Travelling around Taiwan, I vowed to skip the big cities. However, Kaohsiung is one interesting city that I am glad I did not skip.

I arrived in Kaohsiung almost being “kidnapped” by a communal taxi.

This van stopped in front of me as I was waiting for the public bus. An old lady pops out of the front passenger seat and asks me if I was heading to Kaohsiung. I said, in Chinese, “thanks, but I’m waiting for the bus.”

She insisted that they were cheaper and an hour faster than the bus. She then proceeded to almost help herself to my bags. Now, normally, I would fend her off. However, I kinda had heard of these taxis and that the price was about the same as what I had heard. That kinda sounded legit. As she opened the rear door, I was greeted by many bewildered faces that were probably in the same state of confusion I was in.

“She can’t be kidnapping ALL of us,” I reasoned to myself. “Anyway, I can take her and the driver in the front if it came to that.”

So I hopped into this random taxi on my way to the second biggest city in Taiwan.

When I arrived, I mistakenly asked to be dropped off at an intersection where two of the roads mentioned on the instructions met. Instead, little did I know that these roads also had “sections”.

I asked around for where one of the roads was. This man in his thirties looked at my list of instructions and said to me that I was looking at a place that was pretty far away.

“I’ll take you there!” he offered.

The next thing I know, I was on this random stranger’s scooter, with my carry on between his legs in the front and my huge backpack strapped onto my back.

I noticed that this stranger, who later told me his name was Stone, kept looking at his watch. As is common amongst the Taiwanese, Stone had reached out in my moment of need and helped take me across town on his scooter when he himself was pressed for time. Seriously, the kindness of the Taiwanese people is something that will stay in my heart forever!

That evening, TC, whom I met at the Eight Elephants Hostel in Taipei, also took me around town in his scooter. Between checking out his University, eating at the night market and riding in the mountains, I had a fantastic nighttime tour of Kaohsiung. Do check out his Hamasen Hostel if you are ever in the city! It features a rooftop patio and a ryouken style room!

The next morning, I found myself at Cijin Island. Accidentally really, as I was walking around and saw the ferry. Curiosity prompted me to hop on. I met an elderly Japanese man who asked if I was “nihonjin”. I said no, I was Chinese.

“Nihon go wa daigaku de benkyoushimasta!”, I added enthusiastically and quite fluently. It meant “I studied Japanese in university”.

So he replied to me in Japanese in an equally energetic manner.

I then gave him my best puppy dog face and replied, “Sumimasen, wakaranai!”

I told him “sorry, I don’t understand”. So much for holding a conversation in Japanese.

At least my mandarin vocabulary was sufficient to have a conversation with this random girl who sat with me while we watched the sunset together.

Gavin and Summer from CozyPlanet hostel were great hosts! I kinda wish I spent more time at Kaohsiung, but all the extra time spent at Hualien and Kenting was keeping me on the move.

Kaohsiung has to be the quietest big city I have ever seen. Their MRT system is underutilized. In fact, I had waited for a train only to realize when it had arrived that it was half the length of what it should be. The doors I was standing at were not opening and there was no train on the other side. I sprinted towards the head of the train to get onto one of the train cars that did exist.

That being said, having the MRT travel to their international airport as well as to the high speed rail system really makes things convenient.

In fact, I kinda like the city for it’s big city convenience without having to deal with the crowds.

Man, my trip in Taiwan is almost over and I’m really lagging behind on posting these blogs.