Gorgeous beach in Taiwan, about 5 kilometers east of Kenting.

Kenting was definately my favorite city visited in Taiwan. The easy-going vibe everywhere, clear waters, big waves, and friendly natives, matched with lots of surfers in the area draws the obvious comparison to Hawaii. There was actually a big surf competition wile we stayed there (Pro Australian surfers and photographers with huge telephoto lenses).

Kenting is located in the southern coast of Taiwan. If you fly into Taipei, it takes about 3 and a half hours to get down to Kenting. Hour and a half by bullet train (about $40 each way) to Kaohsiung, and a 2 hour taxi ride to Kenting (about $20 per person if you share the taxi with 2 or 3 other passengers).

It is regarded as the Hawaii of China and Taiwan. In fact, we even stayed at a hotel called “Hawaii.” Everything at the hotel was Hawaii-themed with a Haiwaiian shop in the lobby of the hotel. The owner of the hotel’s name is Duggar. He was very helpful and basically gave us a whole tour of Kenting. He’s from Hawaii but has lived in Kenting for 17 years now. He’s got 4 hotels operating in Taiwan along with a few shops, all “Hawaii” branded.

The cost of our stay in the hotel was only 1,200 NT, which is about $40 USD. Cheap. Well appointed hotel room on the second floor with a balcony facing the ocean. Definately give it a look if you plan on staying in Kenting.

I was cruising by on the electric scooter when this car caught my eye. Penghu must be the name of the beach of something.

My ride in Kenting. It was twice as expensive as renting a gas-powered scooter, but it was our only option. I didn’t realize you needed what’s officially called an “international driver’s permit,” not “international driver’s license” which many mistakenly say.

So, we were limited to an electric scooter that barely got us 60 kilometers with a max speed of 30 km/hour. That’s under 15 mph. If you want to go anywhere, you need to calculate the distance to make sure you have enough juice to get back to the rental place to swap out the battery pack. We negotiated the rental fee from 500 NT (New Taiwan Dollar) for 3 hours to 500 NT for 5 hours.

To tell you the truth, it was actually quite nice. The electric motor was virtually silent and since it wasn’t gas powered (or maybe because it was just too slow), we weren’t required to wear a helmet. This was nice since it was sunny and 90 degrees Fahrenheit with high humidity. If you get pulled over for not wearing a helmet, you’ll get a ticket for over $100 USD.

Cute guest houses/ hotels in front of the beach. Eunmi saw an ad for a room at the yellow house pictured, but it wasn’t within walking distance of Kenting, and there weren’t any units available with views of the ocean.

Beautiful beach in Kenting.

Lush greenery on a breezy, beautiful day in Kenting, Taiwan.

Me and Eunmi getting tanned at the beach in Kenting.

Close to sunset.

Just about sunset. Eunmi’s camera does something with the lighting to create the weird effect you see in the photo above. Notice the waves aren’t just little bumps. As the winds picked up, and with the news of the THREE typhoons coming, it was an unsettling feeling hanging out in the water.

Cute Mini copy-cat you can spot all over Taiwan. Must be a domestic car. I’ve never seen these before.

Creative second-life of a compact-car. The owner of the hotel we stayed at told us this guy with the food stand above gets lots of business every night.

Nasty. Smelled really bad too. But, had to take the picture. I was wondering why all the foods are fried. Someone told me it’s because with the hot and humid weather, the food spoils quickly.

Eunmi looking glamorous in the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel in Singapore.

Singapore is really expensive. At the same time, its also really nice. So, we decided that Singapore was the one place where we would splurge on our trip. We looked at a few nice hotels, but in the end, we decided to stay at the Intercontinental Hotel due to its proximity to everywhere we wanted to be. Really can’t complain about any part of our stay at the hotel. Definately would stay there again.

That’s me looking really lazy. It had been a while since laying on a nice bed. Pretty sure I passed out within a few seconds of my my head touching the bed.

Bathroom was nice. It had a nice jacuzzi tub, but we both opted for the shower on the other side of the bathroom.

The pool felt especially nice since it was so dang hot in Singapore. Probably about 85 degrees Fahrenheit with high humidity. Actually felt more like 95 degrees.  Mostly business folks staying at the hotel, so we had the pool area pretty much to ourselves.

I can’t remember if this photo was taken from the pool or our hotel room, but you can see how commercialized Singapore is, but how nice it looks at the same time. Lots of trees on the hotel grounds as well as the public streets. No evidence of garbage or filth anywhere.

Bar lounge area at the hotel. Nice and quiet with lots of light.

Night time view of the Hong Kong skyline. I took this photo while taking the the Star Ferry across the harbor. Fun little ride for less than a dollar.

I enjoyed Hong Kong. It’s a very international city – you’ll walk around hearing languages from all over the world. The weather was really warm … high 80’s with high humidity. You can’t stop sweating even wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Geographically not as big as I had expected, and surprisingly convenient to get around from place to place.

Public transportation is cheap and convenient. We took the train which took 30 minutes from inside the airport to a 10 minute ride to the hotel. A 10 minute taxi in Hong Kong will run a few dollars to $5 USD. You can get from the heart of downtown Hong Kong to the airport 40-60 km away and at your gate within an hour if you hustle.

Walking around Hong Kong, you can tell it is the financial center of China. The streets are full of banks, skyscrapers, designer stores, and lots and lots of high-end wrist-watch stores. Only seeing a fraction of Hong Kong, I ran across several large Louis Vuitton stores and maybe a dozen Rolex dealers.

Hong Kong can be expensive. Most hotels in our district cost $200-$500 per night, although we got a good deal. Nightlife is pricey. Beers run $8-$10 USD, and mixed drinks cost $13-$20 USD.

Aerial photo of Hong Kong in our landing approach. Small islands connected by well developed infrastructure.

Daytime photo of water surrounding Hong Kong.

Typical street in Hong Kong. Lots of skyscrapers, buses, and taxis.

View from my hotel room in Hong Kong from the 23rd floor. I stayed at the Island Pacific Hotel. For $65 USD per night, it was decent –  the best deal I could find. Most other hotels within this location were at least $150 USD per night. Thirty minute train ride to the airport, and within a 10 minute cab ride anywhere else.

This is a street view in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Lots of money in the area. The famous Peninsula Hotel is located down the street from here. We had a drink at the rooftop bar called Felix at the Peninsula Hotel. Nice and fancy, but a little boring. We headed to Lan Kwai Fong afterwards, the nightlife district very close to our hotel and had a blast.