Taiwan Round-Island by Train - 5. Kenting

Gorgeous panoramas and sandy beaches aside, Kenting gave us the most difficulties in itinerary planning among the 11 destinations of our Taiwan round-island trip. Reliable info was scarce on both the English (inadequate details) and the Chinese side of the Internet (filled with over-promising advertisements), leaving us with questions such as:

- Where to find a reliable English-speaking taxi driver?

- What to expect on a half or full day taxi hire?

- What to eat among hundreds of night market stalls?

- Can't we get an authentic seafood dinner on a moderate budget?


Documented below are answers to our own questions, an honest record of two memorable nights spent at one of the most beautiful corners of Taiwan.


Getting There by Public Transport

Public transport to Kenting wasn't as complicated as feared: Kaohsiung MRT to Xin Zuoying high speed rail station, then Bus 9188, a comfy highway coach reaching Kenting within 2.5 hours. The same bus also stops at the nearby train station of Fangliao, which we found convenient for our return leg when we hopped back onto a TRA train en route to Taitung on the East Coast.

Getting Around

The half-hourly Kenting Street Car -- really a glorified local bus -- was reliable for getting us between lunch at Hengchun town and our hotel at Kenting, with options of reaching the Museum of Marine Biology or the Eluanbi Lighthouse at the far ends of the route. But the bus doesn't run past 18:00, meaning that we had to head back to Kenting Main Street for dinner.

But most importantly, the bus does not reach the picturesque east coast of Hengchun Peninsula and the most scenic part of Kenting IMHO. That's why we needed to hire a taxi.


Finding an English-Speaking Taxi Driver

For readers looking for an English-speaking taxi driver in Kenting, we highly recommend A-Xuan whom we hired for a half-day of sightseeing along the eastern coastline.

Golden-tanned from years of surfing Kenting's windy beaches, A-Xuan would be easily mistaken for any typical Taiwanese millennial, characteristically polite and presumably speaking minimal English ... until you listen to his past stories of working various odd jobs in Australia! Normally he leads larger Mainland Chinese tour groups, but recurrent diplomacy rows between Taipei and Beijing often make him and his van available for hire.

A-Xuan drives a 7-seater minivan at the time of writing, and operates out of Kenting / Hengchun with the option of pick-up / drop-off at Kaohsiung. Please leave me a message below if you need his contact info.


What to Expect on Half Day Taxi Hire

Kenting's taxi drivers have unified itineraries and prices for half and full day tours. At the time of writing, half day tours cost TWD2000 (CAD$87) per taxi with a choice of two possible routes, roughly tracing the east coast and west coast of southern Hengchun Peninsula. The full day tour, costing TWD3000, is simply a combination of both the east and the west coast routes.


A-Xuan met us at our hotel in Kenting at 08:00 and dropped us off at Hengchun (or back at Kenting had we preferred so) just past noon. Our four-hour private tour started with the southern coast of the national park, marked by the Sail Rock and its neighbouring beach of dramatic white sand and turquoise waters, off-limits to all except nesting sea turtles.


Within 50 minutes we reached the most photographed sight in Kenting, the historic Eluanbi Lighthouse originally built by the island's Qing Dynasty governors as a fortified citadel against potential attacks by Taiwanese aboriginals.


A few hundred metres southeast of the lighthouse was the southernmost tip of Taiwan. From where we stood, the nearest island of the Philippines was merely 150 km away.


From the lighthouse we drove north along the windswept eastern shore to my favorite stretch of Kenting, the sea cliffs of Longpan Park and Fengchuisha with their endless panorama of the Pacific Ocean. Visible on the horizon was the offshore tropical isle of Orchid Island, 2 hours away by ferry, and the next closest land at this latitude would be Hawaii.


Further north the coastline becomes increasingly rugged until it all culminates at the dramatic rock formations of Jialeshui. Here the public road ends, and all visitors must disembark and continue the journey on hourly scheduled tours by electric golf carts.


