Snorkeling in Kenting...your thoughts?

Travel Taiwan Travel
21

[quote=“tommy525”]Hey Mjb, lets not argue whos good at what. And I don’t make the best analogies . haha.

Great place you were snorkeling. where was that?

All I want to do is point out that you couldve imparted all that good knowledge you have. Especially that very important knowledge bout the dangers of the rope a dope in a bit more diplomatic way. And you owe the young girl an apology in my book,

if you refuse to hear another voice outside your own, then fine.

The problem with getting older (well one of many problems) is that we can become inflexible and non-listening because we know it all.

I myself am guilty of this very thing on many occasions. AT least I try to listen to others?

You were not nice to a newbie who wanted to point out that she had a great time in the water.

Who knows? Maybe shes from the US MID WEST and aint never seen the ocean before??? You wise wizzened owl of a snorkeler couldve been a bit more accomodating I think??

I’m gonna drop this argument now. Nuff said.

Post some more snorkel shots and shut the yap :slight_smile:[/quote]

My only point is that getting dragged around on a rope isn’t snorkeling…I also suggested ideas on how to make her future forays into the water a bit safer. I rather clearly explained why from first hand experience. I finally rather bluntly stated that someone who’s in the ocean and “too lazy to kick” probably shouldn’t be there.

Which part are you not comprehending?

FYI the photos are all from the Rock Islands in Palau…I’ve not yet been to Yap.

22

To be honest, I don’t care what any of you think is or isn’t snorkeling. Please post that discussion somewhere else.

All I want to know is how/where I can get travel info on Kenting (preferably in English) ASAP so that I can have a nice birthday and another great memory!

BTW I really appreciate the safety info, I will keep it all in mind!

Bre

23

Breezy,

check out the high speed rail to kaohsiung. Thats something Iv wanted to do and now you can. And then at the main train station (old TRA) there are buses that go to Kending bout every 20 mins. Just take one of those buses. TAkes about 2 hours to get down to kenting. And then you can rent a scooter there to get around. OR there are local buses too (not so frequent tho).

The beach in front of Caesars Park and Howard Kenting is a really nice one to swim in. There are little caves there where you could change into swimwear.

The beach within sight of the nuclear power plant (nan wan) has jetski for rent . And so did the beach at the howard when i was last there.

kenting has a wonderful atmosphere. And I wish you a happy birthday in advance.

You could come up by way of the east coast? Just take the train to Taitung. And i recommend spending a few dollars and staying at the ROYAL CHIHPEN HOTEL In TAitung. Its a great place. They will come and pick you up at the TAitung rail station. The hotel is a resort and its very relaxing.

And then take the train for a few hours up to hualien. STay a night there and visit the Taroko gorge. Its really gorgeous !!

Then train back up to Taipei.

p.s. I always stayed at the Caesars Park. A bit pricey but lovely rooms and a nice atmosphere. The howard next door is nice too and has an indoors swimming park and an outdoor pool So did the caesars.

The teppanyaki at the caesars was real good to have dinner at.

I aint been there for a few years so things may have changed a bit? just get yourself there and figure things out as you go. Lots to do there now. lots of places to hang out, a few small and nice hotels too i hear.

Hopefully someone will chime in with some up to date info on exactly wheres the best places to stay and eat and stuff.

24

While I agree that they should indeed have some training, the Red Cross training is no where near sufficient for the open water. I am not knocking the Red Cross program, ibut it is not suitable for open water life saving duties. For Open Water duties you need something similar to the USLA program (see the below link)

usla.org/Train+Cert/USLA_Guidelines.pdf

This prepares you for the conditions needed and all the companies organizations you are hired by require, on most cases, at least weekly training depending on where you are posted. I was an open water lifeguard for about four years, and I am also a certified Red Cross since that was my first step due to age requirements in receiving my life guard training.

As for what you said MJB, I completely agree and I would not doubt it in the least. While I do agree the currents are strong here, they do warrant the amount of deaths due to drowning heres. That in my personal opinion is due to the complete lack of training those bing-lung (I have nothing against having a chaw now and them) chewing, a-beis who have a complete disregard for their duties and also the lack of a good communication system such as interchangeable color-coded flags warning swimmers of the quick changing conditions. During my 6 years here I have had to pull more than a handful of panicky swimmers out of the water while the lifeguards are sitting in their blinding bungalows 20 meters from the shore or scooting around on their ATV completely oblivious to the current situation.

