Lio ho Night Market and Kenting

With the school week coming to a close and an early start to Kenting on Saturday morning we decided to take it easy on Friday. David, Andreas and I decided to head downtown to the Lio ho Tourist Nightmarket to check how it would measure up to the night markets in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. The verdict was not very well. The clothes were all cheap knock offs with the brand names misspelt to avoid piracy laws and most of the stands were only selling food :(, the bright spot of Lio ho was that you could also buy many different types of live animals such as snakes, lizards, hamsters etc. There were also stands selling really gross food such as different types of animal brains, liver, kidney deep fried, grilled or raw... yummy! Note also the photo of a local Nokia dealership :D. The vibe was energetic and there were a lot of people, however it just wasn't the same as Kao San rd. or China Town in KL. We left Lio ho and moved to Hsinghshing Night Market which was supposed to offer more in the way of clothing for young people but once again we were dissappointed to find the same knock-offs and cheap imitations :(, the light of the night was however secretly sneeking up on two vendors who had taken a break, moved into a back room to practice their tandem Karaoke :D, i have a great video!


On Saturday Morning we got up at 7 am and took a taxi to the busstation. Our plan was to catch a bus to Kenting. We never got to the bus terminal, instead the taxi driver took us to another place were we could catch a bus to our desired destination but the price was cheaper as was the construction of the bus, good enough for jazz though, so we took it. We finally arrived in Kenting at 11 am, a couple of hours ahead of the people going there by scooter. We found a decent hotel by the beach and set up shop. We grabbed some lunch and soon the others showed up. Being without a scooter was a major handicap as all the others had 1 scooter per 2 people. We should have rented some but i am against the principle of motorcycles and once you see the traffic here, you will join my cause. The taxis in Kenting were a right rip off but we had to make do. On saturday we went to a beach a little bit down the road from Kenting. We couldn't get a taxi so Andreas and I waited for for two of the japanese guys to come back and pick us up so as to drive us to the beach were the others were waiting. This was about to become the first and probably the last time i ride a scooter. The japanese apparantly all have Kamikaze-blood and even though i told Yoshi to make sure this was a comfortable first ride he blazed down the road (speedlimit 60km/h) at 105 km/h, wizzing past slower traffic. I have honestly never been so scared in my life, and the feeling of not having any control was horrible. My prayers were apparantly answered as we arrived safely at our destination (pulse at 280bpm). The beach was very crowded but the taiwanese are not fond of swimming so we had plenty of room in the water (Oh, I almost forgot to mention that the beach is right next to the local Nuclear powerplant, yes, NUCLEAR, and yes, it's clearly visible from the beach nice...:D). The waves were very big and a lot of fun to play in. In the evening we grabbed dinner at Amy's Cucina (got there by taxi :D). Kenting is a fairly quiet beach town so we were surpiresed to find a huge bustling night market along the main road when we got back. We had a good time walking up and down, looking at the things available for sale (everything from whole sharks to surfboards), we also found the definition of animal cruelty and humilation (see the photo of the dog, not good looking to begin with he now has to endure his owners stupid idea of doggy fashion). Finally we went to another beach with Pavel, David, Tristan, Andreas, a czech girl, jean and his brother. They had all planned to sleep on the beach despite the fact that the weatherman promised some mild showers. We drank some beer and chatted by candlelight well into the night. There was however no knock on our door during the night so i guess the weatherman was wrong... again. The next day Andreas and I headed back to that beach and got our tan upgaded a bit. We took the bus back later in the afternoon.

All in all Kenting was a nice place but no scooter makes for a hard time. We are probably going back there several times before we leave so i guess i'm gonna have to think of something (maybe rent a car).