Kenting On A Scooter (机车走墾丁）

It was a Wednesday morning (5 June 2013) in Taipei and we were off heading south to Kaoshiung for a night before heading further south to the beach town of Kenting. The fastest way to get from Taipei to Kenting of course will be to take the high speed rail (HSR) from Taipei to Zuoying Station in Kaoshiung and transferring to the long distance from there to Kenting town.  During the return journey from Kenting to Taipei, it took us a total of 5 hours in total, 2.5hrs for the bus ride and another 1.5 hrs for the high speed train, add a little waiting here and there.  For me and my wife we took the slow and long way of taking the express train (台铁火车) that run south via the eastern coast running pass Hualien and Taitung all the way to Kaoshiong. Well it was all because of the Hot Air Balloon Festival in the small town of LuYe(鹿野）as we wanted to catch a glimpse of the hot air balloon there before ending the day at out pre-book hotel at Kaoshiong.

Train arriving at the Luye Station

  

Luye Train Station under minor renovation

5 Hrs of train ride from Taipei to Luye GaoTai (鹿野高台）

This being the 6 trip to Taiwan, more or less the sights at Kaoshiong we had covered before.  From Taipei to Luye is about 5 hrs and from LuYe to Kaoshiong was another 2hrs. Unfortunately due to bad weather the hot air balloon wasn’t even inflated and we were there from 3pm waited till 6pm before giving up to catch the last 2^nd train to Kaoshiong. Kinda stressful because if we missed the train, there is very limited chance that we could get to Kaoshiong. Catching the 6:50pm train from LuYe to Kaoshiong was a relieved knowing the hotel we had paid would not go to waste. The hotel was called Dua Hotel, ranked No.1 on tripadvisor and I would say the best hotel I have ever stayed over all my trips to Taiwan. We reached Kaoshiong Station at 9:10pm, transferred to the MRT for just stop and check-in into our hotel.  Dropped the bags and immediately went out looking for dinner.  The location was great and just 5mins walk to the famous LiuHe Nite Market (六合夜市) where he had the famous local food like oyster omelette and other fried stuffs.   

How to Get to Kenting

To get to Kenting, the best and fastest way is still via land and not air. With the HSR (High Speed Rail) having so many trips getting from Taipei to Kaoshiong is really a breeze. Irregardless where you are, the gateway to Kenting will be Kaoshiong.  Few places you can find the buses that goes to Kenting. One is at the HSR Zuoying Station at Kaoshiong, once you exit the automated gates turn left and walks towards the direction of the Shinkoshi shopping mall and you will see a bus booth saying Kenting Express in Chinese, I think you can get tickets there or info on where to board their bus for the journey to Kenting. Buses to Kenting are on a 24hr running basis, but of course logically the schedule for the night will be lesser compared to daytime. Another location is at the Kaoshiong Train Station.  

For us we stayed at Kaoshiong city for a night and that made it more convenient to just take the bus at Kaoshiong Station.  For us, we were hijacked by a husband and wife couple who runs a taxi ferrying service from there to Kenting at a price of NT350 per pax, which is comparable ( well slight more by a few NTs only) to the express bus fare that goes to Kenting from there. Just to share the exact bus stop, you exit the train station, walk towards the left of the station and cross the road and there is a bus stop near the motorbike rental shop. Before you cross the road you will see the MRT exit. For us we came out of the MRT exit and wanting to find where the bus stop was and got hijack. Thinking it was alright since the price is the same so we accepted the offer. Nothing wrong or felt cheated just that if we took the bus we would reach Kenting earlier which I will explain why. Yes the taxi driver charge you the same price close to that of the buses, but they will try to get enough people to fill the taxi before driving off.  So we waited 30mins for the taxi couple to find a few more and in total 5 of us. In total we waited 45mins which we saw the buses left before us while we waited for the taxi driver to get more people. Nothing wrong with that as they still need to run a profitable and sustainable business . Just that I did not consider all these waiting before accepting. The wife of the driver sometimes came back to reassure us that 20mins of wait and they would drive off and no more waiting. But well that is just their strategy to stall time to get more passengers.  And when they got another person making it 3, the wife said that we were good to go and ended up sitting inside the taxi.

And a new excuse came about saying that the husband need to finish his breakfast which in actual fact buying more time. Finally another 2 fellow with a kid came along and we were full house and only then ready to drive off.  Even the taxi will be faster in terms of travelling time, the end to end process of taking these car pool may work out to even longer. And add on the fact that you get cramp up in a small taxi with strangers who may get over enthusiastic about the journey and talk all the way. The early morning journey was initially meant for me and my wife to catch some sleep,  but ended up enduring the constant chit chat and saliva flying around. If we were to travel on the bus at 9am, we could have reached Kenting by 11:30am and enjoyed the spacious seat and safety of a big bus minus the noise from the chatty strangers we shared the cab with. 

