When I was riding the elevator, I couldn’t really feel how fast it is. It accelerates and slows its acceleration on the way up and on the way down (maybe to prevent people from jumping in the elevators and hitting the ceiling). But, after you step out of the elevator to a view of the city half a minute after entering the elevator, you realize how fast it was.

The video above is the dampening system in Taipei 101. It’s the largest of it’s kind. It’s some sort of suspension for the top portion of the building to prevent damage from strong winds. The system reduces swaying of the building by 40%, as mentioned in the video. There’s two more of these devices above the observation decks.

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.

Winds were picking up when I took this photo. The typhoons (three typhoons were suppose to merge in Taiwan) were expected to arrive during our visit, but arrived after our stay.

Scooters are driven all over Taiwan, night and day, rain or shine. You’ll see rows of sometimes 50 scooters perfectly parked along the streets. Totally forgot to take pictures of those.

Somebody taking a picture of me taking a picture of somebody – using Josh’s huge, badass camera.

Wasn’t completely sure what these were when these first caught my eye – Taiwanese mail-boxes.

That’s me and Beth waiting to order western food at a cute restaurant called “Grandma Nitti’s.” For some reason, the whole place had a Greek look to it even though they served just about every foreign food you could think of.

I have wanted to visit Taiwan for a few months now, but the deciding factor in visiting Taiwan last week was to see my friend Beth. She came to Taiwan to visit her friends Josh and Tessa, and to see her newborn niece in Tokyo, Japan. Beth and I have had a special friendship for almost 10 years now. She and I met in Minneapolis when she was attending the Aveda Institute and I was attending the University of Minnesota.

Day’s end at a reggae-themed bar near Taipei 101. Eunmi, me, Beth, Tessa, and Josh. Everything was reggae-themed, but they had a solo act, a single guy singing the blues with his guitar, harmonica, and some sort of a drum machine he operated with his foot. Pretty good, but pricey drinks.

Eunmi waiting in line for her drink at a club in Taipei. Popular in Taiwan, clubs charge a cover (usually around $20 USD) with free drinks. Very different atmosphere in the bar since everyone is on a level playing field. This is not where the “ballers” hang out. As you can see in the picture, everyone has to wait in line for their drink – it doesn’t matter who you are.Everyone was well-behaved. No idiot alcoholics causing problems or issues with bar tabs. It was actually a little boring because that whole glitz and glamour of a nightclub just wasn’t there.

Kaohsiung was nice. Humid. About 30 degrees Celsius, or close to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Too hot when the air wasn’t moving, but with a slight breeze, the evenings especially, were perfect.

Scooters EVERYWHERE. Everyone has a scooter. Often times, a family of four with teenagers will have four scooters.

Twin towers. I don’t know what they’re called, but they’re famous and are popular with the tourists.

Walking around in a night market in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Smelled really awful (turned out the “aged tofu” was the culprit), but had a lively atmosphere.  They sold everything from weird street foods (almost all deep-fried) to nail clippers.

Eunmi and Ashley posing inside a huge tiger’s mouth. We showed up right when they were closing the interior, so I can’t tell you about what’s in there.

That’s Chris (from Ireland), Charlotte (native Taiwanese), Ashley (Korean living in Taiwan), and Eunmi (holding a Taiwan Beer).

Here are those nail clippers I was talking about. I have never seen more than 4 different types of nail clippers in one place before seeing this. Never thought I’d have a picture of nail clippers on this blog.

Some sore of addictive chew that all the taxi drivers in Taiwan keep in their mouth all day. The taxi driver that drove us the 2 hour drive from Kaohsiung to Kenting had one in his mouth at every moment. When he was taking one out of his mouth with one hand, the other had was reaching for another from his bag. His teeth were black and half-deteriorated. All of his taxi driver buddies he was waving at also had black teeth when they smiled back at him.