Kenting night life?

Cuisine Greater Taipei Restaurants
1

we’re heading down to Kenting this weekend,

we were there months ago but didn’t see anything interesting after midnight.

We stayed at a hotel just beside the nightmarket, is it where all the clubs are?

So where do you guys usually go to for clubbing at in Kenting?

:eh:

2

Just walk down the main street and you’ll see and hear, and be approached by some sleezy looking guys inviting you to enter their clubs. Disco with pole dancing and a “spicy show” thrown in.

Adults and kids welcome.

This week’s special? Kids go in for free. :ponder:

3

The “strip club” looking places are more of a performance rather than club, with theatre style seats. Good for the experience although don’t expect to spend the entire night there; people generally file out after each scheduled performance.

A short list of night places can be found at
hotkt.com/shop/fun.htm

The only type of club that resembles a Taipei style place that I know of is the second floor of “Golden Beach” restaurant (4th on the list), at the beginning of Kenting road where it enters the town, on the right side. It has dancing, a DJ, bar, bao shiangs, etc. The music is predominantly house/techno with some hip hop mixed in. Don’t expect anything near Taipei quality though, this is a beach town and shorts/open-toe sandals are the norm in the club. Clientele level consists of the exact opposite of what you’d find at an expensive wine tasting, so going in with an open mind and limited expectations will help you better enjoy the place.

Start/end times in Kenting are early (~1:30am) so if we’re not in the mood to sleep yet we usually get beers and join the rest of the locals on the beach across from the Caesar Hotel (小灣) until morning.

4

The best thing to do is just take a lot of friends and build a fire on the beach (or whatever you might fancy), and have a party with yourselves. The nightlife there is pretty much non-existent, aside from 2 dancing/semi-strip-show bars and one restaurant/pseudo-club that isn’t open very late. If you are looking to go to some kind of MTV’s Spring Break town, Kenting is definitely not it; nothing is really opened past 12:30… unless you consider Family Mart a sick-ass club. Maybe if you go during Spring-Scream it will be a bit more crazy, but that’s not until next year now!

5

wao…12:30 its pretty early…i’m not sure we’r up for strip clubs…

but building a fire at the beach sounds good, can we drink at the beach (according to the law)?

you think there’ll be cops walkign around there?

6

You are allowed to drink on the beach in Kenting. They even have a bar on the beach… but beers are expensive (NT150 compared to NT31 at 7-11)

7

thanks for the hint!

8

Is Kenting worth the trip? The guys in my office up north rave about it.

…but, they have not been to the California, Florida, Hawaii, or Thailand beaches that I have, so I’m not sure their bar is set as high as mine.

9

The beach Bar is owned by Caesar Park and closes early. It is not expensive compared to Taipei but it closes very early.
Drinking in Kenting is a lot cheaper than Taipei and there are some decent mid range restaurants with good seafood. Get on the beach then drink early, get pissed like the locals and 1am will seem late!
Golden Beach Bar is OK staff are mainly students from Taipei in the summer. The lobster is good and reasonably priced, like the waiter said to me, Lobster and oral sex have one thing in common, you rarely get it at home!

10

[quote=“kaiwen338”]Is Kending worth the trip? The guys in my office up north rave about it.

…but, they have not been to the California, Florida, Hawaii, or Thailand beaches that I have, so I’m not sure their bar is set as high as mine.[/quote]

I say no, at least if you’re coming from up north. If you live in the south I guess it’s OK. I assume things haven’t changed that much since I was last there 4-5 years ago:

  • the town is basically one overgrown night market on weekends.
  • the main beach is closed off because it’s reserved for one hotel.
  • lifeguards panic if you swim out from the one small swimming beach any distance.
  • another beach rents out jetskis and is pretty much as busy as rush hour Renai Road.
  • there are very few hotels where you can actually see the water. We looked hard for a place where we could chill on a patio and look out at the sea, but never really found anywhere suitable.

I did love the food at Warung Didi’s a long time ago; I don’t know if it’s still good. Last time I went lots of places were trying to copy it.

It most certainly does not compare to places like Ko Phangna or Ko Samui or Ko Phiphi in (Sp? for all) Thailand.

I guess if you take the inland areas at a place like Samui - all the shops and small eateries - and decrease the food quality, and limit the beach to a single 200m stretch that most people only spend a few minutes on anyway, then yeah, Kending is a little like Samui. Oh, and connect Samui by road to the mainland, so you can get all the cool kids from the city getting drunk and driving their cool cars through the night market drag.

