The Beach in Baisha

Thought I'd get your attention with something shocking. Taiwan has the best (worst?) info-graphics. This is the funniest I've seen. What's worse, I don't really get it. There is already an info graphic for the bathroom. (A blue person and a red person.) Is this one trying to highlight a urinal? Is that enticing? "Oooh. THIS bathroom has a urinal!" Anyway, I thought it was classic, and couldn't help snapping this picture, even though doing so got me a strange look.

This graphic was posted at a beach in Baisha, a nothing-of-a-town on the western coast of Taiwan all the way to the south. I've referred to where we went in the past as Kenting, because that is where everyone goes. In fact, it is where we intended to go. I WANTED to stay right in Kenting, right across the street from the beach in the thick and convenience of it all.

Booking Julie's Garden was one of those happy accidents I couldn't undo because of Airbnb policy. And because a different beach was a 3 minute drive away instead of across the street, we were able to enjoy the BEST beach we saw. (AFTER we left the beach, we drove around through Kenting and nearly all the way to the lighthouse on THE southernmost tip of Taiwan, and my appreciation for where we were grew further. We had a piece of heaven instead of a piece of beachy chaos.)

But the beach, and swimming, were something the kids had wanted to do for the entire trip, and finally we were getting to. I had the mistaken idea that the beach would be relaxing for me. Ha! I spent most of the time keeping my kids alive. Between my paranoia about them being sucked out to sea, and Q's paranoia that the sand would ruin our technology, we don't have many pictures to show for the 5 hours we were there. It's probably best for you that we don't. It was absolutely GORGEOUS!!! If you haven't been envious up to this point, seeing this place would turn you green.

But because I WAS so diligent about standing between the ocean and my kids tumbling through the waves towards it, THEY had a great time. Q hiked down to the beach first with them while I parked the car. When I got there, they were already in the water. When I joined them, Stew enthusiastically exclaimed, "Mom! A FIGHTING swimming pool!" He loved fighting with the waves, taking a wide fighting stance at a 90 degree angle to the push and pull, and hanging onto my hands as they threw him around.

Weese loved gathering rocks and shells and coral and so spent a good deal of time in the water trying to grab what she could before the next wave sucked them away.

Check out that exfoliation power! I got clobbered on the ankle
by a huge hunk of coral. THAT left a dent!

Veeve and Big Bro were into the body surfing. Their swimming classes helped Veeve to maximize her enjoyment and she was able to float on her back all the way up the sand a good number of times. Q and Rachel shared the guarding of whomever was deeper in the water. I don't know how we might have managed without Rachel. As much as keeping my family alive wasn't especially relaxing, I would have been a complete nervous wreck without an extra set of eyes. Or the kids would have had to get out of the water anytime Q or I needed to leave it (like when we needed to grab sun-screen, or when we needed to pay the random old man on the beach for sitting under his umbrella, or when one of us was scoping out the food).

HAD they needed to get out, we might have wound up LESS sunburned. We got fried. In part, I'm sure we put it on too late (probably at least 1.5 hours after we'd already been in the sun) but also I'm not sure how even our water-proof protection would have clung to us with the major exfoliation the sand in the waves was providing. Let me just say, my toenails have never looked so gleaming white!

Q and I fared best because Q, who knows he tends to fry, kept his shirt on and his collar up, and I kept my cover-up on from time to time because it had pockets for Weese's treasures.

Lunch was "hot dogs" - sausages on a stick - and a serving of mango ice and another of peanut butter ice. When the kids got hungry for something more substantial, we were able to drag them away from the action of the ocean (with the additional bribe of fresh papaya milk - YUMMY!). We drove to the 7-11 at our turn off and bought food (trying for the first time on this trip the "mermaid sandwiches" - rice with various kinds of meat wrapped in seaweed). Q tried in vain to get money from the ATM, but we weren't TOO low yet. Then, because Stew was out like a light, I suggested we take a drive.

We discovered on the drive the things I mentioned above. And at 4:30 we found a "whart" (misspelled "wharf") for some seafood. Rachel and I handled ordering. This large place was entirely empty, and when I asked later about it, they told me they usually didn't have many customers on Monday night. For this reason, I think they encouraged us to buy more food than we needed, and because I had no idea what portion size would be like, this was one of our biggest, most expensive meals.

Here it is, in all it's glory.

The kids weren't into the shrimp with heads, eyes, tails, and legs all still on. This meant I was able to have a larger share, until I made the mistake of peeling a shrimp and dipping it in the scrumptious ginger-garlic sauce and sharing it with Stew. He became a fan and probably had 4 shrimp himself. We had a bland miso soup with salmon. Q and Rachel liked the scallops. The shrimp-fried rice was good. The sea-vegetable and egg wasn't bad. And the beef was okay, but pleasantly bone and fat FREE!

The best part of the meal was the cute grandpa who loved on Stew. He was kind about serving the rest of us, but completely absorbed with Stew, serving him personally everything on the table and watching his reaction as he ate. Stew takes all the extra attention here in stride, and seemed unaware of his personal service. Then grandpa came with a standard-size chocolate bar and gave it to Stew.

I wish for all this kindness that Stew had acted more animated or excited about anything. (He certainly doesn't get big bars of chocolate from US!) But we coached him to say thank-you, and then he wanted to eat the candy right away. We felt like he needed to because his enjoyment of it was probably what the grandpa was after. This, of course, turned the rest of the kids green with envy, but they got over it as we reminded them (mostly Weese) of all the times when SHE got special treats (gum or soda) from the people in her life that loved HER best.

Me with Evinn

After dinner we went back at Julie's Garden at 6 or 6:30 and just showered, lathered ourselves with lavender oil or the aloe lotion Evinn provided, and went to bed! We had been considering staying an additional day, the beach was such a hit, and our digs SO lovely, but the sunburns sealed the decision and the next morning, after saying good-bye to Evinn and Julie's Garden where we felt so loved and nurtured, we were headed back north for another day of great adventure!

The whole crew says good-bye to Julie's Garden!