South and West Taiwan

In transferring from Taitung to Kenting (right at the south of Taiwan) I caught a train and then a bus. It is easy enough to get around in Taiwan, despite a few language issues friendly locals are happy to point you in the right direction. The first thing that hit me about Kenting was how hot it was there. It was very sunny and the heat felt a good 10 degrees hotter than everywhere else in Taiwan.

I had booked a capsule hotel right in the heart of Kenting main tourism strip. I had always wanted to stay in a capsule hotel which is a very small room where you have to crawl in, and has these boxes stacked on top of each other. Luckily I had a bottom floor capsule so I didn't need to negotiate a ladder and a crawl at the same time. The dimensions were approx 3-4ft wide by about 7ft long and about 4-5ft high. It was very comfortable when you were inside having things that pulled out from the wall such as a TV and mirror made it feel more spacious than it actually was. The location mean't that it wasn't cheap, the Saturday night was even more expensive and was one of the most expensive nights I had spent in my travels since October.

Small Capsule Style Hotel

The hotel provided unlimited drinks and snacks which was a nice touch. Free laundry service also, which I took full advantage of, as I had a bag full of clothes that needed washing.

Kenting beach was really nice, the sand was good and the sea was not too cold. I didn't go in the sea, just had a walk up and down the quiet beach in the baking sun. Away from the beach there were some nice small mountains which I had planned to explore and see the caves the following day.

Kenting beach

The view away from the beach at Kenting

Kenting really comes alive after the sun goes down. Stalls line each side of the road for more than a kilometer selling local speciality food, clothes, games for children and a few cocktail bars. Just before dark as the night market was setting up I saw my two favorite words when put together Happy Hour.

I got myself sat on the veranda of a happy hour restaurant, ordered some food and people watched as the crowds begin to grow and grow. Disco's and bars were located behind the stalls with scantily clad girls trying to get you inside with offers of discount drinks or dance shows. It was nice just walking up and down the market and just taking it all in. I bumped into the guy (from Singapore) who was staying in the capsule above and we had a good chat. The guy in the capsule next to me had come off his scooter earlier and was in a fairly bad state. I'd not met him at this point, but Aaron went back to check up on him and we agreed to meet up for a drink after he had eaten dinner.

I found at the far end of the strip there were a few camper vans which had been converted into mobile bars. These were great to sit and and chat with other tourists, which were mainly young Taiwanese enjoying a weekend away.

One of the bars had a lovely dog called Money, who the owners had rescued as he was a former street dog. He was lovely and sat at the table next to me on the chair. He never attempted to move and play with his old stray dog friends when they came over, Money knew where he was well off. It did make me miss my dog Ben even more though.

Sharing a drink with my new mate Money

The cocktails were maybe stronger than I had first though which meant the next day I did nothing. I wasn't hungover, just I had no energy at all. I spent the day in the common room catching up on emails and general stuff on the internet.

I did venture out to try and arrange a bus ticket to Kaohsiung for the next day. A few taxi drivers were waiting by the bus station but nobody official to help. They were giving me duff information on how to get a ticket, it was all very frustrating. It wasn't a language problem, I think they wanted me to go via their taxi rather than take the cheap bus. In the end I thought I would sort this on the day tomorrow.

Come the evening I'd livened up a little and tried a few of the local delicacies from the food stalls, had a couple of drinks with some Taiwanese and had a relatively quiet evening. It was noticable how much busier the place had been than on the Friday night. One other thing of note was the young Taiwanese were throwing cocktails down their necks at a decent rate. I would imagine more than a few would be having lazy Sundays.

The next morning much more refreshed I encountered the same taxi drivers again, one of them 'helpfully' called his friend who had a minibus that could take me for a huge fee. A couple of local girls came to the bus stop and they were going to the same place as me and gave me all the information I needed.

Kaohsiung was next, just up the west coast. Whilst on route I found a couple of places to stay near the night market on the internet and highlighted them to call in. I liked the first place but the last wanted MORE than I could get it for on the internet. After a little period of negotiation, her in Taiwanese and me in English using a calculator we agreed on a price, but it was still higher than the internet, but only by 50p. I actually think I got a better room than the one on the internet, in the end we all seemed happy with the deal.

Central Park, Kaohsiung

I wanted to get another tower fix in and headed for the 13th largest building in the world, TuxTex Sky Tower. On the way I passed a bakers who was just getting some steamed pork buns out of the oven. $12TWD (25p) and it was absolutely delicious, it was really hot so it was a while before I ate it, but it was so good I was tempted to head back for another.

