We were absolutely spoiled by the breakfast buffet at the Hotel Dua. Imagine, if you will, an entire wall of hot food options including custom-made omelettes and my favorite - real bacon. (Bacon in Taiwan is usually a processed meat product that is shaped and colored to look like bacon, but isn't really bacon.) For the Asian clientele there were three different congee mixtures as well as a long table of congee "condiments" such as pork floss, fish flakes, pickled radish, nuts, etc. There was also your traditional cereal and yoghurt station, croissant and toast station, and fruit display. What got me was the gigantic salad bar. I don't know why, but it's really hard to find fresh salad in Taipei. When I saw that salad bar my brain shut out all other food options and I piled my plate high with different types of lettuces, frisee, radicchio, cucumber, carrot, pea greens, and so on. Yes, I was in salad heaven - for breakfast. Don't judge me.
It was pouring rain by the time we finished breakfast so we discussed our options for the morning. We decided to take advantage of the hotel's free self-serve laundry facilities and do a load or two of laundry. When we got to the laundry room we discovered that many other people had made the same call. We had to wait until a washing machine was available, then we had to "ponder life's vicissitudes" until the one dryer wasn't being monopolized by some woman who was using it to dry out her shoes. (It was during this time that I walked into the very clear, very heavy glass door between the hallway and the laundry room. I hit my head so hard that I saw stars and bent my glasses. I also executed a physical comedy routine worthy of the Three Stooges that involved me bouncing off the glass door and landing on my heiney. We all blamed the wet sneaker lady for closing the door because the sound of her shoes banging around in the drum of the dryer was quite loud.)
After our laundry was "done" (still damp but hanging in our room) we caught the MRT out to Sizihwan Station. Our plan was to walk to the former British Consulate building at Takao, then meander along the waterfront in the Yangcheng area of town. We started walking to the British Consulate building when we realized that it looked pretty non-commercial. In other words, we might not be able to find a place to eat for quite a while. We decided that food was a priority and stopped at a place called Fresh Brunch because it met all of our lunching criteria: seating was indoors, it was air-conditioned, there were proper tables and chairs, there was an English menu, and there was a restroom.
After our "fresh brunch" we walked - nay, hiked! - to the British Consulate. None of the guidebooks had mentioned that to get to the British Consulate by foot, you have to walk up a narrow and very steep path along Lane 30 Anchuan Street. It was a longer and sweatier experience than we anticipated, so when we got to the consulate we were determined to make the most of it.
Fortunately or unfortunately, there was a busload of elementary school students visiting the consulate at the same time. They were loud, excited, and all over the place. After a while I realized that the consulate itself wasn't particularly interesting. The interpretive signage only had limited English and there were no displays of historical papers, maps, photos, furniture, etc. The best part of the consulate was the excitement of the kids and the photo ops of the Kaohsiung Harbour below.
We walked back down the path and over the canal bridge to the wharf area, then walked along the water toward the Love River. Along the way we passed Banana Pier (meh) and the Pier 2 Art Center (cool!). At Love Pier we walked across what was probably supposed to be a bike-only bridge to the Qianjin area. We walked toward the information center (identified by a giant snake sculpture), which happened to be right next to the dock where you can buy tickets for a 30-minute interpretive boat ride along the Love River on a solar-powered boat. We were hot and tired but decided to give it a shot because it might be our only chance to explore the river by boat. It was great fun but the "interpretive" part of the tour was lost on us because the guide only spoke Mandarin. I couldn't catch enough of the words to provide any value, so we just sat back, enjoyed the water and wind, and took photos.
After the boat ride we agreed we were completely tapped out so we caught a cab back to the hotel. We spent two or three hours relaxing and catching up on things, then wandered out to the Liuhe Tourist Night Market to sample "xiao chi" (small eats). It was Mom and Simone's first night market visit in Taiwan and it was fantastic. The vendors were super friendly and the "dachang bao xiaochang" vendor even invited Mom behind the grill to pretend like she was tending the sausages so Simone could catch an action shot of her. It was really awesome. We snacked on dachang bao xiaochang (of course) and shrimp tempura. The other options were a bit too intimidating so we went back to the Pupu Cafe for dinner. Mom and Simone had "corn" chowder with puff pastry that turned out to be seafood chowder with whole shrimp that stared at you with black eyes when you pulled it from the bowl. I had "vegetable tempura" that turned out to be some kind of mashed and formed veggie pancake that was cut into strips and deep fried. So, our goal of having safe and familiar food at the Pupu Cafe was somewhat unsuccessful.
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