Kenting, Taiwan
Views of the Pacific from Longpan Park in Kenting
The lowdown
Situated on the southern tip of Taiwan, Kenting National Park was a unique stop on our three week journey around Taiwan with stunning coastline views and some of the island’s only white sand beaches. Kenting was a more substantial town than we initially anticipated where we took advantage of a happening night market, a 711 with beers on tap, and an adorable Dutch cafe. Though our time in Kenting might have had all of the elements of a misadventure, we couldn’t have had more fun 🙂
Day 1: HELLO Make Yourself at Home
We had quite the travel day to get to Kenting that consisted of a 50-minute ferry ride to Taitung, a 30-minute bus to the Taitung train statin, a 90-minute train to Fangliao, and a four hour bus to Kenting. The ferry ride was the most memorable, though we would have been happier if it had been forgettable. The boat rocked side-to-side with massive waves on either side as we made the treacherous journey across the Pacific. Multiple people around us were throwing up, a six year-old boy was screaming bloody murder, and we were gripping each other’s hands hoping that this wasn’t the end. On the bright side, fear took place of the nausea we had felt on the ferry ride over to Green Island.
After we docked in the Taitung harbor, we were just happy to be alive and the rest of the travel day went by seamlessly. We checked into our homestay, appropriately named HELLO Make Yourself at Home, and were greeted by Mika. She was exhausted from work and taking care of her three triplets, but she could not have been kinder or more welcoming.
We had two goals for the rest of the day: 1) eat something ASAP and 2) hit 10,000 steps after what had mostly been a sedentary day. We started working on both as we strolled up and down the night market that was just beginning to open up. After scouting out the open food stands and every convenience store on the main strip (there were five), we settled on sitting down at a Korean restaurant, EMO, right next to our place. We ordered a kimchi pancake and bibimbap – both of which we immediately devoured. Our unanimous opinion was that EMO was the second best Korean food we had eaten on our trip, a distinction that probably won’t mean much after we spend a few days in Korea.
We had a few thousand more steps to reach goal number two, so we paced back up the street, remarking on a 711 with beer on tap that we made a mental note to come back to when we were feeling up for a drink. We completed the day with two bubble teas and made our way back to our Kenting home. Goals complete!
Mika greeted us with a goodie bag of Taiwanese treats when we returned to the homestay. We enthusiastically sampled its contents – sasaprilla soda that resembled cream soda, coconut puffs with the consistency of Pirate’s Booty, and crunchy ramen noodles that you crush up in the bag and eat without cooking – and threw the Taiwan Beer in our backpack for a rainy day.
Day 2: An ill-advised walk, wild wind, and the beginning of our Yahtzee addiction
As we were FaceTiming with friends, Mika delivered breakfast to our door. We sat down at our small table and dug into the breakfast bao, mason jar salads with fresh veggies, and black tea. Great start to our only full day in Kenting! Over breakfast, we talked about how to get around to all of the places we were interested in seeing, narrowing it down to taking the bus or walking. Marriage is about compromise, so Doug kindly agreed to walk.
After about 20 minutes walking along a road with fast cars and blind curves, we decided that we would audible on the walking plan when we reached our first destination, Sail Rock Beach. The beach was nice, but windy, and we were ready to leave after five minutes. We waited for the bus that was meant to come in ten minutes. And then, we waited and waited and waited. And waited, until we decided to set a time limit on when we would go back to walking if the bus didn’t come. Luckily, the bus came within our allotted deadline and we happily took out seats amongst the three old ladies that were the only other passengers.
We were dropped off at Eluanbi Park – the jumping off point for a few of the places we were interested in seeing. We walked along a few of the park’s trails that were lined with ancient coral reefs that now looked like inconspicuous porous rocks and made our way to the ocean which was looking particularly gnarly. On the way back to the entrance, we walked up to Eluanbi Lighthouse, one of the only manned lighthouses left in the world, due to the shipwrecks that have occurred in this part of Taiwan (gnarly ocean seems to be a trend here).
In the 16 hours we had been in Kenting, Doug had developed a keen desire to see the southernmost point of Taiwan (we began to refer to it as his life dream). As we made our way over, we wondered if other countries had such prominent southernmost points? Or if you would even know if you were at the southernmost point of a country? The southernmost point was interesting with a nice view of the ocean, but honestly not life dream worthy.
It turns out the bus only went as far as Eluanbi Park, so we had no choice but to walk to our next destination – Longpan Park. We spent an hour walking along a very remote road that alternated between being super windy and very calm with few cars passing us along the way. A much more pleasant walk than how we began our day. 20 minutes away from Longpan Park, we came across an adorable Dutch cafe called Lumi (Love yoU Mean It) where we had a late afternoon snack of lemon teas and poffertjes (those small Dutch pancake things) that were topped with a tiny Netherlands flag. The owner was, unsurprisingly, a friendly Dutch woman named Stella that we loved chatting with. She wished us well on our walk to Longpan, with a hint of curiosity in her voice likely wondering why we had decided to walk around Kenting.
When we finally arrived at Longpan Park, we were greeted with the craziest winds we’ve ever experienced and amazing bluffs. The wind prohibited us from walking too far, but it didn’t inhibit the incredible views of the ocean. We sat down and allowed ourselves to be sucked in by the wind tunnel, cracking up and screaming at the same time. It felt like a carnival ride!
When we were done with the wind, we started to make our way back to the main town, opting for a different route we had read about online. We strolled through lush green meadows that made us feel like we were walking through the Scottish Highlands. Just as we had walked far enough for it to be super inconvenient to turn back, we started to hear the sadly familiar sound of barking savage dogs. Ugh. We waited and debated if we should turn back, but eventually worked up the courage to go forward. Luckily, there were a few little boys around the corner who made us feel safe (we didn’t even have to use them as human shields!)
As we were getting over our savage dog scare and descending towards the final stretch of meadow that led to the main road, we heard some mysterious grunts in the forest. The noise didn’t sound like dogs, but it did sound menacing. Jessie walked up and sussed out the situation – sure enough there were some mischievous monkeys in the forest.
We started to strategize how to get past the monkeys, when a beat up car came around the bend (the first car we had seen since we started walking). With cat-like reflexes, Jessie stuck out her thumb and the car immediately stopped. Enter our savior, Elaine! She was a lovely woman who worked in the area and enthusiastically agreed to take us back to Kenting on her way home. Elaine spoke limited English, but we did learn she was an artist with dreams of visiting the Art Institute in Chicago.
Our day most certainly called for a beer, so off to 711 we went for our first taste of 711 beer on tap. Like most things that come from Taiwanese 711s, it was unexpectedly great! And a total novel experience to sit in a 711 drinking a draft beer. We spent the rest of the evening at the night market, alternating between eating and playing carnival games. The highlights were eating pizza made in the back of a truck (not a hip food truck), playing the “hang on” game where you have to hang on to a bar for an unknown amount of time to win a prize, and begging one of the gamekeepers for four more dice when he gave us one as a consolation prize. Five dice meant we could play Yahtzee!
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