Morale of the story, if you are travelling with a big group that can chartered the entire taxi then you can consider, if not stay with the buses. For the return trip, there will be taxi drivers and sometimes even private car or van drivers trying to gather tourists for the return trip to Kaoshiong, but I don’t think such private drivers are license to provide such service and make insurance claim very difficult or void should there be any accidents involved. So my advice to travelers are stick to license public transport.  Almost forgot to add on, these taxi drivers has some commissioned based incentives and will recommend and ferry you immediately to the shops that offer some of the sea activities like snorkeling or others.  We got this experience as the driver managed to convince the  family of 3 to go snorkeling or something and ended up we have to wait in the taxi while the driver went about claiming his share from the profit make. So you see we ended up wasting time tagging along the taxi driver for him to earn his extra income which originally what we want is just a simple transport service from point A to point B. And sometimes felt a bit of privacy invasion as the driver will ask a lot of stuff about where you stay and when you going back, what mode of transport you book and where you book. For us we made bookings with a scooter rental shop for a 2 days scooter rental and off the driver went saying how close he was to the boss and stuff like that. Not sure how true was that or maybe he was trying to claim some commission from the shop. I think the taxi drivers has an incentives reward system by bringing customers to their shops. Looking back at what I had written, instead of just describing how to get there I went to blabber about my experiences on getting there. And so in the end we said out final goodbye to the taxi driver at the scooter shop closed to 1pm.

Electric bikes and scooters parked at the marina.

Scooter rental is very affordable in Kenting, rental rates for a day can be between the range of NT400~600 depending on the type of scooter. We got ours for NT400 per day and we paid upfront for 2 days rental.  For foreigners like us, you need an International Driving Permit for motorbike in order to rent the scooter. In the past stories of the owner letting you go to the back lane to practice and then off they offered you the rental. But since due to the police crackdown on these shops, all follow the law which I think is for the better good of everyone. But to overcome this loss of revenue, the shops came up with electric bikes which under their current law doesn’t required you to have a motorbike license. And so because of these, the streets and roads of Kenting is once again filling with youngsters riding around on these electric bikes which look like a scooter. But cost wise is much more expensive.  For us what we like about scooter is the space between the rider and the steering to put a haversack which is what we did. From the shop it was just a 1min ride to the nearest petrol station to fuel  up. This is the way the rental works for scooters in Taiwan and you don’t have to fill the tank up before return. So you get whatever extra you have when you get you bike. Anyway the fuel  is dirt cheap, we had our scooter filled up with 2.47litre costing just NT87 and this lasted us for 2 days of riding along the coast. 

Cesar Park Hotel at Kenting

The only indication that this is the hotel. A little too small for such a big hotel

 

After getting the scooter filled up, off to our hotel at Cesar Park to try our luck for earlier check-in and good enough there were rooms ready due to earlier check-out by other guests. We had a room on 2^nd floor with a garden view and nearby mountain view.  We dropped our only backpack and off to on our scooter to begin our touring of Kenting.

At the HouBiHu marina where we had our sashimi.

 

First thing come to mind, LUNCH, and from the cab driver who just dropped the other car pooling at the 候壁湖 (HouBiHu) area where people go for fresh sashimi.  We hopped onto the scooter and throttle slowly down the Kenting main street and headed to HoubiHu.  It took me a while to get used to the scooter and so I started off slowly cruising all the way to HouBiHu. The place is actually fishing dock area where there is a big souvenir shop and stalls of seafood selling stir fry food and of course sashimi.  There were many people queuing for tables maybe due to the lunch time crowd but many were tourists esp. Hong Kongers from the Cantonese they speak. In the end a staff from the restaurant on the 2^nd floor who stationed himself at the crowded ground floor to pull some customers to his restaurant.  Since it was less crowded and has empty tables we settled for that and order some stir fry and 2 plates of mix raw fish (sashimi) for NT150 each that worked out to be SGD$8 which we could never find back home.  Overall it cost us about NT500 for a filling and delicious lunch, minus the customer service which out here in the countryside is something not to expect too much but overall Taiwanese are friendly people.

 

 

Unnamed location where the inland canal meets the sea.

Looking out into the open sea near HouBiHu

 

At the far end of the land is where MaoBiTou is.

After lunch at about 2:30pm, we were back on our scooter to start our touring of the west coast of Kenting so that the next day we could focus more on the east coast covering places like Eluanbi and up the way to JiaLeShui (佳乐水) beach near ManZhou (满洲).  First tourist stop was MaoBiTou (猫鼻头) just about 10mins ride from HouBiHu, but before we got there, I got distracted by the coastal sea and made a quick stop to admire the bay at a unnamed location. That was where the inland canal meets the open sea and created 2 tones of color that fascinated me.  

