Sunset over Kata Beach

For our next beach, we decided to head down south from Karon to Kata beach. The difference between the two is pretty stark, despite being only a few minute drive from the other. Kata felt much more developed, but at the same time not in an ugly necessarily. Club Med takes up a huge chunk of the land, but is hidden behind a wall and a line of pine-trees. From the beach, the development is hidden behind the trees which makes it feel more “remote”–but of course it’s not as the endless line of beach chairs indicates.

Being near a Club Med, there were many, many, many more families and children there. As we’re not huge lovers of children, this was kind of a downpoint for us. However, I’m sure this is not a bad thing to most people out there. Despite the children, it was relatively quiet. There was the occasional jet-ski motor sounds, but other than that, not much to report. Sand and water wise, the sand is white, extremely fine, and powdery. The water is quite clear and pretty as well, though the waves were a touch bigger in Kata than they were in nearby Karon. Supposedly there’s quite good surfing there, but we weren’t there during the right season.

Kata also has some decent food options, but they were all quite pricey (remember: we are on a string tight budget so pricey to us is actually quite reasonable.)

In the end, out of the four beaches we ended up going to during our 10 days in Phuket, we thought Kata was the best overall choice if you want a mix of entertainment, food, a beautiful beach, but smaller crowds (but it’s still pretty crowded.)

Here’s a tip we learned after the first two days in Phuket: the crowds absolutely disappear after 2-3pm. So if you have no absolute necessity to sunbake, then going mid-afternoon is a pretty surefire way to have the beach nearly to yourself (all things considering, this is still the premier island to visit in Thailand.) Despite the beautiful daily sunsets, the beach is pretty devoid of people except joggers, romantics, and local Thais swimming fully clothed or playing beach soccer, definitely not a bad way to go.

Taiwan was great and felt like normalcy again (do remember Hugh and I have been in Japan for 3 years). Everything was efficient like Japan, but with 1% of the analness. I don’t think we had any real problems here except the rain one night.

No time now, but I’ll be updating this post from Vietnam with some pictures.

A friendly local expat explained what was going on. It seems they fairly regularly have drills to practice what to do if they ever declare independence, since China has stated they’d blow Taiwan out of the water if something like that ever happened. We waited inside the station for about 30 minutes until all the metal guarders opened. I saw thousands of people pour out of the buildings they were stuck in.

I’m sure most Taiwanese people don’t live their lives wondering what China will do, but at the same time it was a pretty odd experience and a reminder of what a tricky political situation Taiwan is in.

At one point, one girl even came up to us and asked if she could take a picture with us. She politely waited while she took a picture with me, then with Hugh. I’m pretty sure she promptly deleted the picture with me.

One of the funnier things that happened was I was walking with the group of guys from HK who we were touring with, when these three girls spotted Hugh. I watched them try and shove the prettiest girl towards hi whispering things I imagine were like, “say hello to him!” and stuff, but she did nothing as they passed by. As we walked by, Hugh grabbed my hand and I heard them squeal “NooooO!” LOL, high school girls.

It’s funny, but even funnier because it kind of weirds Hugh out. I know lots of expat guys who love the attention and use it to their advantage (and sleep with tons of girls), I also know more expat guys who thought it was a little weird and annoying to be treated like a zoo animal. Hugh seems to take it in stride by doing things like scratching his nose (and blocking his face) nonchalantly when people try and take his picture. I mean, it’s all fun and games when the cute high school girls do it, but it’s annoying when the old man gets in your face and tries to take a picture of you eating, right? Same shit, different name.

We arrived in Kenting without a hotel booked, the first time I’ve ever done that (I’m too anal-retentive.) We followed a group of young college guys off the bus to their hotel and then negotiated the price down 25% and landed ourselves a pretty awesome room. Definitely nicer than anything I was expecting in an overpriced resort area. However, our good mood quickly faded when we found out none of the thousands of motor-scooter places would rent to anyone without a Taiwanese driver’s license. Back at the hotel, we tried to talk to the staff about how we could get around, when one of the boy’s who followed said, “We are going there tomorrow, would you like to come?”

Turns out they had rented a van and a driver and two more people would have knocked the price down, so now I’ve done another “backpacker” thing I’ve never done–attatched myself to a random group of people. =P

Anyways, we have been taking our time in Kaohsiung as leisurely (some might say, lazy) as possible. Life is kind of like being in Japan again, especially when we are hanging out with a friend we’ve met in Japan. We’ve had some really fun times and met some really cool people…

Then just today we realized we’d been here for 4 days and done very little to show for it. Oops. We leave Kaohsiung on Weds, but haven’t planned for the rest of the trip… and eek, Vietnam is next week!

