Day 7 - Kenting

Today was one of those days that was truly a blast. Not so much for what we saw, but rather, what we did.

The day started with Brad and I getting breakfast at one of the little local shops that dot this tourist area. By now you may have picked up on the fact that the food here is strange. Breakfast kept that up. When we walked into the shop, they handed us a breakfast menu. Breakfast seems to be sandwiches here. I ordered a ham and egg salad sandwich, sounds pretty basic right? Wrong! The egg salad was chopped egg and carrot in mashed potatoes. It was built into a triple-decker with a slice of ham and some cucumber. Surprisingly, although it sounds like a strange combination, it was rather good. Brad ordered some kind of smoked chicken, sauteed onions, cheese, sliced tomatoes all on a large roll. The thing was huge. 

We ordered 2 coffees and were given 2 plastic cups with already sweetened iced coffee.

After breakfast we crossed the street and rented 2 motor scooters for a grand total of $1,000 ($US 33). 

And of course - "Killer Dad"

We had to get fuel, so we were pointed up the road to the gas station. While Brad rode scooters throughout Thailand, I haven't been on any motorized bike since I was a kid. We were shown how to start them and we decided to act like we knew what we were doing while in front of the rental guy. It really only took a few minutes to get the feel of them. We each got about half a tank of gas and headed south. 

We stopped at a park with a lighthouse and walked the perimeter of the park along the seashore. 

Park was cool, as it bordered the sea.  We came upon the Kissing Rocks:  

The day started gray and by the time we completed the walking loop of the park, it began to drizzle. Fortunately, there were vendors near the exit. We found sun visors to wear under our helmets to keep the rain off of our eye glasses. The visors were a great purchase for about $3 each. We continued south heading towards our destination – Jialeshui, about 25km away. On the way we stopped at the most southern point in Taiwan where there's a marker. We met a couple there from Ohio!

We stopped in the town of Gangkou, crossed a suspension foot bridge over a river 

and stopped for a delicious lunch of beef noodles for me 

and sesame noodles and dumplings for Brad. 

 The rain seemed to be subsiding, so we continued on our way north up the east coast of the island. We stopped at a few scenic overlooks, a military installation near the peak of a mountain and eventually made it to Jialeshui. After we paid to park and the admission, we got on a truck and were given a tour of rocks that took on the look of common animals and things. 

Rhino Rock

Bullfrog Rock

 They were shaped by the forces of nature, wind and sea. It was kind of cool and hopefully the photos do them justice. Once at the end, the rain was really coming down. We purchased some plastic bag rainwear and began our trip back towards Kenting. After an hour or so, we got back to Kenting. The rain had subsided, so we decided to take a ride up into the National park to see what we could see. As we headed up twisty, windy roads, the rain started again. By the time we got to the summit, it was really coming down and the wind had picked up considerably. Despite the plastic bag rainwear, we were drenched. Now we had to get down from the mountain. It was treacherous, but we took our time and made it down. Just before we got to the bottom, I noticed that my fuel gauge was blinking – oh no! I can't run out of gas now.

We brought the scooters back to where we rented them, parked and crossed back to our hotel to change into dry clothes. We had the scooters for 24 hours, so we kept the keys

We had such a good time, crusing around on the scooters, it's difficult to convey here the fun we had. Once we were back in the room, we turned on the TV to see if we could get a weather report. We were considering staying in the area to do more exploring. We discovered that while we were out and about, we were in a true Asian Typhoon!! As Brad commented, we were owned!!

It was now about 5:30pm and pouring in buckets. What to do? We went to Amy's Cucina, took a table up front, noticed they had drink specials so we decided to sit tight and drink. We ended up having 3 vodka and cranberry cocktails and one vodka with Roses Lime juice – all 2 for 1s. We had a plate of assorted food with our drinks, a bit if fried calamari, mozzarella sticks and samosas. We were feeling real good.

Brad has been hankering for seafood, as all he can get in Beijing is squid on a stick. We went to a place that had tanks out front with all kinds of sea creatures. We chose a crab and a lobster and also ordered clams, some sauteed cabbage and some fried rice. Once the food came we chowed down, had a few beers and really enjoyed our meal. It was a real treat for Brad and had to be our most expensive meal to date $2,600 ($US 81), still very reasonable for what we had.

Afterward we walked with our umbrellas in the rain, did some souvenir shopping and made it back to the room around 11pm.

We took out the guide book to make a reservation in Kaohsiung. First place we tried was booked, so instead of stepping down, we've booked the finest hotel in the city for the price of a Holiday Inn back home.

We will figure out how to take a bus there in the morning.