Green Island: The Long Weekend

My friends Spencer, Gill, and Laura and I decided to take advantage of this past long weekend and head out to a small, surrounding island 33 KM east of Taiwan, Green Island (Lǜ dǎo). The reason for the three day weekend was Mid Autumn Festival or Moon Festival, which can be compared to Thanksgiving in the U.S: a celebration of the harvest and time for family gatherings, large meals, and of course, football.

Route this weekend. Green Island is the end of red line.

We left at midnight to drive six hours down to Taichung in Spencer's car to catch the Saturday 9:30 am ferry, missing the holiday traffic. I only got around 2-3 hours of sleep before the boat ride, and about an hour before we departed we had a delicious ham and egg sandwich for breakfast. We made our way down to the dock at 9 am for boarding, and in a few minutes were off on the 50 minute ride to Green Island. 

Five minutes into the ride, I'm thinking 'Ok, it's like a Six Flags roller coaster." 15 minutes in: 'This is some messed up roller coaster.' 20 minutes in: I'll give you three guesses...Without going into too much detail, me and that good breakfast I mentioned did not make it across the strait together. I don't remember ever being on a boat where you feel all of the topsi-turviness of the sea, and I got rocked. The lack of sleep didn't help either. The ride back was better, but let's get into the island life first. 

After getting off the boat, I still felt a little nauseous and disoriented. Luckily the first vendor we came to had some soft serve ice cream, which helped a bit, as soft serve usually does. We then found our liaison and picked up our scooters, and were off to our hostel. The narrow, winding roads along with the gorgeous mountain and ocean scenery made for an exhilarating drive. Maybe more rehabilitating in my case. But what really saved me is sleeping in the hostel for a few hours before snorkeling.

All we need is two good wheels. 

Guayin Cave and view, after snorkeling

We woke up a little late for snorkeling, but driving like it was a Scooter Grand Prix we made it to the shop just in time to get our goofy gear on and head out to sea. We had to stay in a group with our life vests on, but the coral reef and fish were spectacular, including the familiar humuhumunukunukuapua'as. When our aspiring travel agent/friend Gill asked if we could go out on our own without vests, the guide responded "ni men ru guo yao qu ri ben," or "if y'all wanna go to Japan..." The current was a little too strong. We got back on our scooters and continued east to make our first of 4 trips around the 15 KM island. 

Since it was Moon Festival, we had a special BBQ celebration planned for the evening. Green Island is known for its many deer prancing in the mountain side, so naturally that was the meat of choice. I highly encourage trying it if you haven't already (at least similar meats like elk and bison). Delicious and one of the leanest meats around. Before we left, we heard some rumors that ferries would be canceled on Monday because of a typhoon and everyone visiting would have to go back the next day. We were enjoying ourselves too much to keep that on our minds.

BBQing the deer meat, corn, etc. in the pit right at our table

The place jamming to Fetty Wap, believe it or not.

We all headed out to Daibasha Beach for some wine and gazing at the full moon after the BBQ, just as the ancient Chinese did many centuries ago in their celebrations. Strong comparison, I know. However, it was a very pure experience with only friends and wine on a tiny island's beach in the Pacific, and no distractions or worries. We had to get resourceful with the wine opening, so we found the longest and skinniest rock we could find to push the cork into the bottle. Really fancy and sophisticated, but it was some of the best wine I've ever had...if you include the setting. 

The next morning, I went for a small jog and got to explore the tide pools, which brought back good memories of camping on the California coast as a boy. When I returned, the rumors from the night before were confirmed and we did have to leave the island at 12:30. Huge disappointment. We hurried out for breakfast (*nervous emoji*) and then went around the island once more to our last stop before departing, Zhaori Hot Springs. Zhaori is one of only three saltwater hot springs in the world, so you could say it's kind of a big deal. If we didn't have to leave that day, we would have spent all day here. So serene and relaxing. 

Zhaori Hot Springs

A local cooking eggs in the boiling hot spring.

It was time to head back to the port, and get on the 12:30 ferry. I was more optimistic for the ride this time around after taking three motion sickness pills. Looking at the horizon more helped, and even though I did feel dizzy, I did not get sick! Great victory, I had deafeated the "infamous Green Island ferry." We piled into the car and headed off to stay at Spencer's place in Changhua County, near Taichung City.

Victory.

First Class to Taipei.

Spencer's parents couldn't have been more welcoming, providing us with both a big dinner that night and breakfast the next morning. It's that #TaiwaneseHospitality, friendly and accomodating to everyone. Spencer's dad even drove us to the High Speed Rail station on Monday around noon. However, after waiting in line for 30 minutes, tickets to Taipei sold out. There was no way we had time to wait in the enormous cab line to the regular train station, so we walked a half a mile to flag down one on our own. We finally get to the normal train station, waited in another long line, and found ourselves with "first class" standing room only tickets. The last standing room only tickets I had were to a Red Sox-Yankees game on the Green Monster. Needless to say, I prefer standing at Fenway Park. To top it all off, we were delayed almost three hours on the tracks because of the typhoon. It wasn't the most pleasant traveling I've done, and we were back home in Taipei six hours later, welcomed by 60 mph winds and pouring rain.

These things happen sometimes while traveling, but it's all part of the experience. We can learn from it, and next time get up a little bit earlier to get where we need to go. Even though some of the transportation was a little rough, we still had an amazing weekend on a pure, beautiful Pacific island with holiday celebrations, snorkeling, relaxing in one of the few saltwater hot springs on the planet, and making it nearly all the way around the island of Taiwan. Typhoons trying to dampen our spirits...not gonna happen...for the most part.