Little Island Awesome

After the Halloween extravaganza we felt compelled to get out of town for the weekend. After some e-mails and a little planning we decided to head south to the island of Liuchiu. It is a very small island (5km across) just south of Kaohsiung. The trip was being organized by some friends living in Kaohsiung and they offered to let us crash at their place before setting out early Saturday morning.

So Katie and I, with a friend from our branch made our way to the Hsinchu train station to catch the 3.5 hour "non-stop" train to Kaohsiung on Friday night. The train wound up being fourty-five minutes late and packed to the brim. In Taiwan, you can almost always get on a train going anywhere, but that does not mean you will get a seat. So for the first hour and a half I was standing in the aisle among many others hoping to slip into a seat as soon as possible. This was amusing only because there were seven other men from Indonesia that insisted on listening to the Scorpians rather loudly on their miniture MP3 player.

With Katie safely in a seat, I found myself ready to laugh as I was being pressed at all sides by bodies of random people with the Scorpians playing in the background. Without any real events, we made it to Kaohsiung late that night and to our friend's house.

We were up early to make our way to the port to catch a ferry to the island. Our friends had to teach that Saturday, so the three of us planned to go on ahead and meet the others there later on. So after some quick negotiations we arranged a cab to take us to the ferry...everything was going according to plan.

With the ferry filled to the brim with everything from supplies, to scooters (yes they even fit them in on the boat) and people we began the hour boat ride to the island.

This guy looked like he had a rough night.

The sky was heavily overcast and to be honest in Kaohsiung, the air quality can be so bad it is difficult to tell when the smog ends and the clouds begin. That being said, we were hopeful there would be a breakthrough from the sun as soon as we got out into the water a ways. This wasn't the case however...
This was our "clear" approach. I am guessing if the sun was out this temple would have been quite impressive.

Which was probably the case for the whole island. The clouds did not break and after we rented a scooter and began to explore, periodically we felt small drops of rain on our faces.

We stopped at the first beach we came to hoping to lay around for a while when the rain started. It was a harmless sort of rain and we were certain it would pass. So we made a small little camp next to some jagged coral rocks and tried to enjoy the beach.
Here is our "campsite"...
Here is the beach just as the rain began.

It became clear that the rain was not going to stop immediately, in fact it was starting to rain harder. So doing the best we could to stay dry we made our way to a covered area that our friend saw on the way in.

This area seemed to not only be a suitable place to stay dry, but possibly a place to camp for the night. So as the rain began to pour, we happily got out our towels, books and blankets then got comfortable for a peaceful and lazy afternoon.
The rainy day wasn't so bad...

Then came the lightening. Which was a little disconcerting and the rain came down in buckets. Suddenly our dry area was being flooded and we scrambled around trying to keep dry. All our stuff wound up on our backs and we needed a plan B. After some quick deliberation we made the logical choice: the three of us would pile onto the rented scooter and I would drive it through the pouring rain to drier ground.

So, that's what we did. Let me tell you, it is not as easy as it may sound and honestly it was one of the funniest things we have done in a while. I don't know how exactly we didn't die, we just kept moving and as long as we were going fast and straight balance wasn't really an issue (except when we had to make a 6 point U turn near the edge of a cliff...I mean...just kidding mom and dad...)

Needless to say we made it in one piece and tried to wait out the storm. I recieved a text message from our inbound friends explaining that there was a tropical storm in the area and the rain was not likely to stop. They were going to stay in Kaohsiung. It seemed un reasonable to stay there as well, so we rushed to catch the next baot back and just like that our mini-vacation on the island was over.

This however, turned out to be a blessing in disguise. While our friend went back home that night, Katie and I decided to stay in Kaohsiung with out other friends. They are wonderfully hospitible people and we enjoyed a restful evening drying out and enjoying their large three bedroom apartment overlooking a large lake. Katie enjoyed playing with their blonde, minature dachsund Roxie.
The next day was still rainy but we decided not to let that ruin our time in Kaohsiung. The four of us went to Lotus Lake to have a look at the various temples. Needless to say more it was very impressive. Below are many pictures from that all-day excursion:




So despite the rain and the storm the trip was very relaxing and we had a great time with our friends. As always many of these pictures do not do justice to what we saw, but we wanted to share as much of this as we can with you.