Retro-Post: Day 5 - Kenting/Kaoh Siung

Today was Kenting Day! We had ordered a car to take us around for the day because Kenting is not very accessible otherwise. But first...free breakfast at the hotel. It had a really weird mix of foods that I thought were more lunch-stuff than breakfast-stuff. 

I saw this and thought, "Oh, cold tea. I wonder why they poured it out instead of letting people pour their own," and bypassed it. 

Then my aunt brought one over and told me to try it. It turns out I had read the words the wrong way. Instead of "cold tea" it was read "tea cold" which apparently means tea flavoured jello.

Apparently the guy we booked couldn't make it but didn't arrange a substitute so when we called the company, the dispatcher immediately sent another person. How unprofessional! We ended up starting our day 30 minutes later but that was fine. We mapped out our route with this map of Kenting going from the Western coast to the Eastern coast.

First stop: White Sands Beach! This was the place I had wanted to visit the most in Kenting. It turns out it was also the place where they shot scenes from the movie Life of Pi!

 

Next stop: Maobeitou (Literally: cat nose head) This is basically a rock that they claim looks like a cat lying down. I guess if I squinted I could see it but really....This seems to be a Taiwanese thing. I've been to lots of places with rocks that they claim look like something that I can't seem. Really now, it's like looking at clouds.

Can you see a cat lying down? 

While there, we also saw this weird fruit that looked like a pineapple. Apparently, it's not fruit but is used to make a medicinal tea.

Next stop: lunch! The driver suggested seafood and took us to a port where the fish came in so it was cheap and fresh.

All of this cost 100 NT (~$3.50)

In Taiwan, doggy bags are really plastic bags! Those are out leftovers.
Even the soup goes in a bag.

 We walked around the market a bit to look at all the weird stuff.

Fried flying fish

The bunch of greens next to the white cabbage is new. We had it for lunch. Pretty good!
The texture is like seaweed-y leaves with a crunchy stalk. 

Weird coloured fish!

The harbour

Time to move on. Next: Sail Rock! This is another rock that's supposed to look like something, a sail boat this time.

Very interesting inns and stores.

Seriously...a sail boat?

We didn't spend a ton of time there so onwards...to a beach made of shells and coral. This beach is a protected area. I picked up some sand from the other side. I don't think it's the same sand but close enough.

Protected!

Next: one of the Southest points of Taiwan, the lighthouse. Lucky me, there's a penny press machine here too!

I had to fight a lot of China-women for this one! Not fast enough!

As we came out, the driver strongly recommended that we try the fresh coconuts and ended up treating us to one each. It was warm and I'm not very partial to coconut but it was liquid for a hot day.

Never ask tourists to take your picture.

Off we went to another place. I really don't remember what these places are called...

One ball is the Navy and one is Air Cadets

Everyone else posed this way so I did it too!

As there was no where else really to go we decided to head to the bus stop to go back to Kaoh Siung. Like the driver said, Kenting is neither big or small. There were a lot of places to go but mostly views. Most people go there just to relax, a little getaway and there's a lot of hawaiian influence in their souvenirs. I wanted to get something but they were quite expensive so I didn't. It's ok though...I have the severe tan lines to remember Kenting by.

While waiting for the bus I saw this. Cute!!!

On the other end, Ah-Mei picked us up and we headed back to her salon. It was not busy at all so they closed up a bit early and we went to dinner at this place that sold iron-plate steak. For 280 NT you got a 6 oz steak with noodles on an iron plate and...get this...a buffet for the appetizers, drinks and desserts.  There was toast, waffles, congee, soup, a noodle bar, salad, fruit, fried foods like spring rolls and hash browns, cookies, ice cream, popsicles, cake...oh boy I'm sure I'm missing some stuff. I forgot to take a picture! It was kind of confusing but not bad at all. At one point I was chewing a piece of steak that was larger than it should be and accidentally swallowed it when someone asked me a question so I had to go to the washroom and try not to choke or throw up since it was lodged in my throat. That was the only low point but I got over it. 

We headed back to their house and this time since we weren't arriving at midnight, the kids were still up. Around the time they were supposed to sleep Ah-Mei suddenly remembered that I was supposed to teach her some origami. Backing it up a bit, the last time while I was waiting for my hair cut these neighbourhood kids came into the store. Apparently it's a normal occurrence and very much "it takes a village" over there so to entertain them I made them some origami and Ah-Mei was really impressed. So here now it's 11pm and she wants me to teach her all the things I made the other night and people who know me know that I don't care much for the easy stuff. She insisted her kids learn too so that if she forgot the steps then maybe one of them would remember. So I teach them two 8-piece origami models, the flying disk and the kaleidoscope. My mistake is that while I wait for them to catch up, I get bored and make other things and so I made some turtles that Ah-Mei thought were really cute and then insisted that I teach her that one too. By this time her two kids have conked out on the floor and it's about 2am. But I could never refuse the woman whose hospitality has been so great and whose house I'm staying at for free. Plus it was good for me to practice my mandarin as I taught them, even if it was a lot of "this way" and "that way". 

End of Day 5!