Hi!
It's Jessie again. Even though I didn't really get much of a chance to go diving on our last trip down to Hengchun/Kenting (unlike Jenny, who finally certified for PADI Open Water! Read her blog for more info), I did get to spend a lot of time hanging out in the resort and wanted to share my own experiences about the resort itself.
The resort we stayed at is called Dive Village, a small hotel resort just outside of Hengchun city. To get there without your own scooter/car, you have two options. The first is to take the public bus down from Kaohsiung to Hengchun and then either rent a bike or a scooter when you arrive, or, alternatively, the dive resort can pick you up from the bus stop for $400nt per person. If you prefer door to door service without the hassle of changing transport, it's also possible to catch a shared taxi from Kaohsiung city at either Kaohsiung Main Station (train station) or from Zuoying High Speed Rail (HSR) station.
If you're arriving via HSR from elsewhere in Taiwan, the Kenting bus is just downstairs and stops in Hengchun on the way to its final destination. If you're coming from TRA (standard rail), the bus station is located behind the rail station on the south side. From either of these places, it's easy to find a cab to take you to Hengchun, but you'll need to have the address and negotiate the price before you go: cabs will usually wait until they fill up, or may drive around to pick up others, so it won't be a straight shot down, but it's around $350-400nt per person in a shared cab vs. 1200-1500 for a cab all to your self. The bus is even cheaper, although it won't take you to the front door: a single ticket to Hengchun is $312nt. If you have a bike bag, you can store your bike under the bus for free and cycle the rest of the way like we did.
If you take the bus, you'll be getting off at the last stop in Hengchun (the bus continues to its terminus in Hengchun, so make sure you get off when you see the visitor's center and Family Mart on the left). If you have time on the way back through Hengchun, I recommend taking a look at the temple behind the visitor's center (walk straight through the main doors towards the bathroom). It's got a traditional Taiwanese Daoist temple along with a very new art installation, including Taiwan's favorite thing: poo flinging!
Once in town, bike or walk towards Kenting. If walking, about 600m down the road are a bunch of scooter rental shops. Many of them have electric scooters, which don't require a driver's license, so picking one up is easy and convenient- they run about 30-40km per charge which should be more than enough to get you around the peninsula. If you're biking, just follow the signs to Kenting and when you hit Nanguang road (南光路) and the 7-11, turn right. Dive Village will be on your left.
The overall experience at Dive Village was good. The facilities are new, including their outdoor pool, and the scuba instructors are very nice. Our instructor, Steve, was exceptional; classes and dives were well organized, and the atmosphere of Dive Village was generally good (See Jenny's post for more in depth info about her diving experience). We were even able to participate in a birthday gathering for our instructor, and got to witness the extraction of a cobra from the kitchen area! However, one major issue with Dive Village is that staff are only on site until midnight, and there were many guests who are rather inconsiderate of others (a commonality in Taiwan).
One of the nights we stayed, people in the room above us were pushing furniture around at 1 am, even after being asked not to by staff earlier in the evening. The night after, a family with small children along with a large group of man children were screaming, whooping, and making a ton of noise in the outdoor pool at 1am. Despite being asked 3 times to keep the noise to a minimum, there was no change. The father in question then paraded his children through the common area (all rooms are off of this area) while his kids were screaming, and proceeded to bathe them in their room (kids still screaming) with the door wide open so everyone could hear. After I asked him to keep the noise down (again) and close the door to his room, he verbally assaulted me, deciding that this was a good time to show off his ability to curse in English.
That said, our experience with our instructor and our classes were really good, although getting up at 7:30 for 8:30 class after a night of no sleep left my body in shambles and negatively impacted Jenny's ability to adjust in the water. However, the dive resort itself is rather unpleasant, depending on who is staying there, and may undermine your diving experience if you are unable to sleep (or at attacked by megalomaniac jerks in the middle of the night). My personal impression is that certain kinds of people are drawn to this resort- and that kind of personality is loud, arrogant, and oblivious about impacting others. I recently reviewed another hotel that we have stayed in several times, and even with dogs and other animals staying in the hotel, it was still quieter and more pleasant than staying at Dive Village because the people who stay there are more conscientious of others.
Therefore, my recommendation is to dive with the instructors at Dive Village, but stay elsewhere if you can- it's not worth paying all of the money for diving and gear if you can't sleep and end up having a shitty time, or worse, aren't able to dive at all because you can't equalize due to lack of sleep (this happened in my case and I didn't get to dive at all the whole week).