Eccentric eroded rocks resembling chessboards, toads or sea lions abound along this 2 km stretch of extraordinarily jagged shorelines, assaulted constantly by the same typhoon-sized waves that have attracted Taiwan's best surfers.


Meanwhile A-Xuan awaited us for over an hour at his van, parked next to the flying fish and calamari being sun-dried at the refreshment stand. As our half day tour was approaching the end, A-Xuan would chauffeur us to one final attraction closer to the town of Hengchun.


Just beyond Hengchun's Qing Dynasty fortified gates was the quaint sight of unattended flames fueled by underground natural gas seeping through the region's porous ground, impressive at night probably but hardly visible during daytime. From Hengchun we had the choice of returning to our hotel at Kenting Main Street, but we opted to be dropped off here for a taste of an authentic Taiwanese rural town.


At Hengchun's quaint town centre we thanked A-Xuan for four delightful hours along Kenting's picturesque eastern shoreline and bid him farewell, but not before soliciting three excellent restaurant recommendations for his hometown.


Authentic Cheap Eats at Hengchun Town

Arguably Hengchun's best known export, Xiaodu Baozi (see map) has elevated the humble steamed bun to the degree of national renown, shipping their handmade baozi across Taiwan on web orders. A-Xuan recommended the classic Duck Egg Yolk with Shiitake Mushrooms and Pork (Danhuang Xianggu Roubao) while I also picked a Spicy Meatball (Lashizitou) Steamed Bun at TWD40 each. While both were enjoyable, our driver's recommendation was of course the better bet.


This nostalgic little eatery was our favorite find in Hengchun Town.

Personally recommended by A-Xuan, Abo's Mung Bean Paste (see map) is your classic Taiwanese family operation specializing on one menu item, perfected by old grandpa decades ago as a street vendor. Its success has apparently sprouted half a dozen copycats within its 200m radius, but as our driver pointed out, this is the granddaddy of them all.


The humbly named Mung Bean Paste (Ludouzhuan) is more complicated than it sounds -- the tiny beans have to be deshelled by hand and beaten into a chunky mush, mixed with tapioca jelly then drenched in an old-fashioned syrup of Taiwanese brown sugar. The classic combination of mung beans and chewy artisan-made jelly is unmistakably analogous to similar desserts from adjacent Teochew across the Taiwanese Straight, accentuated here by a delightful depth of flavor from tropical cane sugar.


One block south of the dessert shop was yet another cheap eatery recommended by our driver. While Wang's Sesame Noodles (see map) did serve a good range of hearty lunch options, we took the hint from the neighbouring tables and ordered the local favorite of Dried Noodles in Sesame Paste.


Other dishes were unmemorable but the noodles were spectacular as promised, perfectly al dente, swimming in the fragrance of roasted sesame and served with an optional dollop of garlic-chili paste. Between the three eateries we spent only TWD120 (CAD$5.2) per person, with change to spare for fresh fruit (Taiwanese pineapples!) at the local wet market (see map).

Bill for Two Persons

Steamed Baozi x 2	TWD 80
Mung Bean Dessert	TWD 40
Dried Noodles in Sesame Paste (Small)	TWD 40
Blanched Yam Leaves	TWD 30
Blanched Water Spinach	TWD 30
Pork Meatballs in Soup	TWD 20
TOTAL	TWD 240 (CAD$10.4)

While Hengchun Town offers Kenting's best eats in terms of authenticity and price, the lack of public transport in the evening restricted us to Kenting's touristy main drag where cheap dinners were nearly impossible to find. Our first stop was the (in)famous Kenting Night Market, arose out of necessity when seasonal tourist demands for informal peasant grub greatly overwhelmed the capacity of its overpriced Thai/American/Italian restaurants. Here we sampled 6 different stalls. Some were recommendable; some were not.

Authentic Eats at Kenting Night Market

Tip #1 -- Don't automatically assume that Kenting Night Market (see map) serves crappy food simply because of tourist infestation. The pictured 50-year-old sausage cart churned out the best Grilled Taiwanese Sausages out of the 7 different night markets we visited across Taiwan.


