Kratzke: Taiwan (1/2)

The first part of our trip, May 23rd-May 26th, were spent with Szu-Hua and her family at the beach in an area called Kenting in Pingtung County, which is located in the very Southern tip of Taiwan. May 21st-22nd were a complete blur. Suffice it to say we arrived to Szu-Hua's house 28 hours after leaving ours, and 13 hours in the future due to time changes. Travelling for that long with a 2-year-old is exactly what it sounds like.
On May 23rd, the seven of us woke up to take a high speed train from Taipei to Kenting and stayed at Caesar Park, which is the fanciest hotel George or I have ever been to. Our luxurious room had a private backyard with a spacious outdoor jacuzzi, and the back door opened to a beautiful swimming area. The lush gardens that surrounded the grounds were abundant with fragrant flowers called plumeria, which made the whole place look and smell like a paradise. Although we were still fighting jetlag, we indulged in an extravagant buffet dinner, which boasted a very large variety of dishes including all you can eat sashimi. Pregnant women are not supposed to eat sashimi due to the possible mercury content, which just proves that some rules meant to be broken. After the sun set, George, Drakeson and I enjoyed a night swim in the rain before soaking in the backyard jacuzzi and crashing for a very comfortable night of sleep.
We woke up the next morning to explore the gorgeous fragrant courtyards and take another swim. Breakfast was just as extravagant as dinner had been, and we spent the rest of the morning in the lowest floor of the hotel, which had a large playroom for children and a variety of arcade games. We walked across the street to the beach until a van arrived to take us from Caesar Park to the Yoho Beach Resort. Coming from Caesar Park, I assumed Yoho wouldn't be nearly as impressive, but I was wrong. It doesn't have a "pillow mist spray" to ensure a more comfortable night of sleep, but it is much more of an amusement park. We explored the play areas, visited the beach, and swam in the kid's pool that afternoon. The kid's pool is really an enormous splash pad with two large slides, a giant tipping bucket of water, and a water path that winds through a waterfall and a volleyball play area. Again, it was raining, but life wasn't giving us any lemons. Dinner was just as ridiculous as the meals offered in Caesar Park. All you can eat sashimi again.

Caesar Park Pool

Caesar Park Courtyard

Caesar Park Backyard

Drakeson & Hsin-Cheng at Caesar Park

Caesar Park Beach

Yu-Cheng, Szu-Hua, & Lan at Caesar Park Beach

George, Ching-Lung, & Hsin-Cheng at Caesar Park Beach

Ching-Lung and Yu-Cheng at Caesar Park Beach

Yoho Beach Resort Waterfall

Yoho Beach Resort Kid's Pool

Yoho Beach Resort Koi Pond

Yoho Beach Resort

We woke up at 5:30 on May 25th to a very dramatic thunderstorm. The water accumulating in the back balcony of the Yoho Resort rose above the door seal, but luckily, it didn't flood through. We had another very large breakfast before exploring a different swimming area. This location had two waterslides, a small lazy river loop, three covered pools, a separate diving pool, and an indoor spa park. In the afternoon, we took a short shuttle bus ride to the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, which was especially exciting for Drakeson and Hsin-Cheng. The bigger aquarium sections shared a shipwreck theme in large underwater sculptures, and in addition to stingrays, small sharks, and enormous groupers, two beautiful beluga whales ended the exhibit. When we arrived back to the hotel, we were treated to an afternoon tea with six plates of assorted cakes. It would have been plenty for dinner, but after an hour, we went to a "semi-buffet." In this set up, main dishes are ordered, and a totally regular buffet is offered on the side. There were salads, soups, fruits, desserts, and drinks, in addition to a variety of hot and cold prepared dishes like oysters, shrimp, fried noodles, and steamed buns. By this time I felt very much like a force fed duck, but in this case, it was entirely my own fault.
The morning of May 26th marked the end of our beach vacation. Everybody took one last swim in the lazy river pools before heading back to Taipei. George and I made a last effort attempt to take Drakeson on the highest slide, even though he doesn't meet the height requirement. Although the lifeguard was out of sight, he had a monitor, and managed to stop us before we reached the top of the stairs. Oh, well. Drakeson didn't miss too much excitement; it's actually a much gentler ride than the two from the kid's pool.