In the middle of August, 2016, I headed back to Taiwan for another job. Arriving on the Friday night to Kaohsiung, my fiancée travelled down to meet me and spend the weekend before I started work on the Monday. As much as we will one day live in Australia (or Europe, or America, or Dubai; whichever country she takes a fancy to at the time!), her home will always be Taiwan. She wants me to be able to see and experience as much of her home country as possible. With that in mind, she planned for us to spend two days down at the southernmost tip of Taiwan, in the popular town of Kenting.
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| Our room in Grand Hi-Lai Hotel, Kaohsiung. |
After a long day of flying - Adelaide to Sydney to Hong Kong to Kaohsiung - I was quite ready to sleep. For the first night, and for the following week during the job, I'd booked into Grand Hi-Lai hotel in downtown Kaohsiung. I've stayed here before on a few occasions, and it's always a pleasant place to spend the night. Interestingly, on this visit, I learned that the name of the hotel in Chinese is actually pronounced "Han Lai". I had heard the locals pronounce it like that before but had never understood why, given the English spelling. However, it seems "Hi-Lai" is either misspelled, or an attempt to make it sound a little more anglicised! So, if you say "Hi-Lai" to a taxi driver, they probably won't know what you mean. Found that out the hard way! But anyway... we settled in to a relaxing night before setting off bright and early the next morning.
Avy had pre-booked tickets for us on the Kenting Express bus service, departing at 9am. Hers had come with a 1-day Kenting shuttle bus pass and the High Speed Rail ticket that got her down from Taichung. My ticket came with a 2-day Kenting shuttle bus pass. We checked out of Hi-Lai and began walking to the MRT stop... in the wrong direction. This is what happens when I let Avy lead the way! I am, after all, the GPS of the couple. But she was confident she had come that way the previous evening when she went from the MRT to the hotel.
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| Enjoying my "Taiwan Burrito". |
We stopped along the way to get some breakfast and Avy asked directions. A nice couple who were just finishing up their breakfast overheard, and offered us a lift to the Central Park station, since they lived near there. So lovely! Eventually arriving to the HSR station, from where the Kenting Express departs, we were told that we'd need to shift to the 9:15 in order to travel together. So we found a place to sit and enjoy our breakfast - I don't know what it's called in Chinese, but it was a filling of veggies and meat/fish (I think), all wrapped up in sticky rice. I referred to it as a "Taiwan Burrito". I quite enjoyed mine, but Avy said she preferred other fillings than the one we had got on this occasion. Before long, we took our place on the bus and settled in for the 2.5 hour drive down to Kenting.
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| The Kenting Express bus. |
We checked in to our room at Sunhow Inn; fairly basic looking at the reception, but the room was quite pleasant and well presented. It was a bit more of a B&B style rather than a hotel.
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| Our room at Sunhow Inn, Kenting. |
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| The view out the back of our room at Sunhow Inn. |
The rain had cleared up, so we went for a bit of a walk around town. To be honest, it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot going on during the day. But, as we found later on, Kenting comes alive after sundown.
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| Taking a walk around Kenting. |
Down the eastern end of Kenting's main strip, across from the fancier resort hotels of Cesar Park and Howard's, there's a public beach in a little semi-circle bay. Most of the shore front was roped off, but a section in the middle was available to wet your toes. However, the waves were dumping pretty heavily, so it wasn't exactly good for swimming or relaxing. The best you could really do was walk out a way and then body-surf a wave back in. Be warned though - the sea floor drops suddenly when you get to about knee-depth, so you will suddenly find yourself waist deep (or if you're shorter than me, maybe neck deep!).
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| This little fella was soaking up some sun down by the beach. |
After resting a while at our room, we ventured back out in the early evening to find some dinner. Kenting's main street becomes quite an extensive Night Market from around 6pm. However, the traffic doesn't stop, so you have to huddle along the side of the road and watch where you're going.
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| When the Night Market comes out, so, too, do all the people. |
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| Avy referred to this as "Taiwan Sukiyaki". |
One thing that does set this Night Market apart from most others in Taiwan is the alcohol served from street stalls. Various vendors will mix you up a fruity cocktail there on the street to wash down whatever you have chosen to eat along the way!
The next morning, we activated our Kenting shuttle bus tickets and headed down towards the very tip of Taiwan, known as Cape Eluanbi. The national park here is open to wander around for only 60NTD per person, with some nice forest and coastal views if you get a good day of weather. It can, however, be very humid. So if you're like me and don't do so well in the sticky climates, maybe bring a towel!
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| A soggier-than-it-looks grassy area at Eluanbi. |
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| Watch out! |
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| The "Kissing Rocks"; so named because they just barely touch, but a lot of people opt for a cheesy couples photo, posing for an almost-kiss in front of the background. After we watched one couple do it, Avy said "We're not doing that." |
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| A cloudy view over the coastline. |
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| Meandering through the rocks and jungles. |
From Eluanbi, we jumped back on the bus and headed through Kenting and out to the western side, disembarking at Maobitou Park - the literal translation is "Cat Nose Park". This name comes from the rock formation at the main view point, which has been gradually eroded to resemble a cat staring out to the sea... if you have a good imagination!
The weather was beginning to turn by this point, in the early afternoon. The shuttle got us back into Hengchun town where we had a quick lunch and waited for the bus back to Kaohsiung. The ticket can either bit with a reserved seat on a particular bus, or you can just wait in line and take an available seat as the bus comes past. We opted for the latter, so as to not restrict our schedule. But as it turned out, we waited in Hengchun for about an hour before a bus with spare seats arrived. And as the storm rolled in, we trundled our way back up to Kaohsiung. A brief, but enjoyable weekend at Kenting!
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| An old shrine in Hengchun that forms a roundabout in the road. |
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