Get the grilled sausage in Kaoliang Liquor flavor -- you'll thank me for it. A reasonable TWD100 (CAD$4.3) buys you three sausages, which also comes in regular, black pepper, and flying fish roe flavors.


Tip #2 -- Even if you can't find anything local and creative, you can always fall back on franchised night market stalls such as the ubiquitous Big Sausage in Small Sausage (hailing from Taichung's Fengchia Night Market) or the pictured Papa's Garlic Fried Chicken (originated from historic Lukang).


Again, TWD100 (CAD$4.3) buys you a snack box of popcorn chicken in original garlic, zesty lemon, powdered cumin, or Thai spices, marginally cheaper than KFC but more interesting in its range of localized flavors.


For something fancier and local to Kenting, a neighbouring cart featured live clams freshly steamed to order, available in original, black pepper, garlic or spicy chili, again for TWD100. The final product turned out less salivating than it looked as the umami sweetness of the clams was entirely overpowered by the unevaporated rice wine.


Taiwanese ingenuity in utilizing every edible part of the domestic fowl was demonstrated at the popular stall known locally as Yongbo Tea-Smoked Duck, specializing in various exotic cuts from duck heads (2 for TWD100) to tongues (7 for TWD100) to hearts and livers (also TWD100).


Here we have Taiwan's version of charcuterie meats, steeped in the vendor's own secret marinade and generally served cold as a quick street bite or even an entree for a busy family. The duck tongues turned out slightly under-seasoned, though I quite enjoyed the largely-deboned quarter duck especially with a squeeze of calamansi juice.


Finding my favorite Taiwanese Sausage was already a surprise at Taiwan's most touristy night market, but the likelihood of also discovering my favorite night market dessert was just improbable considering its universal bad rap. Perhaps it was my lucky day, but there was something special about this popular dessert stand known as QQ Dannai.


Far from your standard tapioca pearls ubiquitous in Taiwan's national drink, these gelatinous brown orbs have been infused with local artisan-made brown sugar for that extra complexity and richness in flavor. Normally I steer clear of bubble tea after the recycled rubber scandal from years past, but these were simply impossible to resist.


Tip #3 -- Keep an eye out for fruit trucks for the best deals on fruit. If you're craving for healthy fibre like I was after several nights of deep-fried meaty night market grub, come to Kenting Night Market after 22:00 and look for the randomly appearing truckloads of fresh pineapples, mangoes, pitahayas or whatever else is in season. On this night a large, ripe sugar-apple and a red pitahaya cost TWD110 in total, easily a 40% discount compared with Taipei.

Bill for Two Persons

Grilled Taiwanese Sausages x 3	TWD 100
Garlic Fried Chicken	TWD 100
Steamed Clams	TWD 100
Tea-Smoked Duck (1/4 duck)	TWD 150
Duck Tongues x 7	TWD 100
QQ Dannai	TWD 50
Bitter Melon and Pineapple Juice	TWD 60
Sugar-apple	TWD 70
Red Pitahaya	TWD 40
TOTAL	TWD 770 (CAD$33.5)

Dinners at Taiwanese night markets are seldom dirt cheap -- that's what Minced Pork Rice is for -- and we ended up spending nearly TWD800 as a couple. The next evening we took a local's recommendation for an authentic Taiwanese seafood dinner, and it didn't cost much more.

Authentic Cheap Seafood Restaurant

XIANGZINEI (Kenting) (Location Map)

This is likely the first ever English review for this hidden gem, concealed within the dark alleys between Kenting Main Street and the beach. While the name of Xiangzinei literally means "in the alley," this unfussy mom-and-pop shop of 8 tables is anything but unknown to the locals. We arrived early at 18:15 on a weekday in the low season, and still waited 30 minutes for our turn.


