Day 1 24-05-14
Today's
the first day of the trip, the beginning of our learning journey! After our 4
hours long flight, we finally arrived at the Kaohsiung airport. The Kaohsiung airport wasn't as
nice as I expected, but it was still considered okay. After collecting our
luggage from the luggage belt, we were greeted by several Sacred Hearts High
School teachers. They were holding a banner welcoming us. This made me rather
surprised and also touched :3 as the teachers came all the way here at midnight
just to welcome us! This really shows the great sincerity that the school had!
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Our group photo with the teachers from Sacred Hearts who waited patiently for us J
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Afterwards,
we took a few minutes bus ride to our hotel for the night (Ten Drum Cultural
Village). (During the bus ride, we were given a piece of Taiwan's best bread!)
Upon arrival, we collected our room keys and proceeded to our room.
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My (and my room mate’s) room key
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Day 2 25/05/14
Sunny.
In the morning around 8a.m., we
had our breakfast at the Ten Drum Cultural Village. There was a spread of food
for us to eat. Yum!
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| Buffet breakfast at Ten Drum Cultural Village |
After having a delectable breakfast, we proceeded to
the Meinong Hakka Cultural Museum, our first site of the day. Upon entrance
into the museum, I felt like I was brought back to time. The museum was
designed in such a way that reminds one of the past. Awesome J. This museum even have 2 storeys which allows more
room for displays.
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| One of the displays at the Meinong Hakka Culture Museum |
From this museum, I have learnt about the Hakka’s
movement from one place to another, the Hakka’s study (children were encouraged
to study hard), the oil umbrella, and many more.
After gaining much knowledge about the Hakka culture
in Taiwan, we then went to the Meinong Folk Village. The village had a number
of shops selling souvenirs or food/drinks, most probably for tourists that
visit the village.
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| A section of the street |
There was also much greenery there, with an area with
many plants and beautiful blossomed flowers of different colours. It was a
beautiful sight.
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| A pond with fishes swimming about lively |
Our class entered a shop
selling 擂茶, and some
of us (not me) tried the擂茶.
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| A picture of the warm擂茶 |
Then, we had our lunch at one of the shops in the
Meinong Folk Village.
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| Our lunch at one of the shops there |
After taking our lunch, we headed for the Kaohsiung
Hakka Cultural Museum.
This museum showcases similar contents as the Meinong
Hakka Culture Museum, but it has a special “room” that caught my attention. The
“room” was specially for children, with various corners that attracts the
children’s interest while allowing them to learn more about the Hakka culture.
There was a “cooking” corner, a “music” corner, a “dressing” corner, etc.
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| the "music" corner |
After touring the Kaohsiung Hakka
Cultural Museum, we visited the Kaohsiung Museum of History, which showcases
the history of Taiwan. The design of this museum was pretty unique as it was
built in the imperial crown style, with gold and white theme. It was here that
we learnt about the 228 incident, which is about the Japanese invasion into
Taiwan.
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| A display at the museum |
The next place we went, the last historical site of
the day, was the Former British Consulate. This site was located at the end of
a long flight of stairs leading upwards. After reaching the top of the flight
of stairs, we were greeted with a beautiful scenery of the sun and the sea,
which allowed me to forget my worries for a brief moment. The scenery was quite
stunning!
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| the scenery from the Former British Consulate |
Not long later, we entered the red-bricked site. It
was rather cramped in there, and for a moment I felt suffocated. The place was
too small for a group the size of ours to enter together at the same time.
However, other than this point, the place was rather nice, and it allowed me to
learn more about Taiwan’s history.
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| part of the Former British Consulate |
Finally, we reached the last stop of the day (and the
most anticipated one): Liuhe Night Market. All along, I imagined the Night
Market to be extremely crowded, with many
stalls selling the most delectable food
ever. However, when we arrived at the night market, you could say I was pretty
disappointed. Although the night market was indeed quite crowded and
considerably large, it wasn’t as huge and pretty as I expected.
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| a section of the night market |
The food sold there looked rather tasty, and I tried
the 香酥鸡. It tasted pretty much like
the popcorn chicken in Singapore, but had an additional taste of pepper.
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| a stall selling 香酥鸡 |
Also, previously, I had thought of trying the
world-famous 臭豆腐 at the
night market, but when the “aroma” drifted into my nose, I had a change of mind
and did not want to sample it. The 臭豆腐 smelled like it was soaked in dirty drain that had
not been maintained for several months or even years! Yucks!
In overall, the night market was considered okay, but
it did not a variety of food as large as I expected. Most of the stalls sold
similar food, like seafood, 臭豆腐, and香酥鸡.
Before heading back to the hotel for the night, we had
our dinner, which was rather scrumptious.
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| some of the dishes we had for dinner |
That’s
all the fun and new experience I had today! :)
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