Initially we had intended to stay in Kaohsiung since we arrived at the hotel so early in the morning. Thought that we would get some rest in the city since it takes several hours of travelling time to get to Kenting. However, after checking with the lady at the front counter, who collected more money from us realising that the bespectacled guy during the night shift made a mistake in the payment of our room, we realised that the following day was dumpling festival and they would be organising a dragon boat racing along love river. Therefore, we decided to stick to our original plan and headed out to Kenting that morning.
Even before walking out of our street, we were already approached by a female "taxi" liaison. We heard from the counter lady that the average cost to take us to Kenting was $300NT per pax but it was already too late as most of them would have left in the morning. Initially, we had planned to take a train over, or a bus, but after the quotation from the female liaison of $700NT for the both of us, we took the offer. It would have saved us a good amount of time to get to our destination.
Bought water to stock up at the nearby 7-11 and left with the mpv transport. We sat in the front seats with the driver while the back was packed with Hong Kongers and the lady liasion herself. We later came to know that her name was Chen Tai Tai and the driver was actually her husband. On the way there, we stopped by a convenience store for a 15 mins break but I believed it was just an excuse for the driver uncle to take a smoke break. One thing I realised about the toilets over there was the "open" and innovative concepts. Had to sneak a shot at the ladies but was "caught" by the cleaner who must have been wondering what a pervert I was... tsk* tsk*
Newaz, we bought ice cream and cut up jhambul fruits at the convenience store. The ice cream was literally lemon flavored ice and vanilla cold cream. The jhambul slices was well receieved by my gf who sang praises for its juciness, texture and sweetness of it. Even for someone like her who doesn't like Singapore's jhambuls, it tells a lot how nice they tasted over there. Took us about 1hour 40 mins to get there and before we parted, they left us their contacts and told us to contact them should we need a ride back... of course with terms and conditions. Anytime after 8pm would cost us an additional $50NT.
We were advised to get an electronic scooter which didn't require us to have a license because it was capped at a maximum speed of 40km/hour and was approved by the government to be safe for riding w/o one. However, it was quite costly, a double seater cost us $950NT while a single seater would cost you $750NT. Pros and cons for each. If you were to go for 2 single scooters it would definitely cost much more but there was a function that allowed you to "lock" the speed of the scooter. Also, it would supposedly use up less power than the double scooter. Still, we were entitled to 2 battery changes and was claimed by the shopowner that a single battery pack was tested to last close to an entire day (enough to bring us to both ends of Kenting).
We were allowed to keep the scooter from 11am till 10am the next day but of course, we didn't use it till the next day. Returned that very night. So if you're staying over in Kenting for the night, be sure to rent an electronic scooter if you haven't gotten a license. Trust me, it was one of the best things that happened to us during the trip... Before renting it to us, they allowed us to have a go at it in their "backyard" carpark. Was a little cramped and we had trouble trying to familiarize ourselves with manoeuring the scooter. The turnings were exceptionally tough, but after much thought, we decided to have a go at it. It wouldn't have been that much fun if we were confined within a single beach the entire.
So we took a couple of maps from them and despite a lack of confidence, I told yq (my gf) to hop on and before we knew it, we were already on the roads enjoying the sea breeze. Though taiwan practises the left hand drive, its not too dangerous to go onto the roads, especially that of Kenting since they are very wide and had very few vehicles on it. It was fairly easy to operate the scooter, just the acceleration, the brakes (similar to bicycles) and the mode (either "economical" or "power" for up-slopes).Yq was my navigator while I was focusing all my energy on the roads and on riding the scooter because I'm the "safety first" kinda guy. Did manage to relax a little after getting the hang of it afterwards and throughout the entire day, yq have us stop by the roadside to visit the different beaches and take scenic shots of them. The hostels lining the streets of Kenting were also an eye-opener, so I would definitely advise at least a night stay in Kenting if you're going to visit it.
