Two Tickets to Paradise (Part Two)

So, onward we pressed to Green Island. The nice lady at the B&B informed us that we could catch a bus for the first leg of our trip in front of the 7-11. Of course, here you can do most anything and everything at the 7-11. Pay bills, play the lottery, buy breakfast, lunch and dinner. Really, it's quite convenient.

So, after waiting about 20 minutes in the hot sun a bus came by. We flagged him down, showed him the Chinese character for our destination that the lady had written out for us and we were on our way! And, boy, were we excited...
We made it to the station and hopped on a train to Taitung (the city on the east coast where we would pick up the boat to Green Island). Our excitement soon turned to apprehension as the train came out of a mountain tunnel and was suddenly being pummeled with wind and rain. Nice weather for a boat ride, eh? Would there even be a boat ride?

Our worries were put to rest when we walked in to buy our tickets and were told that, yes, there would be a boat. We proceeded to wait in line, with the wind threatening to take our hats and a slight drizzle coming down. All of a sudden the slight drizzle turned to a downpour and we were stuck, with no umbrella waiting to board. After some jostling from the crowd we made it on, still wondering what kind of boat ride this might be. We had heard that they could be rough...
Our fears were fanned when, as the boat was pulling out of the harbor there was a guy walking up and down the aisles selling Dramamine for $500 NT. $500 NT? They should be handing this stuff out like candy the way the boat is starting to rock, I thought.

Then, Luke (genius that he is) remembered those motion sickness bracelets with the pressure points. "What if we just push on the same spot?" he said.

By now the boat was out in the open water and getting tossed around quite a bit. There were a few drops where it felt like my stomach was in my throat. However, our little pressure point trick was working quite well until I started hearing the barf bags rustling all around us. At that point, we had to put on our Ipods, close our eyes, plant our feet firmly on the floor that was swaying beneath us and hope for the best.

We must have actually looked pretty zen-like. Eyes closed, staring straight ahead, middle fingers pressed firmly on pressure points. I don't think I moved from that position until the boat was safely docked at the Green Island harbor. I have to say that we made it the whole way without losing it which is more than I can say for most of the people around us. I was pretty proud of our American tummies, holding up with the best of the Taiwanese.

After stumbling off of the gang-plank, a little green in the face we were hit with a barrage of wind and rain...again. In addition to this, a man on his scooter approached us, asked us where we were staying and insisted that we come to his house. Luke, in his best and most polite Chinese, said no thank you and we continued on our way. However, the man persisted, thinking we didn't understand. And persisted, and persisted, and persisted. Luke kept telling him, I understand, no thank you but he only left us alone after another Chinese man stepped in and basically told him to leave us alone.

The hotel that we had decided we would try to get a room at was in the village about one kilometer from the harbor. An easy walk in nice weather, but pretty terrible when you're getting soaked. Not to mention Crazy Cathy...

Oh, Crazy Cathy. Soon after we left the first old man a lady on a scooter approached us. We figured out that these people work on commision and if you stay at the hotel they bring you to they get a cut of the profit. So, here we are. Cold, still feeling sea-sick and soaked to the bone and Crazy Cathy (as we named her) is making circles around us on her scooter, jabbering in Taiwanese and stopping at every hotel along the way, trying to get us to stay there. This was pretty much the last thing we wanted at this point. The village is so small that it's literally one road and all the hotels are on that road. So, it's not like we couldn't find it on our own. Finally, we decided to duck in to a convenience store to try and lose them (oh, yes, there was another man tailing us while Crazy Cathy was making her circles around us). We walk out and lo-and-behold, she's waiting for us. How nice. We decide on a hotel and go in that direction. She speeds ahead of us and meets us at the front door. Long story short, we booked a room, Cathy got her stake and we were left alone to dry off and settle in to our room in peace. Thank goodness.

All this to say, we were not impressed with Green Island. The village was small and dreary with with hardly any places to eat. After wandering up and down the main street in the rain, trying to settle on a place, we finally got up the nerve to walk into what looked like a restaurant and order some food. After an unsatisfying meal and a soggy walk back to the hotel we turned in for the night. We decided that night that if things weren't better the next day that we would be gone on the next boat.

We woke up the next morning and a tentative look out the window revealed a bright blue sky, white puffy clouds and the shining sun. We breathed a sigh of relief and headed out to make the most of the day.

Green Island is tiny, only 17 kilometers around the entire thing. We rented a scooter and were on our way. I'll say right now that the scenery was breathtaking! We rounded curve after curve on the scooter and to our delight our eyes were met with sight after dramatic sight. Our first quick stop was at a beach which I will go back to later.
Next stop was one of only three salt water hot springs in the world. Apparently there is one on Mt. Vesuvius, one somewhere in Japan and one on Green Island. Who would have thought? The hot springs were amazing and right on the beach. In addition to the natural ones they had a large pool with different sections, some warmer, some cooler. We spent a lot of time just soaking and enjoying the scenery.
In addition to the hot springs, there was a short hike up to a bluff. Unfortunately, the pictures really don't do it justice.
After a while, we hopped on to our scooter and continued on. The next stop was a short walk up a flight of stairs to two pagodas perched on the edge of a cliff where we saw some incredible views. Again, the pictures don't really do it justice...
A little further down the road we came to a spot where there had been an ancient (I think this term was being used loosely) settlement where some of the houses still remained. Here we also found a pool of clear, turquoise water to soak in and plenty of lava formations to climb on.
Green Island was not always a place of rest and relaxation we soon found out. We came across an old prison with a memorial outside of it. Apparently, in the 50's Taiwan went through a period called the "White Terror" where about 90,000 citizens were arrested and imprisoned for espionage and speaking out against the government. While there were some that actually were spies many were sadly imprisoned at Green Island and were either left there or executed. This was a dark time in Taiwan's history and things have been done to rectify and repay the families whose loved ones were falsely imprisoned.

After the prison, we came to the lighthouse where there was yet another pool of perfect, turquoise water just begging to be swam in.

This pretty much completed the trip around the island. After grabbing some dinner we decided to watch the sunset at the first beach we had come to. We settled in to a sunny spot on the grass, tan, sun-soaked and happy as clams at the day we had.
Suffice it to say, we decided that we did indeed like (or maybe even love) Green Island despite the terrible first impression. So much so that we stayed the night and got up at 4:50 AM (yes, that's AM) to watch the sunrise from the hot springs. A bit groggy and thinking, "What are we doing? It's still pitch black" we rode out to the hot springs in the early morning light. We soaked in the springs and watched the sun make its way over the horizon.
So, having felt like we fully explored Green Island and catching a sunset as well as a sunrise it was time to head back. Since the next day would be 10/10, a major Taiwanese holiday we decided to try and make it back home that day since we heard it would be near impossible to go anywhere without reservations over the weekend. So, with another semi-rough boat trip, a taxi ride, a train, a bus and then another train we were back in Hsinchu 12 not-so-short hours later. Phew...it was a whirlwind getting back but totally worth it. We will be back to Kenting I'm sure and hopefully Green Island. But, if not Green Island we were left feeling actually thankful for the poor first impressions because they made the next impressions and last impressions that much better. Green Island was just what we had been needing. So, until the next post...zai jian!