At the MaoTouBi viewing point looking at the coral rock. Do you see a cat ?

 

Another view at the MaoBiTou viewing point.

MaoTouBi is a tourist attraction and once we drove into the paid car park (NT10 for scooter); we could see again loads of buses waiting and alighting tourists mainly from China and Hong Kong. As with any mainstream tourist attractions, there were rows of shops selling souvenirs, snacks, drinks and fruits.  The park is a small place with the famous coral rock that resembles that of a cat nose which what the name of the place translates to. The sea was not rough at that moment and the rock seems like most rock that doesn’t really appeal to me because I kept trying to figure out which part of the rock resembled the cat. Well all along I wasn’t too good at imagination and creativity. And with the weather being around 32 degree Celsius, it wasn’t a good place to sit around. 

BaishaWan ( White Sand Bay) with a sandy beach.

On a quiet part of the road just besides the sea. Where are the Beatles?

A little trail leading to the sea, and along the way saw this man-made fence.

 

Next stop will be up the coastline to Baisha (白沙湾) which has a small village called Baisha from what we saw on the road signs leading to the beach. The beach is just a name and the sands are not really white. We didn’t venture to the beach and just watch from where we parked our scooter. There was a lady collecting parking fee of NT10 for scooters but she was occupied with some beach goers, and since we did not intend to go swimming and so trying to save the NT10 and hence it was just a quick look, see and off we went. It was already 3:30pm and since we were on the west coast, why not visit the nearby fresh water lake called LongLuanTan (龙銮潭) to see migratory birds but guess not the right season as the place is for migratory birds come winter season where they came from the cold Siberia and Japan. We reached the place around 5:30pm and missed the opening and park in the empty car park. It was a very long walk about 20mins to get to the park building deep inside near the lake. And being closed we wasted our effort walking in to the park under the warm weather and spending the same amount time getting back to our scooter. Since no one was around, we should have just ride all the way in.

Waiting for the sunset along a road on Guanshan

 One of the must do thing in Kenting is to view the sunset from Guanshan on a good weather day, and since we were near the west coast, up the Guanshan area we rode up but we kind of lost our way as to where should be the right stop but once we stumbled onto a big group of cars and vans and scooters on a road looking at the setting sun, that should roughly be the place to do the viewing. As time passes (6:10pm then) more and more people came to this spot and private vans ferrying tourist on some kind of day trips was there too. So we were comfortable that that could be a good place to see the setting sun. However the sun kept hiding behind the clouds and at times only the reflection of the sun can be seen on surface of the ocean.  The setting sun kept hiding behind that fat cloud just like being glued to it and about 6:30pm, people were starting to leave the place with their cars and vans and we too think we should too. 

 

At the ChuHuo Park (出火)

Bus loads of tourist playing sparkers inside the ring

Blue flames fuel by the natural gases coming from the ground

Last stop for the day was the ChuHuo (出火), in Chinese meaning “fire coming out”, is another tourist site located slightly to the east of the town of HengChun (恒春) along the road route 200. We even saw people walking from the town to the site as we rode pass them on our return trip. We left Guanshan about 6:30pm and rode on the route 26 that leads into HengChun and right at a cross junction with a 7-eleven on the right, we made a right turn and just follow through the quiet road till route 200 and making another right turn.  It was just a short distance and we were there at 7:00pm and once again buses and private vans were there and many people hanging around the area. The place is free of charge and many would visit only after evening time when the sky is dark. Why? Of course to be able to see the flames. Oh, this scenic place as what the big sign says at the entrance is actually a place where natural gases come up from the ground below , and you can see the blue fuelled flames ( what I learn in my physics class) spouting all over the place. What I read was that these gases came from the underground mudstone fissures and this is how the place got it’s the name “fire from the ground”. From the car park (free), it was just a few steps down some stairs to a small open ground area with a circular barricade that define the boundary that tourists should stop. But when we were there, everyone was inside the ring and stepping on the ground (of course not the burning parts) and taking pictures. With some tourists playing their ignited sparklers, the sparks landed around their area igniting any small traces of gases emitting from the ground. The place was like an open park and no one really seemed to be guarding the place, and on the ground we could see left over aluminum foils of possible cooking on these grounds; and similarly to those hot geysers in japan where you can find hot spring eggs. Well we saw a small group cooking some eggs on the ground. 

Feeling hungry and nothing much more to see there, we left the place at 7:30pm and took back the same way back to Kenting for dinner which took about 30mins of night riding. Since this was our first time to Kenting, we read about the Kenting night market but not sure where it was and so upon reaching the Kenting town area we parked at the first building of the Kenting town which was McDonalds’ for a worry free dinner. Burgers and fries were standard and we were also talking about where the night market was.   

On a thursday night, lesser crowded compared to weekend

 

Lotsa neon lights and colorful signboards.

