There are two main roads that run between Hualien and Taidong (both on the east side of the island). One goes along the coast and the other goes a bit inland between a series of hills and the Central Mountain Range. We chose the latter because of the rice fields. Every December through February, the rice fields are 'resting' and at the end of this period (late January, early February) all of the fields are supposed to be covered with beautiful yellow flowers of the fallow fields. Imagine the golden wheat fields of Montana on a
smaller scale and you get an idea of what we expected to see. For some reason, most of the yellow flowers were already being plowed under by the time we got there, so instead we saw a bunch of mud! Every time we did find a yellow field, Kevin (or I, to make fun of him) pointed it out a bit like Chevy Chase did to Big Ben in National Lampoon's Vacation. 
In Kenting, we stayed at the Caesar Park Resort for 2 nights and had a great time. Since it was winter but most people were still working, we got a great deal on the room and buffet (we had breakfast and dinner buffet 2 days in a row - I'm still full!) The had a very fun playroom in the basement 
for the kids.We spent the afternoon at the beach, but since the water was pretty cold, we stuck to beach activities like burying Yoyo in the sand and trying to make a sand castle. The next day was pretty cloudy and windy, so instead Yoyo and I stayed in the heated hotel pool while Kevin and Keanu took a nap nearby. I had forgotten how much fun it is to hang out with a kid in the pool. On Friday we started heading back north, not really sure of our destination. In the end, we decided to make a push for home since the kids were both sleeping quietly in the back seat and quite content - due to Keanu's cold becoming worse. He had a cough before we left, but while we were gone it got a bit worse and by Friday night he had a fever of 101F, which is why he was so content to sleep so long in the car that afternoon. His fever was gone by Saturday morning, but we took him to the doctor that afternoon anyway (one benefit of National Health Insurance - cheap, convenient doctor visits). She said his lungs sounded fine so it's not pneumonia and perscribed some cough medicine (I guess Taiwan doesn't have any of the FDA unapproved cough medicine for babies and toddlers). He loves the medicine and even asks for it - OK, he doesn't say he wants it, but he points and grunts, which is his way of asking. He's still coughing, but the fever hasn't returned.
All in all, it was a nice, relaxing vacation. Perhaps we'll do it again next winter vacation or maybe we'll just head directly south and relax at the Caesar Park for 4 whole days instead of the east coast bit. We'll just have to wait and see.
3 comments:
Looks like a Case International tractor. But ours never needed to pull through mud quite like that!
Good to hear you had a great vacation. We're getting snow again today. Most of the recent snows have missed us, but Becky gets some every week, I think.
It is nice to be able to visualize the trip and a few of the places you stayed. I too recognized the tractor - wow what mud! I think we might have some mud like that this spring with all of the snow we've gotten. Check out our latest!
Yep, I took a picture of the red on on purpose. We also saw a couple of blue ones (no greens), but didn't get any pictures.
The mud is pretty impressive, but you have to remember that rice grows in standing water and I guess there's water there even if the rice isn't. Where the rice was already planted, it looked like the water was a couple of inches thick.
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