Kaohsiung, Taiwan: Adventure Day 2

We actually woke up close to a regular time today! It was about 6am when we all started to stir. Close enough to a normal hour to say, we may be starting to beat jet lag? Fingers crossed?!

Hotel breakfast adventures again. Then we zipped out to catch a bus to the largest sitting Buddha statue at the Fo Guang Shan Temple. We took the subway to the bus station, then caught a forty-five minute bus ride to the temple.

The museum is usually closed on Tuesdays, but they were having a huge event on Wednesday for Christmas. A celebration of the gods, it was called. So wonderfully it was all open and lots of staff were decorating, and setting up for tomorrows big event. Ty and I were very thankful we came the day before this. The crowds they were preparing for looked like it’d be huge, and very busy!

The staff was super friendly, and a few took time to speak to us in English, and ask where we came from. There were several prayer rooms, and they all gave the kids candles or other items to present to the Buddha statues. Unfortunately we couldn’t take any photos in these sacred rooms.

We also got to watch a short video on Buddha’s life. It was a great way to learn more about this religion, and how it originated.

We grabbed the bus back to the subway station, to look for some lunch.

We found some lunch, but L started to meltdown about this time. He’s had an enlarged tonsil for a few weeks now, and started saying that was hurting. This is a hard aspect of traveling with kids. Are they really hurting/sick, or is it being off schedule, or are they jet lagged and tired, or is it something else entirely? It’s a giant guessing game most of the time.

We got him to have some soup and a bit of chicken, before everyone enjoyed these yummy croissants. Ty and I shared a milk tea with Carmel bubbles. They’re super popular around here! Ty likes the bubbles, and I like the tea 🙂

Back on the subway we went. We were timing it to watch the light show, and the Dome of Light. The famous subway station that was designed by an Italian Glass artist. We were expecting something impressive, since this show is on all travel guides as a top thing to see in Kaohsiung. So we waited about twenty minutes to watch this show.

It was pitiful! It seemed like they had a boom box playing some weird kiddie music, and a few lasers were shooting about, while the lights went on and off in the ceiling. Ty and I were flummoxed on why this was such a big deal!? Oh well at least it was free! 🙂

Then we jumped back on the subway to catch a ferry over to the island of Cijin. The plan was to rent some tandem bikes and cycle around the island. However, when we got off the subway stop we were right in front of a scooter rental. Scooters sounded way more fun. I was hopeful they weren’t too tricky to drive since I’d only done it once before, for five minutes about 10 years ago! Thankfully it was pretty easy and we were off.

We rode around for a bit. Tried to walk up to a light house. It was under construction 🤷🏻‍♀️ but we spied a good looking beach from up high and decided to go for a dip.

We had to get the scooters back by 6pm so we showered the kids off and jumped back on the ferry so we wouldn’t be late.

We turned in the scooters and took the subway back to our hotel stop. Then we walked to the night market for one final dinner.