After our meal, back on the scooter to ride back to our hotel and suddenly rows of street stalls decorated both sides of the road and people were walking harmoniously on both sides in opposite directions. The entire stretch of the road from the start till the end was packed side by side with stalls. The sight was totally different from the ones we ever saw back in the cities of Taipei or Kaoshiong. In an instance I realized I had become a local Taiwanese riding on a scooter cutting through the street of night markets. The main road was being reduced to a narrow single lane dual traffic as crowds of people spilled onto the road and big coaches plying the 24hr route between Kenting and Kaoshiong would crawl slowly through these human infected street. We wanted to join the hordes and walked through famous Kenting Night Market and so we found a possible parking at the end of the main street and started walking back. It was just a look around night for us here because we just had dinner. 

Shops & restaurants along the main Kenting Street

 

Some of the Minsu (民宿） accomodations just along the main street. Nosiy at night.

Makeshift bat along the road at the quiet end of the main street

Restaurants and shops that dotted both sides of the main street were fully open and business was good as people went about in and out of these shops. There were some bars or live band establishments with their staffs encouraging customers to patronize their shops and some of them had transvestites joining the crowded pulling.  Look like it involve some live band and dance activities. We walked from one end to the other and round trip back to where we parked our scooter which was just say 100m from our hotel.   

Surf board signage to the beach front bar below the stairs.

Bar with live band by the beach infront of Cesar Park Hotel

Just in front of our hotel there was beach bar with live band and we decided to take a look after parking our scooter back at the hotel.  Just beside the road was a stairway leading down to the small beach enclosure below. From the notice on the entrance it was said that the beach is a part if the Cesar Park Hotel area and hotel guest could have free access to the beach chairs and umbrella during the day.  Quite a nice place to relax at the end of the day but maybe if the weather could be a little cooler even at night we would stay longer. We left the beach at 11pm and went back to our cooled room to end the night.

Morning view of the hotel garden area (taken outside the breakfast dinning balcony)

 

Pool view inside the hotel. Too early and sunny for a swim.

Next morning, we were at the buffer breakfast on the 2^nd floor with a view of the southern sea. Since it was just 2 stories high, view of the sea was limited to a small opening defined by the trees. Buffet range was a mix of local food like Taiwan porridge with condiments, and intercontinental range like salads, cakes, hams and eggs. Variety was moderate but cooking style was still very much local. The hotel was a place for families with many families having young children and even toddlers as well as infants. Not a romantic place for honeymooners or lovers getting a retreat, but well a family friendly place I would say and it was crowded, really crowded. Not to compare with the cities’ buffet, I would say the food was alright only.  We spent about 30mins or so for our breakfast and off to explore the hotel grounds visiting the pool and the gardens. We loitered around the lobby area applying sun block before we headed out to tour the eastern part of Kenting. Finally at 10am, we were ready to board out scooter to ride to the Eluanbi Lighthouse Park and up the eastern coast all the way to Manzhou (满洲).

It was a great day to tour Kenting, blues skies, fine weather, but I just only hope the temperature could drop down slightly to below 28 that would be best. The road leading to the eastern part of Kenting was less crowded as most of the commercial vehicles would end their stop near the Kenting main street.  The road condition was great with just some cars zooming past us ignoring the speed limit. Wonder where are all the police, come to think of it, did not see any during our stay at Kenting except inside the police station, meaning it was safe out there at Kenting?  Travelling down the road to the Eluanbi Park, just before the Sail Rock (帆船石) and just before the rows of accommodations and shops opposite the Sail Rock, there is a wide open beach for beach goers and just by stopping at at the roadside,  the locals that ran the sea activities asked us if we were interested in their sea activities. 

At beach area just before the Sail Rock

Jet ski on display.

 

Clear water under the hot sun making a good day for photo taking.

As it was still earlier, we could see the workers were just starting to setup their equipment, driving the quad bike towing a mountain of canoes, floats and even beach chairs.  We walked onto the sandy beach and into the sea without old sandals which subsequently “open-up” as the glue of the Teva sandals (after so many years) started to give way and in the end we had to buy those NT100 flip-flops at kenting. Guess we were not in the right attire, because in Kenting the standard dress code is flip-flops, beach bermudas and singlets or tees. As it was still earlier and super sunny, there wasn’t much crowd at the beach making it a good timing to have the beach to ourselves for photo taking. 

Sail Rock, but more like the head of a person

Tourist information board on the Sail Rock

Rows of accommodations facing the open sea. A good place away from the noise of night markets

  

Next stop was down the road and we were attracted by the 7-eleven shop with the aircon and col beverages and so we stopped by the opposite road which is also the spot for viewing the Sail Rock. There were many accommodations that lined themselves along this road and if it is a sea view you want, this is a very good place to consider. There is a toilet nearby and good shade from the lower trees making it a good rest stop on a hot day. There was a path that led to the sea and we follow the crowd, but we further set the benchmark by walking carefully further out on the exposed rocks closer to the sea. Guess it was low tide and there were trapped fishes in the small rock basin of sea water. The water was crystal clear with the cloudless skies and the sun was casting down mercilessly. Luckily we had our sun blocks and hats on which lessened the harm on our skin.