So enough for the rant.

Breezy, congrats on your new found hobby, as MJB, I have been in the water since I was born pretty much with some type of mask on my head. It is a wonderful experience isn’t it? I took my girlfriend to Green Island a month ago and took her snorkeling for the first time. She, herself is a very poor swimmer so she wanted to do the rope-a-dope tour, but I advised her against it so instead we went below the hot springs and entered there. I wouldn’t advise that though unless you are with someone who knows how to read the currents, if for the simple fact of the difficult entry/exit conditions. She fell in love as well immediately, and when we go to Miami later this month my friend is going to certify her to be an open water diver! And this comes from a girl, who until recently, was completely terrified of the “evil body-snatching” beautiful oceans.

Cheers on your newly-found hobby!

25

I’ll never forget that feeling of absolute exhilaration the first time I tried snorkeling. I was hooked, and got my diving ticket as soon as I was old enough.

…and it was a rope drag, incidentally. I was the only kid and the only snorkeler on a boat of divers. They dragged me behind the boat by a rope. Every instinct in my soul made me want to free dive down and follow the scuba divers, but every time I let go of the rope, my guide firmly grabbed my wrist to keep me from going down… I so wanted to be down there. It was stunningly beautiful and magical. I have been on some pretty amazing dives since, but that “rope dope” or whatever you want to call it stands out as the beginning of something really, really wonderful.

Yup, its fantastic, alright, and you’ve had your first taste.
Welcome to a whole new world!
:slight_smile:

P.S. Have a fabulous birthday! (and be careful - they aren’t kidding about the currents here!)

26

Tommy 525 Wrote:

That’s why people drown so often in Taiwan: a lack of appropriate caution. Swimming, surfing, snorkeling and scuba diving deaths in Australia are comparatively rare. They have figured out the dangers, the countermeasures, and then everybody gets trained. Simple.

For example, no Aussie lifeguard would ever go bodysurfing without first looking for rips! :wink: Glad you kept your head and made it out of that one. How many Taiwanese swimmers wouldn’t have died if they had only done what you did: swim parallel to the beach until the rip disperses and then go back in elsewhere?

Training, mate!

27

Dope on a rope? I’ve done that. 200 quid an hour, and that was in the 1970s. The oil companies would hire students with climbing experience and put them on the rigs in the North Sea. You’d get paid to climb the derricks and swing chains to “catch” the drill shafts if they were going off-centre. All weathers.
“Dope on a rope” in those days was a pretty good monicker to have – you got to eat steak when everyone else was getting hamburger.
I wouldn’t do it now, no more than I would entrust my safety to Ah Chung and his rope. Get yourself killed that way.

28

Thanks Big JOhn. Live and learn as they say. Thing was we were having so much fun body surfing in those big waves that we neglected to see that we were getting pulled out to sea by rips. I think I mustve been pulled out close to a mile. And then the curlers got bigger and bigger too. I was in a washing machine. And It was then that I realized that I was in danger of drowning. I then swam along the coast as I realized I was caught in a monster rip. But the waves were rolling me and i barely could catch a breath, along with some water. I truly was scared that day and thought that was it. There were people on shore who could see us, but there was nothing anyone could do. The waves were huge. From crest to trough was almost ten feet high.

Its a miracle I survived (and all my friends too). Somehow I was able to body surf in after about 45 minutes out there. A friend came and dragged me out of the water when he could reach my hands. I was so tired I needed that helping hand!!

29

Sounds.like.an.interesting.job.sandman…

In.Miami,it.refers.to.getting.pulled.behind.a.boat.with.mask.and.snorkel
.looking.for.the.lobsters!!..Or.trolling.for.sharks.is.another.term.we.use.

30

It was a fucking crap job. But what the hell – I was driving a late model Jag convertible when my mates were riding around in Ford Escorts, so…

31

Actually that gets me thinking that the place in long dong that I described might not be the best spot for beginners. The entry is definitely a little dicey.

Actually there is a snorkel spot right in town (the one “before” the tunnel if you are coming from jilong). There is a bit of a park, and it’s a harbour so no worries about currents, waves and all that. Nice easy walk in as I recall.

…

It is kind of curious to me that nobody talks about swimming in “the zone” I guess you’d call it. Or maybe we did… I’ll do a search.