We went to places like Banana beach, and this extremely rocky beach which had mini gorges in them. They were all along the way to our first destination, Erluanpi. Erluanpi is the southern most region of Kenting, and of Taiwan and that was the extreme end of Taiwan itself. There was like a mini town when we finally reached Erluanpi which was about 20 minutes ride away from the town centre and it was very "tourisy" because they charged us for everything... parking... entrance fee etc. But all at a fairly reasonable cost. We entered into this vast open field with a supposingly japanese concept and in the distance was a lighthouse. We headed towards the tower like everyone else, stole many shots of it before deciding to further explore the place. 
We went on a trail which few attempted... which led us to another attraction, wooden walkways along the coast. They kinda reminded me of Southern Ridges but the biggest difference was that along the walkway was about 5m high, there were no barricades. It wasn't that dangerous, instead it felt like we had more "freedom" than in Singapore. The coastal walk was well worth it, though you might have to walk along forest paths similar to that of Bukit Timah just to get there and to get out of there. We followed the path which further led us to the "Kissing Rocks", called thus because they were 2 huge cliffs leaning on each other, as if they were kissing each other. There was a stairway leading up to a lookout pavilion but the view up there wasn't that fantastic. 
The breeze however, was well worth it and after chilling out to recover our energies, we carried on walking. It was really like a national park, and it almost felt as it Kenting National Park was mainly referring to Erluanpi. We were stalked by a white butterfly through the majority of our romantic stroll along the paths of Erluanpi and after walking for about 2hrs or so, we finally walked out of the seemingly endless forest trail. Don't get me wrong, I didn't fret a single moment of it, just the fact that most of the time we were the only ones on the trail and the jarring "crickety" sound which resonated the entire forest creeped me out every once in a while... but of course... I kept my cool. Before heading to the other end of Kenting where the famous Baishawan (white sandy beach) was, we filled our stomachs with a hot bowl of beef noodles and some ice cold grass jelly. Tasted pretty decent... and the clothing stalls lining along the entrance of Erluanpi sold stuff at a relatively expensive price.
After our lunch, at 3+pm, we got on our scooter again and headed to Baishawan. It was a long long ride... took us about 45mins to get there and when we finally got there... we were in awe. I was in awe... because... they had the most expensive toilets in taiwan over there. Would have costs us $20NT to use them. And they were nothing close to clean. But not wanting to let them earn my money, I decided to hold it in... rather torture myself a little than to let those buggers rip me off. There were so many bushes around which I could have relived myself in.
The sand at Baishawan was anything was impressive. They weren't white, or sandy. When you hold them in your hands they wouldn't just slip right through them like the sand in an hourglass. Personally, I thought that they were similar to the sands in Sentosa. But but... it wasn't all too bad either. The waves there was the main attraction. Many visitors didn't mind getting themselves into the icey cold waters in their full attire and coming head on with the waves. Despite being close to the shores, the waves were strong and was quite a comforting sight for us... having travelled so far across Kenting just for that...
We walked the entire beach from one end to another and came across another toilet. I decided to let them earn my $20NT because the thought of torturing myself any further was too huge a price to pay for my ego. But thankfully, they didn't charge me... would only cost us if we did "big business", took showers or washed our feet. And for that, I was extremely grateful for them. It's like a stand-alone wash up place looked after by a lady and her husband. Don't go to the one at the cafe (which was on the other side of the beach), which was also where we had parked our scooter.
