Warm Winters by the Beach in Kenting

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My usual winter activities involves sitting by the space heater, drinking milk tea. But a couple years ago, I did something different -- I went to the Little Bay Beach down in the warmer climate of Kenting, near the southern tip of Taiwan.

I've been to Taiwan quite a handful of times ever since I was born, but I didn't start to explore the country at all (or Taipei, even) until I was in my second year of college. My first time exploring outside of Taipei sans family was 2 years after I graduated college!

Over the years I've seen picturesque shots of the beaches in Kenting and heard a lot about the good food and fun markets from family friends, so I told myself to put this onto my travel itinerary.

Glad I did!

The weather in Taipei is always slightly colder than it is down south. Winters in Taipei never felt too harsh for me (despite that crazy cold wave that just hit a couple weeks back), so I knew Kenting would be just fine in January.

Amy and I had hit up the Aquarium earlier that day, and were making our way back to our hotel when we decided to get off the bus stop for Xiaowan to explore for a bit. Little did we know that just 10 minutes away from the stop was the beach! We exchanged glances, figured why not, and walked down to the beach.

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Almost completely devoid of people, the beach served as a nice afternoon resting place for us to sit back, relax, and drink our tea -- yes, the ones we bought from 7-11 earlier that day. I played some music from my Iphone.

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The weather was perfect, and the water was almost warm! It would've been quite pleasant to go wading in the water, but our spontaneity to get off at the bus stop instead of grabbing clothes from the hotel first meant that we didn't have anything to change into.

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Put my newly bought gorillapod to the test in Kenting. Definitely worth the 25 I paid, even though I was sweating bullets while we took our timed shot.

I also tried to climb up to get a better vantage point.

The rocks were too sharp. So it didn't happen.

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We stayed and chatted for an hour or so, until the sun started to set and our stomachs rumbled. Time for dinner.

So, off to the nightmarket we went!

Featured Photo: Taken from the top of the stairs that lead down to Xiaowan Beach