March 23, 2016
Today was the first day in over a week that we all woke up after 8am – even Nate! I think it was a combination of comfortable beds, silence and blackout blinds. Nate started to call out for my sister around 8:15am and we were surprised that it was so “late” – we woke up to get ready so we wouldn’t have a rushed breakfast (breakfast ended at 10am).
I think it’s always exciting to see what type of free breakfast hotels offer (or is that just me?), especially Asian hotels. I find that Asian hotels offer the best breakfasts because they always have an assortment of good Western and Asian options. You could have a plate of bacon and eggs then have a plate of noodles and stir fry – it’s the best of both worlds.
After reading a lot of very mixed reviews on Trip Advisor about this resort, I continue to be very skeptical about American’s reviews about Asian resorts and hotels. There were multiple negative reviews made about how Chateau Beach Resort doesn’t have a good breakfast and how there’s not enough Western options (come on, you’re in Asia…). As soon as we walked into the breakfast “hall”, the food and beverage area was extensive. I’ll try to take pictures of the food tomorrow – I was a bit overwhelmed this morning.
There were a lot of Western options – bacon, sausage, eggs, and even an omelette station. Tim was really happy about the Taiwanese food options like – danzi noodles (the noodles we had in Tainan) (Tim: they were so-so), stewed pork belly, and a green onion pancake station. Noel (and Nate) were most excited about the fruit bar – it had guava, pineapple, water apples and watermelon. Thanks to the breakfast buffet, Noel didn’t have to buy guava during the day.
After breakfast we were all set to swim. It was about 28 degrees Celsius today, a bit overcast with the sun coming out once in a while. It was nice to feel the heat – it was the weather we were hoping for in Kenting. We hung around the pool for a bit and then went down to the beach. The waves got pretty big so was not ideal for swimming in the ocean, though there were a bunch of people who were. Also, there was a warning that there were jellyfish in the area, which kind of psyched me out, so we just stayed close to shore.
Since we are in Asia (where most people want to be pale) there aren’t many sun bathers, therefore, there isn’t an abundance of lounge chairs around. We didn’t find this to be a problem since there were still quite a few free. We found most people liked to stay in the shade or in the covered jacuzzi pool and only the North Americans were out laying on the beach in the direct sunlight (with tanning oils).
For dinner, we headed back to the night market – it seems like that’s the best place to eat since a lot of the restaurant close by seem overpriced. We decided to try the “Taiwanese three cup” stall, which makes the traditional three cup chicken as well as other options: squid, mushrooms, duck tongue, and prawns (all made to order). We both ordered the chicken – it was really tasty, but would’ve been even better if we had a bowl of rice to go with it.
Our night at the night market got cut short by a sudden downpour. We were ordering bubble tea from Presotea when we felt a couple of rain drops, then suddenly rain was coming down like crazy and all the vendors quickly rushed to get their stalls under cover. We stood under Presotea’s cover until the rain died down. We still had about an 8 minute walk back to the hotel without an umbrella. You could tell no one was prepared – everyone was soaked.
An observation about Kenting is that it’s like the Thailand of Taiwan. Kenting Road (where the night market is) resembles any street in Koh Samui or any beachy Thai town. There’s a lot of street vendors, clubs, girls and lady boys dancing outside, and alcohol (we haven’t seen alcohol at any night market in Taiwan before here). Although the one thing Kenting doesn’t seem to have (or openly show) is prostitution, which is good.
Tomorrow is our last full day here. I imagine it will be somewhat of the same type of day we had today. I’m happy everyone is having a good time. It’s a nice way to end our leg of this trip with my sister, Noel, and Nate. We head back to Taipei on Friday and have one more night with them before they fly back home to Vancouver on Saturday night – just in time for Easter Sunday.
Total number of steps today: Around 10,000 steps but it wasn’t that accurate today since we didn’t have our cell phones with us at all times.
