Kaohsiung Travel: Cijin Island

Everyone who visits Kaohsiung should plan a visit to Cijin Island, in my opinion. First of all, Kaohsiung is a pretty quiet place with nothing much to do especially if you are staying more than a couple of days there. Most travellers spend at most 2 days in Kaohsiung City itself, and travel out to nearby places like Kenting and Cijin Island for day trips. Cijin Island is easily accessible by a 5-minute ferry ride from Kaohsiung Harbour (I think the ticket is about 20NT per adult). There are many beautiful sights to explore on Cijin Island and best of all, savour cheap and very fresh seafood before you leave the island and go back to Kaohsiung. This might be the place for the best and freshest seafood in this part of Taiwan.

To get to Kaohsiung Harbour: Take Orange line on subway and get off at Sizihwan station Exit 1.

You can either choose to explore Cijin Island on foot or on bicycle. I would definitely recommend the latter so that you make full use of your time. Furthermore, bicycle rentals are everywhere and very cheap the moment you arrive at the island, and you get some exercise done before feasting on the seafood and street food – what’s not to love about it?

Once you reach Cijin Island, either grab a map from any of the bicycle shops or take a photograph of the map board so that you know where you are going. Everything is pretty straightforward so you will be able to cover everything if you follow accordingly. Here’s a pictorial itinerary of how our half day on Cijin Island went:

Drying whole cuttlefish on the racks

Cijin Fort

Cijin Tunnel of Stars

The other side of the tunnel leads to the sea!

So windy & beautiful!

Rainbow Church

 

 

Windmills Park

Along the way, look out for ice-cream shops and make a pit-stop because ice-cream there is freshly made with real fruits in them. And of course, very, very cheap as well. Definitely good after cycling for a couple of hours under the sun! We had ours here – Very yummy!

Finale has got to be fresh Seafood feast – Only 100NT per dish for 80% of the items – That’s less than $5 per dish –> Super cheap! And you just choose the ingredients you want and they will recommend the best cooking method for them.

These are the more expensive items but still very, very cheap! We only paid $10 for a big plate of prawns!

The ingredients are so fresh, so everything tasted really good. Rice is free-flow and self-service, with complimentary fruits served after the meal.

  

For this meal, we paid 190NT per person (there were 3 of us) for 7 dishes and that’s only like less than SGD$9 each?! Singapore needs to up its seafood game, please.

I would say half a day would suffice for Cijin Island, but if you are the kind who likes to loiter on the beach (They have a black sand beach on Cijin island, by the way) and take tons of photos for hours, then by all means, stay a whole day there. It’s just a chillax place, nobody would mind it I’m sure.

For other posts on Kaohsiung, please click here: http://www.jbabiesinthedaisies.com/search/label/Kaohsiung

4 Reasons Why I Love KKday

Service Review

I love travelling, I really do. I mean, who doesn’t love experiencing new cultures & experiences, tasting different cuisines and appreciating different sceneries? Travelling has opened my eyes to so many intriguing things and widened my horizons beyond what books can tell me. It’s true how the Chinese saying goes -读万卷书不如行万里路（ “Reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles“ ）so I am always looking out for new and fun places to explore.

One of the things I really enjoy doing even before the travelling itself is planning the itinerary. I admit it is a very tedious process – reading reviews online, googling and researching on the interesting places to visit and planning the route etc. But there is so much joy in picking and choosing what works best for your travel and putting everything together at the end of the day. I usually take a week to plan for a short trip and much longer if the trip is longer or I’m travelling to a destination that I’ve never been before. Recently, when I was sent on a very last minute media trip to Kaohsiung to review a hotel, I tried out the services of KKday (https://www.kkday.com) and it made my trip so much easier (yes, even a last minute one!) that I wondered why I hadn’t tried them earlier!

KKday is an online platform that connects users to local tours in various countries. The unique and specially curated travel services offered on their platform would make any trip a memorable and happy one. After trying out their services for myself, here’s sharing 4 reasons why I love KKday and all that they have to offer:

1. KKday helps you to save money $$

Now, this might be one of the most important consideration factors whenever I travel. It’s true that I am willing to spend money on the new experiences, but that does not need to come with a high price tag. In fact, I derive joy and satisfaction from knowing that I was able to save some money by going for cheaper options and channelling the savings to other areas. There are certain deals that KKday was able to negotiate for preferential rates for their users, thus helping them to save. Take my recent trip to Kaohsiung, for example. I had to take the High Speed Rail from Taipei to Kaohsiung and I saw this travel service which gave me 20% discount off an e-ticket on the High Speed Rail. I quickly purchased it and saved 20% immediately! Now, who doesn’t like savings?!

