I love Kending!
I had the best time in Kending! I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s the same as Hawaii (I love Hawaii by the way), but it’s more like a miniature version of it. I have some sad news. Sorry to disappoint everyone, but I was not able to ride a Moped. SO SAD! It turns out that you do have to have your license although some places rent them out illegally. But of course, I would never do anything illegal. Plus the fact that it was obvious I’ve never driven one before and would pretty much be risking my life, I decided to not even try. Nevertheless, I still had a GREAT time.
We took a 6 hour bus ride to Kaohsiung and from there took another 2 hour bus to Kending. After arriving, there were employees standing outside hotels along the strip trying to convince us to stay at their hotel. Since it wasn’t a busy weekend, a lot of the hotels were vacant. We had reservations at Hotel California which was a really cute hotel located on top of a surf shop. I think Kending is as close to America as it gets in Taiwan. We had omelets for brunch the next day and I felt like I was back home! I’ve heard that a lot of Americans actually live and vacation in Kending which is why everything is so Americanized. The restaurants, hotels, and stores all remind me of California!
We spent all afternoon playing in the water! We paid 500NT which is about $15 to go snorkeling, jet skiing, motorboating and banana boating. However, it was a little….uhh…let’s say it’s very different from how people would normally go about doing these activities in Hawaii. First, a van picked us up from the hotel to get to the site where we change into our wet suits. After we got changed, another van took us to the snorkeling site. Now this was an interesting experience. The van (which didn’t have seats or seatbelts) opened from the back and we all hopped in thinking that the driver would close the door. Nope. He just walked over to the driver seat and started driving….with the door wide open! It turns out that the door doesn’t close. The road he was driving on wasn’t even a real road, it was a dirt path with rocks and bumps and I was terrified of falling off. So that was an experience in itself. We got to the snorkeling site, swam around, saw some fish and got on the jet ski! The instructor that drove the jet ski was crazy! He was going so fast I couldn’t even open my eyes! He made a lot of sharp turns and made me feel like I’d go flying off….it was so much fun! We then went for a ride on the motorboat and then got on the banana boat. I’ve actually never heard of a banana boat in America but it’s pretty much a long inflatable boat with about 8 seats. It’s connected to a motorboat which drags the banana boat across the water; we’d go really fast and all of a sudden, the driver would stop and we’d all fall into the water. We did this for about 3 times and finally the driver said, “Do you guys want real excitement?” Of course we do! Why is he asking? He then warns us that on the way back there’s a part of the ocean that had really rough waves. He also said that riding across those waves on a banana boat is harder than riding a bull. I was scared but super excited! The banana boat went flying and so did I! I was bouncing up and down and left and right; it was so hard to just stay on but towards the end, we all went flying off. Since Willy was behind me on the banana boat, his whole body went flying across my face when we got thrown in so I ended up breathing in a lot of water. But it was worth it! I don’t think I’ve ever had that much fun in my life!
We then headed back to the hotel to rest and shower and went for dinner. We ate at a Thai restaurant and as we were leaving, we met a group of local Taiwanese guys that were also in Kending for the weekend. We decided to meet up after we went shopping at the night market. Later that night, we all met up in their hotel room and started playing drinking games. It was really fun, they taught us a whole bunch of Chinese drinking games that I’ve never even heard of. Taiwan locals are always fun. We headed back to Taipei on Sunday and even though the bus ride back and forth to Kending was long, it was SO worth it! I had an incredible time.
As for the toilet situation, since I’m sure all of you are dying to know…the normal toilet is fixed! There’s still no toilet paper but I’m not complaining. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from living in Taiwan for the past few months is definitely to appreciate my nice, clean bathroom at home.
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