TacoCat’s Travels #86 (Taiwan): Ending on a High at 85 Sky Tower 🏙

Hey Hive/Steemit!

So if you didn't catch the last couple of posts, we're currently on a brand new journey to Taiwan! This was back at the end of 2016 and was the second new year we spent overseas together! It was also my first time visiting Taiwan and I was really excited so here we go!

Last week, we explored the inside of Dream Mall, played some games and found the rooftop amusement park!

But unfortunately the next day, I fell very ill and had to take the day off, recuperating in bed.

So we've finally come to the last day of our trip! I started it a little bit at the end of the last post where we found another cool-looking bookstore.

Sorry I left the last post at an inopportune time, but I didn't want to end it on me being sick. Anyway, here's the rest of our final day in Taiwan!

5 January 2017. Thursday.

After exploring the bookstore, we decided to go get some lunch! Sean insisted that I have something with warm soup to make sure we kept my flu at bay so we had sliced fish noodles at this place called Chou's Shrimp Rolls!

I don't remember if we actually ate the shrimp rolls, since Sean made sure I stayed away from fried foods then. Shame.

After that, we walked around the mall for a bit to digest, and stopped by the arcade yet again since we managed to collect a few tickets the other day and wanted to see what we could exchange them for.

Most of the tickets were actually freebies we found lying around the arcade, actually. But hey, we managed to get a couple of small items from the redemption counter. I think one of them was a refrigerator magnet clip and the other was a spectacle screw box or something like that.

After that we headed back outside.

And we decided to head to the tallest building in Kaohsiung to take one last farewell look at the city!

Source: Taiwan Tourism Bureau

This is the 85 Sky Tower! Formerly known as the Tuntex Sky Tower, it is an 85-storey skycraper in the Lingya District in Kaohsiung. The structure itself is 347.5m high and the antenna increases the pinnacle height to 378m. Completed in 1997, it is the tallest skyscraper in Kaohsiung, and was the tallest in Taiwan until the completion of Taipei 101 in 2004 (Cr: Wikipedia).

If you've read my post on when we went up the Tokyo Skytree, you'd know that since then we've been quite a fan of visiting these observatories. And since we didn't really know what else to do on our last couple hours here, we decided why not check this one out too.

The hotel lobby itself definitely had a regal look to it. It's nice but the marble did make it look too traditional, which I guess is fitting since it was built in 1997.

Now typically we would visit during sunset so we could enjoy the natural scenery as well, but we would have to be at the airport in the evening so there was no way we could make it.

Here's the map of the tower:

So this sky tower is actually a hotel, department store and office space. The 85 Sky Tower Hotel occupies floors 37 to 79 and they own the observation deck on the 74th floor.

Obviously we didn't get to see what the hotel rooms are like, but I imagine them to be pretty spectacular and definitely expensive.

To go up to the viewing deck, we had to walk through the other entrance, which meant we had to pass by the department store, which was really huge!

This was the lobby for the viewing deck:

And after getting our tickets, we headed to the high speed elevator!

We were surprised to see no one around at all. I mean I guess it wasn't a weekend but still. Maybe it wasn't too popular.

We even got the whole elevator to ourselves!

As we went further up, the elevator got darker and the ceiling changed! There was also a screen showing how high and fast we were going. Apparently, these elevators are capable of speeds of 10.17 m/s!

Less than 5 minutes later, we arrived at the top! And man, what a view! The weather wasn't too great that afternoon unfortunately, but it was still a pretty nice view.

I believe this is the Kaohsiung Harbour.

When we exited the elevator there was literally no one around, which was slightly unnerving, although I do appreciate the peaceful silence.

But after we walked on for a bit we saw a couple of other tourists. Just 1 other party though.

There was a display out to show you how the tower looks like from the harbour I guess.?

From the top you could see there wasn't that much greenery around the city though.

I thought this shot was pretty cool; kinda like that scene in Doctor Strange. Or Inception.

