Today, we traveled from Taipei to Kaoxiong via the train, followed by a taxi from Kaoxiong to Kenting. The whole trip took us about 3 hours. The ride down to South of Taiwan was really beautiful as we were driving alongside the central mountain range, and passing by small villages.The purpose of going to Kenting was to help two colleagues, Xueping and Jiaho collected some coral samples while at the same time scout out potential locations for my experiment.
 |
| Drive to Kenting...central mountain range in the background |
I was honored to have Xueping as my chauffeur. If you think Alfred's driving was reckless, you need to meet the Taiwanese drivers! Xueping was zipping around trucks, cars, other motor bikes while I was behind her. Oh.. did I tell you we were on a scooter! We visited a very experienced local diver guide, asked for advise on locations, and away we go! We went to a couple of potential locations, and I must say that the beach and coral reefs around the shore are a hidden gem! All these fringing reefs are hidden away in some fishing villages, and in order to get to them, you also get to see how the locals lived...
 |
| An example of the beach/ fringing reef in Kenting |
 |
| My personal chauffeur - Xueping |
We also visited the Marine Biology Museum where the Tung Hai University have a huge marine lab there. It is really huge and they even have a turtle rehab program there as well. I got to meet "Tripod" - a three-legged/fin turtle the lab rescued. A huge coral and ornamental fish breeding and experimentation program is going on there as well and I got to experience the size of the set-up. Words cannot describe how huge the set-up. It spans across 6 warehouse-sized buildings just to house the tanks!
 |
| "Tripod" - rescued three legged/ fin turtle |
 |
| Tripod |
In the evening we had steam boat for dinner before we retired back to our rooms. We are staying at this dive shop-restaurant-motel in Hengchun which is about 10 minutes away from Kenting. Excited about tomorrow as it will be my first glimpse at the underwater world of Taiwan.
 |
| Our dive shop-restaurant-motel in Hengchun |
 |
| Jiaho and Xueping |
No comments:
Post a Comment