Kaohsiung, Taiwan

I decided to get out of wrist-slicing drear of Taipei for a week or so. The weather there was great for about 12 days until the end of class. Then it promptly got cold and dreary again, and I told myself once it seemed like that was the norm again, I'd leave.

The weather here is much better. Even too hot maybe, which is not something I say often. Kaohsiung is tropical, and when it gets hot, it's a listless, energy-draining hot. Still better than Taipei any day. And in February I can go on extended photostrolls without worrying about the heat. I would be more careful about doing that in the Summer.

Two years ago I spent two months here between time at the monastery. It's incredible that after only a few days here, I feel like I'm right back in that mode/mood. Taipei seems unreal. My life in Taipei is completely separate from any history or reality of having family in Kaohsiung.

With the exception of my uncle occasionally coming up to Taipei for business and inviting me out to company dinners, there is nothing about Taipei that has mixed with anything Kaohsiung. It makes me think I shouldn't stay here very long, maybe not even for the full week I was planning.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 8:37 p.m. - My aunt's dog looking at me like I never rubbed his belly before. Or maybe I went too far south last time.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1:52 p.m. - So I was walking along and came across this line of police buses and they looked an awful lot like an old photograph I took on a visit a long time ago. I tried to take as close a composition as I remembered the other photo, and when I got home I looked up the previous photo:

January 6, 1997 - The differences are obvious, but the similarities are uncanny. The building in the upper left of the old photo looks vaguely similar to the building on the upper right of the color. The buses all have numbers on the upper left side of their windows and #17 appears in both photos. They're the same fucking bus! Even though the siren on top has been removed since 1997, the headlight configurations are the same and the license plate numbers are the same (if it's not clear in these photos, I confirmed it zooming into them). Ten years apart, I'm taking the same solo photostrolls in Kaohsiung. Or not. That I take solo photostrolls is the same.

1:54 p.m. - Taiwanese political graffiti. The first three characters are the KMT political party. I think this is critical of them.

2:15 p.m. - Walkway under the TRA railroad tracks which cross the Love River here.

2:25 p.m. - Approaching the Zhongdu Bridge.

2:32 p.m. - Crossing the Zhongdu Bridge. Love River turns to the east and I'm gonna head a little further north. 

2:49 p.m. - Not sure if it's political.

3:31 p.m. - Park around the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, a bit north of Love River.

3:35 p.m. - Public container art on display on the museum grounds.

 Nikon N70, Ilford XP2 Super:

Games along the Love River to pass time.

Roadside shrine is my guess.

View from my uncle's building of the street down below. During New Years a fair/market pops up along the entire street for several days, but construction of the KMRT is making constraints on space this year.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18 - Another photostroll.

Sometimes I have to rotate photos to correct a tilt because apparently one of my legs is shorter than the other. Sometimes I just completely fall over when I shoot.

Love River

Audrey's daughter, Pie, so I did meet people after the solo photostroll.

Pie and Alan, they're cousins.

5:16 p.m. - The same temple on Hebei 2nd Rd. that I was falling all over myself to shoot in black and white. So the people I met up with was later in the day.

5:40 p.m. - Love River.