Thank Heaven for the Moon!

There is a holiday here in Taiwan

on what we know as the Autumnal Equinox.

Here it's known as the Moon Festival

[Or the Mid-Autumn Festival...

Or Mooncake Festival...]

and I believe it was originally to celebrate the harvest.

[So kind of like our Thanksgiving?]

Supposedly,

during this festival is when there is the largest full moon of the year.

Actually, it's celebrated throughout Asia,

and it's kind of a big deal.

It's an important time for family gatherings.

There's a lot of barbequing

and eating of mooncake

and setting off of fireworks.

Oh and us teachers?

We get an extra day off.

YES!!

Hurray for Moon Festival!!

So the Teachers of Berhan decided a while ago

[when we first got here]

that for our first break,

we would go to the Southern end of Taiwan

[where all the beaches are! :) ]

It took quite a bit of planning,

but we made it!

And was it ever worth it!

On the train to Kaohsiung!
Just me and Kendra,
because everyone else left an hour before us
due to booking problems

On the bus from Kaohsiung to Kenting!
Terri handled all the money,
 so as soon as we got on the bus
everyone was shoving money at her,
trying to pay her back.
It was a rather comical scene.
I can only imagine what the other people on the bus thought.

First glimpse of the ocean!

So we got off on the wrong stop.
We weren't exactly sure where our stop was,
and when we finally asked we had gone too far.
Luckily we had Terri with us.
She was able to find some people who helped us.
Yet another example of the kindness found in people here!

We arrived at our hostel pretty late,

and so didn't have time do anything more than

borrow our host's scooter
and send some people off to get food.

A game of cards while we were waiting for Sara and Terri to return from their hunt for food.

Hi Jessica!
(We were on the top bunk.
Jessica went down to the bottom for some peace, I think...
It was late and we were tired and probably a bit delusional...
it got a bit ridiculous.)

The next morning, a few lucky souls got up early and went to rent scooters.

When they got back,

it was breakfast,

FHE,

and then off to the beach!

Lost on our way to the beach...

So close and yet so far...

Woohoo!
Gotta love riding a scooter with Nica!
[We shared for the whole trip.]

Oh, how I love the beach!

I could write an ode to it,

If I were the ode-writing type.

Fortunately for you I am not such a person.

When we were thoroughly sunburned,

we headed home for some lunch and to reclaim Terri,

who stayed home to sleep.

I decided to try and document our scooter rides everywhere,

which ended in me taking about a million pictures. 

Here are just a few of those:

Here is a picture of our hostel!
It was kind of out in the middle of nowhere,
but that was fine because
that meant it was relatively quiet and peaceful.
And we had scooters to get where we needed to go.

This is a seashell shop with some pretty amazing stuff in it.

Look at the size of these!

Off we went to find the Lighthouse of Kenting!

Downtown Kenting

Unfortunately, this is as close as we came to the lighthouse. 

I wish I could be as cool as these guys...
Just chillin' on chairs in the back of a truck...

There is a spot in near Kenting
famous for the view it provides of the sunset.
We left the lighthouse early so that we could go see the sunset from there.
It was,
in a word,
Magnificent.

There were probably thousands of dragonflies buzzing around overhead the whole time.

This was so cute.
A grandfather holding his sleeping grandson.
They made the sweetest scene,
I had to try to get a picture so that I would remember.

After the sun finally set,

we went to the night market in Kenting!

Yep.
Pizza in a cone.
It was delicious!
I might have to start a chain of these in the US.

Not pizza anymore,
just the Most delicious icecream-that-might-have-been-gelato
that I have ever tasted

That tiny starburst is a firework.
In case you were wondering.

That little guy in the cowboy hat
showed up out of nowhere and started jamming out.
It was great!

And then, after the night market,
because a few of us hadn't had enough yet,
we went for a walk on the beach!

It turned into a night swim,

and it was simply lovely.

The water here feels fantastic -

even at night it's warm!

And here is the lovely reason we had this wonderful trip...
The Moon!

We had some big plans for Monday,
things involving the lighthouse and getting up early...
but those were quickly replaced by sleeping in and more beach time.
Nobody complained too much.
Who really does at the beach?

Hurray for snorkeling!
It was so cool!
And -bonus!- I found the most amazing shell.

We left straight from the beach to return the scooters.
Then it was another long set of hours traveling,
first on the bus and then later on the train
(where there was standing room only for us...
but even that didn't affect the overall splendidness of this trip.)


So...
this was basically the most perfect vacation I have ever been on.
Maybe because it was also probably the most appreciated vacation I have ever been on.
But, really, consider this:

Beach

+
Relaxation
+
Excellent Company

What more could a girl ask for?