Kenting: It's a Good Place to Visit, But You Wouldn't Want to Die There

June 20

Today the four of us had our first full day in Kending. It did not go according to plan. Kending is the southern-most part of the island. The area is renowned for their beaches and hot weather. Off the coast, there was a tropical storm about 200 kilometers away. Because of that, the waves were rockin' today.

We decided to get two surfboards and split time with them. Only Alex was experienced at surfing so he got one for himself and the other three of us split the other. After Ray did a good job of surfing, I decided to give it a go. I was pretty terrible at surfing. I was never even able to stand up while I was there. After a few minutes, I realized that I was pretty far away from land. What I quickly realized, however, is that I was unable to get any closer to land because there was a rip-tide pulling me further away. I fought it for awhile but ended up even further away from the coast. The situation was not good. Ray and Emilie were on the beach and started to look for me. I waved to them but I did a poor job explaining that I was stuck in the sea.

I was able to finally get the attention of Alex and explained that I couldn't get any closer to land. He told me to try to move sideways to escape the current. The only thing that did was made me further away from everybody else. After struggling for a few more minutes, Ray and Emilie both swam out to help us. Ray was going for me at first, but then ended up with Alex. Emilie, after lots of struggling through the waves, was able to reach me. Together, we made some progress to get close, but still not a substantial amount. As we slowly made a diagonal path towards the land, two Aussies saw our plight and asked if we were alright. I quickly responded that we weren't, because I was already exhausted from trying to get in myself. He helped pull us in by having Emilie grab his tow and also hold my surfboard. Pretty soon, we were back to where the waves were breaking. I was so tired at this point that I wasn't able to keep my head above water when the waves came by. As we started to get towards the shallow water, I began to dry heave. I was mad at myself for not even being able to wait until we got onto land to do it. I was able to not throw up, which I guess is a positive. Overall, that will probably be the last surfing experience that I ever have during my lifetime and I am thankful that nothing worse happened.

To top off that experience, after we had returned the boards it began to rain hard. Having taken the scooters there, we had a good 25 minute ride home getting pelted by rain. I was on the scooter with Ray and I was shaking and I know that he was cold as well. I at least had the benefit of his body blocking a decent amount of the rain and the wind. It was the first time since I have gotten to Taiwan that I was wishing it was warmer.

Things got better after that and we went back out to the market. We ate at a Mexican restaurant which was surprisingly good. I also thought it was a lot of fun when the Chinese guy starting singing and playing the guitar. He played songs from groups such as Maroon 5, James Taylor, and Tom Petty. It was a lot of fun.

I also had my first tasting of stinky tofu. I bet you can guess why it gets its name. It was actually really good, and I'm not even a big tofu fan. One thing I have learned here is that when you get the opportunity to add spiciness to your meals, go for it. They don't just add hotness to the dish, they add flavor with it. The kick to the tofu made it really tasty.

Later in the day we went back out to the market and had a drink at a trendy little bar. I was lame and went with a salty dog because I knew I would like that. We talked for a while and came into agreement that it was a good thing that none of us died today. I would have taken more pictures, but the batteries to my camera died and the backups were dead as well.