Mandarin (Chinese) is the official language of the island, and Kenting was no different. Given that the city is by the beach, tourists are expected and English is also spoken quite frequently. There were even Spanish speaking restaurants and services offered in some areas.
The New Taiwan Dollar (abbreviated as NTD) is the official currency of Taiwan. They are colorful bills of various red and blue colors, with coins that look similar to ours in the United States - copper for the smallest unit and larger silver for higher amounts. Taiwanese people use the term 塊 "kuai" the way we would use the word "dollar" when referring to money, so "one hundred dollars" translates to "一百塊 yi bai kuai". It takes about $30NTD to make $1USD.
A bottle of water here is typically around $20 - $30NTD, which is under a dollar in United States currency. Thankfully, there are many public water fountains around my area and the city encourages refilling from them to limit the purchase of plastic.
