CELEBRATING MOON FESTIVAL

We, as beloved teachers went to Kenting (southern Taiwan) over Moon Festival for 2 days!! It was such a fun trip. Southern Taiwan is gorgeous, filled with beaches, beautiful mountains, coastlines, and fun tourist markets, which were very westernized. We took the local train to Xinwuri where we then took the High Speed Rail. From there, we went to Kaoshiung (2 hour trip). When we arrived in Kaoshiung, we had hired a taxi service to drive us to Kenting. It was a lot of fun! We rented scooters and drove up and down the coast, relishing in the beautiful salty sea air, the sound of the waves and we stopped to look at the sunset and sunrise!! Definitely and eventful rendezvous.

Here we all are, getting ready to leave ~

In our hired help, a fully loaded taxi bus taking us to our destination: KENTING!

Approaching Kaoshiung... almost there~

South China Sea

Check out this crazy lightning action, caught on camera of course~

Wahoo~ Some westernized Mexican...with a touch of Chinese 5-spice (in my opinion, one of the most disgusting spices to ever grace this world)

Kenting, at sunrise. We woke up at 4:30 and drove our scooters across the coast, in time to see the sunrise!! It was SO enchanting. For those of you who know I
 love Pride & Prejudice, it was a scene from the movie. Hot.

Our scootering travels took us to:

 Southern tip of Taiwan...

Frolicking on the reef in Kenting. Behind me? Yes, it's the South China Sea. Wahoo!

Southern tip of Taiwan, landmark.

Beach in Kenting
Talk about PERFECT weather...I came back a little red,
but now it's a lush tan! 

And then there were 10 foreigners taking over the beach in Kenting.
Devin, Erin, me, Laura, Meg, Whitney, Kristi, Lien, Katy & Allison

Cosmic action on the beach

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Surf shop American burger. A cute little Canadian man runs this restaurant.

He has lived in Taiwan for 11 years, and he has been surfing and making fun westernized food in Kenting, Taiwan. It was such a fun little restaurant. He made the BEST mango pineapple smoothies!!! 

We went to the National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium...this LARGE fish is known as the whale shark. It was ginormous! Seriously this aquarium was HUGE. It had so many different fish, and it had tunnels where you could walk as you looked up and saw all these fish swimming above and around you...it was awesome. The architecture was amazing. I pet a sea cucumber and held a starfish and poked a hermit crab. 

The cool metal squid and fish structure outside the aquarium.

Sunrise in Kenting...all of us at the break 'o dawn... is this legal??

TYPHOON NONSENSE

So, we have been blessed with a significant amount of surprises during our stay here in Taiwan. Some are quite agreeable, yet, some are a complete nightmare. During this past month, there have been rumors of the ever-approaching typhoon...nice. As you can imagine, this was a shocker. Posted below is a satellite interpretation of what was soon to happen...

CHIAYI...AND SCOOTERS.

We arrived in Chiayi by means of train. Chiayi is south of Fengyuan. It took approximately 2 hours to get to our destination. As we exited the train, our feet led us yonder to the underpass, in which our adventure began.

Here we go...

Me and Laura on our newly rented scooters. After riding a scooter all day, it is imperative I get one for the remainder of my stay in Taiwan- it was sheer bliss. I can't even explain how joyous traveling by scooter was...it was just a pure delight.

Note to self: Must come here when feeling low. And then I think to myself, "only in Taiwan..."

Me, Erin, Meg and Kristi at the gas station in which we are attempting to pump our scooters with gas..only you'll notice that you can't see us pumping the gas...it's not actually in this picture...

Me and Laura in front of a gloriously spacious Temple. If you notice, we are indeed on scooters. As Laura is the more experienced scooter driver, I gave her full driving responsibilities.

As we drove through Chiayi, it was a long stretch of road with beautiful rice fields and so much green everywhere! I don't think I could explain just how pretty this drive was. The temperature was just right, and the clouds overhead were amazing. I have never seen such awesome cloud formations than in Taiwan.

So fluffy. So white. So magical.

Pit stop shots.

The clouds were rolling in...

This is self explanatory.

The classically high speed scooter. We are maxing out at 80 km!!! Nice.

Due to the downpour that suddenly fell upon us, we veered off and stopped at this local eatery. We know now that, despite it's location, this place is famous for it's chicken. We decided to indulge in such goodness. Here is our chicken.

Want some chicken foot? I had the honor of deskinning the chicken..

Chicken foot is a delicacy in Taiwan & it was common to find natives gnawing or chewing on a chicken foot as the texture and taste was found appealing.

Some people were born for outings such as this...pit stop chicken goodness.

Here is a self narrative. Me in action. One of my finest moments.

It is typhoon season...hence the fluorescent poncho and tears of sadness.

 Next stop: Natural hot springs, called Kings Garden Spa!!

Spa goodness. This was the hottest pool... the water here was natural hot springs, thus making it a milky gray color. It looked dirty, but it was so therapeutic.

Swim caps and milky spa water. This spa was SUPER enjoyable and relaxing. I didn't think about teaching ONCE while I was here.

Kristi and Devin in the astoundingly freezing water!! 15 degrees celsius...which translates to 60 degrees Farenheit. Youch. Oh, and P.S. Devin is amazing talented in water...he held his breath under water for 2 minutes and 38 seconds!! Superman.

Spa action pebble star feet.

Kings Garden Spa in Guanzhalin...isn't this heavenly?? 

After we left the relaxing spa, we headed by scooter further up into the mountain. This is me, in all my poncho, wet fashion with Chiayi city behind me. I love this picture.

We stopped by Kuan Tzu Ling.. way up in the depths of the mountains. It was a sight to behold. The mistiness of the clouds amongst the mountains, cascading down over the magnificent Temple.

Panoramic shot of Kuan Tzu Ling.

Fire & Water Cave

Fire and Water coexisting as one. This little scenic area is popular for the natural methane emitting into the air as it exits the cave, touching the water. Fire and water can coexist...amazing, eh?

The legend of Fire and Water.

Panoramic shot of the Tiger and Dragon at the Fire and Water scenic area.

And, last but not least, one picture of my feet delighting in colorful pebbles.


CHIAYI was such a delightful place. The scooters were amazing to drive around the country. The weather was superb (down pour and all), the spa in Guanzhaling was relaxing & the fire water cave simply defied science!