Solo Trip - Taiwan (July 2023) - Kaohsiung God of Prosperity and Dinner

The last structure around the pond/lake was this gigantic looking God of Prosperity, the furthest of all the attraction. Walk I did towards it! I've come this far!

The entrance to the God. Interestingly, I walked past many mens playing cards nearby. I didn't know to be scared or not, but I just casually walked past them. A little bit history of my life. There was one stage in my life were I spend it in a gambling house in Penang. I've also worked in a aircon sale workshop were I was surrounded by contractors. Smoking men gambling wasn't something I was intimidated by. So that's the thing with me. No matter where I went, and there is a potential dangerous situation, all I have to do is think back about my hometown. If I can handle that, I can handle almost anything :)

The view from the God's platform was pretty amazing. I guess the guy out there was Confucious? I think I was supposed to walk there, but it was too hot and I was getting too tired. So camera zoom it is!

It was rather cool and windy here, so I lingered. There were also ducks around, and they were rather relaxing to watch. Here are a bunch of them on rocks. Kinda cute, right? After a while, I decided to walk back where I came from, and looked for the train station to get to my next destination. Boy was that are fruitless walk! I did find a station, but it was a rail train station. Since I was already there, I decided to redeem my ticket from KaohSiung to Tainan. Then I walked to KaohSiung Arena. There was a night market I wanted to go to. It was a super long walk.  In. The. Hot. Sun.

 There was a mall there. But mall was boring for me. It was still too early for night market, and I was very tired. I saw some stall outside the mall and decided to explore. They were selling crafts and snacks. Nothing I was interested in. 

And then I saw this sign and people queueing for it. Singapore Delicacy? It was Ice Cream Potong! Oh how nostalgic! I decided to support my adopted home but purchasing an ice cream from them, even though it was seriously over priced! But it was summer, and ice cream is always a good idea in this heat!

I got a strawberry ice cream and stand there in one corner as happy as can be :) After finishing the ice cream, I decided to forget about the night market and make my way back to the hotel instead. I decided I will stop at the Formosa Boulevard Station and walk back from there, passing my favourite night market along the way! Aren't all night market the same anyway? Why waste my time hanging around here in the heat? So off I went.

So. Erm. I was complaining about the heat right? But I was also authentically brought up Chinese. And seeing that mutton herbal soup drove some craving in me. As you will find out along the way, the irony of being Chinese and drinking hot soup in hot summer days is not a lesson I learnt from. I did it multiple times in this trip, lol. 

I ordered a bowl of mutton soup. And I have to request for rice too, which I found weird. In Malaysia or Singapore, when you order soup dish like this, usually the rice came with it as a set. But in Taiwan, sometimes the seller would look at me funny if I ask for rice. But I was, for a lack of better translation, a rice bucket. I was never too shy to ask for more rice. And the soup was good! I drank it dry! And then I went and bought some watermelon juice nearby. Ah.... Summer.....

I also saw this sotong stall at the night market, and decided to buy the popcorn sotong. It was the best thing KaohSiung has to offer! I came back the next day and bought the same thing again. It was served with a side of picked vegetables. And that pickled itself made the whole snack elevate to another level! I would 100% recommend this snack if you ever stopped by LiuHe Night Market in KaohSiung. Below is a close up of what it looked like. I would eat this every single night if I could :) And that was how I ended my 2nd night in KaohSiung.