The Kenting weekend was a success! Though it started out rough. We ended up leaving late, almost 2 PM, on Saturday and didn't arrive until a little after 4 PM. Me and two of my friends, Miss Kou and Yi-xiu, drove together in Margaret (Miss Kou)'s car. I waited at Yi-xiu's house and met her family. They live in a 5 story condo with an elevator in it. But it is her, her parents, her brother (who owns the house), his wife, and two children. Crazy. We took off our shoes at the door as always and I was given slippers to wear while I was there. Unfortunately, I forgot to put my shoes back on when we finally left, and had to borrow Miss Kou's flip flops so that I wouldn't have to walk around Kenting in house shoes.
We were booked at a cute bed and breakfast right by the water. What is interesting about Taiwan beaches is that practically no one wears a swimsuit. Partially because of their desire to have absolutely no sun on their skin, and partially due to modesty, the Taiwanese are fully clothed on the beach. So there was no swimming involved in our trip, but we did many other fun activities.
First, we went to the beach. Everyone does water sports instead of swimming, like banana boats, para sailing, scuba diving, and water skiing. None of my friends wanted to join me, so I postponed those activities for another trip. Then we went in search of the Erluanbi Lighthouse. We got lost and ended up on a long trail to the "Southern Most Point" of Taiwan...which I touched. Cool, I know. On our way back down the trail we saw a worm the size of a snake and everyone jumped and screamed. It was hilarious. Finally, we found the beautiful lighthouse with the most amazing view of mountains and ocean I've ever seen. Check out my photos! We walked down another trail to the ocean, though it was marked as closed due to the typhoon, and we basically had a photo shoot around Kenting.
Our third friend, Yu-xiu, and her husband, met up with us at the lighthouse. Then we all drove into downtown Kenting and had dinner on Main Street, which had become a night market by that time. We ate an incredibly delicious Thai meal and then walked down the entire stretch of road, looking at various shops. I bought a wind chime made of traditional Taiwanese seashells to hang on my balcony (speaking of which, my camera died and I failed at taking pictures around my home!). We then drove to the outskirts of town and looked out at the stars. Everyone decided that they wanted a midnight snack, so we returned to Main Street and had corndogs and milk tea. It was delicious, but a bit gross! We went back to the hotel with our snacks and watched Taiwan Idol (i.e. American Idol in Taiwan). The winner was a young guy who sang Hotel California. All I could think about was the Big Lebowski.
The next morning Miss Kou had to leave early to go teach a class in Kaohsiung. The rest of our group drove to a beautiful cliff area and looked out over another breathtaking view. We just rested and enjoyed being at the beach. Then we went go-karting, my first time ever, and I loved it. I sped around the track faster than everyone and all of the locals were cracking up on the sidelines. I guess I'm used to driving my Honda-go-kart at home. After that, we visited a couple more famous beaches and looked for seashells. We snuck into the biggest and most luxurious hotel in Kenting, the Caesar, and used their bathrooms and washed off our feet. It reminded me of all the times I did that with my American friends in Florida and Hong Kong.
Finally, we packed up and headed home. I had an appointment with my personal trainer at the gym that I had already put off for a month. On our way back, we stopped at a famous restaurant owned by a Taiwanese TV star and got bao-zi to go. The dumpling was filled with cheese and sausage and was AMAZING. We also stopped at a famous dessert shop just outside of Kaohsiung. The "dessert" is made of hot, sweet soup, with red beans and potatoes, covered in ice and condensed milk. It was actually quite delicious and the shop had pictures of the owners with various movie stars, famous singers, and even President Ma!
I really enjoyed the vacation and had another decent week of teaching at school. I'll update about that later. I've also had several lizards in my room; one whose tail I accidentally cut off when I tried to catch it in a cup. I was reassured that their tails grow back and encouraged to just let them roam my room. Apparently they eat mosquitoes (if they aren't eaten by the giant roaches). I'm on my way to Taichung tomorrow where I will meet up with my friend Elly from London and spend some time seeing the city with Winnie.
No comments:
Post a Comment