Tuxtex tower, 13th highest in the world

Tuxtex Sky Tower was quite impressive, I preferred it to Taipei 101 from the outside. The view from up top was classic. It was a nice day and I could see for miles. The price of going up had almost doubled from what was quoted in the recent Lonely Planet, but still a bargain at under £4.

View from the top

Obligatory top of the tower selfie

Whilst up the top I thought I'd get a coffee, somehow after chatting to the staff on the counter I ended up with an ice cream and waffle feast, my first splurge in ages.

Ice-cream and waffle feast - to be honest made me feel a little sick

I got back to the metro station coincidentally bang on 7pm and was treated to a light show in the underground station. It is the largest glasswork in the world. It is impressive, I think I preferred it without the light show however.

Formosa Boulevard Station MRT station

Dome of Light, lightshow

How it looks normally

I had a great tourism day following. I caught the reasonable priced MRT (Metro) to Lotus Pond area, It was more of a big lake and had plenty of nice authentic Chinese Temples plus some other more kitschy temples. I took many photo's I won't put them all on here as it would take hours to upload and send most of you to sleep.

First temple I visited wasn't even in the guidebook, it was a good one and you could climb the 5 floors to the top for a great view over the lake

Inside my first temple of the day

Team photo

Walking around the lake it was hot, very hot and I hadn't put any suncream on, neither had I remembered to bring any out with me, which was a bit of a schoolboy error.

The Dragon Tiger Pavilion

The Dragon Tiger Pavilion was great, you entered inside the dragons mouth and exited through the tigers mouth for luck. Fingers crossed it brings me some.

Entrance to the temple was through the dragons mouth

On my way in

The view from the top of the pagoda was very nice, I must admit I only climbed the 6 flights of stairs of the dragon pagoda.

Here I am stood upright and proud in front of the Dragon Tiger Temple

Across the street was a very impressive traditional style temple. A good one for me as it let me cool down from the sun.

Inside the traditional style temple

Further along the lake was the Spring and Autumn temple which featured Guanyin riding a dragon which you could walk through from mouth to tail, which of course I did.

Spring and Autumn Pavilion

The last temple of the day featured an imposing 24m high statue of Xuantian Shang-di (the Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heavon and guardian of the north - or so my Lonely Planet guide tells me).

Decent sized statue out into the lake

All that temple ticking and walking was supposed to be a full day trip, I did it in a couple of hours, so I managed to fit another 'full day trip' to the Island of Cijin. A few stops on the MRT and a short ferry ride I was there. Incidentally the price had risen from the 15 NTD quoted in my book to 25 NTD, still a bargain for just 50p. Another sign that prices are on rise in Taiwan.

Ferry selfie on the way to Cijin

Decent value 10 minute ferry ride 

The ride itself was short (about 10 minutes) and you got to see Kaohsiung skyline from a distance including the unmissable Tuxtex Tower.

Tuxtex Tower, by far the biggest building in Kaohsiung

Despite it been mid/late afternoon it was still hot, I still had no sunscreen on and was starting to turn a little pink. I was also fairly tired after the walking earlier in the day. Needless to say I pressed on, finding a walk that ran along the beach and was mainly sheltered by trees.

Cijin Beach

I walked for a good hour or two, not really with any destination in mind, just trying to put miles in my legs and keep out of the sun.

A decent shell sculpture that was huge

A found an indoor market which was selling dried fish products, thankfully the smell wasn't too bad. All the stalls were handing out free samples, some of which I took up on the offer, others I politely declined. One stall I did take up the free samples was the fruit vinegar wine shop. The lady in there gave me a sample of at least half a dozen - all very nice, apple and peach were my favorites.

Dried fish market 

One of my main purposes of visiting Cijin Island was to sample the ultra fresh seafood that was for sale down seafood street. Beautifully presented stalls selling all kinds of fish. I picked a stall and asked what was best, was prompted to choose squid, so I did.  It was ultra fresh, lightly BBQ'd and came with a chilly and salt dip. It was simple but absolutely delicious and I washed it all down with a nice cold Taiwan beer.

Fresh squid for dinner

That evening I ended back at the night market near my hotel, strolling up and down people watching.

Kaohsiung Night Market

I had a great time in Kaohsiung, I'd really recommend this place, I was sorry to leave after a couple of nights but had another great stop to look forward in Tainan.

