My first week , nothing like staying up all night to watch a boat burn to cure jet lag

Upon arriving to Kaohsiung I was quite tired and yet very excited to see John. I was, however, disappointed to find that my luggage had not arrived with me and the one dress that I choose to wear to see him was all I could wear for…indefinitely? Who knows. It worked out though because John’s principal, who was there to pick me up gave him the day off to take me shopping. When we pulled up to our apartment I couldn’t believe we lived there. The outside looked like a 4 star beach hotel equipped with a fountain, pool, flowers and plants, as well as a stream made out of concrete. Too bad the pool and the rest of the water structures was empty but it still looked really cool. We’re still not sure why they do not have anything filled with water.

Anyways my first day (Wednesday) was crazy. I awoke to the music playing garbage truck and was too excited to sleep any longer. It was hard for me not to get freaked out about John driving his motor scooter around with all the craziness going on. He was getting annoyed after a while . Apparently, stop lights, lanes and lane directions, speed limits, as well as a proper amount of space between vehicles are just mere suggestions here. John took me to a great Thai restaurant called Ta Tar City. They gave us free food of Shrimp curry. We ate like kings for $10. Then John tried to take me shopping but did not mention the women here wear jeans, sweaters, and sweatshirts when it is like 90 degrees outside. Since then it has been a struggle for me to find clothes that not only fit but are, in my opinion suitable for this hot climate. Then John took me to a delicious night market for dinner. For around $3 I can get anything grilled that I want. I choose the pork rolled with green onions and peppers. Delicious!

On Thursday John showed me how to take the train to Kaohsiung and the subway around Kaohsiung. I instantly fell in love with the place as it was exactly how I imagined a big city in Asia to look. The night market he took me to was also shopping heaven. Shoes for $12, dresses for $3. What could a girl not love? I decided I needed to go back there often.

On Friday we went to Donggang for the Boat Burning Festival. It only happens once every three years. The Taiwanese spend about $300,000 (US) to burn this boat that is filled with money, gifts, and ghost paper. Donggang is a city that often gets flooded from typhoons and much illness and disease come from it. Thus, they take this boat around the city and gather up all of the bad demons to promote wealth and longevity. With little planning or packing John and I jumped onto his motor scooter and headed there. It took about an hour and we were both relatively sore by the time we got there. We had problems finding a hotel and saw a sign in Chinese pointing to some alley with a place that looked like a hotel. We went there only to find that it was a family’s house but the daughter spoke English. The family was so nice they spent over a half hour calling hotels and giving us prices. Then the father got on his motor scooter and had us follow him to a hotel, which for $70 was about the classiest hotel I have ever seen. So after dropping off our stuff we headed to the 7 eleven where we could buy all the snacks and beer we wanted for 24 hours. We knew we would need it because it was only about 11 p.m. and the boat didn’t burn until 4 a.m. I got to meet some of the other foreign teachers that John had met during the first week of his stay in Taiwan. All were very nice and had some good ideas about looking for jobs. The travel book mentioned that this festival was long and agonizing, and it was right! After about 3 hours of standing, drinking, and eating we were about done in. Then the boat started to move and about 100,000 people followed it to the Ocean. This was a long, hot walk but worth it once we got to the Ocean and were able to see some stars and the moon. By 4 a.m. we were done in and headed back to the most comfortable King size bed to pass out until noon.

The next day after some well needed coffee at Café 85 degrees, the Caribou of Taiwan only an iced latte is $1 instead of $6, we hopped on John’s scooter to take a ferry to Little Liuchiu Island. It was a bumpy 45 minute ride but well worth it. Little Liuchiu Island reminded me of the Caribbean with a laid back feeling. We scootered around the entire Island in about an hour and found a little beach with water that looked and felt like heaven. Due to our lack of planning we did not have swim suits and decided to find some as well as a hotel and then go swimming. Our plan failed, however, as all of the hotels were booked due to the festival so we had to hop on the last ferry ride home. Oh well, swimming can wait. We headed back to Pingtung for some well needed food and sleep. John took me to this great little restaurant with actual cheese dishes. A rarity in Pingtung.

On Sunday we headed to Kaohsiung to the former British Consulate. It was on top of a large hill so I had a great view of the harbor, downtown Kaohsiung, and the beach. After a day of walking in the heat John and I were ready to go home and relax. It was time for me to start looking for jobs as well.

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