A wave in open water is pretty much like an undulating rope. No point on the rope moves forward, just the wave. A wave in the ocean is similar. It doesn’t begin to move forward much until it’s underlying structure is interupted by the bottom. That’s where you can start surfing. If a wave hits a vertical surface however it doesn’t move back and forth, it just moves up and down. And if it hits a surface that is not completely vertical it doesn’t move much. It’s an interesting place to swim, the place where by some combination of wave size, angle of the shore etc. you can essentially swim right into what “looks” completely unswimmable. I spend hours doing that, approach it all “very” slowly, get a read on the bottom contours, currents, how the waves “act” and then slide in. I’m what you’d call “relaxed” in the water I guess. Of course there is the danger of being smashed on the rocks and then dragged back across them in a big wash of angry water. Perhaps left with your head bashed open, floating around unconscious, head bleeding like a harpooned seal. Decidedly unpleasant, but that’s the game, how close can you get?

It’s an odd hobby I guess, but people have a lot of odd hobbies, and I am kind of surprised that nobody seems to have this one. I used to approach it with some serious practice and made it with no more than a million jelly fish bites. Probably getting too old for it now.

32

[quote=“Breezy”]To be honest, I don’t care what any of you think is or isn’t snorkeling. Please post that discussion somewhere else.
All I want to know is how/where I can get travel info on Kending (preferably in English) ASAP so that I can have a nice birthday and another great memory!
BTW I really appreciate the safety info, I will keep it all in mind!
Bre[/quote]

Your title makes it relevant…But in case you didn’t read the very first response I gave you…Lets try this again.

  1. Take HSR to Kaoshuing
  2. Take bus to Kenting
  3. Rent scooter
  4. Find place to stay
  5. Ride to the rope a dope/snorkeling site. From Kenting ride toward Nanwan beach (3km or so). Once you pass the main Nanwan area, you’ll go up a slight hill. At the second light, turn left. You’ll be on a nice, treelined road with a marsh on your right. After about 1km, the road ends in a T. Turn left, and then take the first left fork (about 150meters) and follow it through a small village until it T’s as well. Turn left, and go down the hill. You should have the entire bay in your view on your left, and dive shops on your right. When you get to the bottom, turn right and take this road straight for approx 800meters until you see there is a large parking area in front of the Nuclear
    power station outlet and on the other side of that is a perfect little snorkeling bay, respite with gear rentals and rope a dope tours. Being drug around the bay should cost around 450NT per person, including rental gear.

Maybe pictures will help?

It’s actually pretty nice there…Ask your Taiwanese BF to tell the guide to stick to the left for fish, right for corals.

Lastly, please take a few minutes and try the fins out, and leave the lifejacket at home. You are so buoyant with the wetsuit on anyway there is no way you can sink. No matter how obnoxious you think I’ve been, you’ll thank me later.

33

Should listen to MJB, his advise is very good, and he is just trying to assist you in having the best experience possible… Forget the lifejacket, and I will go as far to say forget the wetsuit… The experience is much better without both… When you snorkel your head is under the water, and the problem with swimming is keeping your head above the water. Your body will naturally float in the snorkeling position effortlessly, just don’t try to snorkel in the breakers!

Like I said, my gf is a very very poor swimmer… Where we entered the water it drops off from the rocks immediately to about 15 meters at least. For her confidence I recommended her to take the float;however I knew that she did NOT need it, but it was for confidence so I had no problems. Within 10 minutes she let go of the float and I let it disappear in the current. At first she was frightened, but she soon realized that there was no problem whatsoever and that the float limited her experience… She enjoyed it much more after that, even saying she has never felt the relaxation she experienced at that point… Much better than being dragged by a rope if you ask me.

My advice is to pay a little more and have someone experienced go out with you so you can truly enjoy the experience without the restraints. While I am a diver and have been diving since I was 8 years old I much prefer snorkeling due to the lack of equipment and the freedom you experience. So learn to do it from someone that actually cares about the experience you receive instead of these cats that just care about the hourly rate… It will be much worth it in the long run.

34

What’s that like?

35

OK this is much better! Thanks!

