Rise and shine on the second day. We were still at Kenting and the weather looked relatively sunny, but we were told that the weather was likely to take a downturn in the later part of the day and it was advisable to leave Kenting for Kaohsiung instead as Kaohsiung was bright and sunny that day. So while deciding what to do, we decided to head for Breakfast. Kenting morning was much like Jeju's, a sleepy town in the morning with most stores operational from noon onward. Lucky for us, there was an eatery "Ocean Kitchen" very near our hostel. Their business was roaring! (no surprise here since they practically monopolize the region I was staying!)

I really like this place actually because it was all bright and cheery, much like how I like my breakfast place to be. They offered toasts and omelettes and also porridge if you prefer something lighter. But some items like the porridge and soy bean milk were limited and not offered on all days. So you might want to be there earlier to ensure that you get your full selection of breakfast items!



Looked at all the hungry people! Haha. Most of them were actually Taiwanese, whom I reckoned came over to Kenting over the weekend for a short getaway from the city before returning back to reality.




And they had wall murals with interesting drawings. I find these two really cute and interesting. It's like having someone drinking coffee with you. I wanted a picture of me with the murals but the crowd were coming in and so I proceeded to my seats and gave up.




And these were what I ordered. A Bacon Cheese Burger and a cup of Soy Bean Milk! <3 It was so good! (Or, it could be I was really really hungry then...)

B ordered Ham Cheese Toast and some Bacon Omelette which were good too! :D

And the happy us with our food! Look at our sleepy eyes!! I was dead tired yesterday as I didn't manage to catch any sleep on the flight to Taiwan, but once again I didn't manage to catch much sleep at Kenting! ): I am a very light sleeper and my body is rather fussy with my sleeping area. So I had a hard time trying to sleep. ): Le sigh.


 And next we were heading to the Ranch at the Kenting National Park. There was actually a map drawn on the blackboard at the breakfast place. So I shall let the pictures do the talking of our adventure to the Ranch at the Kenting National Park!




 Look at the clear blue sky and those fluffy clouds! :D Love how this picture turned out. The entrance looked rather majestic here isn't it. Haha.





And the iconic rock at the top of the mountain. The cab driver told us that when you see this rock, you will be in Kenting. Hahah. "You don't say..."

So presenting to you the "大尖头". The icon of Kenting, residing in the Kenting National Park.






After our morning trek, there were light drizzle and the sky was threatening! Rather to spend an unfruitful day in Kenting, we decided to get a cab to fetch us to Kaohsiung instead. Our hostel disappointed us again, as there was no one at the counter when we were planning to check out. ): Quite irresponsible in my opinion. Doubt I will ever go back to the same hostel.

En route to Kaohsiung, we stopped by this Bao shop. According to the Cab driver, this is the most famous Bao store in this region. 小杜包子。。来垦丁必吃的包子。。
I took a picture of the name card for anyone interested. But in my honest opinion, I don't think they are that good nor worth queuing for. There is actually a better Bao store in Kaohsiung.



These were the Baos up for selection. We bought a few, but only the one I selected tasted rather good. The rest were ...

I selected the Mochi Cream Puff Bao, which was more like a dessert rather. But the size of the Baos were huge though and rather value for money.

And we reached our hotel in Kaohsiung. I would highly recommend this place for a lovely stay in Kaohsiung! I have lots of pictures of this hotel and the staff were amazing! They gave us a map and told us how to get to all the tourist spots. They did a research for us when we asked them directions to a particular eatery. And even assisted us when we needed to book an extra night at Taipei, sourcing out affordable theme hotels for us. Big thumbs up!














 And every floor had a theme too. So we actually went to every single floor to take pictures! :D It was such a lovely hotel. I had so much fun taking all those pictures!















 An a super cute picture of B with the Owl Mural on the wall! :D *loves!

There after we actually went to the Harijuku lane in Kaohsiung. And I must say it was more enjoyable to shop over at Kaohsiung and less stressful than in Taipei. The prices are more affordable, but as it was just the 2nd day, I just couldn't bring myself to splurge on clothes. ):




This little cute doggie was found at one of the shops along the street. I didn't have much photos of the shopping at the Harijuku lane as I was rather focused on shopping! Hahah.

Not that, but I was actually saving my battery for later that night as I was meeting Yinghua. I hadn't met her for a year already! She was on exchange in Kaohsiung for a year. Such a lucky girl. :D

So after shopping, we head over to LiuHe night market where I will be meeting this girl! I had so much to talk to her about. To get to Liuhe night market, you can actually take their metro to the station 美丽岛。The metro station is Kaohsiung is actually quite clean and fast, but it is under utilized as Kaohsiung is a rather small city and we can actually travel around on foot/bicycle. The station is actually very pretty, 不愧是美丽。




Liu He night market is one of Kaohsiung most iconic night market. It is a street food market and as expected, there were many tourist trawling there for the famous food!

