En route to Taiwan

After work I caught the train to Burwood where I grabbed a bite and then took the 400 bus to the airport. Not only was this cheaper than the train but I was curious about the bus route. It was scenic but maybe it might have been the evening light, gentler than harsh midday sun. There was a long queue at the check-in and also at border control. Wondered where all those people were going on a weekday. Fortunately I had lots of safety margin.

Inspite of the slight delay taking off due to the late arrival of the plane, we actually arrived at HK earlier than scheduled. Maybe we had a tail wind. I changed my underwear and freshened up. The shirt I had to change before the end of the previous day because of a coffee spill. I wasn't hungry yet so I spent some time reading while the phone charged. When I was ready to order congee, the hordes had arrived. Never mind, I had congee on the plane already so I had hot cakes with butter and syrup at another eatery.

Unfortunately the next flight, to Kaohsiung, was delayed 2.5 hours due to a fault. I arrived around 1130 instead of 0900 as expected. After entry formalities and getting cash from the ATM, a minor victory after this, I waited for the public bus to Kenting. You can tell Taiwan, or at least Kaohsiung, isn't a heavily promoted tourist destination. The resident and non-resident counters are combined. While location signs have western names, a non-Chinese visitor would have difficulty reading food and drink menus, and not all Taiwanese are conversant in English.

The bus took 2.5 hours to reach Kenting. It's not a long distance, just that it makes many stops and there are built-up area speed limits. Traffic was light, but I imagine it could be worse in the high season. While I was waiting, private taxi operators tried to interest me in a shared ride. They even came close to the bus price. I was leery of these as my holiday insurance would be invalidated by non-official transport. There was a story of tourists who had to wait while the driver collected more passengers, so it took just as long, and they had to put up with chatter from the driver while sitting in a crammed car. But apparently it's ok and sanctioned from Kaohsiung Central Station where there are official stands for shared rides. But I was at the airport.

The dog was one of my first few sights walking around Kenting. He wasn't begging. He comfortably stayed in that position for a long time while locals walked past without batting an eye. Maybe he had learned to sit up that way and liked the attention it got him from visitors.