Return to Kenting

Last weekend Pascal and I thought we'd make the most of the nice weather and go back to Kenting for a cycle and a swim... as last time, we set off after school and arrived at 1am ish; but eager to learn from our mistakes, this time we carried on round the seafront and i pitched my tent on the clifftop (in pitch blackness); had a good nights sleep!
What we didnt realise was that the ground on the clifftop was a little too soft for Pascal's van; took a few attempts to get it back on the road again the next morning.
After a lot of deliberation and a greasy breakfast of egg and bacon in a pancake type thing, we decided to cycle round the coast and then up into the hills... so we dumped the van and pitched my tent in the only campsite in Kenting (and still miles from the centre). been there 3 minutes: 4 moquito bites... I'm obviously far sweeter than pascal! As we were getting ready an ominous dark cloud started to drift in off the sea... the also brought a breeze that pushed us round the first leg of the journey and kept the temp down to mid twenties.
After an hour or so we got to the foot of the hills... and followed our map down the A159; now in England A means big/fast... here it was barely wide enough for one car.. still we followed it and followed it until we were cycling up a 1:1 gradient potholed track... a man drove past us and said there was no road ahead... this was confusing (had he misunderstood the question?) i thought id check; but after another 5min slog uphill; the man was right... the road just stopped. Apparently it's common in Taiwan for roads on maps to be wiped out in earthquakes... and not replaced for some time. This left us a problem of getting round to where we wanted to be... without knowing where we really were in the first place (GPS: we need you!).. still we tried bombing along the tiniest trails in the hope they might pop out on the main road... no luck! So we headed back downhill... then suddenly there it was- the A road that is straight on the map actually doubles back on itself: we looked up at the v steep winding road and decided if we tried it; we'd not have the energy to get back to Kenting.
After a couple more hours, a papaya milkshake, fried rice and 60km on the clock; we arrived knackered back at the campsite and agreed to go for a relaxing swim.
Relaxing, it was not. We went to the far side of the beach so i'd remember where we'd left our stuff; got into the water and soon realised the waves were more choppy than usual; and whereas everyone to our left was up to their waist in water; i was up to my neck; every wave carried me about 10ft forward then took my feet. After i was chilled and refreshed, i thought i'd get out the water... well i tried but the undertow was so strong the best i could do was not fall over... and then the next wave hits, you lose your footing, and again your being dragged back into the sea [I read Moonfleet as a child, and a character drowns by being dragged off the beach by the waves... until now, i've never understood how that was possible] so i panicked; a almost on all fours hauled myself across a sharp patch of choral back onto the sand.. and collapsed into my towel.

Back at the family campsite; a group had brought their own megaloud karaoke rig with them and were wailing songs for everyone to hear: noone but me seemed to mind: typically taiwan.
That evening; we discovered Kenting's biggest problem is parking: the resort consists of only 3 narrow parallel roads; we drove in but ended up driving halfway back to the campsite to park the van.
We stopped at a Chinese restaurant/bar/club, where the doorman said "we have dancers! 2 girls and one boy: very macho!" there in the middle of the club was a pole and to my surprise the whole place was filled with families. The show wasnt on for an hour so we went to Thai restaurant and demolished a green curry, shrimp balls, chicken sour bamboo and 3 bowls of rice; much to the horror of the staff.
We went back to the 'dance show'; the place was filled mainly with young lads, although the odd old couple could be spotted here and there. There were four dancers; 2 girls, one scary bloke in latex and a big bloke in a dress... they all kept there clothes on, which in retrospect was probably a good thing.

The next morning we packed up and left.... i was in a bad mood most of the day because someone had taken my wallet with my tai bank card in... we stopped in the afternoon on Baisha beach further up the coast; equally attractive but far less touristy... and it had 3 campsites within walking distance aswell as a cycle track going right through it. Next time we'll stay here! There was also a girl who asked to have a photo taken with us: it would have been rude to decline!
The journey home took forever due to roadworks; but i did get a pic of this taiwanese robocop directing traffic!

Malay Discovery World

On Sunday a collection of TA’s and teachers from the 4 schools of Linda (the scary boss - see Farewell Martin and Kate) went up to a theme park up somewhere; making this my 3rd visit to a themepark in 4 months. This one was called Malay Discovery World.
Sadly you haven’t got a brochure describing the areas of the park; so let me give you a taster to show how little is lost in translation:
o Yaymay Island Bay: Mysterious lost island for contented elderly people.
o Enchanter forest: Magical fantasy land, for romantic lovers.
o Fairy Tale Village: Cute fairy-tale land for young and innocent children.
o Palace of Dream: Eccentric extraterrestrial planet for the pioneering dream seeker.
o D-Street: Thrilling sci-fi and fantasy city for those who have “guts”.
Although all of the Yuan Lin teachers were there I spent the day with Jenna (US new teacher in Changhua) and the TA’s from Pin Hir School (where I covered for a teacher on hols for 2 weeks)… they were the only ones who’d waited after I went to buy hat no.3.