OH and MJB,thanks! I think I will definitely take your advice but in baby steps. All the safety talk has me a tiny bit paranoid and worried and has me questioning my true ability to swim. I think next the lifejacket will come off but I like having the wetsuit on. I’m not so sure about the fins though… But don’t get me wrong! I don’t want to do the rope a dope(there HAS to be a better way to say that) forever, but maybe for my boyfriend and just one more time for me that way I can still have them around, but maybe I’ll try on my own. Either way, I still want to get better and experience it like you guys. But I would like to do it sans rope thing in Thailand, but might have to again for boyfriend until he can swim and if he ends up liking the experience.

I gotta find a way to get all this travel stuff together!

Have you guys used any travel agencies? I used Green Island Adventures for my trip to…well…Green Island and am considering using it again for Kenting as they have a package tour, but their package isn’t when I want. I guess I just need to ask if it can be tailored.

I really should be studying for my Chinese test but am now researching Kenting and Thailand…travel research is addicting!

36

…flippers give a lot more mobility…

37

Bait? :smiley:

38

Hi Breezy,

I tnink one of the best place to snorkel in Kenting is called Sail Rock. The place was mentioned earlier. I like it because on the one side of the rock there is deeper water with a mostly sandy floor, and on the other side is shallower water with reef covering the ocean floor almost entirely. There’s water all around this rock, it’s a tiny island made of vertical cliffs raising to about 100 feet high. The diameter of the island is probably about 120 feet. It’s just a big rock sticking out of the water. It’s a pretty cool spot for that alone. You can do some cliff jumping there, too.

The other good thing is that right behind the rock there’s a pool of water which is protected from the breaking waves. From there you can paddle your way toward the reef, or you can just practice there for a while.

I’ve seen many different sea creatures there. Lion fish are somewhat common, there, and so are sea snakes. They are not dangerous unless you get too close or try to touch them. The odd puffer fish can also be seen, as well as a variety of other smaller reef fish. It’s mostly hard reef around the rock with the odd soft reef “flourishing” here and there. Quite colorful in some places.

The downsides are that it’s often crowded and the conditions are not always favorable. When the waves are too big, it gets a bit rough even for a skilled swimmer. On a good day, however, it’s great.

In Chinese, the place is called Tranfanshe or something like that, and in English it is well known as Sail Rock. Just drive past Kenting village on the main road and when you see the huge rock sticking out of the water, you’ll know. It’s a convenient spot because you can park right in front of the snorkeling site and from there it’s an obvious two minutes walk to the water. Across the street from where you park, they rent life vests, wet suits, fins, snorkels and masks. Not sure of the cost, but I’m guessing it’s not expensive.

I remember the first time I snorkeled. I must have been 7 years old tops. I strapped on that mask and I awkwardly put a rubber tube in my mouth. I was breathing! all the while exploring the world under water. It was in a lake and I was in about 3 feet of water. I had no fins. I was standing on the sandy bottom. It’s easier to walk without fins. I saw noting special that day. Just some sand and the tip of my own toes. But I was snorkeling! I’ve seen a lot more than just sand and toes since then. Snorkeling is awesome.

Good to hear that you are learning to snorkel and enjoying it, Breezy. I can only try to imagine what a discovery it would be to snorkel for the first time in a place like Green Island. No wonder you are stoked. Soon we’ll hear about you getting a diving license. :slight_smile:

Have fun and be safe!

marboulette

39

I lifted two lion fish right out of the water at sail rock to show the old lady one time, one in each hand. About a pound apiece. Weirdest thing. They weren’t sick either – took right off when I put 'em back in the water. Kind of silly thing to do, really. Didn’t sting me though. Folly of youth and all that. I wouldn’t do it again.

40

Lion fish very pretty, very stupid to touch one. Wouldnt want to get stung. Its the second most venomous fish (after the stone fish). They are very docile tho. And sea snakes, thank God they are docile, but they are very venomous and there is NO ANTI-venom. IF you are bitten you could die . So dont mess with them. Give a wide berth. The yellow bellied sea snake found in TAiwan is one of THE MOST VENOMOUS SNAKE in the world and there is no antivenom or any other antivenom that is of any use. So dont go pulling on any of em. Thats for sure.

Fugu are only dangerous if you eat them. And you wont be doing that while snorkeling :slight_smile:

barrierreefaustralia.com/the … onfish.htm

google.com/search?q=stone+fi … =firefox-a

google.com/search?q=sea+snak … =firefox-a