Southern Taiwan: Kenting

My unexpected vacation to Taiwan ended up being one of the best weeks of my life, and one to add to my top ten list of favorite countries I've been fortunate enough to explore. I spent the week with my two girl friends Christine and Britney. Before our departure we had our plane tickets booked (we flew in to Taipei which is in northern Taiwan) and a hostel booked for the first few nights (the hostel we booked was in the very southern part of the country). All the other details of the trip were determined along the way.

Day 1: The three of us were waiting at the bus stop to catch the airport bus by 5:30 am on Sunday. It only took us about 1 hour to get to the airport because there was no traffic. Despite some difficulties along the way we made it to our gate in time for our flight and flew directly from Incheon, South Korea to Taipei, Taiwan. That was about as far as our pre-planning went so we immediately went to an information booth to figure out how the heck we were going to get to our hostel. We were directed to a bus that took us to the train station where we eventually hopped on the High Speed Railway. Before getting on the train, however, we stopped and got a little lunch at a 7 Eleven nearby. At that moment in time if we would have known how many more times we would be forced to eat at 7Eleven we would have definitely made a different decision.

The train ride was about two hours, and it was one of the most amazing train rides I have ever been on. Taiwan is a breathtakingly beautiful country. The luscious greenery, mountains, jungle like surroundings, and somewhat clean air were refreshing after living in South Korea for a few months. The train took us to a city called Kaohsiung where we were directed to take a 3 hour bus ride to Kenting.

As we got on the bus we instantly noticed that the bus had some goop in his teeth that was bright red, and made him look like he had some form of a disease. We later found out that it was just some drugs that are commonly used in Asia:) The bus was filled with big, leather arm chairs. They looked like someone went and stole them out of a frat house. While they were very comfortable and soft, they were not new or clean.

The bus itself looked like something you would see in a Hollywood movie about drug trafficking and smugglers. Despite the somewhat scary atmosphere of the bus ride, we had our first of many experiences with the wonderfully, loving, helpful Taiwanese people. There was a man on the bus who spoke really great English and spent a lot of the trip giving us information about Taiwan, the area we were staying, and things NOT to do. I had my guard up pretty high and spent a long time trying to decide how safe I felt with this man, and wondering if we were giving him too much information. Long story short: he ended up telling us that we were riding the bus to the wrong place and helped us get off at the stop we ACTUALLY wanted to get off at. At first the bus driver would not allow us to get off because we had told me we wanted to get off at a different place. I think he was just trying to help us, but we stood on the bus for a good 5 minutes while the bus driver and the helpful man fought in Chinese over where we were supposed to get off. The nice man ended up getting off the bus with us, at a place he wasn't even going, just to make sure we got to our hostel safely. Before he left he gave us his cell number, and wrote down a bunch of things in Chinese so that we could show bus drivers where we needed to go. Then he went back to the bus stop to wait for another bus. He was amazing. We learned quickly that Taiwanese people are the nicest, most friendly people in the world. They constantly went far out of their way to help us in every situation, and they were always attempting to use the little English they knew to communicate with us. This was a very unexpected blessing, because we are used to that kind of hospitality in South Korea.

Our hostel ended up being amazing, considering we didn't have enough time to research many places. Because it is Taiwan's "winter"season (still 80 degrees, but sometimes very windy) they weren't very busy. They ended up moving all of us in the same room with 3 double beds and air conditioning. We each got our own double bed! The hostel owners were a couple: a Canadian man (Terry) and a Taiwanese woman (Ee). They also had 5 month old baby (Charlyn) and we loved playing with her:) We became really close to the family, to the point where we felt like we were guests in their home. Also, Ee was an amazing cook. After we got there on the first night we settled in, and then ate dinner in the restaurant at the hostel. The menu was mostly American food so we all got burgers- delicious, and such a wonderful change from Korean food! There was only one other guy staying at the hostel so we hung out with him and the owners: exchanging life stories and enjoying some drinks. As first night guests we were given complimentary tequila shots-my very first one!

Day 2: The next day we headed straight for the beach. The purpose of our school closing to allow everyone to get lots of rest in order to stay healthy. Obviously, we had to take full advantage of this opportunity to rest- so a lot of our time was spent on the beach! Before we left for the beach we stopped at 7 Eleven and picked up some food for the day. The owners of the hostel took us to a private beach that was not accessible by bus and we arranged for them to pick us up, too (Wonderful service! They do not do that for all of their guests). We found a spot on the beach that we named "our spot", because it was hidden back in the trees and was blocked from the wind.

We spent the day tanning, and swimming, and tanning, and swimming, etc. It could not have been more perfect. In the middle of the day we met three Taiwanese people the same age as us; Fairy, Anita, and Charleton. They came right up to us wanting their picture taken with us, and wanted to practice their English! We were blown away by their friendliness (we have been in Korea almost 3 months and have yet to meet people our own age). They invited us out for drinks, so later that evening we joined them and about 5 of their friends at a nice bar. We spent the night drinking, talking, and exchanging life stories once again. Before we left we all exchanged HUGE hugs like we had known one another for years and they told us that they loved us and would miss us. Hopefully our paths will cross again one day. At the end of the evening we stopped at 7 Eleven to get a midnight snack (note the pattern developing..).

