The Love Pond and Karaoke

Yesterday I had the day off. Won't be a regular event once I start my teaching schedule, so I had to make the most of it! Dan, Yit (our friend from the 6th floor) and I decided to do some Christmas shopping.
We had heard about a lake called the "Love Pond" where vendors set-up shop with various traditional Chinese and Taiwanese items. We headed down and found it easily.
There were ornate temples, pagodas, and large sculptures on piers that stretched out over the lake. The gifts were very well priced and we all bought something for folks back in Canada.
When walking down the main drag, we overhead some karaoke (extremely popular here) coming from a tiny restaurant. Karaoke at 3 in the afternoon? Why not? We got some Taiwanese beers and took over the joint. No joke, we sang for close to two hours with just a few breaks. The only English songs were ancient like "Unchained Melody" and "Summertime" BUT they're classics. The locals loved our antics and invited us for shots and ice cream cake. It was a great time.
At night we visited the Yuchen Market. It is by far the best night market we have seen in Kaohsiung thus far. I bought a few more Christmas gifts for the fam and sampled some interesting local cuisine. I'll try anything once and yesterday that included stinky tofu (which tasted like manure smells, no kidding), rice cured in pig's blood, fish balls, and a whole bunch of mystery stuff in a "cook your own" style hot-pot meal. I won't be having much of these things again.
It's hard to describe the night market and I must post pictures soon. We didn't get home until 2 am! I just wanted to share the events of yesterday with you all. They were definitely memorable.
warm wishes,
love Rach