Day 14 - Kenting National Park

Today’s Programme
Morning	Kenting National Park
Afternoon	A Competition in the Swimming Pool
Evening	To joy Chin-Pen Hot Spring
Hotel	Hao Jing Hotel, Taidong

In the morning we went to the Visitor Area of the KenTing National Park to watch the VDO Presentation about Kenting (There are six National Parks in Taiwan. Kenting is the largest one.) It was a great chance for us to have a nap. The officers there must have had a nap too ‘cos the video presentation was played for two times. (and we got more time for napping hehe) After watching the video, we visited the exhibition besides the auditorium. We then got on the bus to head for the entrance of the Kenting national park opposite to the hotel we stayed during the night before.

We hiked the park. The weather there was cold but the sun was hot. I had to wear sweater from time to time. We walked through the caves and the cliff. We were really tired because some paths were hard to walk on, but it was worth visiting.


In the afternoon we spent extremely long time on the bus, going up the hill, going down the hill, then up, then down, then up, then down again. That made me have headaches. This was because we had to move from the south of Taiwan to the east to go to TaiDong. (There is no street across the island, but I’ve herd that it’s under construction.) We spent the whole afternoon to arrive at the hotel around 4 pm. The program said that there would be a competition at the swimming pool, but Fu Dao Yuan told us to keep our luggage in the room and change the dress to be ready for the sea and also asked us to go out without camera or money because we were going to the sea. However, they only took us to the place in front of a temple. All Fu Dao Yuans disappeared for some minutes then came back with water from splash water gun and rubber tube to play like being in the Song Kran festival (the Thai new year or water festival in Thailand). I didn’t want to play ‘cos the water there was smelly. So, I ran away back to the hotel with friends. We then changed to swimming suits and went to the swimming pool. Spending a couple minutes there, people that were back from playing with the water came to look at us. P’Arm followed them a couple of minutes after that. He climbed over the hotel fence to the swimming pool and threw people in normal dress to the pool. We were like the aliens ‘cos most of people wore normal dress. Lucky that the hotel offices came to complain them and asked people who were not in swimming suit to get out. P’Arm was smart, he only threw his t-shirt away and jumped into the pool again. He leaded us playing the pool and be relax in the hot spring. He was in the hot water like it’s cold. I tried it by putting a foot onto it for 2 seconds, then I had to take it out ‘cos it was too hot. I felt like I was boiled, but the people who were already in the water told me to just sit down and stay still. I tried it again, they were right, while moving, I felt hurt. I had to stay still, but I hurt again when someone moved towards me.

I was told not to allow water from Hot Spring being higher than heart level (over the chest) because we would be shocked if the water is higher than heart level as staying in hot water makes the heart beats faster than usual. So, the right way is to just sit for 10-15 minutes, then jump into the cold water to close skin’s pores for some minutes, then get back to the hot water again. The second round didn’t hurt me at all, the water wasn’t that hot like the first time. I felt relaxed and when I touched my skin, I felt like I just painted the lotion on it. Well, I felt like fainting after moving to cold water. It was because I spent too long time in the second round of hot water. I had to slowly walk back to the room.

I didn’t have a happy time showering too because the water in the room was as same as the water in the hot spring which is mineral water that is full of sulfur and is so smelly. It was like used water. I started to get homesick on that day.