TAIWAN
GREAT ESCAPE
Kenting’s eccentricities include Smokey
Joe’s Hotel, which comes with a huge helping of
1950s Americana. Lobby furnishings include a
gas-station pump, a lampshade made from
sunglasses and a sofa shaped like the back of a
Cadillac. Rooms are a tad more restrained, the
denim-upholstered cushions aside. The seafront
hotel wraps around a courtyard pool; outside is a
street where food stalls set up at night (from
US$210; smokeyjoes-hotel.com.tw/kending).
There is no overall fee for Kenting National
Park (ktnp.gov.tw) but some areas within it have
a small entry charge, including Cape Eluanbi and
Kenting National Forest Recreation Area (from
US$3.20; recreation.forest.gov.tw). For a classy
local meal, try the Asian-Italian food at Il Piccolo
Polpo (mains from US$13; piccolopolpo.com).Essentials
supervillains – of the plant world. Another
bishopwood seems on the point of being
throttled by a strangler fig, but Davie thinks
the fight isn’t over yet. ‘I’ve been here 22
years, and the battle has been going on all
that time,’ he says. ‘And look, in the
meantime the bishopwood has sent out
another two trunks.’
From the forest park’s observation tower,
with its 360-degree views over the canopy, a
little white lighthouse can be seen five miles
away. Cape Eluanbi is the southernmost
point of Taiwan. Its historic beacon stands in
a walled compound, a legacy of the days
when aboriginal tribes were hostile to such
stamps of officialdom. The sun dazzles the
pilgrims among the whitewashed buildings,
and after a stop at the pillar that announces
Cape Eluanbi in graven calligraphy, there’s
welcome refreshment back at the park’s
entrance. Coconuts are stacked up by a stall,
some still on their stalks. The stallholder
picks one up, lops the top off with a machete
with a practised swipe and offers a straw.
The taste that’s carried on the road back
north is cool, and wonderfully fragrant.
Dragonflies flit by in the popular
sunset-viewing spot at Guanshan.
BELOW, FROM TOP Taiwan’s southern
tip at Cape Eluanbi; a coconut-seller
near the lightbouseRORY GOULDING had his second-ever taste
of tai chi in Taiwan (the first was on an office
summer day out near Bristol).