Being the only Brit and the only male in our group… there was obviously a lot of pressure to put on a brave face… and smile at whatever ride decisions the group came to. Now I’ve known some thrill seekers in my time… but this Jenna; we were no sooner off a ride than on the next one along: indiscriminate… well apart from them all being fast.
When I went the last theme park I was a little worried about Taiwan safety measures: I needn’t have been. This time I really should have been.


The swings: fine. The stinger: fine. The galactic spin: slight feeling of veins popping out of my head, but surprisingly fine. Sonic circle: no padding on seats; backache. Wild-Crazy flume: fine. Wild river canyon: fine. Pirate Ship: feeling of weightlessness and nausea but fine.
Energy Storm: the harness on this ride has two settings: Sumo wrestler or Taiwanese lady: so as the ride spun me round and upside down all I could do was fight to not slip out of the seat. The opposite problem occurred on the Mine train ride where the clamp was so tight I couldn’t breath for the duration. The Gravity Max was there big attraction: the World’s only broken-track roller coaster: train stops high in the air: the part of track its on pivots into the vertical: the train hangs for a moment then plummets down.
In 6 hours we’d done 10 rides; we would have done more; had it not been for the parade: all of the paths were roped off and like it or not; you were to watch fluffy bunnies and assorted animal friends dance (I use the term loosely) past you.
It took a second to sink in; but when I looked more closely at the performers I was astounded to see they were all westerners!
I’d never seen a more bizarre picture: Taiwanese people crowding to see Western people dressed in Taiwanese costumes in a dance routine for which white people are renowned for being rubbish.
By 7 our group were all feeling a little queasy: I was proud that outlasted most of them with my usually poor tolerance for all things spinny. We went to stock up on energy; Candy and Bess came with me and Jenna, to Scream Pizza to share a large Hawaiian. This was obviously their first pizza experience: they didn’t like it one bit! It was hilarious! When I think of all the truly weird things they eat everyday: but then cheese and tomato are not common foods here: nor is non-sweet bread for that matter.

We were all too knackered to do much else yesterday so we all went home and crashed out to wake up this morning with various bruises and back pains. So next weekend I think I’ll stick to hurtling down a mountain on my bike: much safer!

This is the beautiful Rita: jobs include school manager and making everyone feel good.

Kenting in the summer time

Kenting is the furthest south you can go in Taiwan, a fair distance! So to make the most of the weekend; me and Pascal set out straight after work on Friday night… the journey should have been about 3 hours however the map I was using was in Chinese and although Taiwan now has English name signs with the Chinese; I only new what the characters for a place were when we got there… so when we reached a place called Kanding, it wasn’t unreasonable to assume this might be where we were headed: but no.

We thought we could simply go back onto the freeway; but no… there was only a slip road off – not back on the freeway. This is really not a great place to get lost. Luckily we found another road heading south and after a rice cake for supper we pulled up in Kenting at about 3am.

Now the plan was to pitch a tent on the beach and sleep for free: however in the darkness the sea sounded pretty rough; it had been raining moments before and the tide seemed rather high and the car park was rocky and full of ants; so I passed on the camping. Opted to sleep in the front of Pascal’s van: big mistake! The engine is under the seats and for 2 hours they did not cool down: I was semiconscious with the windows down for maybe half an hour when I realized there were 4 mosquitoes in the van; one of which had just bit my foot… Pascal had took the lock levers out for safety so I ended up pulling myself out of the window and going for a walk: if I can’t sleep I might as well get up! The thought of jogging hovered for a second but soon disappeared after walking a few paces.

I took my camera hoping to get some nice shots of the sunrise…


well I got halfway down the path to the beach when a mozzi bit my wrist; then another bit my hand… I tell you now I was feeling pretty low at this point… I walked into a 7Eleven (corner-shops of America they’re all over this country) holding my arm over the freezer and buying yet another rice cake.

Pascal was still sleeping in the back of the van so I went for a walk round Kenting. A collection of tourist-aimed gift shops, hotels, restaurants, eateries, bars and clothes shops (some of which were opening at 6am) Kenting seemed smaller than I’d imagined; there were a few visitors walking round buying breakfast, but for peak season on a weekend there wasn’t a lot going on.

Pascal was up by about 8; so after another rice cake and iced coffee; we got the bikes out the van and prepared for a morning cycle. We had two choices; drive out to the mountains or ride around the coast… it didn’t take too long to decide: how easy the coast road was! It was perfect: nice breeze, sunny skies and hardly a thing on the roads… we kept stopping to take pics of the coastline.