This place is popular for good reasons: daily catches from the local fishermen, reasonable prices, and authentic Taiwanese flavors as exemplified by these Stir-Fried Clams with Basil, fresh, fragrant and perfect with steamed rice. Now that's a killer combination against Kenting's overpriced American-wanna-be BBQ joints.


My favorite Taiwanese seafood is probably the humble baby oyster, steamed, stir-fried in omelettes, or deep-fried here and served with a light dip of peppered salt. Needless to say this was my favorite dish of the evening.


For a veggie stir-fry we ordered two native Taiwanese delicacies that we had never encountered outside of the island. The fruity acidity of pickled glue berries was pleasantly refreshing after the deep-fried oysters, and the slimy mouthfeel of the witch's butter -- not my favorite by the way -- was reminiscent of snow ear fungus in Chinese desserts.


Highlight of the evening came last in the form of a whole parrot fish, freshly steamed in an almost Cantonese presentation with sweet soy sauce and green scallions. The long queue of diners at the storefront persisted as we finished our four courses, a testimony to the price-quality-ratio of this immensely popular local eatery where we spotted zero foreigners.

For readers visiting Kenting, Xiangzinei is located in an alley perpendicular to Kenting's main drag, about 70m east of Dawan Road where the large Pailou gate stands. Refer to the picture above for the external appearance of the restaurant, and ask the locals if in doubt.

Bill for Two Persons

Deep-Fried Oysters	TWD 202
Stir-Fried Clams with Basil	TWD 202
Stir-Fried Glue Berry and Witch's Butter	TWD 152
Steamed Parrot Fish	TWD 450
Steamed Rice	TWD 10
TOTAL	TWD 1016 (CAD$44.2)

It's been a long winded post, but I should document where we stayed in Kenting as it was a neat, friendly and relatively cheap hotel.


Where We Stayed

We took a chance and booked Tranquil Sea six months in advance, convinced largely by its reasonable prices and convenient location -- 3 minutes' walk from the bus stop, 2 minutes to Kenting Night Market and 2 minutes to the beach. And once we got past the love-hotel-esque decor, the size and amenities of our room was probably the nicest amongst our 9 hotels in Taiwan.


On the last day we watched the sunset from the rooftop balcony, a stone's throw from Kenting's sandy beach where we spent much of our afternoon wetting our feet in the crashing waves. Two nights was a luxury at this tropical national park, after which we would resume our round-island trip by train towards to the sparsely populated east coast of Taiwan.


IF YOU GO

At the time of writing, the quickest and most reliable means of public transport is Bus 9188 from the Xin Zuoying high speed rail station in Kaohsiung, taking roughly 2 hours to arrive at the major town of Hengchun or a further 15 minutes to reach the tourist district inside Kenting National Park.

Bus 9188 (and the slower 9189) also stops at the nearby train station of Fangliao, roughly one hour from Kenting and useful for train transfers especially if you're on a round-island trip like us.

Taiwan Round-Island by Train - 4. Kaohsiung

Home to one of the world's most gorgeous metro stations, dazzling open-air art installations and seriously addictive night market eats, the Southern Taiwanese metropolis of Kaohsiung was the fourth stop of our self-guided round-island tour of Taiwan by train.


This was a beautiful Sunday at the Giant Luggage by the old industrial port, now one of the city's most attractive green spaces where dating couples stroll next to a whale-sized brass trumpet and evocative steam engines preserved on the decommissioned tracks.


Quaint cafes like Hey Go pervade this former industrial quarter, a contraction of Kaohsiung's past century of transformation from a Japanese colonial port to a vital export hub during Taiwan's economic miracle of the 1970s to a 21st century international trade centre.


Better known for its charming public art than industrial sprawl nowadays, Kaohsiung was just 28 minutes on the express train from our previous stop of Tainan, a stark contrast between Taiwan's Qing Dynasty capital versus contemporary urban planning and aesthetics.


