KENTING ~ day two 4.6

On this day we had planned to wake up early and hang out at the beach allll day. So, we woke up at 9am to eat a delicious "Kenting" breakfast - which consisted of toast, Chinese porridge xifan, cabbage, handmade mantou, and tofu. We then checked out, hitched a cab to our next hotel, put our things in the lobby [because we couldn't check in til 2:30pm], bought a water-activities package - 450NT (~$14) that includes snorkeling, banana boating, speed boating, and headed toward the beach. At the beach, there are umbrella-chair sets you can rent. It is a big umbrella that is plotted in the sand and a bunch of little kiddie plastic chairs...for 300NT. So expensive, we even tried to bargain with the lady, but she wouldn't budge. So, we just laid our stuff on the sand. Our hotel gave us a boogie board to borrow for free. I love the hotel owners, they are SO friendly and personable. Every time we entered the hotel they would ask us if we had fun or ate good food :) 

 Our hotel for the 2nd night ~ Yoyo Resort Inn

in the lobby

 the view from our hotel window. we didn't even order an ocean view room! well, we couldn't see the ocean directly because this window was on the side, but still a great view!

I mostly hung out on the sand to tan, and then I went into the water. There were sharp rocks in the sand, and I think they cut my foot because when I got back to the hotel I noticed a deep cut on the ball of my foot. Ouchie! We were about to leave to return to our hotel because the sun was sooo hot and we didn't want to pay 300NT for shade. But as we were leaving, we made friends with a group of local TW guys + 1 girl. They were letting us borrow their 2-person tubey and Lu let them borrow the boogie board. So we went back into the water. Lu and I in the tube, Kathryn pulling the tube, and one guy struggling to boogie board :p I got dizzy from the waves and felt like puking, so I tried to swim back to the shore, but a wave pulled me backward, and my foot hit a sharp rock. That's probably when my foot got cut, but I didn't even realize it til a few hours later.

Afterward, we went back to our room and took a quick 30 minute nap so we would have enough energy for the water activities. At 3pm, a guy from the company who conducted our activities came to pick us up and dropped us off at their shop in Houbihu (see map). Right when we entered, a lady handed us wetsuits, a life jacket that has a buckle at the crotch, and snorkeling boots. We looked pretty ridiculous in our suit haha. Then we hopped into another van that had no doors and drove to the sea. It took me awhile at first to get the hang of not breathing through my nose while snorkeling. I've never snorkeled before so I was pretty nervous, especially since I'm scared to see the ocean bottom, but where we were was not too deep. I saw many pretty green/red/yellow fishes and tropical clown fishes and coral communities. Then, I got dizzy and my goggles kept fogging up because I would forget to breathe through my mouth. A little bit afterward, we all got on a speed boat that pulled the banana boat we'd ride on. 

 (I did not take this).

The banana boat actually looks like a hot dog. I literally thought it would be the exact shape of a banana with curves at the end, but it was a plain surface with side things to rest your feet on. The driver asked us if we wanted the boat to flip over, which does look FUN but I was feeling queasy so we got the easy ride, though some parts are bumpy and I felt like I was going to fly off.   

Afterward we climbed onto the speed boat and went on a thrilling ride. It was quite a breezy ride. When we got dropped off at the floating dock, I started to feel sick again. Then one of the guys on a jet ski told Kathryn to get on. We were all confused at first because we didn't pay for the 4-in-1 package, which included jet skiing. Maybe they got ours mixed up with someone else's or they are just nice people... But yeah, I rode a jet ski too. Scariest ride of my life. My driver was racing with the guy driving Lu, and he was going sooo fast. I was too scared to look at the meter to see what speed he was going, but I was holding on for life. There were many times I felt like I would fly off and possibly die. It was fun, nonetheless!

I picked up a few unique [dead] corals from the shore....

For dinner we ate at a cool restaurant down the street called Bossa Nova Cafe. It had a tropical Tahitian theme, and all the food were Taiwanese, Thai, or Western. I ate a very, very spicy squid salad. It was sooo spicy that I was sweating, crying, and downing 3 cups of water at once. The waitress even told me that it wasn't too spicy. Afterward we went to 7-11 because my taste buds were begging for a sweet dessert. As we walked toward our hotel, we heard live music coming from a distance and then turned around to head to where the sound was coming from. As we got closer, Lu and I recognized the Chinese song the band was singing. When we got to the outdoor amphitheater we all hesitated to go in and sit because it looked like an exclusive event. So we stood outside the wooden wall and tried to get a peak through the tiny 1cm slits. Then a guy came out, saw us peaking, and told us that we could go in. Turns out the concert was a post-Spring Scream event. There weren't many people in the audience. The band performing was a group of 5 guys who looked high-school age. They were pretty good though. One of the bands sitting in the first row walked up to talk to us, gave us a free CD, and their contact info - told us to call them to hang out when we get back to Taipei. We returned to our room and rocked out to our new free CD :)