Whilst on the train I was looking through the booking websites for places to stay in Tainan, one unusual place stood out for me, it was called H.G Barbershop and was a Barbers themed hotel/hostel. I like unusual places to stay so was attracted to this place and booked a single room. 

The hostel was above a traditional style barber shop, it had a lovely living space and with just 4 small rooms each with a barbers chair which laid down flat as your bed. Very unusual, very quirky but very good. I liked the owner she was great, very friendly and hospitable

A couple of nights at the barbershop with a barbers chair for my bed

I was the only guest staying and the owner (the daughter of the people that had the barbers downstairs) said she would come with me sight seeing for the day. I didn't catch where she said she would take me, but I was never going to turn down the opportunity of having a local guide, she was also very pretty with a great sense of humor, so it was a fun afternoon.

First up she took me to an art district in a former military area, it wasn't touristy and was quite nice to wonder around looking at mainly modern art housed in some traditional style Japanese houses.

We went out for lunch together and Odelia insisted on doing all the ordering, she did ask me if I would eat pigs intestines which I couldn't say I really wanted. What she ordered was a nice selection of local dishes, fish, rice, pork shavings, soup with dumplings. We had iced black tea and she bought some sweet rice cakes for dessert from a nearby stall. It was all delicious.

Lunch for 2

Next stop was a little bizarre, we went down a small alley and saw some people painting a cafe getting ready for it opening in a few weeks. Within 5 minutes we were on the third floor in the bakery kitchen sampling the breads and (Russian) beers that they were going to serve when the place opened. It was quite nice been a novelty foreigner in this house.

Bread and beer tasting in a bakers not yet open

The walking tour continued each alleyway opened up to a small square most having a temple or two in them. With each alley we went down I got more and more disorientated, at one point it felt we were going around in circles,

Small temple in one of the many squares around the alleyways

The heavens opened so Odelia took me to a department store, possibly the oldest in the country (I maybe wrong with that fact). Before running the hostel, Odelia worked with the architect who restored the department store and kept it traditional yet modern.  She took me around the exclusive store, pointing out design features, original furnishings and explained the process of getting the store ready for opening again. It was interesting, whilst we were on the roof balcony an almighty thunderstorm filled the sky.

Tainan department store in the rain

That night I found a beer store with an impressive collection. I sampled just two of them before dodging yet another rain shower on my way back to the barbershop.

Beer house

It took a little time to get comfortable sleeping in the barbers chair, but I had a surprisingly deep sleep, and woke without too many aches and pains. A good experience.

The following day I toured the Anping district using the barbershops free bike. The weather wasn't the best, but I had a route to follow and plenty of attractions to see. Parking the bike up, I headed on foot to walk the narrow streets of Anping, it was nice and I managed to spot most of the attractions I'd been told to look out for.

Temple in the Anping district

Another larger temple, with dragon boats outside for some reason

Next up was Anping Fort, it was while I was walking around here that the heavens started to open, and the rain got steadily heavier. At one point I needed to dive inside for cover.

Anping Fort

Nice gardens and flowers surrounding the fort

The rain was now failing heavily, there was one further attraction that I wanted to get in and that was the tree house. It is basically a house that has been totally taken over by a number of trees. It has recently been restored and wooden walkways installed so you can see it close up. By now however the rain was very heavy, and I had little shelter.

Treehouse, Tainan

I had to abandon the day trip and seek shelter as the rain was so heavy. It did stop later allowing me to walk to the night market, have some food and a couple of beers and back relatively early. Included in my stay at the barbershop was a free massage and a paid a small amount for a wet shave. Both the treatments were excellent.

Tainan bridge on my way to the night market

Part of my supper, fried new potato balls - delicious if non too healthy

I'd began to really like Taiwan, the food, the culture, the people. It was rapidly rising up my 'favorite countries I've been to' list.

Siem Reap, Cambodia. Wat, Wat, Wat!

I arrived in Siem Riep expecting the temples of Angkor to be the biggest highlight of my trip. Still with a poorly stomach I decided no food, a couple of vitamin waters and an early night would do the trick.

It worked the next day I was feeling almost human again. I had three days left so headed to the temples and got a three day ticket which was the same cost as two one day tickets.  

Day one I did some really impressive temples but saved Angkor Wat until a later day.  I did what was described as the small tour and planned doing the big tour either the follow day or the day after.