If anyone else has experience with Dive Village, feel free to comment below- I'm interested to know if anyone else had a similar experience.
It's Jessie again. Even though I didn't really get much of a chance to go diving on our last trip down to Hengchun/Kenting (unlike Jenny, who finally certified for PADI Open Water! Read her blog for more info), I did get to spend a lot of time hanging out in the resort and wanted to share my own experiences about the resort itself.
The resort we stayed at is called Dive Village, a small hotel resort just outside of Hengchun city. To get there without your own scooter/car, you have two options. The first is to take the public bus down from Kaohsiung to Hengchun and then either rent a bike or a scooter when you arrive, or, alternatively, the dive resort can pick you up from the bus stop for $400nt per person. If you prefer door to door service without the hassle of changing transport, it's also possible to catch a shared taxi from Kaohsiung city at either Kaohsiung Main Station (train station) or from Zuoying High Speed Rail (HSR) station.
If you're arriving via HSR from elsewhere in Taiwan, the Kenting bus is just downstairs and stops in Hengchun on the way to its final destination. If you're coming from TRA (standard rail), the bus station is located behind the rail station on the south side. From either of these places, it's easy to find a cab to take you to Hengchun, but you'll need to have the address and negotiate the price before you go: cabs will usually wait until they fill up, or may drive around to pick up others, so it won't be a straight shot down, but it's around $350-400nt per person in a shared cab vs. 1200-1500 for a cab all to your self. The bus is even cheaper, although it won't take you to the front door: a single ticket to Hengchun is $312nt. If you have a bike bag, you can store your bike under the bus for free and cycle the rest of the way like we did.
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| Scenes from the Bus pick-up/drop off zone, including temple behind the visitors center |
Once in town, bike or walk towards Kenting. If walking, about 600m down the road are a bunch of scooter rental shops. Many of them have electric scooters, which don't require a driver's license, so picking one up is easy and convenient- they run about 30-40km per charge which should be more than enough to get you around the peninsula. If you're biking, just follow the signs to Kenting and when you hit Nanguang road (南光路) and the 7-11, turn right. Dive Village will be on your left.
The overall experience at Dive Village was good. The facilities are new, including their outdoor pool, and the scuba instructors are very nice. Our instructor, Steve, was exceptional; classes and dives were well organized, and the atmosphere of Dive Village was generally good (See Jenny's post for more in depth info about her diving experience). We were even able to participate in a birthday gathering for our instructor, and got to witness the extraction of a cobra from the kitchen area! However, one major issue with Dive Village is that staff are only on site until midnight, and there were many guests who are rather inconsiderate of others (a commonality in Taiwan).
One of the nights we stayed, people in the room above us were pushing furniture around at 1 am, even after being asked not to by staff earlier in the evening. The night after, a family with small children along with a large group of man children were screaming, whooping, and making a ton of noise in the outdoor pool at 1am. Despite being asked 3 times to keep the noise to a minimum, there was no change. The father in question then paraded his children through the common area (all rooms are off of this area) while his kids were screaming, and proceeded to bathe them in their room (kids still screaming) with the door wide open so everyone could hear. After I asked him to keep the noise down (again) and close the door to his room, he verbally assaulted me, deciding that this was a good time to show off his ability to curse in English.
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| Common area of Dive Village (agoda) |
That said, our experience with our instructor and our classes were really good, although getting up at 7:30 for 8:30 class after a night of no sleep left my body in shambles and negatively impacted Jenny's ability to adjust in the water. However, the dive resort itself is rather unpleasant, depending on who is staying there, and may undermine your diving experience if you are unable to sleep (or at attacked by megalomaniac jerks in the middle of the night). My personal impression is that certain kinds of people are drawn to this resort- and that kind of personality is loud, arrogant, and oblivious about impacting others. I recently reviewed another hotel that we have stayed in several times, and even with dogs and other animals staying in the hotel, it was still quieter and more pleasant than staying at Dive Village because the people who stay there are more conscientious of others.
 |
| Cobra extraction from the staff kitchen! |
Therefore, my recommendation is to dive with the instructors at Dive Village, but stay elsewhere if you can- it's not worth paying all of the money for diving and gear if you can't sleep and end up having a shitty time, or worse, aren't able to dive at all because you can't equalize due to lack of sleep (this happened in my case and I didn't get to dive at all the whole week).
If anyone else has experience with Dive Village, feel free to comment below- I'm interested to know if anyone else had a similar experience.
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