Thirteen people (including myself), decided that we wanted to pay a visit to the southern tip of Taiwan, called Kenting. It's famous there for beaches and warm weather. Pam was awesome and pretty much planned the whole trip- I helped out by going to the train station with her to pre-purchase thirteen train and High Speed Rail (HSR) tickets.
We left on Friday night; our train left Taipei at 11pm and would arrive in Kaohsiung around 6am. A whopping 7 hour ride that stopped a a million little stops. I was lucky and managed to sleep on the train, probably for about 4-5 hours in total. However, at around 3am, this man walked into our car SCREAMING "ben-dong." He was selling lunch boxes. At 3am. In Taiwanese (a local dialect). He managed to walk through our car twice... But besides that, it was an okay train ride. Not terribly comfortable, but I can sleep anywhere. Some people thought it was too cold on the train, but I fared alright with a hoodie. :) Yay for being Canadian and used to the cold.
After arriving in Kaohsiung, we had to get to Kenting. We managed to charter a 12-person van and cram 13 people into it. (Nothing is illegal in Taiwan- apparently). The van ride took about another hour and a half. If you thought we could have slept some more, you would be royally wrong. Because being ASIAN, there was a karaoke system available. And again, being ASIAN, most of them felt compelled to sing at 6am.
Because very few of us (read: 2) could ride mopeds, there was no way we could get around Kenting to do any sight-seeing. So we managed to hire the driver to drive us around all day (9 hours) for roughly $11 CDN each. The weather wasn't fantastic... it was grey, with occassional light showers. But we did managed to see a lot of famous places (and more):
- 出火: A place with natural gas beneath ground, and cracks in the ground. So given an ignition source, there can be fire coming out of the ground. People roast corn and popcorn there...
- 風吹沙: Literally translated to 'Wind blows sand." This was close to the ocean, and super windy. We're talking intense hair blowing around your face windy here. It was quite amazing.
- 佳樂水: A preserved area along a coast where they will take you in a shuttle (read: a truck with benches installed in the bed) and check out the view.
- 鵝鸞鼻: The southern most tip of Taiwan
Below are some photos of things and places we saw on Saturday:
We visited a small sand museum. There was a fenced off region where the sand was mainly composed of really fine shell. There were these little bins of sand, and we drew a heart in one :)
(Almost) Group shot at 鵝鸞鼻 (of course we were super silly).
A lighthouse (apparently famous) at 鵝鸞鼻. Too bad the sky was so bleak...
Rock Star and hermit crab. Both were at 佳樂水. The rock star was just a close up of a rock with a lot of holes weathered into it. Oh, ocean!
Along the coast. We basically watched waves crash- a LOT. It was really awesome. And sounded awesome too.
Have I mentioned how much I love crashing waves? ;D
Sometimes the waves would be this super neat turquoise colour, and it was just beautiful!
We saw all that, and more of Kenting and the area around it. At night, we got to walk around the Kenting night market (situated conveniently close to where we lived). There was a lot of food, and I finally started souvenir shopping. Basically picked up cell phone charms. Haha. I'd better get on that soon... We also had a lot of snacks, but nothing too special. I bought headbands. And also picked up two pairs of sunglasses for ~$5CDN (for both). Yes, I love Asia. We were super exhausted, and I went to bed right after midnight. Apparently some of us went out and played with fireworks and sparklers- but I got a good night's rest.
On Sunday, we got to wake up around 10am (to check out by 11), which was glorious. We heard there was a beach near by, so we went and scoped it out.
This was the beach that was located less than 5 minutes (walk) away from where we lived.
The beach may look deserted, because it WAS. When we arrived, there were people, but they left shortly after we arrived. We got to frolick in the waves, jump around, take pictures, scream a lot. But then, we were told that we couldn't go too far in the ocean because the waves were strong that day. After a little while, frolicking got boring, and 3 of us (including me!) decided that we wanted to go snorkeling.
The lady who owns the place where we lived got us hook-ups. And we got to go snorkeling for ~$15CDN. That included gear renting (wetsuits, life jackets and snorkel masks), an instructor dude, and the trip from where we lived to where we got to snorkel.
I had never snorkeled in my life before- in fact, I haven't gone into the ocean past my waist since... well, EVER. After I squirmed (it was difficult) into my wetsuit and we got transported to the ocean, I started freaking out. I didn't know how to breathe through a tube!!! The instructor guy had to lead us out past the waves, where there was a make-shift dock made out of 5 thick styrofoam pads tied to the bottom of the ocean.
He lead us out by getting us to hold on to a life preserver and swimming out. He wanted us to lay flat on our stomachs with our heads underwater (breathing through our tube). I tried that, freaked out, started taking breaths that were too shallow. So I ended up holding my head above water most of the way out to the dock. Baaaad idea, since I got a nice mouthful of sea water EVERY time the waves crashed (which happened a lot). Finally we make it to the dock and climb on it. I start breathing normally, still tasting salt everywhere.
Before I even get to regulate my breathing, they asked us if we wanted to go on a banana boat! There had already been 5 other snorkelers at the dock, and they paid for banana boating. But since the banana boat sat 8, the 3 of us apparently scored a free ride. We got into a speed boat and went further out into the ocean. (Still freaking out). The boat driver stops the boat and gets us to climb onto the banana boat. I flat out refused, still freaking out. So I got to sit in the speed boat for a little longer... Then the boat steerer made this SUPER sharp turn, and as I looked behind me, I saw all 7 people fly off of the banana boat. I laughed to myself as we backtrack to go save them all.
After they get back into the speedboat, they decided that they would, once again, get onto the banana boat. And this time, I couldn't get out of it. I was peer pressured (by all 7 other snorkelers, the snorkeling instructor AND the boat driver) into getting on that banana boat. As soon as we started moving, I started screaming like a baby. Haha. It was super bouncy... In hindsight, I'm glad I did it. But boy, was I petrified. Another turn later, I saw the 2 people in front of me fall off. And as I look behind me, I noticed that the 5 people behind me has also fallen off. Yes, indeed, I was the sole survivor of the banana boat ride. Go me! :D :D :D
We finally make it back to the dock, and the instructor takes the 5 other snorkelers back to shore and left us out there to explore on our own. Too bad I was too scared to leave the dock. So I basically snorkeled around the dock, while holding on with one hand at all times. I still got to see a lot of fish!!! They were super colourful and very close! I never got to touch one though- they are way too speedy. It was quite a surreal experience, and the water was a nice temperature (with the wetsuit). I think we snorkeled for about an hour before we headed back. It was a real pain getting out of the wetsuit, and an even bigger pain when I had to comb my sea-salted hair. It was very nice when I got to drink water though! :) Salt water was not meant for human consumption.
Around 6pm, we got back into the van and headed back for Kaohsiung for the High Speed Rail. We decided that we would take the HSR on the way back because it would be faster. And it was!! It took an hour and a half to cover the same distance that took SEVEN hours on the way south. Haha. The HSR was very fancy too- reminded me of an airplane; it travelled at ~280km/hr. But it didn't actually FEEL any faster than the MRT (Skytrain/subway of Taipei).
Okay, this is actually Saturday's sunset. :)
The front of the HSR
All in all, this weekend trip was a blast! I got to see a lot of scenic spots (to which I've apparently been when I was young...) and try snorkeling and banana boating! I didn't sunburn either, and the weather wasn't too hot! I had a lot of fun; I think we all did.
