kaoshiung day 1

ni hao, blogland. i didn't think i'd be able to check in from kaoshiung, but i can. we're staying in a pretty cool IKEA-d out hotel across from the train station and it has a little internet station tucked under the stairs. the hotel itself is nice. our room is a 'family suite' and it's clean and decorated with bright IKEA stuff so it feels good. the floor has sparkley tiles on it, so that's something.

well today we spent most of the day wandering and incorrectly reading the 'kaoshiung fun map' justin entrusted to me for our trip. it worked out though. we had stuffed bun things for lunch that were alright, and then we headed to monkey mountain. steve and josh, for all of their claims against making plans, actually had pretty set ideas about what our schedule would be, which has been working out well.monkey mountain was pretty cool. it's at the top of kind of a low mountain and connected somehow to a zoo. i think the zoo is a different entity, but it backs up into the monkeys, who run free on this mountain. there were some zookeepers along the path though, so maybe they're wild-not-wild. i'm not sure.anyway they just kind of wander around alongside you and around you. at one point, we found a tree full of 5 or 6 baby monkeys who were making little sounds and running off somewhere. i brought my camera this time, so i'll show you in a few days.this evening we walked through the night market, along the love river, toward this pub that's in Lonely Planet called 'the pig and whistle'. i had fish and chips and i asked for 'cider' which turned out to be sprite, orange juice and lime juice or something.. so i had them add some gin. it turned out well once it had been doctored. the fish and chips weren't traditionally battered and fried, but it was close enough.
then we walked down this street that was supposed to have a lot of pubs, but monday is chinese new year, so it was pretty quiet everywhere. we ended up at one where there were a bunch of foreigners in their 60s or 70s hanging out with elderly taiwanese women.. and then one that was a jazz club that was pretty interesting. a man was playing the saxophone and people were singing like a KTV.

time for bed pretty soon and we're headed south to kenting beach tomorrow if all goes according to plan.