Kenting National Park

This morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and then went to check out Kenting National Park. It was a bit overcast and breezy, which toned down the heat and made the day more bearable for Bernard's parents.

There were a few trails at the park, but we stuck to the main one since we had Bernard's parents and niece with us. At the trailhead, we encountered more warning signs...

... apparently this park also has giant poisonous millipedes.

The park was really pretty but not as exciting as the one in Jhiben. We stopped by this giant, hollowed out maple that has a pretty interesting origin.

Family pic

We also visited the tourist center and the greenhouse before heading out to get some lunch.

 

Bridie and Mireille

Goofing around

 

Bernard's parents got a list of restaurant recommendations from the hotel concierge, so we used it to choose our lunch spot: Smokey Joe's Café. Very touristy, as you can probably guess - but they had some interesting food choices. Am was set to order a Mapo Tofu tortilla pizza, but she was denied. We are not quite sure why they didn't have it, since they did have Mapo Tofu and they also had tortillas. Hmmm. Oh well. :-(  The six of us had a mix of Eastern and Western food and it was all pretty good. The pineapple mint tea was especially yummy, with bits of fresh pineapple and lots of mint leaves.. Mmm-mm. Sorry, we flaked on the pics this time.

After we left Smokey Joe's, we headed back to the hotel because Bernard's parents decided they were going to head back early, due to the heat. We said goodbye and, as it started to rain, the rest of us decided to go chill in our hotel room for a bit, to wait out the rain before going back out.

Once the rain stopped, we drove into Kenting Town where it all the excitement was. They had tons of vendors, stores, music, entertainment, and of course food :)  We ate some really yummy Chinese food, but we forgot to take pics again. We also drank some more Taiwan beer, so maybe that had something to do with it :-P  After we ate, we walked around the night market, shopped and checked out the live entertainment. One of the clubs had a bunch of dancers performing out front, wearing really skimpy little outfits. We are pretty sure that at least two of them were dudes, but Bernard's sister seemed to think they all may have been. Yikes.

Tomorrow is our last day in Hengchun and we are planning to go back to the National park to hit up the more difficult hiking trails and some caves (we are told these are actually REAL caves - the underground kind) and then hit the beach for some sun and surf :)