Solo Trip - Taiwan (July 2023) - Kaohsiung Dragon and Tiger Pagoda (龍虎塔)

 

My friend dropped me off near the dragon and pagoda pavilion, and I made my way to it. As mentioned earlier, summer time seems to be renovation time for Taiwan tourist attraction. I was disappointed, but I've already read about the renovation after I have decided to visit KaohSiung. Oh well, I can always come back in the future, right? Taiwan was a relatively affordable and easy place for me to travel, except for the language of course :P

Although they were under renovation, I still think they looked stunning. Visitors were not allowed to enter the dragon or tiger mouth though. And surrounding it were tonnes and tonnes of lotus flower all over. What is with me and lotus flower? I sure saw a lot of them in 2023! I recall the beautiful white lotus I saw in Nagoya garden too. Just splendid :)

Here's a side view of the tiger. 

There was another pavilion slightly further out, so of course I walked towards it to explore. The structure was beautiful, but there was a man sleeping there too. So I didn't linger there for long. 

Next was a pond what was pretty mixed up, with a Kuan Yin ridding a dragon. After the encounter with men sleeping at the previous pavilion, I went to this one with more care. As I was walking around, I came across a family there and decided to tail them around the pond for safety reasons. 

The pond was relatively big, so this is the full view of it. But what was interesting was what happened next. 

The family that I was tailing walked into the dragon's mouth! They didn't went all the way in, just inside the mouth, took some photos and left! When it was my turn, I went nearer and took a photo of the dragon's mouth too. There were steps leading up to the mouth. Will there be any weird men inside if I went down up the stairs? Well only one way to find out! I figure it was a short dragon, I'll take a risk! Plus, I saw some CCTV around, should be safe!

It was a tunnel! And both side of the wall was illustrated the journey of human suffering, and more stairs inside, all the way down into the dragon's belly!

Down and down I went, into the abyss of hell. Seriously. I mean that in the most literal manner. The walls started illustrating the journey of hell, and the many levels of hell.....

In the middle of it, there was an alter. I guess this is where you pray for redemption? 

It was such a fun walk into the dragon's mouth! I couldn't helped my self and took multiple selfies inside :)

Here's me, a dragon with a dragon. Yes, I was born in the year of the dragon. Hence I've always been drawn to dragons. Year 2024 year of the dragon! I had so much fun during Chinese New Year hunting down dragons in Penang and also in Singapore! But that is a story for another post. Let me just wrapped up this one here first :)