The start of the temple ticking

Some of the temples on the small tour were incredible.  Mind blowing in fact. My favourites had Buddhist heads sculptured into the temple, at first it was hard to see but when you looked around they were everywhere.  Another temple I liked had trees growing through it, remarkably (and no doubt with a little help from restorers) the temples remained intact.



Temple with Buddhist faces

Temple with tree growing through it

Still feeling a little gentle I decided to try out a local restaurant that always seemed busy. Genevieve's restaurant was created by an Aussie in memory of his late wife employing locals with no skills, training them up to give them a chance in life. The food and service was immaculate. I went on tripadvisor to leave my review I was that impressed but I'd been beaten to it by hundreds of other customers that made it number one choice in Siem Reap.

A mate of mine was in town, but a combination of a bad stomach and a very early start to see sunrise over Angkor Wat I declined to meet him for beers, as I felt the inevitable would have happened.

The second day temple ticking was as good if not better than the first. Watching the sunrise over Angkor Wat was glorious, but as soon as the sun had made it light enough to get photos, it was then shining directly on the camera. People with decent SLR cameras were getting great shots, almost better than the naked eye, but my photos were average at best.



Angkor Wat at dawn

One of the temples you had to cross a lake

Cows cooling down from the intense heat

The rest of that day I must have visited 6 or 7 other temples all great, but by the end I was flagging and a little bit templed out.

After a busy day and a few beers down the aptly named pub street.  Battenbang tourist board should visit Seam Reap to see what a real pub street should look like.   To be honest I didn't really like it down there preferring to find other cheaper bars or find bars with live bands. 


This is more like it, Battanbang take note

I took it easy the next day, deciding not to rush too much and slow things down.  I found out that the water festival was on in town in a couple of days so I extended my stay to 6 nights. Other than for test matches I rarely stay so long in one place. As I mentioned in my first blog I now had time to do this if I wanted, I needn't rush as I've got nowhere to rush to. 

Still in take it easy mode I spent the next morning by the pool updating my CV.  I had almost made up my mind to try an IT role again, but talks with 2 people who were teaching in Cambodia and Vietnam.  One a retired Doctor who did it for fun, but still had a reasonable salary, the other about my age took it more seriously and made a decent living from it.  The Doctor had done the TEFL training the other lad had no qualifications.



Office for the day

I had been told and shown some great photos of Angkor Wat as the sun set making it a better light to get good photos. I used my final day of my 3 day ticket to go back and get one last glimpse of the magnificent structure in the late afternoon.



Angkor Wat in better light

That night I found a cracking little bar out the back of the night market, it was selling very cold reasonably priced beers and had a guy doing an acoustic set which was very good and relaxing.  I liked that bar and stayed until the music finished.

My final day was at the river festival, which is to celebrate the end of the wet season (not that you would have known it) where the river changes direction for 6 months of the year. I'd never heard of such a thing and was sceptical but research on the Internet confirmed this.  I think it is the only river (Tonle Sap) in the world that does this. 

The festival was boat races along the river with thousands of locals lining the banks cheering the rowers on.  Hundreds of food outlets, stalls and fairground rides made it great to see locals letting their hair down.


Water festival boat races




It looked like it was going to be a proper party scene down at the festival at night and sure enough it was.  Loads of bands and stereos lined the river banks with impromptu bars set up selling cheap beer cooled in ice baths.  I was told to watch out for pickpockets and trouble makers but been twice the size of any local I never encountered any problems.




Water festival party at night

It appeared I had messed up my itinerary, all the tour agents were only selling bus tickets to Laos where you had to travel 6-7 hours in the wrong direction back to Phnom Penh making it a 14-15 hour monster bus journey.  After a bit of research I cane across a company that took a near direct route across a new road, doing the journey to Laos in about 8 hours including my ferry across to my first stop in Laos on (one of) the 4000 islands.  Anyone doing Siem Reap to Laos I'd recommend Asian Van Transfer, the minibuses are OK the information and timings are excellent. Been a single traveller I got to sit in the front all the way which meant I could stretch out and relax.

At the border I had to pay $2 to get the exit stamp from Cambodia. Pay a $1 visa handling fee in addition to the $35 visa fee and then also pay a $2 for my entry stamp into Laos.  The $35 was the official price but the other $5 had an air of been unofficial, however not much you can say when you want to get in but still leaves a bad taste.

With another full page visa stamp in my passport I was in Laos, another new country for me.