Kaohsiung is one of several Taiwanese cities with its own metro system, allowing us to deviate from our usual routine of booking our hotel next to the train station. IMHO the most convenient area for a short tourist stay is Formosa Boulevard where two metro lines intersect, making it one metro ride away from TRA trains (Kaohsiung Station), high speed trains from Taipei and express buses to Kenting (both at Xin Zuoying Station), as well as the plethora of tourist attractions at the Sizihwan / Pier-2 / Cijin Island area.


Our room at Centre Hotel turned out to be slightly noisy and small, though quite clean and very cheap when booking a few months in advance (we saw other guests paying almost 50% more for later bookings). More importantly we were five minutes away from one of Kaohsiung's most popular night markets.


This was our third night market in three nights, at three different cities.

Conveniently located at the centre of Kaohsiung, Liuhe Night Market once enjoyed immense popularity as one of Taiwan's most visited attractions until the recent period of ice-cold diplomacy between the ruling anti-communist DPP and Beijing. As visitors we certainly enjoyed this breathing space with the lack of Mainland Chinese tourists, who would inevitably return if a KMT government returns to power. Enough about politics, onto the food.

ZHUANGJI SEAFOOD CONGEE (Liuhe Night Market, Kaohsiung)
Location Map

This is Liuhe Night Market's absolutely unmissable stall, if you trust former president Ma Ying-jeou who was spotted dining here on New Year's Eve, sitting on the same wobbly chairs and chowing down on Kaohsiung's signature peasant dish, the Seafood Congee.


We're talking a savory thick rice porridge, full of Umami flavors with generous helpings of de-shelled crab legs, shrimps, clams, calamari and best of all, little baby oysters. To be honest I still prefer our wonderful Fish Congee in the morning at Tainan's A-Tang, but this night market stall features an even more delicious (as per my tastebuds) creation.


This dish was one of my favorite memories of Kaohsiung, an entire plate of de-shelled baby oysters, traditionally seasoned with fermented black beans, julienned onions and my favorite herb in Taiwanese cooking, the aromatic Asian basil. I wasn't sure if I should be surprised by the freshness of the oysters at a cheap open-air eatery, but this was the most worthwhile TWD 150 (CAD$6.5) spent at Taiwanese night market stalls, which aren't always cheap.

TSAI JIA MULLET ROE (Liuhe Night Market, Kaohsiung)
Location Map

A more expensive delicacy beckoned next stall in the form of Sun-Dried Mullet Roes, the famed Black Gold of Kaohsiung harvested every winter when schools of spawning mullets swarm pass the local shoreline yielding its luscious caviar, highly esteemed by the Taiwanese as Wuyuzi and the Japanese as Karasumi. Tsai Jia is known as a farm-to-market outlet with a night market presence, but that doesn't mean the caviar gets any cheaper.


The price was TWD 50 (CAD$2.2) for a 2cm x 2cm square, brushed with Sorghum liquor, lightly roasted on the spot and garnished with daikon radish and green scallions to balance the oiliness of the caviar. Exceedingly rich-flavored and slightly chewy, its popularity as a classic drinking snack is easily understandable.

HONGJIABAO BLACK PEPPER BISCUITS (Liuhe Night Market, Kaohsiung)
Location Map

The mullet caviar was a little rich for my working class palate to be honest, and I much preferred these no-nonsense Black Pepper Biscuits (Hujiaobing), hand-wrapped in front of your eyes and baked in a special barrel-shaped roaster engineered into the mobile cart.


Scrumptious sesame pastry on the outside, savory minced pork with a heavy dose of black pepper inside. Don't get scalded by the bubbling hot meat juices -- bite a small hole off the pastry and wait for the meat juices to cool down like the locals do.

HOME OF BARBECUED MEATS (Liuhe Night Market, Kaohsiung)
Location Map

If queue length is the most reliable indication of quality, the plainly named Home of Barbecued Meats (Kaorou Zhijia) should certainly rank among Liuhe Night Market's best. Everyone has to queue twice -- once to get to the stall to choose your favorite ingredients, then waiting another 20 minutes on the sideline until your choice gets expertly barbecued by the chef.


