Taiwan - Gao Xiong

We took Taiwan airlines to Gao Xiong for our 7 days trip. The tour agency that we booked with is also CTC (same as our last trip). We were told that as our group is too small (18 person), there will not be any singapore tour guide but will have 1 local tour guide.

The flight that we took to Gao Xiong airport is a small airplane with only 3 seats per aisle and no center section (i.e. only 6 seats per row). As the airplane is small, it is not very steady and shake a few times during air pockets, fly off and landing. However they have movie show and we watched stardust, a nice show. The food is quite okay.

Upon landing at Gao Xiong, the tour guide who received us is a lady and she said our tour guide is delayed from his last trip and will only joined us tomorrow. She is the tour guide for another group (8 days trip). The tour guide can only speak Chinese and Hokkien (a dialect).

She brought us to the Gao Xiong Night Market. As it is a Tuesday, there is not much people and we have a nice time trying the food at the Night market.

Interesting food are:-

Hu Jiao Bing

BBQ Chicken Wings

BBQ Prawns

Super juicy Giant mushrooms (they cut them into small pieces after frying)

Nice goose meat stall! The goose meat noodles are so delicious.

On our way out, we saw a shop selling snake meat

We went to seven-eleven, which sell interesting drinks (all words in chinese)

The lady sales asst even scold me for taking photos inside the shop.

The tour guide bring us to a hotel at Gao Xiong. The next day, we had breakfast at our hotel. The standard breakfast at Taiwan are usually porridge, cabbage, fried eggs/salted eggs, toosted bread, soya bean drink. After breakfast, we meet up with our tour guide, who has rushed back from Taipei. He told us he prefer to be called "Wu Bai", which sound like a pop singer name.

We went on our tour bus and realise that the tour bus has just enough seats for our whole group of 18. The bus is quite jerky and bump easily, shaking with sound as it moves on. Guess because our group is smaller (than the other grp for 8 days), we are given a lousier travel bus.

We went to see a famous temple in Gao Xiong. The temple is on a lake and along the lake, there are other temples.

Next, we went to visit a Ke Jia (Hakka) Village for our lunch.

The tour guide only booked 2 tables and we have to share with another family for lunch. There are altogether 3 families besides us. Family A has a 70 years old granny, 3 adults & 2 small kids. Family B has another granny on wheelchair, 2 adults & 3 grown up kids. Family C has 2 adults and 2 kids. As family C went to share table with family B, we have no choice but to eat with family A. The food is normal chinese fare, but got many dishes (about 8-9). Their mee hoon is nice (slim type).

We also drink their famous Lei Cha.

Next, we visit the famous Fu Guang Monastery. The monastery has classes for students learning Buddhism (without the need to become nun or monks). Very big monastery, we walk up and down for 1-2 hours.

After that, we went to our hotel which is a mongolian hut hotel. The resort owner bring us to his museum to see some Bing Ma Yong (statues of Qin dynasty soldiers) and other exhibits. It is a odd museum because the exhibits has no theme (like all mix and matches items from different places). Then we went for dinner at the resort. Have to lunch with family A again. This time round they are snatching food and all chopsticks dive for food although there are chopsticks for common use. I felt so uncomfortable that I didn't eat much.

Our rooms at the resort and small mongolian huts and it is quite cosy with modern facilities (Tv, bed and toilet with heater). But our shower heater is not working so we can't have a proper bath. After dinner, we went to take some photos and have Karaoke.