day 5 - kenting to kaohsiung to tainan

i was kinda sad to leave kenting, but i consoled myself with the hope that i'll go back again one day.
anyway, this was the most tiring day ever. taiwan has a lot of good food, and you just have to have a bit of everything, and the great thing is, there's so much walking to be done in taiwan that you don't really put on too much weight. i walked so bloody much on this day that i think i probably lost all the weight that i'd accumulated in the first 4 days.

we went to kaohsiung to visit the fo kuan shan monastery. it's supposed to be the largest buddhist monastery in taiwan and an internationally recognised site of pilgrimmage.
we had to climb up a long winding road and then about thousands of steps to reach the top of the monastery, where the famous 120 feet tall amitabha buddha statue that was surrounded by 480 smaller statues was located. i was almost out of breath when we finally reached the top.





me and the views from the top.




other parts of the monastery.
it's a huge, clean, pretty place, but THERE WERE TOO MANY STEPS. there were like hundreds of them in the whole monastery, and it was a bitch to climb up and down.
when i was taking some pictures, i thought of my friends. if they were around, i think we would have taken the opportunity to take many many pictures in different poses and angles. hehe.
the monastery was quite beautiful and serene, but one thing i didn't like about it was that it had become too touristy. the parking lot of the monastery actually had a small restaurant and arcade games. i thought that was so wrong! arcade games in a sacred place!?





we had lunch at anping old street, and the food was different from what we usually ate. we normally had the same chinese dishes, but this time the dishes were like hong kong dim sum, quite delicious. i loved the oyster omelette and the guan cai ban, which is like fried bread shaped into a little coffin box (hence guan cai), with a mix of potato, carrot, some pieces of meat and gravy or cream inside. basically it's like a mini pot pie.
after lunch, we left kaohsiung for tainan, and went to the dakeng recreational farm. we were spending the rest of the day and also the night there. this farm was situated at the top of a mountain, and it's a big place. they had rustic houses for tourists, and the family who owned the farm stayed in a grand mansion further up the hill.



this little pig and its mates were running freely around the garden. i don't remember if they were piglets or those miniature pig breeds. the next morning at breakfast, i looked out of the farmhouse and saw 2 of them humping. it was so funny.

wesley, the farmer and his pet boar.

feeding the doves.


the house we stayed in.


my room. i like the decor.



nice bathroom door!

i love dolphins, so i thought this curtain holder thing was so cute.

we took a long hike up the hill for a tour of the entire farm. it was terrible. firstly, i hate walking. secondly, it was humid and hot. thirdly, it was a hike through a forest and there were millions of mosquitoes and other gross insects. it was also smelly, especially near the farm animals. and the pig sty!!! it was the stinkiest thing ever. we climbed all the way up to the summit, where we had the view of the forest's canopy and the distant mountains. it would have been a nicer view had it been near sunset or sunrise. the wind up there was much appreciated though.
SO MUCH walking in one day! first at the monastery and then at the farm. i was completely exhausted and my leg muscles were aching like crazy when we were done, and the bed was such a much-welcomed respite. i love how cold the room was at this farm. it was almost freezing, like staying inside a fridge, and i loved it! haha...i also love taiwanese television. they have an abundance of dramas and variety shows, and they're all so much better than ours.

day 4 - taitung to kenting

after breakfast, we departed for kenting. kenting is a gorgeous, lazy beach town, and i absolutely loved it. i would totally want to go back there again just to relax and chill.
we stayed at the howard beach resort kenting.

stunning sea views from our balconies.

the view in the afternoon. the sky was getting quite cloudy.

clear blue skies in the morning!

the view of the sea at night. i think it's so pretty how the moonlight illuminates the island and the horizon.

i think the resort had really nice rooms. big and spacious with great views and high ceilings.

on the balcony at night.

kristy on a hammock. it was placed beside the lift as part of the resort's tribal/beachy decor i think, and was super fun to lie on.

i found a lavender sun hat in the gift shop in the hotel, and of course i had to camwhore with it!

after lazing the day away in our hotel rooms, we took a 5 minute walk to the nearest beach town for dinner. it was such a quaint, cute place. there were surf shops, little karaoke parlours and arcades, and many bars, cafes, restaurants and roadside stalls littering both sides of the road. i think an ideal day in kenting would be to chill and relax in the resort, do some water sports in the afternoon, head over to the town for drinks and food, and then end the night off with a romantic stroll by the beach.
we had drinks and shaved ice desserts at this adorable shop which was unfortunately, completely pink. kristy loved it because one of her favourite colours is pink, but it was seriously too much for me. 15 minutes in that sickly sweet candy floss-coloured shop and i felt slightly diabetic, and no it wasn't from the desserts we had. if only it was in shades of purple though...haha.


yummy kiwi and mango on shaved ice, topped with strawberry ice cream.


we took a walk through the town. it was filled with gazillions of high school kids on vacation. it was quite funny seeing the hordes of them proliferating the town at night when the whole place was like a ghost town in the day. the tour guide told us that the kids probably were at other tourist attractions in the kenting national park in the day, and were only let loose in town at night.

kristy and her taiwanese boyfriend. he sells shades for a living. kimmy and liyan bought a pair each.

day 3 (continued part 2) - hualien to taitung

on the way to the bashen caves (caves of the eight immortals). lots of pretty coastal scenery.




at the bashen caves. quoting the itinerary, the bashen caves are "a major prehistoric site where archaeologists made discoveries of traces of a paleolithic culture. 16 caves of different sizes along cliffs as high as 100m were formed as a result of erosion by the sea." some of the caves had been filled up so as to prevent accidents caused by eroding, falling rocks, and many of them had become buddhist shrines/mini temples.




luck-e standing in front of dozens of statuettes of the goddess of mercy that adorned the pavement leading up to the caves.

we went to sanshiantai, "which consists of a headland facing a small island in the sea. sanshiantai's most prominent feature is its three huge rocks. legend has it that three of the eight immortals once landed there; hence the island's name, which means 'terrace of the three immortals'. the island has a network of footpaths for viewing its geological features such as potholes, sea-eroded caves and trenches, and rare coastal vegetation."
the place has pretty good views of the sea and the beach.







i think kimmy looks super cute here.

this is wesley loh tze peng; he's the son of the other family who's on the tour with us. he's turning 5 this year, and he has the cutest personality. he's very friendly and active, and we all loved him. i really miss him!

my mommy!

we headed on to taitung to spend the night. we stayed at this charming resort-cum-farm place. the house that we lived in had 3 stories, and we stayed on the first floor. there was a common living area with a bookshelf, a table and some chairs. the other family stayed on the same floor as us, and wesley would run into our rooms to play catching or hide and seek.


the doorway.

the common living area.

my room.