Breezing through breakfast, I dashed out the hotel to get some quick snaps of what I couldn’t last night. Having viewed it under the glow of dim street lamps and now the sunlight, I can safely say that it was a better viewing experience during the day.
Yuuup
That’s a literal dickhead
Hitting the road for a short trip, we’re taken to our first location of the day - Fo Guang Shan (佛光山), the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan. And boooy is it biiig~ The path to the main hall was already a wonder in itself, so you can imagine how wonderful it was when we reached the Fo Guang Big Buddha (was aight). Inside the main hall was a beautiful open space, home to numerous exhibits and displays, most of which were left unseen due to the nature of the tour.
Right at the centre was probably the main attraction of the Main Hall - a large praying room. Unfortunately, the room prohibited any image recording. Fortunately, I am quite the rebel and have the jankiest photos to show for it.
Upon exiting, my brother and I decided to move ahead of the group. Just a quick wander about on the floors above. Having strayed a little too far for a little too long, we rushed back to an empty atrium. Scurrying around, we attempted to find the group but they were long gone. Then, in the corner of my eye, I noticed a couple from our group. Staff were leading them away and some quick thinking on my part gave chase (blindly). The four of us were now waiting in a line for who knows what. Standing there twiddling my thumbs, I was starting to think our group was never here. As I thought that, we were ushered into this theatre room where we collected 3D glasses... Definitely not on our program. Unable to back out, no thanks to our communication barriers, I had to sit there and suffer. It was hilariously terrible. As if it wasn’t bad enough that we were slowly losing the others, this film was completely in Chinese and had the quality of animation typically found in generic trashy YouTube Kids videos.
After an endless suppression of laughter amongst the many mixed emotions, we got moving to find the tour group. Much to my surprise, they weren’t that far ahead. Quickly catching up on the missed sights, we made our way out, somehow still ahead of the group.
Remember how we left most of the main hall untouched? Well, can you believe that what I’ve presented thus far was only half of what there is to see at this gorgeous location. Just down the road from the Memorial Centre was another site! The Fo Guang Shan Monastery, itself. Just crazy to think how massive this place is.
These cheery little things pump water
One hot pot buffet later, we were on the road again, off to our next attraction – the Lotus Pond (蓮池潭), a fabricated lake plastered with marvellous sights to behold. Except for the water… yeah, it's yuck. With only a short amount of time, I was only able to route my way around half of the area. Jetting towards the Beiji Pavillion (北極亭) first, I worked my way backwards towards where we started at the Dragon & Tiger Pagodas (龍虎塔).
As my parents were miserably left behind, I made short work of the distance before me. With a slight puff, I lost even more of my breath looking down the walkway leading to the temple with the Xuan Wu statue towering above it. From start to finish, the walkway’s rails were decorated with individually unique statues. The amount of detailing and character etched into each one was astounding. Meanwhile, the main statue was nheh.
Said disgusting water. So much so that the fish are dead
Next in line were the Spring & Autumn Pavilions (春秋閣). This was quite an interesting landmark, thanks to the peculiar dragon hallway. At no risk of your life, you can safely enter the dragon and view the less than stellar artwork adorning the walls. Word of caution though, if you’re not a fan of incense, I’d steer clear. It’s as though the murals were painted with the stuff. Past the dragon is a walkway to an ehh pagoda. Moving on.
Back to the start again, and I have left the meh ‘til last. Like the dragon before, the Dragon & Tiger Pagodas also have a novel entryway, but nowhere nearly as fascinating. Past that, the scalable pagoda towers offered a view… And as a bonus, threw in the pollution filter 👌.
Leaving the Lotus Pond, it marked the end of our attraction viewing for the day. Up next, we made a quick stop at Chan Shui Tang (春水堂) where our local guide singlehandedly brought us twenty odd cups of bubz. Again, it's good but not sweet enough. I neeeed the sugar, yo.
Continuing the trend of going in reverse, we washed down our drinks with a confectionary overload at the Castle of Golden Pineapple (維格餅家). Eating my weight in samples, I was quite the happy chappy. It was here that I discovered my new-found love – pineapple cake. Making my first time even greater, we were sampling a fresh batch.
Only in for the (most welcome) money shakedown, it’s very likely that we missed any other offerings the place had in store - it was a large building after all.
Squeezing us even drier of our money, we headed to the Uni-UStyle department store. hah! Jokes on them, I didn’t have any money to spend ha ha ha... Like Japan, I'm amazed by how these small-ish countries have such massive and extravagant shopping complexes. Then I look at Australia and its piss-poor selection. Wait- Why do I care? I only ever shop online.
Who wore it better?
Having spent nothing but time, it was time to grab (an unexceptional) dinner and call it a night. As I have just about discovered everything within walking distance, I stayed cooped up in my room, enjoying that hella fast internet.
And with that, it marks the end of the Kaohsiung leg of the trip. Thank you for reading and join me next time as we head towards the central regions and visit the city of Taichung.