Kenting, a beach resort town on the southern tip of the island, was awesome. Okay, it was a little touristy, and fairly pricey as a result, but after three weeks in China without any mod cons I wasn't complaining. Most of the beach is leased by the main hotel group and fenced off for guests only, but there was a little corner of sand not far from my hotel which was freely accessible, and mostly empty since Chinese people are scared of water. Occasionally some tourists from Taibei or Kaohsiong, dressed either as if they were about to go nightclubbing, or otherwise head-to-toe in the most expensive branded surfwear, would step onto the sand, stare at the sea for a few moments, then go back to their hotels. The water was warm and the weather very tropical, so I spent the next few days swimming or lying on the sand. Also did a nice walk around the coast.
As a tourist town, Kenting had a greater variety of eating options - I even found a bakery near the beach which did good curry pies! The downside of this, though, was that the restaurants catered to foreigners' tastes - eating at another place recommended by Lonely Planet (Why? Why?), the waitress refused to serve me the house special extra hot chicken curry on the grounds that "it's too spicy for you". I had to settle for the medium hot version, which was just a chicken boiled in water with some curry powder sprinkled on top.
From Kenting I caught a bus to Kaohsiong, then train to Tainan, which was another real dump. No train or tram system meant lots of motorscooters, hence polluted air, dirty, noisy streets, but at least there was a nice temple. Still, I was glad to get back to Taibei. Stayed in the happy family hostel again after spraying myself with copious amounts of insect repellent, then flew to Seoul.
