Dear friends,
This past Saturday and Sunday, right after my 6th grade field trip (Wednesday-Friday), I went to Kending with my host family. You'll notice from my earlier posts that I went to Kending last Sunday; that time was with Joyce from Ling Zhou Elementary School. This time, I went with Tai-Shia, Chung-Shih, and Scarlet to Kending.

We stayed at the Cesar Hotel, the nicest resort in Kending. When we walked into the lobby, they had talking parrots, marble staircases, and a fully decorated Christmas Tree. You can find photos here.  The picture to the right is a view outside our hotel room.

DAY 1
We began our day by dropping our stuff off at the hotel. Afterwards, we took off on a bike ride to the Southern most point in Taiwan. Just two days ago, I already rode bikes with my 6th graders on their graduation field trip. I really like riding bikes so I enjoyed this immensely. We rode from the Cesar Hotel all the way to Oluanpi Park. Along the way, we passed Chuan Fan Shih (a huge rock, see pictures in this album), Banana Bay, and ShaTao. The most Southern point in Taiwan was marked by a huge stone marker (See below).

The stone marker at the most Southern tip of Taiwan (above)

When we were at the most Southern tip of Taiwan, two bikers stopped and gave Tai-shia beetlnut. In the picture to the left, you can see me chewing on beetlenut. Apparently you put a white powder on it and it tastes like cocaine. But, rest assured, beetlenut is legal in Taiwan and when you chew it and suck on the juice, you spit out this red colored pulp. It's rather yucky when you see a person's mouth all red, but lots of elderlypeople in Taiwan and some young people like to chew on beetlenut. After I stopped to try some of this beetlenut, which I found rather spicy, we headed back to Cesar Hotel with our bikes.

I was surprised, Scarlet was not tired at all! She rode with such vigor and enthusiasm =D. We rode for about 2 or 3 hours and it started to rain on our way back. But, the rain stopped and the sun came back out so we still had a great bike ride. Later, when we got back, we went to the private beach owned by the resort. It was absolutely beautiful! I was going to go for a swim in the ocean, but the waves were so strong the lifeguard did not allow anyone to go into the water. So, I swam in the swimming pool at the resort.

Later, my host family and I went to the night market in Kending after eating at the resort's buffet and visiting the game room. The night market was huge! It was the only night market in all of Kending, so maybe that's why it was so big. Many people were selling seashell decorations and I was considering purchasing one, but it was too expensive. After the night market, Tai-Shia and I went to see a live concert at an outdoor pub. It wasn't bad, but it was very noisy so we left and went back to the hotel to play Taiwanese Monopoly with Chung-Shih and Scarlet. It was already very late by then, so we went to bed soon after the game finished.

DAY 2
We woke up at 6:45am and headed to breakfast at about 7:15am. We set out to go hiking in the morning. We went to Kending National Forest and hiked Mountain Tachien. We went to Sheding Nature Park where we hiked the Major and Minor Gorge. Check out the gorge below.

We also saw lots of very colorful insects and huge spiders on the hike. See this album. Afterwards, we went to Hengchun to visit famous film spots from the movie, Cape No. 7. I already went to many of them last Sunday, so we went to Chateaux, the hotel where the movie was filmed. It was absolutely beautiful! The view of the beach was spectacular.

Please check out all the photos in this album: Taiwan Photo Set 23.

Later, on our way back to Kaohsiung, we stopped by Dapeng and saw the sports arena they're building. They're planning to turn this past military base into a hotel and sports place where you can fly airplanes, row boats, and do many things.

Now, I must tell you, after three days of playing and traveling around Taiwan with my 6th graders, I was exhausted by this fifth day of touring Kending. So, during the car rides from place to place, I was sleeping. I had so much fun with my host family and I was surprised I still had so much energy.

It must've been that fish soup we drank at the last restaurant we went to =D Haha.

Thank you, Tai-Shia, Chung-Shih, and Scarlet for taking me on this wonderful trip, filled with so many adventures! I look forward to the next two weekends with you guys when we go to Pingdong County and Taipei to see a piano concert!

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