Akin to the now-elusive Yakitori stalls on Japanese streets, Taiwan's night market version mainly serves various cuts of chicken such as wings, skin and gizzards but complemented by a wider range of ingredients including pork belly and even okra. Here we ordered a chicken leg (TWD 80), a pork skewer (40), chicken skin (25), green beans (30), okra (30) and shiitake mushrooms (30). Drenched in a sweet glaze characteristic of Southern Taiwan and perfectly charred, our selection of meats and veggies served as a filling dinner entree for about CAD$10.

ZHENG LAOPAI PAPAYA MILK (Liuhe Night Market, Kaohsiung)
Location Map

Last but not least, there is one legendary stall at Liuhe Night Market that nobody should miss.

This modest yet extremely popular stall, now more than a half century old, is said to have pioneered Papaya Milk Smoothie before it became THE signature drink at all Taiwanese night markets. Look closely at the signatures of local celebrities on the highly treasured store sign, and you'll spot names like Ma Ying-jeou and Lien Chan, some of Taiwan's most powerful politicians of the past generation.


Options were aplenty from wax apples to guavas to sugar canes, and we chose the local favorite of white bitter melon, believed by the Taiwanese to return the body to a balanced Yin Yang after too much oily night market grub.

LAOJIANG BLACK TEA AND MILK (Liuhe Night Market, Kaohsiung)
Location Map

While not officially part of Liuhe Night Market, this 60-year-old fixture, just a couple block south on Nantai Road, churns out a killer Black Tea Latte with a noticeably brown sugar-flavored and stronger tea compared with relative newcomers like the omnipresent 50 Lan. Our final tab for an evening at the night market piled up to more than TWD 700 for two hungry travelers, certainly fulfilling but not as cheap as one might think!

Bill for Two Persons

Seafood Congee	TWD 120
Steamed Salted Oysters	TWD 150
Roasted Mullet Roes x 2	TWD 100
Black Pepper Biscuit	TWD 40
Assorted Barbecued Skewers	TWD 235
Bitter Melon and Honey Smoothie	TWD 60
Black Tea Latte	TWD 40
TOTAL	TWD 745 (CAD$32.4)

Still thirsty? Taiwan's national beer draws from its 100-year-old Japanese-inherited brewing tradition and occasionally comes up with innovative (though not always successful) flavors like pineapple, orange or grapes. I was really liking the honey beer at 4.5% alcohol -- it was just like mead to my tastebuds!


The next morning we left our heavy luggage at our hotel and starting our day at the neighbouring Formosa Boulevard MRT Station, Kaohsiung's quintessential landmark and one of the world's top 10 most beautiful metro stations according to CNN Travel. Proclaimed as the world's largest glass work of art, the Dome of Light and its 4000 glass panels took over four years to manufacture and assemble.


A few minutes from the terminus of MRT's orange line is the little ferry for historic Cijin Island, a natural breakwater for the port of Kaohsiung and possibly the city's first Chinese settlement, now famous for its 19th century lighthouse and Mazu Shrine.


For us Cijin's main attraction was a water's edge panorama of Kaohsiung, stretching from the 19th century British Consulate at Takow to the 21st century skyline dominated by the 85 Sky Tower, once Taiwan's tallest building before Taipei 101 stole its glory. We did watch some beach volleyball and sampled some deep-fried cuttlefish balls and coconut water, before taking the 7-minute ferry back to Sizihwan.


This was colonial Kaohsiung's earliest city centre, the southern terminus of a rail connection to Tainan still known by its Japanese name of Hamasen (i.e. Shore Line), or at least the Sinicized pronunciation of Hamaxing. The old Takaw Station and its antiquated switching yard have since been reborn as the so-called Hamasen Railway Cultural Park, adorned with family-friendly open-air sculptures and crisscrossed by a new state-of-the-art (and controversial) Light Rail tram.


