For our New Years Weekend Nick and I watched fireworks from the rooftop of our apartment building. 26 stories gave us a great view of shows in Nan Kan, Taoyuan, and Danshui. Happy New Year!
We caught the High Speed Rail to Kaoshiung (pronounced Gao-shung) at 6:52 Friday morning, and then a bus down the coast to Kenting (Kunding). We got in just before noon, walked into a respectable-looking hotel and settled a room for two nights. (The HSR is amazing, it got us to Kaohsiung in an hour and 40 minutes!!)
Now, Kenting is special for many reasons, while the weather wasn’t Hawaiian-perfect, it was still real nice, especially compared to the temperatures we were escaping from in Taoyuan. It was a comfortable 73 degrees, partly cloudy. Kenting is a beautiful beach-front community popular with the Taiwanese for holidays. There are several big resorts, surfing and diving centers, a great lighthouse, and a fantastic national park. But first: Mojitos.
Directly across the two-lane main road in front of our hotel was the weekend’s first highlight: Casa de Margarita, a pseudo-Mexican/American restaurant serving the most successfully western dishes we’ve had since coming to Taiwan. The bartender made us some super-strong mojitos and we had pizza and enchiladas. Heaven, I tell you.

Mojitos! Good ones!
Then we were off to explore the two neighboring towns, Erluanbi and Sail Rock. We walked to Sail Rock, which ended up being further than we expected. Grumpy, I demanded we go back and rent a scooter before going anywhere else. I had a little trouble at first, as most places ask for an international license. Right before we caught a bus, it occurred to me to show my ARC (alien resident certificate) and voila! I found my new love: Eunice the Green Dragon.

I named her after the character from What's Up Doc.
We went to the lighthouse after that, but forgot to bring the camera. That night, we joined the insane mob of people walking the main strip night market. The police were there to keep motor traffic moving in one direction at a time.

Asia Style!

Mini-Pinball
You can find anything here: Japanese food, Korean food, “Italian Hot Dogs” aka giant corn dogs, bubble tea, stinky tofu, fresh fruit, candied fruit, bbq’ed squid, deep-fried everything-on-a-stick, sesame candy, big snails, little snail, icy ice cream, sausages in mushy “rice-buns” (yum), thick slabs of pork belly, etc. I love Taiwan at night.

Food Vendor #35,678,634
With all the traveling that day, we went to bed a little early. That night I dreamed of hitting the open road with Eunice and Nick’s dead weight on the back.
I don’t think this blog entry would be complete without an honest confession of just how incredibly awesome a scooter is. When I stood before the vendor on the main street, looking down the row of scooters to choose from, I pushed my nervousness down deep. If Nick had ridden a scooter, I could too. The woman gestured for me to pick, and I couldn’t resist that bright green one on the end. She brought it over to me, explained how things worked, and told me to bring it back with gas, which I decided I wouldn’t do, considering she had only enough in her to get us to the gas station. I got on, with Nick behind me, and tried to ignore the dramatic, frightened looks of the locals who scattered around us as I played with the gas and the breaks. Pretty soon, we were off, jaggedly, wobbly, but my joy eclipsed any feelings of trepidation. During the weekend, I would periodically ask Nick if he wanted to drive, but the truth is he would probably have had to fight me for it.
In the morning we drove up to Kenting National Park, paid the 150NT ($4) entrance fee, and spent the next few hours walking the trails. The mountain is really gorgeous, a pyramid shape, and is actually prehistoric coral, pushed up by plate movements. You can see the coral everywhere, and it’s amazing and beautiful.

Kenting National Park sign post

A greenhouse full of orchids, poinsettias, winter cactus and ferns

Giant Maple

Ryan, Molly, any thoughts?

YES!! Bri's First Wild Monkey Sighting
There were six of seven of them, all high above our heads, watching and hooting a little. All of a sudden they started getting upset, hooting louder and louder. I realized then that someone’s brown lab had wandered into the area and was watching them intently. I knew the monkeys were debating whether to mount an attack, and decided to exit the vicinity.
Next was the Valley of Hanging Banyon (I think I’ll be replacing this picture with a less-blurry one soon):

Valley of the Hanging Banyons

I'd been sick for 2 weeks at this point.

Way to adapt my little land crab friend!

Poor picture, awesome stalagmites!
Next we rocketed back to Kenting town to meet up with my good friend Reggie, who was visiting with her friend Betty. We returned to Margaritas’s for drinks and french fries.

fun fun fun

That's the southernmost point in Taiwan
And then we went to dinner at Mambo, a good Thai place near the hotel. And after that: More night market!

busy busy busy

Mini-snails. Good, but probably still alive.
Here is Nick chowing down on some mini-snails. I had some too, until Reggie answered my question about them being alive or dead. They were yummy though, I’ll admit…gingery and spicy and garlicy.

Well, I guess I was devouring the candy.
Betty, Reggie and I devouring the delicious candy-coated strawberries +1 tomato at the bottom. This traditional street food has been ruining Chinese teeth for thousands of years.
After that, Reggie and Betty left Kenting and Nick and I went back to the apartment to watch No Country for Old Men on HBO.
NEXT! I will be uploading pictures from our 7 Hours in Kaohsiung the next day. Just not now, because its time for bed.
Love you to you all, especially Carla, Fred, Gracie and John, who I miss very much.