Walking out onto the rocks

Crystal clear water with little fishes trapped in some rock basins.

 

See the fishes trapped in the rock potholes?

From here to our next stop, Elunbi Park, it was also a quick short ride, maybe 10mins. For us we miss the big car park to the right and continued to till we reached the exit part of the big car park. There was a Caucasian lady on a scooter who also missed the entrance to the car park. And so we rode back and paid for the NT10 car park fee. Since it was still early, not much tour coaches there and we just park under a tree near the scooter area. Lotsa electric scooter parked around there as well as most of the electric bikes users were told about how much their battery could bring them to this park and back. But subsequent we could see these electric bikes going beyond this place and up the eastern coast of Kenting.  Since this is a designated must see attraction in Kenting, there was a long row of shops that spanned the length of the car park. We paid another NT40 per person for the entrance fee into the park.

The Eluanbi lighhouse on a hill. Was a fortress to guard against invading local tribemen.

Inside the lighthouse compound. Barrack style buidlings on the right

The small entrance to the lighthouse compound.

The park is famous or should I say most iconic for its white lighthouse that stood on a hill. Actually other than the lighthouse there are great short trails that lead you to the coastline getting the smell of the sea. There is a great walking platform that runs close to the sea, and looking below at the volcanic rocks, it will not be possible to so easily cover the distance as those rocks are hard and sharp at edges. We followed through the walkway to the end and continued on the path to the Kissing Rock and Sea Pavilion which gave a good view of the Kenting Bay, including the  JianShan and the 2 columns of nuclear reactor plant. The reactors are quite close and any accidents will be disastrous and fleeing the place has little options except the eastern coastal road. 

Elevated board walk close to the sea.

The kissing rock on the way to the Sea Pavillion inside Eluanbi Park

Looking at the Kenting bay with JianShan in the remote distance

Looking out at the top of the sea pavillion.

 

We ended our visit to the park with a quick shopping along the shops, wanting to get a flip-flop for my casualty Teva sandals ( the sole had dropped off). Brought a flip flop for Nt100 and some bermudas as well. Price of those made in Taiwan is of better quality than those from China, but price could be doubled. So depends on your needs and your budget. It was about 1pm then and lunch was on our mind and with a plastic bag of purchases we thought we might as well ride back to town to get lunch. For a non-stop ride, we reached out hotel about 30mins, did a quick dash back to room and took out all the complimentary cold can drinks from the fridge. We were looking for a nice cool aircon place for lunch and ended up in a bubble tea café called Tataki, which served spaghetti and pizza just located outside our hotel.  They have a paid parking area but we just parked across the street for free. Well it was a scooter and in Kenting you can park any place as long as not obstructing traffic. We ordered 2 ice cool milk tea and spaghetti. It was a good retreat from the hot weather. 30mins and we were done but kind of lazed around awhile before hopping on my scooter. 

Ice cold milk tea at the Tataki Cafe just outside the Cesar Park Hotel.

 

At 3pm, we started the scooter engine and off we went to the next attraction, the most southern tip of Taiwan. It was a  non-stop ride this time, pass the Sail Rock and Eluanbi Park. The southern tip attraction is just a short distance from the Eluanbi Park. Actually if you can go from the back door of the Eluanbi Park, it will be the park to the attraction.  Being law abiding tourists, we followed the signs obediently and park our bikes outside of the park entrance and walked our way in. It was a long walk passing local residents and a viewing platform that I think many tourists will mistake that being the place, but it was privately run establishment with a big souvenir shop and café on the 2^nd floor. And being tourists, we were distracted and spend a bit of time looking through the place. 

A military radar station near the southernmost marker. looks like huge soccer ball

At taiwan most southern tip of the entire island.

 

Me at the southernmost place of Taiwan. of course there is the rocks behind me.

Following the downhill road we reached the actual park entrance and a cab ferrying a group of HK tourists just parked there. Oh boy, we could have save the leg power for that walk which seemed to be 500m long. Then came the even longer walk about maybe 2km till we reached the statue marker. From there, we could see the sea in front, separating us and the sea by volcanic rocks. I wonder was it high tide or low tide and if the waters could come closer. The marker is just a small area so it can get crowded and so we waited for the people to clear, took  a few picture of the place that was it. Along the way back on the long walking path, people were asking us how much farther, I presumed after walking for some time and not getting what they expected they would ask around to see how much more to cover. We parked our scooter under some shade and once we reached it, up lifted the seat and we reached for the towel  wrapped can drinks which were still chilled.

