Now that a couple days have gone by since
my last blog post it’s time to write the promised post about my weekend trip to
Kenting last weekend. Kenting is the most southern tip of the island of Taiwan
and it’s the most tropical part of the country. Temperatures here are very
pleasant all year round, with temperatures in the 20-something degrees (Celsius
that is, because Celsius is what you’re supposed to use my dear American
friends).
Not that temperatures here in Taipei were
very unpleasant last weekend, but Taipei is definitely not a subtropical
paradise like Kenting. Far from it; noise, pollution, and seas of people
crowding the streets and public transport are hardly the characteristics of a
subtropical paradise, no matter how high temperatures are. Besides, to what end
did I go to Taiwan if it wasn’t to travel. Anyway, long story short we thought
it was time to get away from the hussle and bussle of Taipei and to go relax on
the beach drinking from a coconut.
We booked bus tickets for the 1am bus on Friday
to Kaoshiung, the most southern big city of Taiwan. This bus ride would take
about five hours, and once we got to Kaoshiung we had to take a taxi to our
hostel in Hengchun, which would take another two hours. Seven hours from Taipei
to subtropical paradise is totally worth it, and definitely closer than I’ve
ever been. The bus ride was long, but I think all of us were able to sleep on
the bus so it was over before we knew it. And it was actually a little bit too
fast, since I really felt like sleeping just a little longer. The taxi ride
consisted mostly of me trying to sleep in the most uncomfortable positions ever
and not succeeding. Which made the taxi ride actually feel a lot longer than
the bus ride.
When we finally made it to our hostel we
were all very pleasantly surprised. The hostel was called Rainbow Wave and the
overall vibe of the place was very relaxed and welcoming. Also, the eight of us
shared a really big Japanese style dorm room which was very clean and tidy.
Because we were all kind of tired from our nocturnal journey we decided that we
would just spend our first day at the beach. So we took a bus to Baisha beach.
Baisha in Chinese means white sand, and boy the sand was white. The sand was
white and the water was clear and blue like no water I had ever seen. It looked
like something you would expect to find only in the Caribbean. Best of all was
the fact that it was a Friday and the beach was actually really quiet. In order
for us to not burn alive we rented a big umbrella and the only thing that was
left to do after that was get ourselves some coconuts and relax. So we did.
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| Baisha Beach |
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| Me and Jenny |
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| Giulia and Sarah enjoying their coconut |
Unfortunately there came a point where
everyone was starting to feel very hungry and it was time to leave the beach,
find a place to eat, and maybe do some exploring instead of just laying on the
beach. So we took the bus to the town of Kenting where we had a surprisingly
good late western lunch. After lunch we wanted to go back to the beach to see
the sunset, since Baisha beach is one of the best places to see the sunset.
Unfortunately our bus was very late and in the end we just headed back to the
hostel to freshen up and take a nap before going to get dinner. In the end we
had a wonderful first day at the beach and a very early night.
On the second day we were joined by the
girl who had planned our entire trip (thanks for that!). She helped us rent
mopeds and those were going to be our transportation for the coming two days.
It was my first driving a moped and I absolutely loved it! Next time there’s an
opportunity to explore the area by moped I’m definitely doing it again.
Especially because it’s more convenient and not even that much more expensive
than doing things by bus. All in all we spend about €7,50 per person to rent
the scooters, that includes gas.
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| The motor gang |
Our first stop that day was a company that
offered water activities. They took us to the Baisha beach where everything was
already set up. We started out by doing some snorkeling and things got more
intense after that. Below, I have posted some pictures of the activities we did
at Baisha.
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| The water activities |
The activities took about 2,5 hours and
afterwards we were all very hungry and we decided to go to Houbihu where we
were told you get good and really cheap sashimi. The guy who told us about this
place seemed a little odd and we weren’t quite sure whether he was completely
in his right mind when he told us that he had 20 pieces of sashimi for NT$100
(which is about €2,50). Random guy on the beach, I am really sorry we didn’t
trust you from the start! The sashimi was really as cheap as he had told us,
and was actually pretty good too.
After stuffing ourselves with cheap raw
fish we took to our scooters and went to Eluanbi Park to see the sunset. This
park was really really beautiful and the seaside boardwalk was the perfect
setting to see the sunset.
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| Eluanbi Park |
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| Group pictureee |
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| Sunset |
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| Sunset |
Sunday was our third and final day in
Kenting and we only had until 13:30 to do some stuff because our taxi was going
to take us back to Kaoshiung at that time. We got up early and we went up to
the actual Kenting National Forest Recreation Area where we did some hiking. The landscape was
really beautiful and they had some amazing caves, it was definitely a must-see
and I’m glad we spent our last morning there.
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| One of the caves |
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| View from Kenting National Forest Recreation Area |
After hiking we went down to the town of
Kenting again to have some Thai food for lunch. I got green chicken curry with
rice and it was absolutely delicious. The only thing was that I was eating it
whilst sitting in “kleermakerszit” (with our legs crossed) to keep my feet off the ground, because
unfortunately the restaurant had a bit of a cockroach problem. It wasn’t that the
place was not clean or anything, but in that climate it’s just something that
is almost inevitable. The Taiwanese people in the restaurant didn’t really seem
bothered by it, it was just that our Western minds were having a hard time with
the idea that a cockroach might crawl up one of our legs.
After lunch we hurried back to Hengchun on
our scooters to get bring them back to where we rented them. By the time we got
back to the hostel we had just enough time to pack all our stuff before the
taxis got there to take us to Kaoshiung. This time around the taxi ride was a lot more comfortable and it
didn’t seem to take as long as on Friday. The bus ride however took seven hours
instead of five hours because there was a lot of traffic. All in all it took us
around nine to ten hours to get back to Taipei but it was sooo worth it! I had
an amazing time in Kenting and when my parents get here in two weeks I
definitely want to go back there with them.
One final note, last week I got a question
about the weather here. And I thought I would share that on here as well. The
weather has been absolutely amazing so far. I’ve had very little rain since I’ve
been here and I’ve been wearing shorts and t-shirts every single day. I am
currently writing this blog post in the nearby riverside park in the shade of a
tree, wearing shorts, a t-shirt and my flip-flops. A beautiful sunny lazy day
and the perfect setting to write a blog post.
P.S. I should probably not have written that last paragraph because an hour later it started raining. Karma's a bitch...