When we arrived the club was PACKED. Thankfully, a friend of a friend let us in for free and got us a VIP table. That definitely made the night.

There were sexy go-go dancers for us to oogle, but other than that, very few females in the club on this particular day. However, of the females that WERE there, about half of them had some article of clothing off by the end of the night. I’ve never seen so much butt-cheek in my life outside of a beach or pool. Though, honestly, we Asians know that most Asian girls aren’t really sporting big backsides so it really wasn’t buttcheek as much as….thigh? Annnyyyways, if it wasn’t that, then girls were taking off their tops and dancing around in bras. Not the sort of thing I have EVER seen in a club in Japan (let alone dancing), or hell in America even. But then again, Taiwan is not Japan despite my odd tendency to think it is.

The next point of amusement was Kevin’s stalker. While Hugh and I were dancing, he told me some girl was staring at him. Like a non-moving ghost through an undulating crowd. Later, after we came back from a bathroom break the same girl was sitting on the couch trying to talk to Kevin. Imagine this girl: a face like a 15 year old. Her long crimped hair, in messy, uneven pigtails. She’s wearing a miniskirt that says Budweiser down the sides, a black bra, and a hoodie zipped to just above the navel. Her eyes have that unmistakable glassiness that only a psycho can have. She doesn’t really look like a lolita, but the way she pouts purposefully and shamelessly makes you think of an adult trying to do a grotesque impersonation of a child.

And so, the girl sat next to Kevin for about 1 hr… making pouty faces, puppy dog eyes, at one point she started french kissing the air. It was WEIRD…and hilarious…and sad. Even after we repeatedly asked her nicely that he wasn’t interested. Even after a Taiwanese guy told her more rudely to piss off. Even after Kevin pretended to introduce her to his fake fiancee…she just sat on the floor, chin on the couch, staring up at poor Kev. Eventually she pouted as far as her lower lip would go and stomped off. I saw her later listlessly dancing with a Taiwanese guy, eyes staring at some spot on the wall. I have no idea what was going on in her head, but anyone who can sit while 6 people gesture at her and go “wtf is going on?” probably isn’t thinking clearly.

We left the club around 4 am, had breakfast and McDonald’s (the Taiwanese places weren’t open yet, unfortunately) and stumbled home around 5am…the first time I’ve done that in a non-video gaming context for years.

I feel like a kid again.

Now, let me preface this by saying that I have drank Starbucks in America approximately 3 times in my life. However, as any expat will tell you there are certain things that you just sometimes miss. Western food has something about it (fat and cholesterol) that tastes like home to me; so just as my Asian-born friends constantly sought out authentic Chinese food in Los Angeles, we seek the same thing. Except for us it’s so much easier: Authentic America = Fast Food. Whatta world.

Anyways, we were also struck by how kind the people of Taiwan were. At the train station we couldn’t figure out why the turnstile wouldn’t take our tickets. In Japan, we would have had businessmen try and shove their way through, climbing over our baggage and what have you. In Hong Kong, people would have gristled and sighed loudly about our stupidity. However, a young business-type just politely said, “Sir, you need to turn the ticket this way,” while demonstrating the proper way to insert said ticket. Amazing.

We then arrived in Kaohsiung and met up with our friend Kevin (who we know from Japan) who took us to one of the many food-stall nightmarkets, a specialty in Taiwan. I had something called a danbin which is like a wrap with all sorts of random stuff in it. Very tasty. And Hugh got to try pearl milk tea (aka boba aka tapioca) the way it was meant to be drank (since it was invented in Taiwan).

All in all, very good start to our 2 weeks in Taiwan.

We booked at the Lucky News Classic Hotel (weird name, I know) which for the price of $50 offered free shuttle service from the airport, free breakfast, wifi, etc. When we arrived, we were surprised at how friendly the staff was and moreover, by how clean and nice the room was. It wasn’t 5-star for sure, but it was certainly nicer than some of the dens of evil we’ve stayed in around Asia before for that price. Needless to say, we spent more time than necessary wondering if we’d get charged for the soap, or for the fruit, etc. Nope, it was just a nice place to stay in transit. God, we’re newbs.