All I needed to do was to show my confirmation email at the HSR station to exchange for my tickets. Fuss-free and easy.

I even had time and leisure to purchase a railway bento to enjoy during the journey. Love it!

2. KKday is easy to navigate around

In case you are wondering if the KKday website is complicated and hard to navigate around, I assure you that it’s totally the opposite. I have seen many similar websites before and KKday is by far, one of the most straightforward and easy-to-navigate sites. All you need to do is to key in the country that you are going to, and the relevant travel services come up in a list for you to choose from.

Otherwise, you can also sort the travel services according to categories, which will simplify your options and makes it easier for you to compare (See left side bar in pic below). Very easy, right?!

Just look through the list of options and follow the simple instructions to book and make payment. Everything can be done in the comfort of your bedroom and at your own pace! Travel planning cannot be any easier. =P And this brings me to my next point.

3. KKday helps you to plan your itinerary

Yes, that’s true. Unless you are a seasoned traveller like me (ahem), it is very likely that you will be quite lost when you embark on planning your itinerary, especially to a destination you’ve never been to. KKday specially curates unique and fun travel services so that you can consider them as your options. Simply pick and choose the experiences that appeal to you and put everything together to complete your itinerary – How simple & efficient is that?

As I was navigating through the website for my Taiwan trip, I saw these interesting itinerary that I would definitely consider on my next trip there because it was a very rushed trip for me this time round. Definitely gave me lots of ideas to consider and I don’t have to go through blogs after blogs to read about what other people did when they were there.

Pretty interesting, don’t you think? And the prices are all very reasonable as well. :) The best thing about such tour services is that you don’t have to worry about liaising with different parties or planning transport etc – Everything is planned for and included for you. For those of you who enjoy meeting new friends, some of the tours allow you to travel in a small group, thus giving you the opportunity to know new people as well.

4. KKday allows you to plan ahead

When it comes to travel, while there may be times when I act on impulse (like suddenly buying an air ticket to fly off the following week), most of the time I prefer to plan in advance. During my recent trip to Taiwan, I booked my airport transfer via KKday ahead of my trip so that I have one less thing to worry about when I arrive at my destination. I do not know of any reliable drivers so KKday is the only one I can go to – They select their vendors carefully so rest assured when you are getting the best options when you book with them.

I received confirmation via email when I purchased this service and closer to the date of my trip, I received another email from them, giving me the driver’s full name, contact details as well as a helpline I could call or whatsapp in case I don’t see my driver when I arrive. That totally puts my heart at ease before the trip and I love this feeling! Best part is my driver was a very friendly local Taiwanese who immediately made me feel at home even though I was meeting him for the first time! All in all, I was very pleased with the service I booked.

So the next time you plan for a trip, don’t be a hurry to jump into all your bookings. Have a look at KKday and see the options you have. You’ll be surprised at how many travel services they have to offer all over the world! Save some money or jazz up your itinerary with interesting travel services, and be assured that KKday will take care of everything for you with great excellence and efficiency. Thank you KKday for the experience and for making my Taiwan trip a breeze!

Kaohsiung Travel: Pier-2 Art District

Whether or not you are a lover of the arts, Pier-2 Art District in Kaohsiung is a must-visit. The whole area consisted of old warehouses converted into art galleries, art installations, boutiques, bookstores and cafes. It’s totally the kind of thing I love during travels because they are therapy to my soul. The whole area is divided into 3 areas and you can cover everything on foot. Some of the galleries are FOC, but others are by paid admission only.

This pair of fat lady & fat man appear everywhere in this district, dressed in different attires. They must be the icons of this place.

I especially was captivated by the colorful wall murals and interesting art installations everywhere. Keep your eyes open because you just might miss the really tiny ones. :)

This cheeky boy peeing made me smile when I accidentally stumbled upon him as well. The surprise is that the pee comes on periodically! LOL! You can check my instagram for the boomerang version. =P

  

Look out for this interesting upside down house at Pier-2!

When you come to this area with the abandoned railway tracks, that marks the end of Pier-2 Art Centre. This is a great spot to chill with your family & friends during the evening, when the sunset orange glows are in the sky. =)

Getting to Pier-2 Art District:
Alight at Yanchengpu Station(O2 station) exit 1, walk for five minutes along Dayong Road and you will arrive there.
or alight at Sizihwan Station(O1 station) exit 2, walk for two minutes along West Side Harbor Line Bike Path and you will arrive there.