the DAY of the bike ride
It was meant to be a lazy day with us having the initial plans of spending it at a water theme park. We had thought of going to Kenting, with the nice beaches and all, but was put off by the two hours journey that was required. So, the water theme park which was situated in Kaohsiung itself would be better for a simple R&R day!Breakfast at the hotel was quite lousy, porridge with mostly vegetarian side dishes and for the international side there was just erm.. toast. The saving grace would be the pork floss, which went exceptionally well with the porridge or the toast and sufficient to keep me happy. Haha, ate almost 1 bowl of the pork floss. We also da-baoed up some together with bread for LH who as usual, cannot wake up!
At the bus interchange, we asked how to go to the Water Theme Park and were informed of the directions. Things started to go terribly astray when we reached there as there were hardly people on the streets and at the mall next to it. Weird. The entire place sort of resembled that of a ghost town? With some checking around, wah, the stupid water theme park closed down. What's the information counter at the bus interchange doing?!
Sigh. Disappointed and well, making the most out of a terrible situation, we headed towards a new shopping mall which we had spotted earlier. It kinda fit into the Singapore mould of shopping malls, as typical as they go, the same standard boutiques, design, feel! But there were 2 shops that stood out that made it worth our visit!
1) A shop that sold a bit retro stuff, but very much fashionable, and lots of other items but the picture here are of the sneakers, displayed on moving shelves, that go back and forth. The entire shop has a atas-theme to it, warmly lit, chandeliers, moving platforms, classy cabinets, and has a restaurant inside, for people to soak in the atmosphere. It's kinda similar to Tea Cosy at Plaza Sing, nice place too!
2) A Candy Shop that might not have the same variety as our local Candy Empire but it makes up for it in its novelty items, sweets packaged as magazines, syringe, wine bottle, condoms, sanitary pads, and many more. Haha.. oh well, we bought enough to have one of those "so light that you don't feel it" advertisement!
Well other than these, we went around manhandling the toys / rides.. =)
Time to leave the place and we took the free shuttle bus back to the main railway, by a stroke of luck, we alighted at this busy street, very night market sort. The street was filled with loads of students and we were one of the few tourists around, haha.. struck gold! The place where locals go and students, hmm, maybe we are older than them, but hey, mentality wise, food preference, should still be about the same? Right right?
Wee.. food foood foooood! We basically followed what the others were eating and weren't disappointed, the octopus ball thingy which is sold at Orchard also but cheaper and nicer here, some prata thingy, which sadly can't compare to local standards, though they eat it in a variety of ways, (we chose the one with pork floss) and some huge crispy crepe/pancake thingy.
We went back to the hotel after that to dump our shopping stuff and had a nice footbath in the tub! Ahh, felt damn good to rest those tired legs and giving them a well deserved massage + soak. So tired to go out again, but with the night still early, we headed towards the night market for the last time in Kaohsiung, spent searching for more interesting things to eat. On the list of Kaohsiung attractions, there were supposedly three fashion streets for shoppers but when we actually checked it out, the items there were more like for an entire previous generation, and we weren't from that era so we hurriedly left!
As the weekend was approaching, there were more street performers at the night market, a red indian music performing group as well as some goth chick playing the violin or something. Was looking around to see if there's anything to buy but the shopping desperations weren't around yet, so still had time to ponder. Oh while watching the indian performance, kept getting whiffs of the 臭豆腐... wah, haha, I can't stand it!
On to another highlight of our trip.
Scooter Rental!
We were on our way back to the hotel already, and happened to see a bike rental shop with prices quoted at around S$5 per hour. I can't remember who exactly suggested it, but there was the idea of renting a bike to ride around for fun. Haha, so off we go on our bike escapade! I approached the store owner and putting on a false air of confidence, said I wanted to rent a scooter and asked about the available range and rate. It was a good choice that we stick to the smallest capacity one!
He did ask for my driving license and all, but not sure whether he couldn't care less or that he couldn't read English, he approved my application anyway. As there were 3 of us but only 1 license, we chose 2 helmets, but nobody dared to ride pillion with me, so I rode off first and made plans to meet them on the opposite side of the road where the shop owner can't see us. Having never ridden a bike/scooter before, I had no idea how to put down the lock / brake (handbrake equivalent) and just rev the handlebars, which of cos led to lots of noise and the bike staying still. I had to sheepishly ask the store owner for assistance like I had forgotten such a basic thing, haha, bet he saw through it though as he had a look of doubt on his face but he still did helped me anyway.
When that was accomplished, the first start took me off on a quick start and jerked into the main road with heavy traffic, almost into the path of a bus! Not noticing the presence of the bus until he horned me and Andy/LH telling me to siam, haha, I had to quickly zham brake and use my feet to edge the scooter to the side of the road. So malu! Haha.. after that got out and pushed the bike to a less empty side of the road to start riding! It became much better on the 2nd try and had gotten the hang of the control.
... with better control ...
After that, we just keep letting each other try the bike, taking turns and just riding around a quiet street. The thing was, there was a police post at the corner and they do patrol around quite often so we were quite crazy riding there, but they didn't say anything although after a few times, we decided that's that and moved to a empty carpark for our mini scooter tour. Well, the whole purpose of the 1 hour rental wasn't to go places, it was just like for us to try out how it was and heh heh.. take photos!!
Going back time also very funny, cos it was a busy street outside and I had no guts to make a turn that involved cutting across a few lines of traffic so I stopped at the side road, and pushed the bike back. Haha.. the shop owner was once again quite scared when he saw me come back as such and straight away ask, "为什么用推的回来？" then he tested the bike immediately. Haha... ok la, it was definitely one of the more exciting moments of the trip, super adrenaline high!
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