(I wrote this awhile ago, but never posted it)
Wednesday evening ~
Immediately after our last class Wednesday night, we took the 7:30 p.m. train to Hualien. That night we stayed at Bottle Hostel, which was recommended by my friend Jesse. The owner of the hostel and Jesse are friends, so he gave us all a discount. He was a friendly guy and after we told him we were going to visit Jesse at work, he offered to drive us there. I haven't seen Jesse since my first CS experience in September and it was so nice to see her again. The AllStar bar was full that evening, but we managed to talk with her a bit. Jesse also was recently in the Philippines and it was fun to exchange stories of our trip.
Thursday ~
The following morning, we rented scooters and started driving down highway 11 to Taitung, last county on the eastern coast of Taiwan. On the way, we stopped frequently to take pictures of the beautiful scenery. I think, the east coast has some of the nicest scenic views in Taiwan. The entire eastern stretch has the stunning coastal mountain range and views of the Pacific Ocean. About halfway to Taitung lies the tropic of cancer monument. Taiwan, along with 16 other countries are the only places in the world which the tropic of cancer pass through. It was exciting to see the diving line between tropical and subtropical and feel the change. The imaginary line helps researches in the field of astronomy, geography, biology and guides us to understand soil and climate conditions. There were many Chinese tour buses there making it nearly impossible to take a photo without someone in the picture.
The longest stop we took was for an hour at Sanxiantai, small island a few meters off the coast of Taitung county. The iconic landmark on the eastern coast, eight cross-sea arch bridge, connects Sanxiantai to Taiwan. The bridge, created in a wave pattern, resembles a prostrate sea dragon. As we crossed the bridge, we saw many coral reefs surrounding the island. We would of snorkeled here had it been a bit warmer and had more time.
We arrived into Taitung around 5 p.m. and called our former co-worker Dino. He invited us to his girlfriends, Lisa's parents home where he's been staying for the last two months. Kristen and I haven't seen Dino since last semester and it was nice to reconnect with him. Lisa and Dino were very nice to us; they bought us fried chicken for dinner, allowed us to stay in Lisa's grandfathers home and even took us to a fabulous hot spring. The hot spring was about 20 minutes away from their home and was unlike any hot spring I've seen before. The place had a big cold water pool, a few warm ones and many water jets to relax under. The jets were anywhere from a a foot message to a full body message. There were also separate steam rooms and sauna's for men and women. Dino and Lisa like to frequently go to this hot spring and I can understand why. I felt like I was at an amusement park; there were so many different things to do! We all had a fun time as the two hours went by fast! Kristen and Sam had never been to any hot springs before and they loved it!
Friday ~
Early in the morning, we drove our scooters to the pier in hopes of buying ferry tickets to Green Island. Luckily, we were able to buy seats on one of the 6 ferry's that day. Our ferry departed Taitung at 1:30 p.m., in which we had enough time to hang out with Dino and Lisa before heading to Green Island for two days. We met Dino and Lisa for breakfast at a local restaurant that served delicious french toast. Afterwards, they took us on a quick bike ride through forest park. A beautiful natural park within easy reach from the city center; I really wish they had something like forest park in Taipei. Unfortunately, we couldn't explore forest park for long as we had to make our ferry to Green Island. We thanked Dino and Lisa for the exceptional hospitality and wished them a safe trip to the U.S. to visit Dino's family in Florida. Since Dino came to Taiwan he hasn't been back to America or seen his family; he's really excited to finally visit after so long.
The ferry to Green Island, known as the puke ferry, takes exactly 50 minutes. Kristen previously read horror stories about the rockiness of the ferry. We both didn't want to take a chance in getting motion sickness, so we each took graval (Dramamine to Americans is Graval to Canadians). Thankfully, we did because that ferry did not stop going up and down. My eyes kept looking at the clock waiting for the ferry to dock. I tried not to listen to the sounds of others puking in every direction of me. Even the lady sitting beside me was throwing up. Workers were moving up and down the aisle with a trash bag for people to dispose of their puke bags. It was absolutely crazy! Luckily, neither Kristen nor I got sick.
We immediately went to find scooters to get around Green Island. After every scooter shop refused to rent us a scooter, we scrambled to find another option as we were not expecting everyone to say no to us because we were foreigners. With the help of the foreigner hotline and the information desk, we got the last shuttle bus to take us wherever we wanted to go. Our plan was to camp on green island, so that's where the drive took us. About half hour drive, we were dropped off at the campsite. We soon found out the campsite had temporarily closed due to the typhoon. With no other bus or any scooters and nothing to eat around the campsite, our only option was to walk until we found something. About an hour of walking, we reached a hotel. It was worth a shot to see if they had any rooms available, which they didn't. However, the lady who owned the hotel was very helpful and found us both two scooters and a hotel located near the main strip. We were all relieved and could finally enjoy the island without having to worry any longer. It was already pretty late, so we dropped our stuff in the hotel and went for dinner. The nightlife on green island is basically none existed. There was not even a single bar. We decided to have a few 7-eleven beers by the ocean, take a shower and head to bed.
Saturday ~
Sam and I woke up before Kristen and decided to take a lap with the scooters around the island. The island's very small, only an hour drive around. The ride was extremely relaxing. When we got back, Kristen was ready to go. We went for breakfast at the small community village, then got our suits on, rented snorkel gear and were ready to start snorkeling! Green Island's known for the fabulous snorkeling. We started at one diving spot, however, due to the current we didn't stay. So, we found another spot, a bit calmer, and put on our snorkel gear and headed in the water. We all saw many tropical fish of all sizes. Kristen even saw a stingray! I looked for one, but didn't find it : / We stayed for about an hour, then grabbed lunch back near our hotel. After we got food in our belly's, we went back out in the water this time at another dive spot. This spot was known for a specific type of coral, which was stunning. As we were snorkeling, it started raining pretty hard and looked like a storm was coming in. We made our way back to shore and drove along the coast instead. We stopped and looked at a waterfall, the famous sleeping beauty rock and our last site was the salt water hot springs, one of three salt water springs in the world! As you were sitting, you could see both the Pacific ocean and the mountains! It was beautiful. We didn't stay longer than an hour because we needed to return our scooters. That evening, we went for dinner at Monica's restaurant, a friendly owner with excellent seafood. Since theirs no nightlife on green island, we ended up playing cards in our hotel room.
Sunday ~
Sunday morning, our ferry left at 10:30 a.m. From our experience on the ferry going to green island, we knew we needed to take gravel to keep us from any kind of motion sickness. The ferry ride back wasn't any better. Not only was the boat going up and down, but from time to time would rock back and forth. The gravel saved us big time! The change of temperature on Sunday was drastic. We weren't prepared for the cold weather and ended up buying a sweatshirt for the five hour drive back! We were absolutely miserable riding scooters back to Hualien. We would stop every hour to warm up by drinking hot chocolate/coffee. We took highway 9 on the ride back instead of highway 11 (only two highways on the east coast). Highway 9 runs through a wide valley rich in hot springs and aboriginal villages. It was hard to appreciate all that the area has to offer because how badly we wanted to get back. When we finally arrived in Hualien, we had a little over an hour to return our scooters and eat something. Kristen and Sam immediately fell asleep on the three hour train that arrived into Taipei at 12:30 a.m.
Fun weekend on the east coast! :)
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