Last
weekend a friend of mine and me travelled from Taipei to Kaohsiung and to
Kenting. Kaohsiung is one of the main cities in Taiwan and is located in the west
of the island. Kenting is a small city near the coast located in the very south
of Taiwan.
First we
took a train from Taipei to Kaohsiung on Thursday directly after school. In
Kaohsiung it was already 10.30pm as we arrived and we just went to our B&B.
The B&B was cheap, nothing special but clean and a working AC.
Friday
morning we didn’t hear our alarm and slept very long. It was a little bit sad,
because we missed breakfast but we tried to still get the best out of the day. We
didn’t have accommodation in Kenting when we started the trip on Thursday. Via
talking to friends we found out that there is the possibility of camping at the
beach and the very nice and friendly woman at the Information Center in Kaohsiung
found a Camping area in Shadao with a free tent for us.
After
buying lunch (and breakfast) and the bus tickets to get to Kenting on Saturday
we started our initially planned trip: Monkey Mountain! After a short bus ride
we arrived near the Zoo at the entrance of the hiking gate. We took random ways
next to the actual way (many stairs and boring constructions to walk safer) and
were very happy to explore the mountain ourselves. We found a little shrine in
the middle of the forest and various paths that lead to places were some people
arranged some sort of housing. This kind of housing can be compared to the
housing homeless people in Europe arrange in the underground or other places
that provide some protection against weather and cool temperatures.
A little
bit disappointed, because we didn’t see monkeys so far, we took a rest and ate
dragon fruit. Suddenly, a whole monkey family jumped out of the forest on the
way. They were leaning comfortable in the trees on the right and left side of
the way. Two monkeys were watching the surrounding, many of them cared about
baby monkeys and some just lay lazy in a tree, cleaning their fur (in German: Lieblingsbeschäftigung
der Affen: Faul im Baum rumhängen und den Pelz putzen!). It was great watching the baby monkeys play
in the trees and the complete group working together, taking care of each
other.
After this
we were very happy that we saw the monkeys, went back to the city, had a stroll
around, and explored our new environment.
Saturday morning
we got up early enough to get breakfast in our B&B, took our bus to Kenting
around 10.30am and directly moved into our tent in Shadao. The camping area was
quite rural, very easy, but clean and cheap.
After
undressing and lunch we went snorkelling with a guide and had a good view on
many different fish, all very colourful swimming through the stunningly
beautiful corals. Shadao is the beach with the highest content of shelf in the
sand: 87%. But the strong tide and the sharp rocks didn’t allow for swimming
without a wetsuit. Snorkelling was wonderful; after our lecture we still had
time to explore the shelf alone. It was my first time snorkelling and it was definitely
not the last!
Below some
picture from this nice adventure!
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| Wonderful beach formed out of stonecorals. |
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| A little bit away from the official track - very nice! |
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| After again some google research.. |
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| ...I guess this could be a... |
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| Spotted Blue Crow. |
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| Tree growing on a rock! |
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| After long time of waiting.. |
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| ...the whole Formosan Rock Macaque.. |
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| ..family crossed our way. |
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| Little monkey playing in the tree.. |
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| ... being watched for family safety! |
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| Grasshopper in disguise. |
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| Praying Mantis on our tent. |
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Stay
positive,
Yihua.
