Wow, Monday again, how depressing!!

That was an excellent weekend. We've been in the sun, sat on a beach, swimming in the sea, snorkelling and eating copious amounts of food. Great.

After work on Saturday, Todd and I set off from Huwei at around 10pm in the dentist's huge 3-litre Nissan heading for Pindung, where we picked up Clare from meeting her Taiwanese friend (read: nutter) called Jackie. After a late night coffee and sandwich stop that lasted over an hour, we hit the road again for Kenting, a town on the Southern tip of Taiwan, next to a national park and quite a touristy destination.

Because it was around 4am when we finally arrived, we had little energy for putting up the 8-man tent we'd borrowed, so we just lay on the white sandy beach and pretended to sleep (I was happy just seeing stars and breathing fresh air to be honest).

We woke up to hear the sound of two voices we recognised coming from the tent next to us - an Ozzie and his Taiwanese girlfriend who live near Huwei and who we'd met a couple of times before. Later in the day we also ran into another S.African teacher from Huwei - I guess we all needed a break from the smog!

The next day was spent eating brekkie, being generally burnt by the sun, swimming in the sea and (a first for me) snorkelling around the coral at the side of the bay. That was great and I'd very much like to do it again, although I did experience a few Jaws-related seconds of serious panic as I stared away from the coral and out into the deep blue, convincing myself that I could soon become something's dinner.

Above: Kenting beach... nice huh?

There were lots of foreigners and backpacker bums (I mean that affectionately) kicking around Kenting, along with scuba shops and 'I've been to Hawai in this' camper vans.

There were also some Taiwanese on the beach. The Taiwanese approach to water-based fun takes some getting used to though. For instance:

* Forget how old you are. If a little wave comes chasing after you then run, whoop, holler, laugh and act as though it has NEVER happened before, and that includes just a minute before when you last whooped and hollered!

* Do not under any circumstances remove any item of clothing or get changed before entering the water. Firstly, you'll get exposed to the sun, thus losing that lusted-after white skin tone. Secondly, you'll also lose that drowned-rat look that your fellow countrymen expect from you after a day at the beach.

* Don't go any deeper than your waist or make any pretence at swimming. It's not the Taiwanese way. Remember, if you can drown in your bathtub, just think how dead the ocean could make you!

* If you are of student age (i.e. 18 upwards), concentrate on covering each other in sand. Alternatively, make a highly innovative sand castle which spells out the word SHIT and then show it to other beach dwellers as a serious source of pride.

I should go, as I've not planned any of today's 'lessons'. Pesky kids...

Below: Matt & Todd go/eat crackers...

Below: Clare, her Taiwanese mate Jackie and Todd, following a delicious feast in Kenting.