Final day of this entire holiday because my husband refuses my delusion that we were instead flying out to Busan for a further week. With a 5 hour layover in Bangkok before another 12-13 hour flight back to London, this is going to go down as one of the longest bits of travelling I’ve needed to undertake.
That still meant we had a full morning and a bit of early afternoon before getting on the very convenient Kaohsiung MRT to the airport. This meant a proper time to walk through and explore the revamped old harbour area of the city. We’d walked through here en route to our boat to Cijin, back it was good to have some proper time here. Especially as this maybe my favourite area of the city.
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The morning started out at the Hamasen Cultural Railway Park. This used to be a essential part of the Kaohsiung harbour and some of the lines are now part of the tramway loop. Now, you can walk around the now dormant tracks. Some old trains are standing here resting whilst in other parts there are some modern art pieces made from old bits of rebar or other reclaimed materials.
At this point it was just after 10 am, but the sun was so intense that my umbrella was up and I was playing the classic juggling game and the other classic game of ‘find the shade before I expire’. If it had been cooler I think I would have tried to persuade my husband to ride the little train that goes around the whole park. Thankfully the next place was inside and fully air conditioned.
Next was the Hamasan Museum of Taiwan Railway. This is a small museum housed in some of the old harbour warehouses (much like everything in this area) that takes you through some history of Taiwan’s railway. I think the Kaohsiung Museum of History did a better job, but that didn’t have one of the coolest rooms I’ve seen all holiday.
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This museum has a massive room featuring model railways, split into multiple connected sections for different cities in Taiwan. It had a full day-night cycle complete with light-up buildings and it had working signals and level crossings. I am not a train person – that’s my husband’s area of joy – but wow this was a room I could have spent more time in.
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We then entered the main Pier2 Art area. This is a large section of repurposed warehouses that have been renovated to be shops, cafes and homes for art. As you roam around the outside you’ll come across wall art and sculptures of all different styles and sizes. Including another big robot. I thought this was a Japan thing mostly, but Taiwan is really all in on these guys.
Whilst we were here, there just happened to be a warehouse with a temporary creative installation about that Dutch cultural icon: Miffy (or Nijntje in The Netherlands). As well as having the obligatory gift shop, the warehouse was full of Miffy dressed up or made up by local artists. Some of them were really cool and others, like the Hellraiser Miffy, were a bit odd. All added to the fun though.
It was after this where we ticked off the final food item from my list: pineapple cake from Sunny Hills. What we did not know was that the piece of pineapple cake and cup of oolong tea was free. It’s a taster to see if you’d buy more cake. That was deliciously confusing. The cake was like if candied pineapple was wrapped in soft almost shortbread. Once I realigned my expectations of what the cake would be, it was very delicious.
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The rest of our time was the spent going around the different warehouses. Browsing the shops, taking pictures of art and enjoying the kismet of being here when there was a festival going on. I don’t know what the Megaport Festival is about, but it sure meant a lot of people, live music and huge selection of stalls (food, shopping and corporate sponsorship from the delivery brand Foodpanda).
If we lived in Kaohsiung, other than investing in some kind of all body cooling system, this is one of those areas I would want to come visit regularly. Even if it’s just standing on the Harbour Bridge and enjoying the views both towards the main city and towards the nearby mountain.
We had a final bubble tea (lemon and winter melon) before making our way to the airport. I do feel a bit sad leaving Kaohsiung. This feels like a city that, despite their tallest building laying abandoned, feels like it is moving forward in such a great direction. I can only wonder what the next 10 years will hold with all the works that are still going on. Maybe this will be one of those places I got to before it’s properly discovered by the West? Who knows.
One thing I do know, however, is that as long as China doesn’t make any rash decisions – there is plenty more left on this island to discover and I would love to see it. So who knows, maybe in another 5-6 years I’ll be writing about my trip to Taichung or somewhere else.
Before I Kick 