winter break trip part 1

my adventure in south taiwan began with a seven hour train ride from taipei to kaohsiung. i bought my train ticket the day before and showed up an hour early at taipei main station to catch the second slowest class train in taiwan. for less than $25US, i was on my way to the south.

kaohsiung:

seven hours later, with not much happening in between, i arrived in kaohsiung and met up with amanda, who had been in town long enough to book us a room and get what sounded like a painful chinese massage. my first impression of kaohsiung was that it was a sparser, slower city than taipei. the weather was nice and cool, the skies were clear, and i congratulated myself on deciding not to take a raincoat or a sweater. we got back to the room, i set down my bags, and off we went again in search of dinner. after much wandering around, we found our way to the liuhe night market (六合夜市). i was starving from the train ride and ate like a glutton. among the things i had were:

spicy crab claws
bbq squid balls with eel sauce
potato cheese filled bread
kiwi yogurt smoothie

we also played a carnival game where i impressively shot a whole bunch of balloons with a pellet gun, missing only one shot. for our display of skill, we were each rewarded with a small keychain led light.

after the night market, we went looking for more sights. we spent an excessive amount of effort in search of love pier only to find ourselves on a dark street somewhere near fisherman's wharf at the last stop of the mrt. eventually, we made our way back to central park. a little walk led us to a labyrinth in the making, a rock climbing wall, and a jungle gym set. the rock climbing wall was conquered, the jungle gym scaled, and the labyrinth escaped.

kenting:

we caught a bus to kenting the next day. it was a two and a half hour ride, passing by what i thought to be fish farms, rice fields, and plantations, before driving alongside the ocean. the weather was beautiful, warm, and clear, a much welcome change from the beginnings of winter in taipei. the air was unexpectedly crisp and fresh, not much hint of salt in it and not the slightest bit sticky feeling.

we got off the bus a little past the main part of kenting town, found a hotel for about $1000NT/night that also rented us a scooter for $300NT/day with minimal hassle because amanda had a new zealand motorcycle license and was able to complete a driving test that put the woman renting us the scooter at ease. almost immediately, we set out on the scooter with no particular plan of action and found ourselves at the entrance to a path towards the southernmost point of taiwan.





the coastline here is treacherous with waves crashing onto what looked like a fossilized coral reef. not really prepared for this, amanda and i walked out onto it anyway. the nooks and crannies proved to be good hiding spots for little crabs and fish while the sharp points proved cumbersome for my delicate feet.

after going out as far out on the reef as reason would allow, the rest of the afternoon was spent in search of food again. four o'clock in the afternoon, being too late for lunch and too early for dinner, is not a very good time to try to find food in kenting. the first place we found served us the worst food i've had in taiwan in three months. a dish of "fish sausages" covered in mayonnaise with a little bit of rice came out while the chowmian i ordered never appeared, despite patiently waiting for almost twenty minutes. this pathetic dish also cost almost three times as much as a decent lunch at the school cafeteria. still hungry, we found a nice thai food restaurant where we had a decent meal of bbq shrimp and curry beef.

kenting doesn't really start to come alive until after sunset. after our late lunch, we sat out on the the second story patio of our hotel room reading and enjoying the fresh air as the kenting night market started to perform it's daily assembly ritual on the street below. about an hour after sunset, the night market was in full swing and a steady stream of tour buses seemed to be dropping off one busload of students after another. a line of junior high students four blocks long walked past our patio towards the main part of town, giving us reason to believe that this was the right time to find dinner. among the things i had this time were:

mulberry yogurt
stinky tofu
nougat candies
roasted corn

the stinky tofu was exceptional. i'm no connoisseur, but it was the best dish of stinky tofu i've had in taiwan this time around. it had a nice texture and good flavor without being overpowering.

after getting our fill at the night market, we went a little way out of town to try to find a street side bar. it wasn't open, but a little further along, drawn by the sounds of some lovely jazz music, we found a set of stairs down to a beachside bar in front of caesar park resort. the beach here was more inviting than the southern point, sandy with waves slowly rolling in. under a clear sky with a half moon, we drank a few coronas feeling incredibly fortunate for being here.