Kenting Weekend

Last weekend was the Dragon Boat Festival in Taiwan. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? Well it's simply boat races, and some traditional food. We expats were not to keen on the idea, so decided to make a mini-spring break out of the extended weekend. Patti, Emilie, Julie, and I all planned to meet in Kenting (the beach-resort town that is at the bottom tip of TW) for a relaxing four days. Emilie and I were the first to get there since the other two has prior plans on Thursday. I had made the hotel reservations (with the help of my volunteer soldier, Jeff), and was hoping that we did a good job and were close to the beach. When Emilie and I arrive in a raining Kenting, we ate lunch before looking for our hotel. I figured since I only had the address in Chinese, it would be best to just have a taxi take us there for the first time. When the taxi driver said it would be 600 NT for the ride there, we said forget it. Panic started to set in. We asked another taxi driver, and got the same response. Finally, we decided if it was in the next town over, we could take a bus to get to the beach each day and it was no problem. So, we got in the taxi and headed out of town. Then past the next town. Then off to a side road. Pass some farms. Taxi driver stops to ask directions. twice. Way out in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE (literally), we arrive at a huge brick building that could double as a prison. We barely stepped out of the taxi before telling the driver we were not staying here and would like to go back to where he picked us up. Yes, it would cost us...but there was NO way we were staying at a place where a taxi driver didn't even know how to get to. By this time, Emilie was freaked out and worried that we wouldn't have a place to stay (since it was a holiday weekend) and she was ready to go home. I was feeling very guilty for screwing up the hotel, but hopeful that we could find a room still. The taxi driver could sense our anguish, and took us took a few hotels (homestays), to help us find a room. Luckily, he found one. It was about the same price as the other hotel, but it was close to the main street AND the beach. Breathe. I was so thankful for the gracious taxi driver who saved our weekend. Granted, our room was not the standards you would expect for 80 US dollars a night.....on the first night we found 5 cockroaches setting up camp in our bathroom. Luckily, those were all the bugs that we noticed. I believe there was gecko poop all over the walls and one of the pillow cases, but I can't be sure. The driver waited until we paid the hotel and got settled in our room before leaving for his next job. What a nice man.
So we were all settled and it was time to start the fun. For me and Emilie, that meant hitting the shops before the other girls came. They aren't big shoppers like Em and I, so we figured we'd do this before they came as to not bore them. There were so many cute dresses in all the shops, it was hard to choose! In the evening, Patti showed up and we all had dinner at a Thai restaurant. Delicious! We called in early that night so we would be all ready for the next day.
Friday morning we woke up and headed straight to the beach. From about 10-1:20 we enjoyed the sand, sun, and sea until it was too hot to bear. Julie met us in the early afternoon. Of course, we all got a little red because we are so close to the tropic of cancer. Note to self, more sun screen tomorrow. After lunch and showering, we walked to the main street to enjoy the chaos. We had dinner reservations at a cute little restaurant that was busy the night before. We decided this would be the perfect opportunity to celebrate Emilie's birthday (which was the Sunday before). Julie brought a cake and we took it to the restaurant. We all overate delicious Mexican or Italian food (spaghetti for me) yet still found room for delicious white chocolate cake (thank you cafe 85). After the cake and song, we headed out for our first night of fun together. We started off on our hotel porch playing some Kings. Around midnight, the owner told us it was time to quiet down, so we decided to move our party elsewhere. Down the road a bit, there was a truck parked on the side of the road that turned into a bar at night. This was popular among the foreigners because in our countries you can't sell alcohol out of your truck let alone have tons of people drinking on the side of the road. It was an awesome establishment. After a night of "duck fart" shots and tons of laughter, we headed to bed. The next day was pretty much the same, sun and sea in the morning, shower and change, relax in the afternoon, have a delicious dinner, then head to the "car bar" This night we called in QUITE late though. Emilie left around 2 am, Julie and I headed back around 3:30, and Patti was out until who knows when. We were having too much fun to call it a weekend and head back to our towns. The next morning was pretty much packing up, getting on a bus, and headed back to reality.
Boy do I love vacations. Even if it was only 4 days.