Day 6 in Taiwan: Kenting Strikes Back

Woke up fairly early today and went to go eat the lodge’s breakfast. Pretty normal selection of Chinese breakfast foods, most interesting thing was probably the hand-made Dou Jiang they had. My sister mixed the coffee and Dou Jiang to create a sort of soy latte. Not bad.

After breakfast, we walked along the nearby Frog Rock Trail that went around… Frog Rock. It also went along the shore and therefore had a bunch of ocean views.

Frog Rock Trail

Frog Rock

We went to Eluanbi afterwards, planning to go by bus. It turns out though that the buses take around 30-60mins to come around. We got impatient and waved down a taxi, and as we were getting into the taxi, the bus passed by! That’s life.

Eluanbi Park

Eluanbi is a park that mostly consists of the southernmost tip of Taiwan. It also has this lighthouse (named The Eluanbi Lighthouse, believe it or not) that seems pretty popular, as sharped-eyed readers will note the wedding couple taking pictures at the base of the lighthouse.

Eluanbi Lighthouse

After visiting the lighthouse and its nearby gift shop (the southernmost gift shop in Taiwan, says the owner), we went along the trails and saw more ocean views.

Eluanbi Trail

We ate lunch nearby, at this place advertising family-style meals (dishes shared by a group -like a family). It was pretty good, if a bit standard. The cabbage was especially good, we even ordered another plate of it!

Lunch near Eluanbi

We decided then to go to the National Aquarium. So we waited 30min for a bus, got on it, got off, waited 30min for another bus, then rode it to the aquarium.

National Aquarium Sign

Unfortunately, we pretty much only got to the sign, as we got there about an hour before closing (5pm). After much deliberation, we decided that it would be better to return tomorrow morning instead of trying to rush through.

So we waited some more for the return bus. After a while, a taxi driver approached us and convinced us to take his taxi instead of the bus. Of course, as we were getting into his taxi, the bus passed by. That’s life.

We spent the rest of the time wandering around Kenting. A bunch of shops selling roughly the same vaguely tropical-themed stuff. There was one awesome shop though:

Awesome Kenting Shop

We didn’t buy much, just a 6-pack of Dan Ta, a kind of egg tart, from KFC. Special promotion with 3 special kinds of Dan Ta for 152NT.

At my sister’s insistence, we ate at this Western-style restaurant called Casa De Margarita. It was pretty obviously geared toward foreigners, as the menu was also in English, but it was interesting to see “Tex-Mex” show up in a menu in Taiwan. They also had a bunch of different pastas and risottos.

Casa De Margarita

Interesting decor, seemed something more similar to what you would find in Austin, TX than Kenting, Taiwan.

Inside Casa De Margarita

A bunch of caroling kids came by the restaurant while we were waiting for our food. Besides the fact that they were yelling the song rather than singing it, it was pretty cute. Considering that I hardly see carolers in the States, seeing them in Taiwan was pretty surprising.

I had the seafood paella, which was about as good as paella can get without saffron. Which, by the way, is only alright. I make paella fairly often though, but I never make seafood paella since it’s expensive.

Seafood Paella

As I suspected yesterday but only confirmed today, it really seems that Kenting is a major tourist resort in the summer, with plenty of resort-style hotels and the like everywhere.

A good portion of the area really does seem to be geared toward making money off of tourists, with lots of gift shops and the like. From the shop clerks to restaurateurs to taxi drivers, everyone seems extremely competitive when it comes to taking your money. Makes me wonder if it’s like this year-round or if it’s just because it’s the off-season. Maybe the pseudo-winter break right now counts as a tourist season.