i love taiwan'08 part 3 - kenting

Day 4
(sidetrack: it's super tiring trying to chronicle everything that happened. haha. must be tiring for you guys to be reading as well...thanks for reading, let's see if i can shorten it...)

this is what our camp site looks like. we all woke up at 9plus (yiqi got up at 6plus =/) the next morning cos it was just toooo hot to be sleeping in the tent. and this was an exceptionally hot day... =/
our first stop of the day was Eluanbi Park...
okay for tv junkies like me, you will find this place familiar too. you know the show 情定爱情海？the one with alec su and korean actress chae rim in it? there are several variations to the english name - sth like Love at Aegean Sea. does this lighthouse ring a bell?? erm, it does look like the lighthouse that appeared in the show, but i cant be sure cos i dint watch the show...hahhaa. i could be wrong though =P
on our way to the southern tip of taiwan! haha. well, they told me they like this photo, so it has to come up here rite?! haha =P
yay! now i can tell people i have been to the southern most point of taiwan!! woohoo~! so cool. hahaha =P i think i will miss places like these when i can look out to the sea and not see the end of it. there are a couple of such places in hong kong as well. singapore dun have rite?? =(

waiting for the watersports ppl to pick us up...the jam was sooo bad that it took almost an hour for the van to come and get us =.= and the van auntie was very jolly and nice to talk to as well. i sat at the front passenger seat so we talked quite a bit.

she was telling me how she moved down from taipei a few years back cos the pace of life isnt as fast in the south. she doesnt hold a proper job, just helping the watersports place out during this peak period. she stays with her 12 dogs that she has picked off the streets over the years in a village off kenting. she said the landlord is soon taking the land back for redevelopment. she also said she hopes to buy a little plot of land up in the mountains and grow vegetables for her own consumption.

she doesnt like being restricted, she likes to be able to go anywhere, anytime, just driving her van (i think her mode of transport is the van) and stopping as and when she likes. she has portable cooking utensils and makeshift bed, so she really can stop anywhere she wants. she says there's a kind of natural spring water somewhere in kenting that many locals dont know about. apparently, the water contains some kind of minerals that have healing functions. she got into an accident before and had some other kind of ailments, which the water has apparently helped to cure.

she even shared with me how she simply flew to hong kong when she was our age to meet a guy, without even knowing his full name or the exact address of the hotel he was staying at. she had to buy a prepaid card and called the hotels that sounded like the right hotel one by one to look for the guy. well, she did find him in the end.

why am i being so long-winded to recall what the random people i met told me? to drive home the point that they are different from the usual people we see around us who are living in the hustle and bustle of the city. i feel that they are nicer, genuine, friendly. very humane. they really dont mind sharing their experiences with someone they have just met. 他们很真、很纯、很友善、很善良，对外人一点戒心都没有。他们和你聊天的方式就好像已经和你认识了很久一样。我很喜欢，也很享受这种和陌生人也能聊开来的感觉。他们很平凡，也许没有很富裕，也不像都市人一样以追求荣华富贵、升职加薪为生存的动力，但我觉得他们比我们更快乐、知足。他们可能比我们更了解生命的意义。
ehhh for a picture of us in diving suits, please visit gwen's blog. haha =P we did 浮浅, which is like snorkelling, and also jet-ski. haha. it was my first time seeing fish swim past right under my nose. and we could even feed them! there were pretty corals too! =D i was trying to find nemo, but i dun think i saw any! so sad =( but there were a lot of zebra and rainbow fish. haha. oh, there was sea urchin too. =D and the jet-ski thing...the instructor would take us on a ride, which was so super thrilling - sometimes you feel like you are flying, and i fell into water at the last "stunt" turn. so paiseh =.= i was wiping water off my face with one hand, and only grabbed the senior's waist with the other, and before i knew it, sploosh i was in the water alr lah. =/

and so sorry shuhui, i cant help but laugh everytime i recall the scene of you not being able to get back up on the floating platform. haha =P

the instructor assigned to us was very nice too...and you know what? they treated us to SASHIMI! those very fresh kind you know? we all took at least a piece, and WOAH, really good leh! =D we took a photo with him, but the photo is with someone else...it's on gwen's blog. =)

anyway, we rushed off for the second night of the concert...we were a bit late, so we dint get very good spots, but it was high nonetheless! =)
there was shino...
mayday who made the earth shake...and people high like they were on drugs...ok maybe they were indeed on drugs? haha. apparently about 40 people were arrested for taking drugs. =/
cheer chen who serenaded the crowd with her soothing voice and nice songs....
and then there was wan fang, whom i thot was a little odd as the closing act for the whole event. and i felt sad for her that more than half, or like 80% of the crowd left after listening to mayday and cheer chen. TSK TSK TSK. she's the one who sang 新不了情 if you dunno. =) she's good too. just too bad she's a little far from our generation and that she's not that big to be able to command people to stay and watch her, especially since they over-run-ed. but we stayed till the end lah.

this time round, we managed to jump on the shuttle bus. but but but, there were no seats, and where did we end up?? on the steps leading to the exit and in the luggage compartment. LOL =P go here to see. gwen, you should pay me a fee for helping you promote your blog here. hahaha =P

phew...i am finally halfway thru my taiwan trip. bear with me guys, there should only be one more entry to go. hahaha =P so paiseh ah....and pls do tag so that i know i havent wasted a hell lot of time blogging. hahaha =P