2023-11-01
Slept again again a little bit longer and went for a walk through Kaohsiung today – goals: two record shops.
First one was an old one. Google said, the owner could be a little bit special. From outside it looked fabulous, I entered shy. The owner showed me the categories and it seemed, it puzzled him, that I went directly and only to the Taiwanese stuff. In the end, he turned out to be super kind – I could here the records by myself on his stylish, heavily customised Luxman record player.
Bought 3 records and then he asked us where we come from “so special, can we take a picture together?” he asked🥰 Sure! He was really astonished, that some Germans are interested in 50+ year old Taiwanese music.
Then “crawled” in the heat (in the city it’s even more demanding) some kilometers to the next shop.
This was some modern book store, with an added vinyl shop. These type of shops seem to get more and more popular). Stock is often the same – very pricey Japenese reissues (same price as ordered from Germany), and a lot of cheap but uninteresting Enka/Kayōkyoku.
But…it had a couple of Teresa Teng records. Had choosen two and asked for prelistening, as they were a little bit more expensive (Teresa Teng has a special standing in Taiwan).
The employee played it then for me track by track. First one was completely skipping, so sad.
But: as we listened to the second one, a group of elderly ladies surrounded me and looked curiously what I was listening to. They enjoyed it as well, had smiles on their faces and told me about them being young and listening to a lot of Teresa Teng. So cute!
Then took the LRT to the harbour and walked around it. Visited the Kaohsiung Music Centre and walked along two of these old abandoned buildings (in this case docks), that have been restyled into some nice modern environment – nice (but also very touristic) shops and some art installations.
Tired from so much walking went back by LRT to get some udon and then back to the hotel for a shower.
Returned to the park at the night market (I had an extra spicy stinky tofu prior) to chill…then fall tired from all the walking to bed.
One comment