Day 3: The next day we wanted to try a new beach. We wanted to go to a beach that was accessible by bus so that we had the freedom to leave whenever we wanted. Even though we were advised not to, due to the high winds, we decided to test it out anyway. BAD decision. We were not at the beach for more than 5 minutes when we realized the wind was too crazy and we were not going to be able to survive an entire day there. Before we left, however, a group of tourists asked to take a picture with us ( I think they may have mistaken me for Britney Spears so I don't blame them). As we left the beach, to our surprise, there was a 7 Eleven. Even though we had tried to avoid it; it was clearly calling our names. We stopped in to get some tea milk, food for the day, and ask them if they could help us get a taxi to our favorite private beach. Even though we knew we wouldn't have a way to get home, we decided we wanted to just get there and we would figure our ride situation later. That was my plan, actually:):)

After taking lots of pictures on the beach a nice Chinese man emerged from the Sea in scuba gear and offered to take pictures of the three of us. How nice! After he took pictures he asked if we would take a picture of him and Britney (he thought she was beautiful). After our picture session he motioned to us that he was going to go home and eat (or so we thought). About fifteen minutes later he came back to the beach with two bottles of wine and a bag of cheap bread from, yup you guessed it, 7 Eleven! We tried to avoid him/ ignore him for awhile, but eventually gave in a sat with him on the beach and shared some wine and bread. After an hour or so of talking with our hands and acting things out in order to communicate, we said thank you and jumped in the water. He left shortly after.

When the sun started to set we decided we probably needed to try and find a ride home. We cleaned up our stuff and walked to this nearest little town. The town consisted of about two roads with small huts lining them. After realizing there was no convenience store (or really anything for that matter) we decided to ask some men sitting by the street, near a table of coconuts, for some help. We tried to make the motion of a using a telephone- trying to ask them if they would call us a taxi for us. The very large man (not like the men in South Korea) grinned, with visible drugs in his mouth, and told us he would just give us a ride home. Christine and Britney automatically looked at me (I have a habit of riding taking rides from strange, helpful men), and I had really felt like he genuinely wanted to help us. I also felt like we didn't really have many other options. The man went and got his car and he and his even larger son got in the front seats while we piled in the back. No more than 10 seconds in to the ride, they pulled out a bag of what we now call "Asian drugs." They look like large nuts that you crack open and eat. Our eyes widened and we squeezed hands as we watched them crack open the nuts while they were driving us home. Needless to say, they got us RIGHT to our hostel and we paid them just like we would have paid a taxi. No problem:)

That evening Ee and Terry closed the hostel and took us out for a traditional Taiwanese meal and then to the local hot springs. The food was delicious, and the hot springs were so relaxing ( like we needed to relax more:) ). Day 4: On the fourth day we finally decided we could not eat even one more meal 7 Eleven (by this time we had eaten about 6 or 7 meals there). We decided to sacrifice a little beach time and a little money to stay at the hostel and have a home-cooked American breakfast: Omelets, wheat toast, hash browns, fruit, and tea. It was probably the most amazing meal I have had in the past 3 months. After breakfast we arranged for Ee's mom to drop us off at the beach and pick us up later in the day. It truly felt like we were part of their family. As soon as we stepped on the beach and started walking toward "our spot," we spotted a tiny glimpse of a red and black wet suit sitting in our spot. Scuba man was back- waiting anxiously for our arrival. We immediately ducked behind some palm trees and formed a game plan. We decided we had to give up the spot for awhile and head to the other side of the beach. It was spending time with him for a few hours the precious day, but we really had no desire to spend our entire vacation with scuba man. After about two hours we saw him leave, and we ventured back over to our favorite part of the beach where we relaxed until mid afternoon.

Eventually we decided we wanted to go thank the very nice gentlemen that gave us a ride the previous day by supporting their coconut business. We took a nice stroll down the beach and headed in to the town where they were sitting with about 8 other men. That welcomed us with open arms and lovely red smiles. They seemed genuinely happy to see us again. We each bought a coconut, and the one man stabbed a hole in the top of each one so were able to drink the juice....yummy:)

Just as I was paying for my coconut I heard Christine say, "Oh my gosh! Guess who just rolled in...?"

Scuba man was back. This time he was in normal clothing and riding on his scooter. With a huge grin on his face he tried to tell us he was going to get food and that he would be right back. We immediately said no and started walking away (hoping he would get the hint). After asking several times he gave us a ridiculously sad face and drove away. We felt terrible but really did not want to spend our last few hours on the beach drinking wine that tasted like blood, and eating processed bread that tasted like it was made from hair. However, we were very naive to think it would be that easy to get rid of him. About fifteen minutes later he strolled up to our spot on the beach with a bottle of wine and a bag of bread. We felt bad but we wanted to stand our ground and say no, because we told him that we did not want any and he brought it anyway. We thought if we refused the food that he would go away. We were dead wrong. Instead he plopped right down beside me, opened the bottle for himself, and sat there for 45 minutes with the saddest looking face I have ever seen in my life. I swear he could have burst in to tears at any moment. After feeling horrible for 45 min and realizing he was not going to leave, we decided to man up and drink some of the wine. I secretly just dumped mine in the sand every time he looked away- it tasted awful. When he was done with his wine he decided to get a little more brave and he came and plopped down right between me and Britney; setting his foot right on top of mine-gross. Right before he passed out on the beach he tried to kiss Britney, and THAT was the last straw. He is the same age as my dad- it was completely in appropriate. As soon as he fell asleep we packed up our stuff, refusing to spend our last hour at the beach with him, and moved to the other side of the beach to wait for our ride. I am very thankful that we never saw scuba man again.

That evening Terry and Ee brought us in the Kenting where we ate and went shopping. It was a successful last night in southern Taiwan.