Our next stop point will be the FengChuiSai (Wind Blown Sand， 风吹砂), but halfway through we came across many interesting sites that we stopped to take a look, not knowing the name of the place. From the Eluanbi, it was an uphill climb on the road running along the eastern coasts but not sight of the sea but at times houses of Minsu (homestays) and residential homes.  The road continued uphill to a place just outside a military installation with big radars hanging on towers inside the compound, and just outside it were some touring cars and vans parked along the road, meaning this is a place worth taking a look. And so we follow and walked down the path just beside the road. It was an amazing sight looking down from the cliff, seeing the white sands below by the beach (wondering how to get down, no time to explore but to visit and see only).  

Throttling up the windy road along the eastern coast of Kenting

 

A little trail across the grassland to the cliff

A small area of red topsoil that is well known in this part of Kenting

Great view looking down from here. Can we see Lanyu Island ?

 

Only those that were travelling on their own like us, or joined those day trip in minivans might make the stop here and I would this is a very good site to see the sea and minus the crowds.  This spot was not the illustrated attraction site called LongPan (龙磐) which is an area of grassland (except the area trampled by busload of tourists) that runs to the edge of a cliff formed by coral reefs. Facing the eastern sea of the pacific, this is a very good place to wait for the morning sunrise if one can forsake the sleep in their cozy hotel rooms. For us, it was approach evening time and with the sun at the west, the surroundings have a sun setting glow to the area.  

A little bit of geography class.

 

Looking far end of the JiaLeShui beach at LongPan

Where the grassland meets the blue sky

  

 

 After leaving this unnamed spot, we rode up the sloping road to LongPan. Riding in this tourist area of Kenting you can identify where are the tourist spots by looking out for tour buses. And indeed LongPan has a bigger crowded and tour groups were taking group photos here as the back view is stunning with the blue see and the horizon. You can actually see the island of Lanyu on a good weather day. This place is like the plateau of this area and the area was wide and treeless, a good place for star grazing at night. 

Information signboard telling us we are at FengChuSha.

  

And from here it was a down slope to our intended destination the Wind Blown Sand. We rode all the way missing the place and realized only when we reached the entrance structure arch to the village of Manzhou. That told us we have overshot based on the tourist map. And so we went back uphill and came across a small viewing spot which has those little informational signage. We rode our scooter all the way down to the sign and only after seeing the Chinese words , 风吹砂, that we knew that that was the place. Seemed like the tourist office has over hype this attraction, we were made to believe the place has some sand dunes that we could play on and after looking around, there wasn’t except traces of some sands accumulated at a bend along the road. 

Looking down at the land mass below, Sand covering areas of the grassland

 

Evening view of the sea and coastline, near FengChuSha

Taking a look down the cliff to the beach below did show some areas of sand covered area besides the cliff. This was on attraction that we spent and could only spend a little time only as there is nothing there to occupy us. One optional last attraction for the day was the flower fields as Manzhou as mentioned in the Kenting National Park Tourism site. But the entrance gate to the Manzhou down just down the road is beside an sandy beach. In Kenting, due to the volcanic rock laid around the land, there is only small area of white sandy beaches suitable for swimming and sea activities. This place is one of them and has minimum crowd. There was a parked mobile food stall van at the location but was in the midst of packing up. We couldn’t find the way to the beach from the parked area and one of the mobile kitchen helpers told us of the trail just besides the parking area hidden by the dense vegetation. We walked through the tunnel of vegetation keeping our heads down as the headroom wasn’t much. And out from the vegetation we were welcomed by the vast open sea and the stretch of sandy beach.  

The tranquil beach just down the road from Fengchusha (风吹砂）

Jumping before the waves reaches me.

 

Another view of the unknown beach we stumbled upon.

With the evening sun and sea winds, the area was cooling and gone were the hot and sunny weather.  We spend a short 20mins here enjoying the waves without getting our clothes wet. This location should be very peaceful and quiet and with the car park area empty and spacious, I would say a good place to let go some fireworks  (provided it is not illegal). Previously we did wanted to take a look at the JiaLeShui beach which was a further few kilometers away and so we went and reach the beach area. This beach does not have much accommodations and there was a Minsu located at the end of the road near the beach with a public toilet almost hidden by the trees and vegetation. The beach stretches a long way and we were near somewhere closer to the end. The beach had few beach goers and we saw a Caucasian man carrying a surf board. 

