I had a good sleep and went off to my free breakfast. The vast majority of the other customers there were not couples, being families or mixed groups, so I guess being the only hotel in town was good for business.
I found a road to the sea, and marched for a long time. It was a kind of flat expanse, with not-very-productive looking land and a mix of old towns and new development.
Flattish, not very productive looking land.
A small hint of an aboriginal past
Tomb-sweeping day
I came to the sea, and again followed it, walking on the sea wall or the road just inside it, from where I could easily see the beach.
Not exactly Kending
After a while I could see a large body of water ahead, which worried me because I thought I might have to circumvent it. Fortunately, the there was a causeway and bridge across its mouth. There was also a pretty serious-looking bridge-building project going on.
A few hours later I was in Donggang, which is an interesting town. As I approached it in broad daylight, I came to the spot where I had been a few months before for the Wang Yeh boat burning. The difference in how the place looked is hard to convey. Think masses of crowds, stacked layers of photographer scaffolds on mounds of sand built around the burning boat for the occasion, and paths full of food and game stands. It all seemed totally different now, almost as if it was not the same place at all. But it was. I made my way to the bus station and got a bus to Kaohsiung.
A tourist boat heads out from Donggang towards Xiao Liuchiu
The smokestacks of Linyuan appear through the smog
The site of the boat burning during the Wang Yeh festival
Donggang harbor
The main gates to the Donglong Temple
