Kaohsiung

We travelers are in very hard circumstances. If we say nothing but what has been said before us, we are dull and have observed nothing. If we tell anything new, we are laughed at as fabulous and romantic.- Mary Wortley Montegu

I am currently in the port city of Kaohsiung, having taken a three hour train ride through mountains, from coast to coast. The city is so different from Taitung and different from Taipei as well. Taipei is more modern looking, but it does not not have the same cosmopolitan feel. Here, I can tell from the way people dress, from the nice restaurant (nice and inexpensive) where I got pasta with pesto, that there is more youthful influence and perhaps a foreign one as well.

I’m staying in Mrs. Kao and Celeste’s Aunt’s home in a Japanese style room. Therefore, I have sliding screen doors, nice wooden floors, a low wooden table at which I sit on the floor and read, write, type, and do whatever other work I may have. My bedroom adjoins this little sitting room with its own set of screens and my bed is literally a mat on the floor. I prefer this though to the mat on a frame. If I’m going to sleep on a mat, it should be on the floor. It is much more comfortable that way, though I will admit, I had a little difficulty falling asleep last night.

I went out with Celeste and Shawn (who is back in Kaohsiung from Taitung for summer school classes) to see the new Harry Potter film in an incredible new complex. Much of Kaohsiung has been rebuilt for the world games being held Right Now in the city. How do I know they are being held here? Well aside from the plethora of commercials on television, the billboards plastered all over the city, and the new metro system that was built with its own world games stop (this system rivals Taipei’s, I think it is actually better), I have been running into random athletes coming back from training, perhaps events. I have yet to talk to them, but I might try to strike up a conversation next time.

There are a fair amount of tourists here for the games, so I am no longer the only white person in a million, which is kind of nice, but at the same time, I am not there just to see the world games. In fact, I am only passing through, and the fact that it happens to coincide with the world games is pure coincidence, and I like it that way.

I’m off to enjoy a day of relaxation and perhaps exploration in this new, hot city. If there is anything eventful, I will let you know.