At the JiaLeShui beach (佳乐水）

 

It was close to 5:30pm and the beach was still beautiful under the evening sun with it long stretch sandy beaches. We were wondering should we make a quick ride to the Manzhou Flower Field as mentioned in the Tourism website since we were already in ManZhou.  We were not sure with such lighting, would it be a sight to worth visiting or not.  In the end we just gave it a try and rode all the way to Manzhou. It was a long ride, passing a few smaller village and I think we got there with another 30mins of riding. The ride became very long as we wondering did we got lost and a check on my Android phone maps shows that we were near. And true enough a quick right turn and we were there. Initially we couldn’t establish the fact if we were really there, there weren’t any flower field that caught our attention and only a small patch about 20m long with 2 few rows of sparsely grown sun flower. Could this be the place and we rode around the area hoping to find more. From the description it mentioned it was near some resort which we made the right turn. Making assumptions the attraction was seasonal, we set our facts straight that little plot of land of sun flower was the thing we wanted to see. As what my wife said of feeling being cheated, we took a short break from the long ride and stopped inside the farmland road area.

A short stop to imagine the sun setting on the other side of the Hengchun Peninsula.

 

With the sun setting on the other side of Kenting, it was time to end our scooter exploration for the day. Getting back we could take the route 200 to HengChun and down south or take the same way we came. For me I chose the same way as we didn’t have to go into the more populated town of HengChun and joining the heavier traffic back to kenting. Of course the fuel gauge on my scooter said that we could get back because the road that we took along the eastern coastal road, there was no petrol station to fuel up. Slowly we tried to get back onto the main road of the town of Manzhou to retrace our route. Well we got a bit lost in the narrow backline street after coming out of the farmland.  Just using a proper sense of direction, after passing a few small houses and some tourist Minsu (民宿), we were back on the main road heading back to JiaLeShui and up the road running up the Cliff to LongPan. The riding back feeling was different as the skies started to dim down, and with our headlights turned on, I was constantly bombarded by insects as I think they are attracted to our headlight and rammed into my face and tee shirt. Without stopping for photos and sightseeing, we quickly reached the Eluanbi park area and in no time back to our hotel parking lot around 7:45pm.  

Back at Kenting night market. Gongcha milk tea was 1st stop

BBQ meet on wooden skewers was also one of our dinner menu

 

Hawailian pizza we ordered. yum yum

For dinner we already decided on the mobile van street hawker located at the end of the Kenting main street night market. The stall has a name of Pizza Swell and why we chose that was just that someone reviewed it on trip advisor. There were other stalls to choose from and one very interesting group of stalls was the makeshift bars that were converted from vans and the back of trucks. In the day they looked like broken down vehicles, but come night, they would be transform into trendy mobile pubs. Could not explain why we did the walk along the night market street again for the 2^nd time, up and down to the other end, grabbed a Gongcha milk tea before walking back all the way to our hotel where the Pizza Swell stall was. Bought some crispy fried chicken, bbq meats sticks and instant bowl noodle ( my favorite pork noodle), and the main item Hawaiian pizza from the mentioned stall. All the food where we had them all in the comfort of the cold hotel room, which marked the end of the night for us.

On the road to the aquarium taking the scenic and less traffic road. Very less.

The next morning was a Saturday and this is the last day we would be in Kenting as we made our way slowly back to the capital city of Taipei. We woke up around the same time for breakfast and the crowd remained the same. The breakfast variety remained the same and the surprises were no longer an additional spice to the food.  After breakfast we packed up our stuff into the single backpack that we came and check-out of the hotel leaving the bag at the counter because we intended to do a partial day visiting to the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium. The aquarium is located near Guishan (Tortoise Mountain, or hill) to the north- west of the HengChun town, accessible from the north or coming up from Kenting to the south. For us, we took the less traffic route to enjoy the coastal scenery. We travelled up the west coast taking the same route to HoubiHu but halfway making the right turn to HongCaiKeng (红柴坑) and to WanLiDong (万理桐), following the road all the way to the aquarium. It was a longer than usual route but with little traffic, riding on this route was enjoyable. There were small villages facing the sea and if we had time, I would love to take a break stop at one of these tranquil fishing villages and enjoyed the sea view there.  

Whale replicas as part of the water fountain display.

 

Entrance to the exhibition hall and aquarium

 

Like some alien movie we saw. Artwork ourside the new aquarium building

We reached the Aquarium at about 10am, with little crowd as most of them were coming in by their own transport.  Maybe it was still early for a weekend.  There was no parking gantry to issue or collect the fee, but it is the exiting part that you need to produce the parking ticket which can be purchased from the ticketing booth together with the entrance ticket.  Trying to miss the bulk of tourists come in on a weekend; we quickly got out tickets and made our way into the compound. Along the way from Kenting, we could see lines of cars coming to Kenting for the weekend gateway which is quite a norm for the local Taiwanese. May it be sea or the mountain area, anything that is mainstream tourism and accessible by transport, they will pack the place up.

At the entrance there is a big display of whale replicas built as part of the fountain, allowing children and adults to get their feet wet by wading into the shallow pool area. With water sprouting from the whales, we couldn’t help but to join in for a water spa for our feet. Inside the main exhibition hall, killer whale replicas were hanging above and I thought they have real killer whale, just like the ones we saw at Hualien Marine Park many years ago. To my disappointment, there wasn’t, except a white whale called Beluga which they have in their tanks. 