We tried to take some selfies but the sun was too bright to get both us and the view, unfortunately.

We were so high up the buildings all looked like little boxes. Except the more modern ones I guess.

We soon found the cafe and gift shop and it was still mostly empty except for the same people we saw previously.

They had the standard merchandise at the gift shop; souvenirs, mugs, magnets, postcards, etc. Everything looked like they hadn't been moved for a while but at least there wasn't dust on it I guess.

I thought that black and white building in the corner looked pretty cool. It kinda reminded me of Lego bricks. Oh man wouldn't it be cool if there was a literal building made of Lego bricks. But you know, with a reinforced skeleton or something.

Here's a shot of the Kaohsiung Exhibition Centre!

There was also a display of professionally taken photos of the Sky Tower from different spots in the city. Some of them kinda looked like stock photos to me though.

But this one of the Kaohsiung city skyline was pretty cool. If it was at sunset it would've been even better.

It was getting pretty warm up there in the tower since it was peak afternoon on a very sunny day. So after exploring the deck fully, we quickly took the elevator back down to the lobby.

Looks like they're already preparing for Lunar New Year.

After that we started heading back to our apartment but stopped on the way to visit this pie shop not too far from our building. We'd always see their sign but never go in because they were closed or we were heading somewhere else.

So we finally decided to check it out! The shop itself was one floor up so we had to walk up this nicely decorated flight of stairs.

I believe the name of this cafe is Europe Pie Shop. The interior of the cafe definitely did suggest that it had a European theme.

From the orange tiles to the natural wood furnishings and the striped cushioned chairs, it definitely gave off a rustic European summer house vibe.

I think I used to have chairs like that in my parents' old house. I remember it was pretty bulky and heavy to move around. The house itself was similar modeled as well, since the whole estate had a European theme.

So after looking around and taking a bunch of pictures, we decided to get a pie to-go, since we didn't really have time to sit and enjoy it as we had to go back and pack our luggage.

We weren't too hungry at the time and since I was still recovering I didn't want to have too much sugar. So we just bought a slice of one of their signature pies.

After we got our pie, we went back to our apartment building and headed to the bear lounge to enjoy it since our room was a little cramped.

I can't remember what kind of pie it was exactly, but it kinda resembles a cheesecake. I think the taste was pretty meh, and I didn't want to get Sean sick so he had most of it.

Oh btw I call it the bear lounge because there were so many stuffed bears around!

Anyway, after that we got busy packing and took a cab to the airport. Thankfully it wasn't too far away but by the time we got there it was sunset!

A lovely sunset to see us off.

The first thing we did was head to the check-in counter and drop off our luggage.

The airport toilets were actually kinda like the ones in Japan; with neon signs telling you which stalls were occupied. I really appreciate that and it's too bad we don't have those in Singapore.

After checking our baggage, we just walked around exploring the airport.

And we also decided to have an early dinner since it was gonna be a while until our next meal.

The Kaohsiung International Airport was actually pretty nice, clean and spacious. Not as many amenities as our Changi Airport of course, but still modern and comfortable.

They even had these cute mascots!

At around 7:45pm we started making our way to the gate.

And by 8:30pm, we boarded the plane home!

And I guess that's all for our Taiwan trip! I really hope you enjoyed it and I'm sorry if there was a lack of content since we didn't really visit too many landmarks.

Tbh I'm completely blank on most of this trip. The photos helped refresh my memory but only to a certain extent. Now I so wish to go back but alas, I don't think we're gonna be able to travel for a few years with covid and all. sigh. 😔

Hopefully everyone is staying safe in their homes though! Again, thanks so much for coming along with me on these trips down memory lane and I hope you look forward to the next one!

Thanks so much for reading!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

---

Check out my previous post in this series!

TacoCat’s Travels #85 (Taiwan): Amazing Amusement Park at Dream Mall! 🎡

Disclosure: Posts on TravelFeed may contain affiliate links. See affiliate disclosure.