The first place to head had to be the southern most point; so using my bike compass, we headed south til we found signposts to it. There it was marked with an attractive obelisk.

From there we carried on round the coast until over the brow of a hill we could see the South China Sea back to the left of us and the Pacific Ocean on our right: it was awesome!

We pulled in at a group of catering vans at a toilet stop on the road: and were very grateful to be offered some shade and a stool by a drinks vender. He had his henchboy fetch us some mango smoothie and iced coffee and we chilled trying to ask him if he knew the route back to Kenting from here. He pointed us in a direction and off we headed. Before long the road split into 3 and each one seemed to go uphill (so much for our gentle coast-route) we stopped to ask a group eating dinner in their garden the best route: all five of them gave equally convincing and equally different answers; one said it was 45km back to Kenting; another said 6km; but after 5 minutes they managed to agree on one road; so off we went again. My logic was that we were on the west side; we went south then up the east coast; so if we headed west; we’d eventually hit the sea again… well we went west and west some more and we could still sea towns on hills beyond the towns on hills: but we were definitely heading west. After what seemed like forever we stopped at a busy junction to ask a family for directions: bemused at how we’d got so far from the place; they smiled and gave us their map in sympathy… we weren’t far from the coast but we had misjudged how far north we’d gone initial… so by lunchtime we’d done 30 miles, were knackered and drenched in sweat and all we wanted to do was fall into the sea… so we did.

The rest of the teacher crowd had arrived a little while before so we spent the rest of the day chilling and swimming.
The waves in the South China Sea are surprisingly powerful; first wave, I forgot to jump with, nearly drowned me and deprived me of my shorts.

After making ourselves look beautiful at the hotel, we headed to a Thai restaurant for some well-earned food. The difference in the place between now and that morning was phenomenal: there were people everywhere!
The streets were lined with little games stalls: Dave shot 10 balloons with 10 bullets and won a strange cat thing...
The food was good and plentiful; but for some reason the restaurant had a 1hr30 max eating time; so we were kicked out just before we ordered pudding: not very satisfactory at all! From there we walked to a little bar which had very attractive staff.

Lack of sleep caught up with me soon after; so when everyone headed off to a club i meandered back to the hotel.

The next morning i was annoyed to discover i'd missed breakfast... so i went and filled up on rice cake.
The day was spent shopping, eating and chilling by the beach again until at 5 the coach arrived for the others and after having a last walk round and watching the sun dip from view; we climbed back in the Pascal wagon and headed home. A far quicker trip. A good weekend all round!

Tour de Sun Moon Lake

The last time we were at Sun Moon Lake, Pascal said to me 'It'd be good to come here one day and cycle round the whole lake!' I laughed and said 'Why not!'
So yesterday, after turning down a trip to the local beach; we loaded up the van and drove for over an hour to the southern shore of the beautiful Sun Moon Lake. The evening before I'd stocked up with new bike bag, puncture repair kits, extra helmet padding and most importantly: a bike computer! Yes you heard right; brilliant

We'd looked on a map earlier and figured it was some 30-40 km around the lake plus hills; so we'd allowed ourselves 3-4 hours for the trip. Psyched up and raring to go we set off around 2:30 in the scorching heat. Wanting to avoid a steep mountain ascent; Pascal had discovered a cycle track that hugged the lake shore for a couple of km. Well after 5 minutes down a dodgy track, covered in mud and lucky not to have a puncture, we found the real path... which shortly doubled back up the mountain anyway.
Only in Taiwan are trees planted in the middle of cyclepaths and steps put between steeper paths preventing you from cycling at all!


Once on the road the route was smooth and the hills nothing to write home about: Computer stats!
max speed: 29.8mph, tot av speed 14mph, av flat speed 19mph which is not bad; we were definately feeling it... but you can imagine our surprise when after 1hour 15, we'd completed the loop.


Well, we were happy with the time but i wasnt satisfied with the days exercise done...
... so we went for another ride: this time up a steeper path following yellow flags: now this really did define "beaten track" cause that's all it was.

It wasnt long before we had to push our bikes up... we thought eventually it'll meet a paved path... but no, on it went.

It was about then i noticed the mosquitoes everywhere; not aimlessly flying but attacking us... this is obviously why the path was never finished; the workers had been bitten to death by these hell beasties! I remembered the agony of the bites from Hei Sun Wood and panicked like a man.
I half ran, half skidded down the path dragging my bike with me... all the way to the van. I had a puncture but i didn't care: we agreed that that was quite enough cycling for one day!

On the way back in the van, I discovered a new tool on my camera and took some funky pics.
On the way back Pascal said to me 'Next time we should cycle all the way to Sun Moon Lake, camp the night there and then cycle back on the Sunday!' I laughed and said 'Why not!'