We were pretty excited at the prospect of good food, especially when we were having a localized guide to bring us! Hahaha. We met up with Yinghua and her boyfriend Alfred and off we went to hunt down the food.






Our first stop was the famous 官材板。It was fried thick toast with a thick meat soup broth inside. The name sounded like "coffin" 棺材, as such, the toast was made to resemble a coffin. But the word 棺 was replaced with 官 which means court official. So eating this means you would 升官发财 HUAT ARH! :D

And we proceed to have more street food like the caramelized sweet potato and my favorite King Oyster Mushroom sauteed in sour plum and salt powder. :D Took pictures of their banners for easy reference, especially if you are planning a trip there to eat.




And we tried this fried oyster pancake. Initially, I thought it will be similar as the one we have in Singapore. (The one that resembles a Doriyaki pancake with peanuts and oysters. You can find them at Amoy Food center!) But the one we had was actually shaped like a giant Bao and was fried with all the oyster goodness inside the gigantic Bao. I was rather amused actually, but the taste was somewhat Meh. The queue was rather long though, so I guess it's really down to personal preference and taste.


And Yinghua and Alfred bought this bite size dumplings for us. It was REALLY good! Especially after being drizzled with black vinegar and sprinkled with spring onions. It actually tasted like the 生煎包 I had in Shanghai, basically fried Xiao Long Baos.







And on our way back to our awesome hotel, we went into this departmental store to use the washroom. We decided to browse around to cool off from the summer heat. B chanced upon some illustrated bookmarks and found them really familiar. It turned out many years ago, B's favorite teacher gave him a bookmark by the small illustrator!

So now, the new one is with me, bookmarking my book- Life of Pi. :D

And meet Vivid the Giraffe which I won at the Liu He night market! I love it to bits! :D It is soooo cute, I couldn't resist. The nose is so huge and the legs are so small and stumpy. :D And that cute tiny smile on the face. It became my travelling companion and sleeping buddy for the rest of the trip. That night, hugging Vivid,  I had a really good night rest. <3 Thank you B for sponsoring this cute Vivid Giraffe.

Hope you enjoy reading this post! Will be updating the next post faster. Pardon my slow update! (:

I GRADUATE LOH! 

And hence, I can really blog about my grad trip. Haha. Before 12 midnight, I was really really nervous, because I was so scared I can't graduate, then like damn malu. (Ps: I'm really a born worrier. I worry about practically everything!) B was trying all methods to distract me and told me not to check my results or he would do it for me. But I was too nervous to ignore the results! :D And it turned out to be my best semester despite all those things going on in my final semester. And now my 4 years in University has officially ended and I will wait till 25th July to wear my gown and mortar board to collect my cert. :D Yay!

So on 11th May, just 2 days after my final paper on 9th May, I embarked on a 8-day trip to Taiwan. :D I was flying via Transasia. It was a full carrier, hence the air ticket included breakfast and 20kg check-in luggage. We were lucky because we got the early bird discount at $400sgd per person. We had some problem with the booking of the discounted tickets initially. I was supposed to buy 2 tickets while B would buy the 2 tickets for his parents. He managed to get through the process and gotten the discounted tickets but I couldn't and was charged $700sgd per ticket instead. Of course I didn't follow through with the transaction. I e-mailed to the carrier as facebook pm them. Their office in Singapore wasn't friendly and helpful at all. But the same cannot be said for their HQ. They contacted me the next day and assisted me in getting the discounted tickets. I was so impressed with their level of service! They even followed up on my case a week after, just to double confirmed that everything was good to go for my trip. Thumbs up to Transasia.

Upon reaching Zuoying, we had breakfast at Movenpick cafe as we were too hungry to venture further for food. As mentioned, we wanted to take the public bus to Kenting which will be an approximately 2.5hours ride from Zuoying. But we met a cab driver that offer us a ride to 1.5hour ride to Kenting at NT$150 per person. This worked out to be cheaper and fast than the public bus and so we decided to go for it. We had a stop-over for fruits en route to Kenting. The fruits were provided free of charge for sampling and they were really generous. I shall let the pictures do the talking! :D 

We reached our hostel Minimi Inn in Kenting! The lobby was quite small but it was beautifully decorated with lots of small and cute ornaments. It was a weird mesh of colors and knick knacks and I loved it. However, there wasn't anyone at the lobby greeting us. Instead there was only a stuff toy seated at the desk. 

The snake chili is actually at the side and was only given in a small amount. But I think that was enough. :D Shiok!

And how can we not eat chicken cutlet when in Taiwan? Hahah. This was actually pretty good. We tried the honey flavour one and the chicken was really juicy. Their business was pretty good and it was apparently featured on a TV program before. But as usual, we didn't know all these before ordering so it was like discovering a gem! When you have no expectations, you will not be in for a disappointment. :D

B looking really happy with the chicken cutlet. 

That's the end of my day 1. Hope you had fun reading it. :D