As mentioned in many recent posts, I am currently in another World Family English production, Puppet Play Along: The Toy Box!

With this one, we travel to Taoyuan, Kaohsiung, Tainan, Hsinchu, Taizhong + Taipei, with a whopping 21 performances over four weekends!

Our first stay-over was in Kaohsiung. It rained the night that we got there, so we were limited to browsing at the Dream Mall (poor us…. HEY, Daiso, the 39元 store!) + checking out its wacky rooftop amusement park.

That night, we stayed in the beautiful Grand Hotel Kaohsiung. (Believe me, I am kicking myself for not taking pictures of our massive room here + the next night in Tainan at Zenda Suites.) Then the next morning we had two shows. Here’s a composite from setting up the show, courtesy of my friend + castmate, Lisa:

After the show, we had all afternoon + night to play before our shows the next day in Tainan. Since Lisa has a membership with the Ten Drum Cultural Village, she was able to take me (for free!!) as her guest to visit the Ten Drum Ciatou Creative Park in Kaohsiung!

We got alighted the MRT to these views.

Then found our way to the park.

Located in an old sugar refining factory, the Ten Drum Ciatou Creative Park is a fabulous place to visit in Kaohsiung. There are gardens, museums, robot parks, factories to explore, bikes to rent, drum shows to see + drum classes to take!

The drum performance was fantastic (despite an overabundance of audience members who would not stop having personal conversations) + the drum class we took was super fun!

lisa’s surrious drum skills at work!

another lisa composite!

Overall, I was very impressed by the beauty of Ciatou Creative Park. A New York City girl who grew up surrounded by concrete, art, music + parks, I love finding places where nature meets industry, flowers meet steel. Check out these shots.

I highly recommend making the trip to visit Kaohsiung + its Ten Drum Ciatou Creative Park! It is a much welcomed change of pace from the hustle + bustle of Taipei life.

***

This song was playing as I finished writing this post + somehow seemed appropriate. While I was in Kaohsiung I felt so comfortable but couldn’t figure out why. It just seemed a bit slower + like another what-you-see-is-what-you-get place. (Which is, in case you haven’t noticed, a quality that I absolutely love.) Also the mantra, “Pack light,” seems appropriate. Anyway, enjoy.