Tag: Kenting

  • Kenting 2010

    Kenting – summed up in a single photo!

    Though the departure was a little more hectic than I was originally envisioning, it was my pleasure to jump on the HSR down south and join Michael and Tanja for a weekend of summer sun in Kenting – south Taiwan.

    The guys had come through to attend a wedding, and as such were accompanied by a group of 20 German holidaymakers – and all on the same weekend as the largest music festival in Taiwan; Spring Scream.  As a result of poor planning on my part, I was actually supposed to be staying some fifteen kilometers away in Hengchun, but M&T offered me their spare bed in the amazing, but less than charismatically-named, Kenting Youth Activity Center.  I love that place.

    Situated on a peninsular east of the main drag, it is – according to their website – a ‘traditional Fujen(a province in southern China, also called Min) style building with red gate, white wall and red tile roof, and is often reputed as the Museum of Southern Min Style Architecture.’  I wish they gave more of the history, with a bit more explanation of the layout, but no matter; I would probably discover it is made of concrete.

    Square clouds … I could just soak this in all day!

    Detail view.

    Shots of night of the wonderful lanterns, lighting up the courtyard.

    Tiles done properly. Almost.

    Doors.

    The local walk down to the rocky peninsular.

    Cable management.

    Silhouettes.

    Details, bathed in warm morning light.

    Birds of a feather.

    Little Georg makes a run for it.

    Of course, we didn’t have the place entirely to ourselves.  As host weekend of the largest music festival in Taiwan, there were some pretty odd sights, and a funny mixture of people.  Beginning with obligatory trips down to the local nightmarket (copy and pasted from Taipei?), we then began sinking drinks, seeing some of the outlying stages, and finally ending up on the beach for what was a very nice, chilled out session the last time I was here.  Nope – not this time… a huge, thumping sound system, massive crowd and despite signs urging restraint, a barrage of fireworks arcing up into the sky (as well as other places).  I must at this moment apologise to all the people with car alarms that we set off, when some enterprising vendor sold us a box of mortars, at 4:30 in the morning.  Only in Kenting.

    Beer emergency.

    Walking the dog.

    Little Georg checking the icecreams – it was fun playing with them, though I wished my German had not corroded so far!

    Peugeot 106 … waffles.

    It was quite a culture shock to land from Texas, and dive head-first into full intensity Taiwan during ‘Spring Break’, all the while accompanied by German family members!  Absolutely fantastic to see the Helds on top form though.  See you guys again soon!

    Taiwanese cowboys – summing up my cultural transition?

  • Easter Brunch

    This is proving to be one of those ‘intense weekends’. Arrive from the USA at midnight on Friday, get up to help prepare Easter Brunch for a dozen friends (Rabbit, Lamb and Quiche, no less!), then jump on a train down south to meet Michael and Tanja in Kenting; and all with a rainy cloud of jetlag hovering over me: I wish I could have spaced it out a bit.

    Abe and Armando – I owe you one.

  • Spring Scream

    Kenting’s ‘Spring Scream’ is the highest profile music festival in Taiwan. So, along with Erin and a few friends we winged our way down south to the sunshine – thankfully free of the stifling humidity that plagues Taipei.

    I am doing a little experiment using Google Maps to log the positions of where I am going. Click the link below for a birds-eye view. Sadly, there is not much data for Taiwan yet, but it’s ok. I am hopeing at some point in the future it will be optimised for tasks just like this!

    Kenting From Space


    Wings


    Happy Babe City – and how

    The place that we were staying was a real delight. The unfortunately titled ‘Kenting Youth Activity Centre’ was constructed to resemble an old Chinese village, and the results are very elegant indeed. A rare sight in Taiwan. And a very nice surprise on arrival to realise it matched the pictures on the internet!


    Doorway to Heaven


    A room with a view


    Thoughtful detailing makes exploring the place a pleasure


    WOW – I fell in love with some of the crafted ceiling buttresses

    The festival itself was a pretty small affair. The live music mainly comprised of Taiwanese bands I had not heard of (and I do know some good ones), Japanese imports thrashing their axes, and some token white guys that probably wahsed up from the LA scene. Of more interest was the dance music – mainly because my friend Sean (DJ SL) was spinning on both nights. This of course also guaranteed free admission, which I am rarely to snub.

    The crowd was from all over Taiwan, and much more free wheeling than what I am used to in Taipei, which is often rather sterile with too much emphasis placed on style rather than musical substance. Some very amusing conversations to be sure.


    “You’ll never guess who I had in my cab the other day” – a London taxi lives its days out in the sun


    … while Erin poses in front of the festival’s primary posing machine


    A very nice touch – during the heat of the concert, a dragon arrives to shake its thing in the middle of the show. Fantastic.

    Of course, no party would be complete without an after party. We found a really lovely one on the beach near to Sean’s place frequented with groups of people making fires and enjoying the sea breeze. People were setting off fireworks at the shore and it really was a beautiful scene – the musical backdrop provided by a group of vegetarians with guitars and violin.

    While staring at the stars, I realise that they are singing The Beatles’ ‘Hey Hude’ and of course I start to sing along quietly. When the chorus arrived, I realised that most people on the beach were doing the same thing … a most incredible feeling. Folk Karaoke? Who cares – one of the most touching moments in Taiwan this year.


    Palm Beach


    After Party

    Two days of partying left us a bit sore, but still the flight home on Monday morning brought with it the realisation that we were leaving the perfect summer sea breeze of Kenting and returning to almost certain thunder storm or humidity. We guessed correctly, as the captain announced that we needed to circle Taipei because of poor visibility and hard rain coming in to land.

    The next thing that happened came as rather a surprise, with more than a little delayed shock. The bright flash and dull thump I could instantly recognise. Lightening had struck our plane! The pilot informed we were to land at Chiang Kai Shek. TaoYuan. One hour from Taipei. A nervous landing and there we were, stuck on the tarmac with the pilot admitting that nobody knew what to do. Finally, we disembarked and Sean woke up – disbelieving the whole story!

    There was clearly no space at the civilian terminal, since we wer ushered into the holding pen at the Coast Guard building. 45 party goers walking into a room with an equal number of armed guards with dogs made for some very nervous looking faces!

    The postscript was the discovery that the lightening strike had been featured in the news! So, it’s official! I got struck by lightening. It certainly explains the X-Ray vision.


    Military bags