Nothing like home

The beach in front of Caesar Park hotel in Kenting

After more than three weeks of mushy curries in India, Taiwan has never felt so agreeable to me.

We spent the first week bumming around, relaxing, and waiting for Alex to get over the flu. Because of the malaria pills, and the re-adjusting from our stomach bugs in India, it took a while for us to dive into the delicious street eats. Meanwhile, I have been picking up wardrobe staples for cheap, and shopping for random goodies here and there (yay, no hardcore bargaining!).

To maintain the weight we’ve lost from all that stomach turmoil, we’ve been biking a lot. Biking in Taiwan has been kind of like the “it” sport of the past few years, and the trails around Taipei are very well developed that they attract lots of families and biking enthusiasts every weekend. To date, I’ve been out on 8 separate trips around Taipei and also in Sun Moon Lake (middle of the island) and Kenting (southern tip), and totalled 172 kilometres on these outings.

Doing the lightbulb-twist wave in Kenting, in honour of the royal wedding

My favourite part so far has got to be the trip we made down to Kenting. It is the town on the southern most tip of Taiwan, and approximately on the same latitude as Hawaii. When I was younger we used to go with my godparents and godbrothers, so it was nice to revisit the town, stay at the same resort we stayed at 17 years ago, and hang out on the beach to even out the faint farmer tans we acquired in India from dressing conservatively.

Kenting is exactly what I think a beach town should be like. It has fancy resorts (we “splurged” and stayed at Caesar Park), beachfront B&B’s, and everything in between. The water temperature is mild (27 degrees Celsius in the ocean during the day), the waves are gentle – ideal conditions for swimming. Kenting has been developing into more and more of a tourist destination in the past couple of decades, and the main road in town is now dotted with street vendors selling food, beverages, clothing, sunglasses, souvenirs, and other trinkets at night. Alex’s favourite were the games stalls that had everything from darts to BB guns to little paintball guns. Loaded with a bunch of useless prizes at the end of the night, we returned back to the hotel stuffed and happy.

I loved our hotel, Caesar Park, because as soon as we walked in, I felt like I recognized everything from each of the trees in the lush courtyard, to the subtle design in the sand-filled ashtrays in the lobby (the ashtrays are not in use – no smoking indoors anymore). The hotel was renovated a few years ago so everything was new, but still familiar to me and my sister.

This little birdie looks like he has a moustache

Biked up from the road below to catch the sunset from the top of the mountain!

We loaded up on mangoes when we were down south too, as the season is only beginning now in Taipei. I can now leave Taiwan happy :)

As much as I feel like I should be posting even more aggressively to share all that there is love about Taipei, I have to admit that we haven’t been taking our camera out with us everywhere we go. It’s been an incredibly relaxing vacation, and we’re now scrambling to get ready for our next lag into South East Asia, beginning on Saturday. Stay tuned!