Kenting

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When we got there we headed to the hotel that the travel info centre had booked for us. The offseason price of 800 NT dollars got us a really nice place on the main strip close to the beach with new furnishings, nice beds, and a big room. Since we didn't go to any of the islands we decided to stay in Kenting longer than we planned. The main strip of Kenting was full of tourist gift shops, clothing stores, street vendors and nicely kept resturants. Although we did not have much luck with food in Kenting, everything seemed to be over priced and not very fresh. The main strip was full of people and busy during the evening and completely quiet during the day. While we were in Kenting the weather was beautiful so we managed to check out some beaches around town and the lighthouse in Kenting. When we got to the lighthouse there was a walk way to the shore where we found tidal pools. We climbed over porous rocks to get a closer look at these small pools with clear blue water full of colourful fish. Good thing we already had a scuba trip planned the next day. Exploring the tidal pools made us really excited for Scuba.

We planned a scuba trip with one of the local PADI shops. Nan Nan, our scuba instructor at the shop took us around the dive area where we spotted many colourful fish. It was our first time diving in the ocean so we arranged a simple dive where we would only see small fish. After reading about Green Island, where Hammerhead Sharks were supposed to be mating just off the island we thought we'd mention that it was our first dive in the ocean. We weren't really ready for big fish or sharks!

The shop provided all the gear and a personal tour with two dives for a very reasonable price. We saw Nemo and lots of colourful tropical fish that we would see in Aquariums. At one point we looked up during our dive and there were 100's of pickhandle baracuda swimming above us. The pickhandles looked like a crystal chandelier sparkling in the water. The dive was a little scary and intimidating at first for me (Mazi) but it was still really fun. The current was strong in some spots but Nan Nan was a great guide. He told us he had started diving three years ago and has already done 1100 dives. He also mentioned that he comes to the same site we were diving every morning. No wonder, he knew where every Nemo (clown fish) was. Some of the other things we spotted were anenomes, angle fish, these bright green fish with pink, blue, and yellow camouflage, and a cuttlefish. The coral was beautiful too, some brain coral, flat disc like coral and others

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Photos

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Beach by the Formost Hotel

Kenting Lighthouse
Trail down to the waterfront where we found many tidal pools.

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Another beautiful sunset in Taiwan

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Admitedly I (Geoff) got pretty excited about seeing the tropical fish. This little neon turquoise fish was really cool as was a bright blue fish with thin yellow stripes about palm-sized angel type fish, so cool!

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Found an Urchin by the tips of our toes when we were checking out the tidal pool.