We took a slow stroll back to our scooter and proceeded to our next destination... Chu Huo (Nature Fire). That was a place where fire would be burning out from the grounds and it was all a natural phenomenon. Yq's brother did mention to me about it before but I didn't know it was located in Kenting only until the shop assistant who rented us the scooter told us about it. It was only about 15 minutes ride away from Baishawan. After some research, its due to the gases which are emitted from the ground. During the rainy season, the fire wouldn't show... one would have to reignite the natural gases again. Source: http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/3800259
When we finally got there, the skies were already dark and there were no lamps litted along the way. We had to grope in the darkness down a flight of steps, walk a small path to the place itself... Luckily, it was fairly litted by the fireworks the visitors were setting at the actual location. Took a couple of photos, which was quite a feat because of the muddy grounds and the waving sparklers all around. Many visitors were trying to slow shutter speed shots of writing words with the litted sparklers.... You better watch out when you're over there. And if you haven't come up-close to fireworks before, that's the place you wanna be at... Because the fireworks were so close that it sounded as if you were in a warzone. They just shoot right up into the skies, explodes and the ashes just fall right back down. But it seemed that not all the fireworks worked... There were many failed attempts with the ignition but those successful ones were really more than an eye-opener. We were immersing ourselves in the beauty of the surroundings, saw 2 light flares in the distance which we later came to know that they were set off by our Singapore soldiers under training, when it started to have a heavy downpour. There was totally no shelter around the area and we rushed back to our scooters and decided to brave the storm back to the town centre. If there was ever a time that I could produce my own television series like Bear Grylls does.. it would be then... Man vs. Storm. It was raining so heavily that visibility was hardly anywhere more than 5% for me. My specs were all covered with raindrops, the rain slapped against my face, I could hardly open my eyes and the oncoming headlights amplified through the droplets.
Yq was so worried at the back that she kept offering me her cap. But I declined because at that point of time all I really wanted was to get out of that area...keeping my fingers crossed that it was just a passing cloud. It was quite hilarious though, because after that entire incident, we realised that we were worried about different things... yq was worried about our safety whereas I was worried about our money and passports getting wet. Foruntately, it was indeed a passing cloud, for on the way back, we "entered" the dry regions.... roads that didn't witness the bullying rain like we did. I was shivering pretty badly because my drenched t-shirt was stuck to my body and the wind was blowing towards our direction while we were riding.
We did dry off a little before reaching the scooter place (actually its not a scooter place, just a hostel which also rents our scooters.. mimimo or something like that I think). The guys who rented us the scooter was stunned to see us so wet... he even thought we took a dip in the sea because over at the town centre, it was all dry. We borrowed his i-phone to make a call to the uncle who sent us over that morning and told him to pick us up at 1030pm. Asked for a couple of food recommendations and jalan-ed along the streets, checking out the street foods and stuffs. We bought this super delicious fried chicken and mushrooms just nearby and it really opened our appetites. The mushroom tasted much better than the "popcorn" chicken but after eating both of them for quite a bit, they tended to be a bit "ni". Yq didn't have the same sentiments though. She simply loved them.
The bustling streets along the town centre was our debut experience to the "night markets" in taiwan and it was a fantastic night, and day to start with. They sold many street snacks along the way, had many carnival games which tempted with huge and cuddly soft toys, and had many innovative stuff and souvenirs along the streets. When time was up to meet up with our return transport.... alas... yet another... headache. That stupid uncle who promised us that he would come to fetch us took back his word and even lied about ever agreeing to it. Luckily, we were saved by a helpful hotel lady owner who managed to arrange a transport back to our hotel in Kaohsiung at no additional cost. I guess like what I always preach, "Whenever 1 bad thing comes your way, 3 good things will come after. Problem is, are you too blind to see it?" While we met with a "devil", an "angel" will come to save us. I was so grateful to her because it was yet another close shave after the previous day's events. All was good as we met with this cute uncle who called himself "xiao pang ge", and who couldn't stop talking on the way back and shared with us a lot of his ideas and philosophies. We got to understand him a little better and likewise for him and that was when he first introduced me to one of the Taiwaneses' favourite life motto, "Kai Xin Jiu Hao" (Happy, can already (good)).
To sum it up:
Kenting Ratings: 5/5 (a must go)
- get a scooter for the experience even though it might seem a little pricey, get to cover more ground as well (get a raincoat just in case of bad weather)
- advisable to stay for the night, can spend at least 2 days over there
- Erluanpi, Baishawan and Chu Huo was well worth travelling to
- try the jhambuls and fried mushrooms
- its easy to navigate your way around, just need a map and keep a lookout for prominent landmarks such as windmills or large convenience stores (trusty road signages as well)
- safe on the roads since the busier and wider roads have a designated motorcyclist lane
- toilets are fairly accessible at the different stop points but generally quite rare along the town centre (you'll have to thicken your skin by 2 inches and use the toilets at the fast food restuarants, KFC or MacDonald's over there)
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