We are on our way to Kenting, the southest part of Taiwan island! If you love sandy beaches & the warm tropical weather, Kenting is the place for you. Though Singapore's weather is very much the same as Kenting's weather, but it's less humid so you feel less sticky :)
Every early April, Kenting hosts the famous Spring Scream (春天呐喊), an outdoor music festival showcasing many aspiring talented musicians from Taiwan and overseas. Together with Spring Scream, there is also the Spring Wave music festival (垦丁春浪音乐会) which this year invited many artistes such as Mayday 五月天, Hebe 田馥甄, Jam Hsiao 萧敬腾, Yen-j 严爵, Amber Guo 郭采洁... Spring Scream was held @ Eluanbi whereas Spring Wave was at Maobitou park. The festival goes on for a few days so u can explore Kenting or hit the beach in the day and attend the concert at night!
Luggage loaded, checked-in & we're on our way to Taiwan!
Singapore has more flights to Taipei, so it's really more convenient to fly to Taipei first then take the railway down to the Southern part of Taiwan.
Taking the Taiwan High Speed Rail (台湾高铁) takes only 2 hours from Taipei to Zuoying station (左营). From Zuoying, you'll have to take the Kenting Express bus which goes straight to Kenting.
But during holiday & peak periods, the THSR will be packed, especially if you're not buying tickets with reserved seats. So, be prepared to stand throughout the journey or keep your eyes open to spot for any passengers alighting.
Ok, so from Taipei Taoyuan airport, take the City bus to, well, the city of course. Alight at Taoyuan THSR station (桃园), and get your tickets to Zuoying station. If you are not sure how to buy the tickets from the automated machines, you can join the queue to get the assistance from the ticket counter staff.
THSR website: http://www.thsrc.com.tw/en/?lc=en
That's me waiting for the train at the free seating cabin area (自由座)
Once you reach Zuoying station, there are several counters which sell bus tickets going to Kenting. Ask them for the next bus departure timing and see which suits you the most.
On normal days, the bus will take about 2 hours to reach Kenting main street. But during peak hours like during the music festival & holiday season, expect up to 3 hours bus ride! There will be major jam on the roads, and so the bus can't travel as smoothly as during off-peak seasons.
A one-way ticket should cost you about NT400. If you will be coming back to Zuoying station to travel back up to Taipei or Taichung, consider getting the two-way ticket, which is cheaper.
We spent the evening at Hengchun (恒春), which was about 20-30min ride away from Kenting. When stopping at Hengchun, look out for a police station or the 7-11 opposite it. There is no big bus stops where the bus will let passengers alight, it's just a stand (站牌) outside some random store along the street so keep your eyes peeled outside the windows. The buildings and shops at Tainan are a big difference from those in the city, which is an interesting sight.
One thing to remember is, dont drink so much water & always relieve yourself before the bus ride! There is no toilet on the bus & the bus driver usually drives off as soon as passengers board or alight.
Back to Hengchun, food here are cheap & tasty. If you ask any locals where the good food are, they will usually point you to the same places. It is a very small town, the main landmark is the police station, and beside it is a bus terminal which has buses to other parts of South Taiwan (Tainan).
I never knew soymilk & wintermelon tea makes such a good combo, this 1000ml (or was it 2000ml) drink costs only NT30!
巷仔内古早味冰红茶
地址 Address：屏东县恒春镇中正路94号
电话 Tel：08-8880726
At the back alley behind 7-11 (opposite police station) sits this shop famous for their migao 米糕, glutinous rice with pork floss & cucumber, dripped with gravy (NT25). You are sure to spot this shop with the signboard & banner stating that many TV stations have recommended their food.
