I woke up on Christmas day to find a few small wrapped packages under the Christmas tree, which my dad brought with us in the luggage from Taipei to Kenting. This means lugging it on a taxi, then another taxi, then the high speed rail, then another taxi. Anyway, I still don't understand this whole Santa Claus thing but it was still fun to tear open the wrapped packages. I got some construction paper, some Anja-size scissors, and lots of pretty shiny things to stick onto the papers. We then had breakfast and headed to the beach. We decided to ride bikes down to the coast, which was 6Km away, to a beach called Baishawan. It means "White Sand Beach". I loved riding in the Anja-size seat on the back of the bike. It was a fun ride and the weather was not too hot. The beach was true to its name, very white and very serene. We all got wet running toward and away from the waves then we did some digging in the sand. It was a tough ride back to the cabin because the winds picked up so we were riding against the wind. Then while riding through a wooded path, my mom actually ran over a snake! It had been lying in the middle of the path and when we ran over it, the snake got quite upset and lunged at my mom's bike! My mom recounted the story to the owner of the cabins and was told that it was likely a poisonous snake. Apparently there are lots of different kinds of poisonous snakes around this part of the island!
That evening, we went up to the top of Guanshan, a low mountain in Kenting, to watch the sunset. There were lots of tourists there too who came on giant double decker tour buses speaking various languages. After watching the sun go down, we went to the temple at the top of the mountain and got a breathtaking view of the small town of Kenting below. It was a very nice Christmas this year.
