pagoda and exit through the Tiger Pagoda.  We paid a nominal fee which in turn, we received 2 postcards. The view up at the Pagodas were great. 

Next up, we also visited the Spring Autumn Pavilion where there is a statue of the Goddess of Mercy riding a dragon. Walked a bit further and we reached the Polar God of Mystic Heaven - A magnificent statue. Our last stop was at the Confucius Temple - an impressive complex of buildings. Enter the premise and you can see some of the items used in the past - A history lesson done!

Lotus Pond and its surrounding attractions

After the walk under the hot sun, we were walked back to the train station which was just round the corner. From here, we took the train to Formosa Boulevard Station where we walked passed the Liuhe Night Market premise to reach our hotel - Jia's Inn Liuhe. A nice hotel stay which I will talk more about next time. 

Taking some time off to rest and wash up, we proceeded to Singuang Ferry Wharf (新光碼頭). Take the Red Line and get off at R8 (Sanduo District). Walk west down Sanduo 3rd Road towards the Harbour for 10-15 minutes. Alternatively, just asked anyone and they will be more willing to give you the directions. After the nice sunset, we went to Dream Mall (統一夢時代購物中心). The nearest station is R6 Kaishyuan Station and a shuttle bus service is available to fetch us to the Mall. Stay and shop if you love shopping. But instead, I went to the top floor to take the Ferris wheel. A nice nightview from the top. 

After some window shopping (well, we did not want to buy and lug our shopping items back to Taipei), we headed to Ruifeng Night Market (瑞豐夜市). The nearest train station is R14 Kaohsiung Arena Station and follow exit 1 or well, follow the crowd. According to the hotel service crew, tt is a very localised night market.

Singuang Ferry Wharf (新光碼頭), Dream Mall (統一夢時代購物中心) and some others

At Ruifeng Night Market (瑞豐夜市), we ate and played the market game. For NTD50, we were given 20 hoops where if we landed it at any item, it will be our prize! In total, our luck was not that bad, we won 3 items overall. As for the food, well, just buy whatever you would like to eat. No worries, they tasted great. We had a prata, 3-kind omelette, chicken chop and more! It was really very full!

Ruifeng Night Market (瑞豐夜市)

Time to head back to hotel to take a early rest. It had been a long day!

Address:

Jia's Inn Liuhe

No. 128, Liuhe 2nd Rd, Cianjin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
台灣 高雄市前金區六合二路128號 

Singuang Ferry Wharf
At then end of Singuang Road, Lingya District, Kaohsiung

Dream Mall
 No. 789, Zhōnghuá 5th Rd, Qianzhen District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan 806