11

Warung Didi’s
Thanks to the previous poster for the reminder. This restaurant has moved about 2 years ago down the road to much bigger and better premises. It sells a fusion of Asian food especially from Singapore and Malaysia. Some items on the menu I have never seen anywhere else in Taiwan.
In fact this restaurant needs reviewing. A job for the Taipei Times if they ever employ a free-lance outside of Taipei !
It is behind the main street in Kenting beach side and it is signposted in English.
It has a much larger out door space nowadays with an outdoor bar whch opened @ 6:30 when I was last there.
A WARNING
During holidays University students are well aware of this place and go in large numbers. I went for a beer at 6:30 one evening, and casually mentioned that my wife and I would be dining later, then was asked to book a table. I joked but there’s nobody here, why book. The answer came quickly, by 7:30 the place was chocker, full of students and not a table to be had anywhere!

12

Just felt that I had to clarify a few things:

[quote=“lostinasia”]

  • the town is basically one overgrown night market on weekends.
  • the main beach is closed off because it’s reserved for one hotel.
  • lifeguards panic if you swim out from the one small swimming beach any distance.
  • another beach rents out jetskis and is pretty much as busy as rush hour Ren’ai Road.
  • there are very few hotels where you can actually see the water. We looked hard for a place where we could chill on a patio and look out at the sea, but never really found anywhere suitable.
    [/quote][/quote]
  1. Yes, very true. It’s like a zoo.
  2. Not true. The cantina on Xiao Wan beach is operated by Caesar Hotel but the beach is not. The beach is open to the public. In fact, besides the stairs, there is another entrance to the beach from the tunnel leading from the Howard Hotel’s 7-11 on B1. During the day several 7-11 staff cruise the beach and will take orders and deliver (cheap) beer to you on the beach. Rent umbrellas and chairs from the old ladies who will acost you as soon as your foot touches the sand. Da Wan beach up the street is also nice and less crowded, although no anemities.
  3. True, but only if you swim out of the roped off, netted area which is still a good 50 or so yards out. I am told this is because of the danger from stinging jellyfish.
  4. Nan Wan beach rents out jet skis and is farther up than Da Wan, is larger, and yes it is ridiculously busy. Avoid at all costs. You need to drive/take the bus there too, as it’s too far to walk from the main town.
  5. Not true. There are many hotels that have rooms with patios overlooking the beach. Check out uukt.idv.tw/uukt/street.htm and click on the hotels along Da Wan St. (大灣路) The ones towards the south of the street are particularly nice.
13

Thanks for the clarifications. Like I said, it’s been a few years since I was there… maybe more than a few. Last time I remember wandering down to the waterfront and seeing this long giant beach, totally empty, behind a fence. Drove me nuts. But looking at the map you linked to… I guess I’m remembering 大灣 beach as being closed off (reserved for the big hotel WAY away from town), and I was referring to that as the main beach. Is that open to the public now? If the hotels backing on to that have beach access, Kending suddenly becomes much more appealing.

There wasn’t a roped off area when we were swimming (at 小灣) but again, that was a long time ago. It was kind of comical - both of us had been trained as life guards (long ago!), and we started looking around to see if we could help. Then we realized we were the cause of concern.

I don’t remember those hotels along 大灣路 at all. I’m not sure if I was just blind at the time, or if they’re new. Back in the day I either camped at Baishawan Beach (well away from town), or a couple of times wound up rather unhappy at overpriced hotels in town. Or, perhaps most likely, I was being foolish with the budget and just refused to stay in a hotel that I would have actually enjoyed. (Those hotels look nice on 大灣路!)

That being said - I still much prefer the budget backpacker style huts on the beaches of Thailand and Indonesia.

PS: If you go on a snorkeling trip, make sure it’s one where you’re allowed to swim for yourself, and don’t need to join the long tethered group.

14

I was there just last week so was able to do some scouting. Lostinasia you’re absolutely right, as recently as last summer we tried going to 大灣 and it was closed off. I didn’t notice the fence but the chains across the access point were just as disheartening. They have since opened it to the public, accessible via the southern end of the road where it turns back into town, and they’ve opened a parking lot. The beach has a nice (slower) pace than the other tourist beaches like 小灣. The only anemities there are parking and a place to shower by the beach for NT$20.