Anytown, Taiwan

I left the chaos of Taipei for a more serene time in the south of Taiwan. My whole plan was to go for a scuba to add in my book, and I had heard that Green Island was the best. As planning went on, I got lazier and lazier and opted for the tourist (trap?) area of Kenting. My Lonely Planet was about 3 years out-of-date, so I had to work with a lot of guesswork and minus the HSR (High Speed Rail) that had recently been completed. I decided to take the regular line to Kaohsiung and take a bus to Kenting town.

The train ride was fun...6 hours, but at least I wasn't one of the unfortunates who had to stand most of that way. I'm not very good at planning and chose my ride at night, to get into Kaohsiung at midnight (with no hotel, and no view of Taiwan along the way). I chose a hotel close to the station, to save on time and sanity. It was decent...clean, but old and seemingly something straight out of a horror movie (the bathroom reminded me of "Psycho," except there was no shower curtain).

I set out when daylight hit to explore the town...from the guide, there wasn't a whole lot to see. And how.

Guitar shop

REAL bubble tea...not the kind you get that tastes like a fruit shake.
This is authentic...only $2US.

An electricity box.

Street

Sweaty me and the "Love River"

You can't make this stuff up.

A spiral structure

People hanging out by the river

Part of the walkway, riverside

A mosaic near a really dump-y tire store

Another street, around rush hour (I had forgotten it was Monday)

Typical cheap, delicious restaurant

I didn't really see any sights...just the river and the night market, which was somewhat similar to the one I went to in Taipei.
There were some strange things, like garbage trucks that played music like an ice cream truck, and people who have probably never seen a white person in real life (those people hanging out by the river...and a lady who forced her grandson to wave at me for approximately 5 minutes), and virtually NO OTHER TOURISTS. It was also hard to find information in English. But I feel like I got an impression of Anytown, Taiwan.

Overall, it was a nice break from tourist-y spots.

continued in Kenting...