Green Island

So what do you do when you live on an island and you want to go on vacation? 

You go to an even smaller island :)

That's right people, Green Island. This last weekend we had Monday and Tuesday off of school for one of the big Taiwan holidays called Moon Festival (wish i could tell you more about it but I have no idea). So naturally Bree and I took advantage of this opportunity. The first few days were spent in a city called Kaohsiung where we had some pretty cool adventures. (By adventures I mean getting lost multiple times and spending most the day in a bus, train, or taxi.) All in all we saw some pretty cool things though. 

But I'm feeling a little more interested in my Green Island stories now, Kaohsiung will have to wait.

So after a couple long train rides we arrived in Taitung where the owner of our hotel picked us up. He is my favorite person in Taiwan by far, and I hardly know him. He was raised in South Africa for most his life and then spent some time in Ireland. He never stopped talking and had the most interesting accent you can imagine. He was hilarious. He got us safetly to our ferry 

If you know me then you know I'm not much of a water person, and i get motion sickness easily. Riding the ferry was fun at first... for the first 10 minutes. And then i just started getting freaked out at how much we were being thrown and the people throwing up behind us was getting old. So I shut my eyes and took a nap. The ride was about 50 minutes and I almost kissed the ground when we got off. 

Bree and I took the easy route by booking through "Taiwan Adventures,"  which I totally recommend if you ever have the option. They picked us up at the dock and took us to go get our scooter. What we didn't tell the guy is that we really didn't have much experience on a scooter. So somehow  i was in charge of riding to the hotel while following the van with Bree in it. I won't lie, I surprised myself on how well I did, But the scooter did die a few times (which wasn't me I swear) and we left it at some store and then brought us a new one later. 

Don't lie, I can see it, you're jealous. If I do say so myself I can pull off the hat + helmet pretty well. And lets not forget my hair, it has a mind of its own. Beautiful.

So once we were settled we were very eager to be on our way. Green Island is literally 20 Kilometers around and has  nice road all the way around it. There are no words to describe it's beauty as we quickly found out. Our first stop was the light house. 

 And the beautiful beach with the tide pools. This is where I took off a chunk of my toe while running around.

Pretty nifty eh? that would be a tissue and my hair band. No worries,  after a quick stop for a band aid we headed off. We were pretty much starving by now so we grabbed some food at a cute sea food restaurant. But I almost forgot the awesome warning signs....

My favorite one  is the No electrocuting, poisoning, or BOMBING of fish. Love it.

Pretty much The rest of the day was spent riding the scooter all around and taking beautiful pictures.

I could post pictures forever. The next one is a video, it was one of the only ways I could capture the beauty since my photography skills are lacking.

After  a full day of driving around and sight seeing we ended our day at the salt water hot springs (one of only three in the entire world!) They were very relaxing and.... I wouldn't recommend drinking the water because it's straight from the ocean, and it tastes like salt. Not that I would know, that's just what I hear.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel. Which was just lovely. Then we headed to our 8 o'clock snorkeling appointment!

Looking good all ready in my wet suit. The water wasn't cold but this way the sharks couldn't eat  my toes. Bree was kind enough to let me use her underwater camera bag. Still  not amazing photos but loved documenting the experience. It was incredible. You could reach out and touch the fish!

I loved every minute of the vacation. Hopefully I can post more soon of other places. Seems it's taking my a while to get the hang of this.

Love From Taiwan,
Jessica

I want to ride my bicycle

The most recent adventure was Dongfong Green Passage. 

 This is a beautiful bike bath just out side of a town called Fangyuan. It use to be an old railroad but when the train shut down they turned it into a bike bath. It was a beautiful sight. The path was well paved. There were quite a few hills on the way there but on the way back it was mostly down hill. This picture is an example of the "farms" you see all around.

 

This bridge was also on the path. 

   

These two girls, Veronica and Sara, are teaching at the English school in Fangyuan. I know them from the English branch we all attend. They were kind enough to invite me on this adventure of theirs. I defiantly could hang out with them everyday. We had a fun time together. (Don't mind our sweatyness. It was VERY hot)

This is a few from the bridge. Taiwan has some of the most random architecture I have ever seen. I couldn't tell you why this is even here but it looks cool. 

Along the way we also saw a few of the old train cars from the train that use to run on this path. They are just tourist attractions now. They were really neat to walk through.

 

The bike path finishes in a little town but we got to tired and hot to go all the way. We hit marker 11 and decided to head back. So we went about 22 Kilometers (around 13.5 miles). The ride back was especially nice with the wind in our face and the steady decline. We flew like eagles! While leaving I think it was decided that we would be returning again (especially when we spotted the go carts) 

On my way back to the train station later that day I stopped to take a picture of the "love locks." The girls explained to me that people will write their names on locks and then hook them together on this fence to symbolize their forever love. I thought it was cute :)