Anyone have info (prefer figures to anecdotal evidence) on the cleanliness of Taiwan’s beaches? I went to Kenting a few months ago and was pretty shocked to see raw sewage flowing onto the beach behind the hotel strip on Kenting Rd. The stink of piss was unbelievable because there wasn’t even a pipe to take it out to sea - the stuff just collected in a big lake in the sand and presumably filtered out to sea slowly. Does everyone’s turds just end up floating in the water among the swimmers?
It begs the question - are there beaches in Taiwan safe to swim at?
The EPA releases water quality info on about 12 beaches every summer. It’s reliable as figures change and beaches go from safe to not-safe. Generally everything is not-safe after a big typhoon.
I wouldn’t swim right next to that channel in Kenting but otherwise the beaches should be fine. However the fact that the national park still hasn’t done anything to fix that channel after all these years is just a disgrace. I was bitching to the authorities in my capacity as a Tourism Board sanctioned travel writer 6 years ago.
[quote=“monkey”]So much for Taiwan’s premier tourism destination. They expect tourists to arrive and spend money, then swim in their own piss. That’s just great!
Is there no sewer system at all in Kending or are these illegal buildings that have no choice but to discharge sewage into the storm drain?[/quote]
I honestly don’t know. I remember the park’s admin being surprised when I told them about that channel. But with all the sewage work being done these past few years I had expected that problem to have been fixed. Sadly, of all the national parks, Kenting is the most fucking hopeless. When asked why there were so many illegal jet ski operators I was told that they have gangster backing and the park doesn’t have the manpower to deal with them.
I met some business -looking corporate-criminal-looking cocksuckers on the beach at Honeymoon Bay in Da Xi who were planning on paving over everything and building a 200 room villa there. Shit City here we come!
About 1/2 a kilometer off shore there is a ring of trash, commercial fishing equipment and and foul water floating in a ring.
The water was pretty foul at Honeymoon Bay two Mondays ago.
I heard of surfers in the States dying of brain eating staff infections because of contact with untreated water.
[quote=“monkey”]They expect tourists to arrive and spend money, then swim in their own piss.[/quote]Nice. You ought to bottle it and sell it on cable TV, Eau de Kenting.
[quote=“Bubba 2 Guns”]I met some business -looking corporate-criminal-looking cocksuckers on the beach at Honeymoon Bay in Daxi who were planning on paving over everything and building a 200 room villa there. Shit City here we come!
[/quote]
you can thank the rise in local surfer posers for this development.
For the record I respect surfing as a sport and a lifestyle, but I cannot respect the hordes of people who sit in water that is flatter than piss in a pan all day Sunday decked out in all the latest surf kit. They be posers.
It never occurred to me to actually enter the water when I was in Kending last week. The smell put me off, esp. the beach in front of Caesar’s. So I walked along the beach until I found a an open sewer by the closed “private club”. Is that the channel of shit referred to above, just south of the “main drag” in Kending?
I’m sure the ag. research station and the cattle farmers in Kending are meticulous in managing farm waste.
I remember this year I went up to Laomei once to check for a shooting and was really shocked. The whole beach looked like a big ship just wracked right there. Full of stuff which looked like from fishing boats, dameged nets and bojs, broken lights and bulps in an amount I never ever saw before, barely able to walk on the beach and that’s on one of the “famous spots” on the north coast.
I know you wanted hard evidence rather than stories, have to check if I took some photos that day or was just too shocked to actually touch the camera…
[quote=“Deuce Dropper”][quote=“Bubba 2 Guns”]I met some business -looking corporate-criminal-looking cocksuckers on the beach at Honeymoon Bay in Daxi who were planning on paving over everything and building a 200 room villa there. Shit City here we come!
[/quote]
you can thank the rise in local surfer posers for this development.
For the record I respect surfing as a sport and a lifestyle, but I cannot respect the hordes of people who sit in water that is flatter than piss in a pan all day Sunday decked out in all the latest surf kit. They be posers.[/quote]
They be called “Floaters” …like those hard bowel movements that just won’t flush.
It is for Hong Kong folks. Not “some”, but ALL of the other guests in the mintzu I stayed in were from HK.
My vote for tourist destination goes to the mountains and “base camps” in the foothils, like Luye and the Luscious Hot Spring Resort and Spa (5 stars as a base camp, very flexible on rates) near Luye. Ocean… well, I’ve got plenty of beach where I live, so I’m not a typical Kending visitor.
i’ve always thought taroko gorge was supposed to be taiwan’s ‘premier tourist attraction’. i really wanted to go there but didnt have time. i did go to kenting tho. i didnt go into the water cuz it was december. so not sure if there was sewage in the water, but i would’ve stayed away anyway because those nuclear reactors close by didnt make the waters very appealing.
[quote=“maunaloa”]It is for Hong Kong folks. Not “some”, but ALL of the other guests in the mintzu I stayed in were from HK.
My vote for tourist destination goes to the mountains and “base camps” in the foothils, like Luye and the Luscious Hot Spring Resort and Spa (5 starts as a base camp, very flexible on rates) near Luye. Ocean… well, I’ve got plenty of beach where I live, so I’m not a typical Kending visitor.[/quote]
Good to see some recognition of Luye. I went through the area again on bike in July. Absolutely gorgeous and exactly what one imagines rural Taiwan to be: quiet tree lined lanes beside rich fields of pineapples and vegetable, little kids playing in the furrows, quaint old houses and nice modern ones with big yards and coffee stands. And of course a dramatic mountain range rising up in the distance.
So that hot spring is good is it? I’m past by a few times but have never gone in.
The Luscious is worth a stop. The rack rate is absurd, but with full court charm alternating with the “lost waigo motorcyclist, don’t leave me to the dragons of the night sure to get lost on the way to Taidong” look, I got the rate under NT 3K a night. Each room has its own granite slab hot spring, full glass between bedroom, the bath, and a LARGE lanai, great sleeping bed, big LCD panel that I didn’t bother to turn on, brekkie and din included! The outdoor hotspring is the size of a swimming pool, in which I did swim at 0700. Sodium bicarbonate water in the room tub and in the “pool”. The best hotel stay I’ve had in the 'wan… just the kurhaus I needed.
Sounds good. There are a number of really good places like that in taiwan now, at least judging from your description. Taian in Miaoli county for example has some excellent hot spring resorts with unobstructed views of the Snow foothills.
Rack rates in taiwanese hotels are not meant to reflect reality. No one is ever charged this amount. You should always get a hefty discount even on a weekend. Typically rates are 20% discount on weekends and 30-40 to even 50% on weekday. On major holidays you might still get a 10% discount though a few might actually charged the rack.
