May 26-29

SATURDAY, MAY 26 - Port of Kaohsiung photostroll. Pentax ZX-5n, Kodak BW400CN.

I can't help but read the ship's name as "Sardonic Wave". And it says Panama, but I keep thinking it's Greek.

SUNDAY, MAY 27 - Morning photostroll through the Port of Kaohsiung rail yard.

There's a structure by the tracks in the upper left quadrant that I've photographed before up-close. I still don't know what it is.

Pedestrian tunnel drilled through the southern-most portion of the Shoushan mountain and leads to Nat'l Sun Yat-sen University and the Xiziwan beach area where my uncle goes for a swim in the sea every morning. He drives, though, and has to go a little further south to go around the mountain.

Afternoon photostroll along the various waterfronts.

Northern access to Port of Kaohsiung.

Robot 85 building and clouds.

Xiziwan ferry wharf to Cijin island. It's a very short ferry ride (less than 10 minutes) that crosses the north entrance of the Port of Kaohsiung.

1:19 p.m. - Xiziwan Bay. Sun Yat-sen University to the left. The beach area where my uncle swims every morning, a little to the right. And more to the right of that is the port entrance above that structure stretching out into the sea that leads ships in.

1:25 p.m. - Beautiful natural settings inspire temples.

1:45 p.m.

5:23 p.m. - The rail line that served the Port of Kaohsiung is being converted to recreational paths.

9:13 p.m. - My cousin Peter's children, Sunny and Bob, playing Nintendo Wii. His wife and one of my aunts (Peter's mother who has always been completely kind and hospitable towards me) present. Being completely kind and hospitable in family terms means simply I love and appreciate her.

MONDAY, MAY 28 - Photostroll north along the Love River that I've done in the recent past.

The temple that I've shot before where Audrey's mother is interred.

 I will just lazily call this the Zuoying area of Kaohsiung (and it very well may be) because of the tracks and the road that goes to the Zuoying HSR station when someone drives me.

Pagodas at Lotus Pond that I visited last year with classmates.

5:59 p.m. - Lotus Pond.

TUESDAY, MAY 29, 2:31 p.m. - Pagoda at Cheng Qing Lake, Kaohsiung.

2:36 p.m. - Kaohsiung skyline from aforementioned pagoda.

2:44 p.m. - Kaohsiung skyline detail utilizing the Ricoh Caplio R4's outstanding zoom.

3:15 p.m. - Nine corner bridge at Cheng Qing Lake with the Grand Hotel Kaohsiung in the background. I think it is related to the Grand Hotel Taipei with its similar architecture, but I'm not sure what the connection is. I have photos taken here from when I visited with my brothers when we were kids. In all my visits to Kaohsiung since then, this is the first time coming back here.

Cheng Qing Lake with the pagoda in the background.

4:32 p.m. - Relatives on my mother's side of the family took me to Cheng Qing Lake before, but this time it was 姿慧, my cousin and only family member I'm in contact with on my father's side, who took me there. She took me on her motor-scooter, which is the first time ever in Kaohsiung that I've ridden on a motor-scooter (bit of an adventure for me). We have some strange karma/mojo between us. She hasn't had the easiest of lives and she is Buddhist, associated with Taiwan's Tzu Chi organization, which I find curious but respect because they do very good work. 

4:33 p.m. - The view from her apartment balcony. She lives in a place with this kind of view, but she's not well-off and although it's not a dump, it's a little threadbare. Her father, my father's younger brother, died a long while back, and I remember hearing the news just as raw news, and I'm finding it hard to forgive my father for not making sure she and her siblings were alright. The funky karma I have with her I think is good, even if we can't plumb our relationship because of the language barrier. With my father, not so much. I'm shooting northwest towards where my uncle lives with Shoushan Mt. visible at the right. All these years I've been coming to visit Kaohsiung, she's been here. It took my uncle's second wife, Audrey's stepmom, to reconnect us. That's a KMRT station under construction down there. Like my uncle, she will live right on a KMRT line.