Stingray with a funny belly like some cartoon characters.

At the underwater glass tunnels.

Dory looking for Nemo

 

Jelly fish

The rest of the day was walking from one exhibit hall to another. The aquarium covered from the big Pacific Ocean exhibits to the rivers of Taiwan showing the ecosystem and the type of fishes found in them. What I like most was the penguin gallery, well maybe that was the only place in the entire Kenting that gave me a sense of feeling cold. And these penguins were very domesticated, getting close to humans with just the thick glass between us and them. 

Penguins swimming up real close

 

There was also the underwater glass tunnel which we managed to catch the feeding sessions and it is always the funny face stingray’s belly that makes the exhibits look more fun. We left the aquarium about 1:30pm, having our lunch at the Starbucks inside the compound with a mix of cold ice chocolates and sandwiches. There were other eateries there and a food court inside the main building but it was quite crowded and food was limited which made us preferred something else.

Cooling down the hot seat being toasted by the sun.

 

 At 2:15pm, the sun was less torturous but the wind was strong and catching a break under a shady tree wasn’t too bad, and we were back at the carpark cooling down the hot seat before starting our ride back to Kenting to collect our bags.  Looking at the amount of fuel left, it was just about alright for the trip. On a non-stop mode we took the same route down the coastal road back to Kenting. However when we came close to the HouBiHuo Marina, we decided to make last stop for sashimi again at that Marina. Without worrying about any petrol left, we took a short detour to the same place we have lunch 2 days ago. This time, we tried the sashimi at the stall on the ground floor. We just ordered a mixed sashimi plate costing NT150 without any drinks as we still have water in our scooter seat compartment. With this last meal at Kenting, this time we rode all the way back to our hotel to collect our bag.  The traffic got a bit congested near the sea activity area where the big buses wait for cars to do their parking and other buses alighting hordes of tourists. We maneuvered pass quite a fair bit bikes and scooter too and we could really see more and more vehicles were heading into this beach town. 

Just a single backpack to load onto the scooter.

We reached out hotel at 3:20pm, got out bags, and stuffed it between the gap of the scooter and down the main street of Kenting back to the scooter rental shop. The fuel gauge was already in the red zone but at least not to the end. We returned the scooter to the shop unscratched and asked where the bus stop was and it was just besides the Family Mart convenient store. 

Once again the self-run ferry service uncles came along asking if we were travelling up to Kaohsiung and starting his comparison of the price between bus and his ferrying service being non-stop and faster which we heard about when making the journey to Kenting. I could see some people were already in his van and they were waiting for the pooling to be met before driving off. After the experience we insisted on taking the bus. There are many bus companies that ply this Kenting-Kaohsiung route, and 2 buses came along. We took the GuoGuang Bus which is a big bus company found in many cities and counties. Some buses travelled all the way to the ZuoYing HSR station in Kaohsiung, but to me getting to the Kaohsiung Train station is good enough as the buses on this route have more frequencies. No problem for us as there is the MRT just besides the Kaohsiung Train station. Some tourists wait out for the direct bus service which may take a longer time to arrive. And so we boarded the bus, chose our own comfy seat and dozed a bit during the journey. Although the bus has to make stops at the major train stations along the way, we reached the Kaohsiung Train station in just 2.5hrs. Taking the time we left Kenting at 4pm, arriving at the train station at 6:30pm, and a quick MRT to ZuoYing and we were there getting our HSR tickets back to Taipei. 

It was close to 7pm and we got the 7:30pm train to Taipei making about few stops at Taichung, Xinzhu and Taipei. Thinking of whether to settle dinner at Taipei or inside the train, we chose to dine in on the move. And so we rushed to the connected Shinkoshi shopping mall at 3^rd floor which has a food court. I got myself a McDonalds’ burger for just NT99 while my wife got her favorite bubble tea with a Korean Saba set for NT135. We made a beeline to the train station not wanting to miss the train schedule.  We got ample time and being the 1^st station from the south, the train was already there waiting for passengers to board. And being dinner time, everyone has their own meal all packed ready into the train and some were already enjoying themselves. The good thing about train in Taiwan is they allow you to consume your packed meals on board,  or purchase their train meal boxes.  Maybe it is the culture of the people to keep the train clean that consuming food is allowed, and a cleaner comes along periodically to collect trash and clean up any areas that the passenger may have dirtied.

Finally we were back in the metropolis city of Taipei exactly on time at 9pm. We went to our previous hotel in Taipei just opposite the railway station to collect our bags and proceeded to our night’s accommodation in another hotel which we have pre-booked in advance. And that marked the end of our 3 days 2 night trip to the beach town of Kenting.