IMHO this is Kaohsiung's best attraction for tourists and local families alike, a beautifully reclaimed green space adjoined by one of Taiwan's most successful art districts. Consisting of several disjointed groups of formerly abandoned warehouses, Pier-2 Art Centre has been reinvented as the city's hotspot for art exhibitions, artisan workshops and charming one-of-a-kind retailers.


Everyone's favorite part of Pier-2 is a miniature version of Taiwan High Speed Rail -- or JR's Shinkansen N700 to train buffs -- running on a 5-inch guage and carrying children and grandparents alike around the old shipping warehouses every 30 minutes as part of the Hamasen Museum of Taiwan Railway.


Surrounding these 4-storey murals is an ecosystem of performance theatres, an Eslite bookstore, trendy cafes and a mixed bag of independent stores from up-and-coming fashion designers to eccentric stationery goods to craftsmen for handmade guitars.


Occasionally repainted in conventional white or oiled brass in this case, the 9-metre-tall Gundam model towered over an adjacent swap meet today where film camera collectors came to trade their prized Hasselblads and Minoltas.


Art installations appear to be added and removed on an sporadic basis. The popular new addition during our visit was an igloo-like structure known as the Musical Score of Chairs, a touchable, navigable circular fort assembled from more than a thousand stacked wooden chairs.


Upon entering the sculpture's interior one would notice the name of the elementary or secondary school where each chair originated, providing a warm dose of nostalgia for every Taiwanese visitor and a second life to the recycled chairs.

The charming combination of Pier-2, Hamasen and Cijin Island should occupy most visitors for a half day or more and likely require fueling up with some authentic local eats. Here is what we found.

MIAOHOU SEAFOOD CONGEE (Kaohsiung)
Location Map

Next to Sizihwan MRT Station is a no-nonsense, semi-open-air eatery housed in an unattractive steel-framed shelter serving the same seafood congees and fish soups as most of the tourist-themed eateries on Cijin Island. Except that no waiter would try to up-sell you on some exorbitantly priced live seafood at this location.


While the rice porridge wasn't quite as umami compared with the aforementioned Zhuangji at Liuhe Night Market, the assortment of seafood including milkfish skin, shrimp, oysters, calamari and clams made it a filling brunch along with a plate of marinated beef and tendons and some stir-fried yam leaves.

NARA KOJIKI (Kaohsiung)
Location Map

In the midst of Pier-2's warehouses we stopped at the Japanese-Taiwanese cafe of Nara Kojiki, which served up a decent shaved ice in the classic combination of Matcha and sweetened Azuki beans, topped with cubes of milk pudding and a ball of ice cream for TWD 150, not the cheapest by local standards but quite reasonable by Taipei standards.


We were happy to encounter a Sunny Hills until we discovered that this was solely a cafe serving its signature juices and Kyushu-influenced sweets like Honey Kasutera, and not a retail outlet for its popular pineapple cakes.

Bill for Two Persons

Seafood Congee	TWD 120
Marinated Beef and Tendon	TWD 60
Stir-Fried Vegetables	TWD 50
Shaved Ice with Matcha, Azuki Beans and Condensed Milk Jelly	TWD 380
TOTAL	TWD 380 (CAD$16.5)

Our 24 hours in Kaohsiung was nearly up as we took the metro back to Formosa Boulevard for our heavy luggages, then onward to Xin Zuoying Station where we would temporarily veer off the main train route. Continuing anti-clockwise around Taiwan on our 11-day journey by public transport, the next logical stop would bring us to the National Park of Kenting.

IF YOU GO

Kaohsiung is less than 2 hours from Taipei by high speed rail which terminates at the suburban Xin Zuoying Station with a metro connection to city centre, or about 4 hours by conventional TRA trains which stops at Kaohsiung Main Station closer to downtown. If you're on a round-island trip like us, large luggages can be left at coin lockers or attended luggage rooms at either Xin Zuoying or Main Station.