恒春米糕城
地址 Address：屏东县恒春镇中山路45号
电话 Tel：08-8895220
After watching Wayward Kenting (我在垦丁天气晴), I fell in love with Janine Chang (张钧甯), so when I saw that this shop had a picture of Janine Chang with the boss, I had to try food from this store~
Over here, you just have to get a small basket and pick what you want the boss to deep fry. Although some of it may seem expensive, but the boss is generous with his portion. He process the order customer by customer instead of putting alot to fry at the same time, so if you are unlucky you might have to wait a long time. His fried sotong rings (calamari) is goooood :)
老张盐酥鸡 (since 1983)
地址 Address：屏东县恒春镇中山路49号对面
At Kenting, it's a must to visit Eluanbi national park (鹅銮鼻公园)! From the bus stop @ Hengchun (outside 7-11), board the Kenting Street bus (垦丁街车) orange line which brings you all the way to Eluanbi. If you will be taking several trips on the street bus, there's a one-day pass NT150 available to buy on the bus itself. Between every stop, it costs between NT15-NT40 depending on distance.
Kenting Street bus info: http://www.ptbus.com.tw/03/0302a.htm#a02
When we went there, admission to Eluanbi park was free! I guess it's probably because it was labour day holiday for them, keke.
Eluanbi Park 鹅銮鼻公园
电话 Tel: 08-8851101
Admission: NT40, or discounted ticket at NT20 for elderly/foreign students, free for elderly above 70 & children below 1.15m
Operating hours varies across months, but it's generally 7am to 5.30pm except between April-October where they open 6.30am-6.30pm.
They are closed on Mondays & major Public Holidays - Chinese New Year, Dumpling Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, & the next day of National Holidays.
The view is splendid!
The famous Eluanbi lighthouse. It's the "Light of East Asia" because of its strong intensity compared with other lighthouses in Taiwan.
The air & view is too good to be true!
Saw a Singapore restaurant at Kenting main street (垦丁大街), similarly you can take the street bus from Eluanbi park to go back to Kenting main street. But remember to take note what is the bus timing as there's only one bus every 1 hour!
Interesting shoes in the Singapore restaurant.. I dont think Singapore has a history with such shoes? hehe
On our way to Maobitou (猫鼻头)... but as Maobitou and Eluanbi are on 2 different strips of land, you'll have to travel back to Hengchun to take the other street bus (blue line) to Maobitou park.
So, on an awesome day like this, we walked.
We walked all the way from Kenting main street past the National Park Service Center (垦丁处旅游中心) before we decided to cab. Haha. Afterall, we needed to save our energy for the Spring Wave concert tonight!
At Maobitou park, here's what everyone is here for. The rock that looks like a neko. *meow*
Interesting flora and fauna at the park...
Nothing beats a fantastic scenery
There are some small shops selling local dried goods near the park entrance, and the shops are really friendly! We were in this particular shop wanting to buy sakura shrimps (樱花虾). It's a local speciality from Maobitou and I heart prawns/shrimps etc, so I have to get some of this home. Anyway, the shop owner brought us around her small shop & let us try everything. I could have eaten my dinner there and then, as she was stuffing us crazy.
One pack of the sakura shrimps costs us NT100 (less than S$5), and cos we bought 5 packets of goodies from her shop, she gave us another 2 free. Like, Wow. And she even packed me more sakura shrimps into a ziploc bag so I can eat it during my concert. HAHAHA.
Their dried honey cuttlefish strips are much yummm (I finished the whole thing myself after I came back to Singapore) and my mom loves the dried seaweed I bought home.
It was really cool that they hold an outdoor concert in their national park. Oh, a tip for those going for the concert: buy their e-ticket! After buying online, just download the app on your iphone, enter your particulars and the app can retrieve the e-ticket which you bought! So on that day itself, instead of queuingggggg for super long, flash the QR code (coupon) at the special queue created for e-ticket holders, and voila! you're in!
It was about 5pm, and it started drizzling (hence the towels on many people's heads) but that didnt dampen the crowd's mood at all!
Who I came to see: Yen-j. Woohoo!
Not many pics from the concert cos my camera battery died :( All the singers were fantastic, and the crowd was great. There were also Caucasians amongst the crowd, even though majority of the songs sung were in Chinese. The concert lasted till about 1am (high!) and there were still plenty of people in the audience.
I wanna go for next year's Spring Wave!
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