Hey Folks,
I hope this entry finds you all as well as can be considering the state of affairs back in the US. Good ol' W. sure is leaving a whopper of a problem for our next president, aye?
I'll get right down to it, last weekend was bloody fantastic. October tenth is a holiday here in Taiwan and celebrates the conception of the country, I believe. Anyway, all of us teachers had a nice long three day weekend to enjoy ourselves, from Friday to Sunday. As Saturday is a work day as well over here, for most it was a welcome break (I have the rarity of Saturdays off). Believe you me, we took full advantage of our time off.
Thursday night, the 9th, I got out of work around 9pm and motored straight home, grabbing a box of fried noodles on the way. I wolfed down my dinner and then hurriedly packed a bag, grabbed my camera and by 10:30 I was back out the door. It was a short drive over to Jon's place where I met up with three more of my fellow travelers. Brian, an Aussie, always seems to have a beer in his hand and smile on his face. Lauren, South Africa; and, of course, the Jon9000 himself. We took a cab to the bus station and met up with Allie and Jay, two more teachers. Then came the bus.
Ah, Taiwan.
For a little more than $10 US I got my own enormous, electrically reclining seat on a bus with only 17 other people. I had my own TV where I could watch television, movies, and I think there were some video games of sorts. I even got my own blanket. Delightful. If a bus could be first class, this was it. Jon sat next to me and around midnight we departed for our three hour ride to Kiaohsiung (pronounced G-aow-shung). We nursed a bottle of whiskey and reminisced about the good old days, napped a bit. Around 3am we arrived outside downtown Kiaohsiung and hoofed a short walk up the street to a 24 hour Mos Burger. For those of you that just said to yourselves "What the hell is Mos Burger?", it's a Japanese fast food burger joint. Beef and fried fish sandwiches, an awesome teriyaki chicken sandwich...and some other weird stuff I don't want any part of. How the hell do you make a 'rice burger'?
We spend the next two and a half hours here, playing cards, eating some food and waiting for our driver to come pick us up. Now, I know the word 'driver' may conjure up some images of a limosouine or something, but it was anything but that. First of all he was 30 minutes late and he drove a beat up blue van. Inside of which the very back seat, the one I shared with Allie and Lauren, broke after five minutes on the road. It wasn't surprising, really, this guy drove like a lunatic. I know that I've mentioned how crazy the drivers are here in the past, but this dude was something else. I saw some cool landscapes as he drove us from Kiaohsiung to Kenting, but he ws driving so fast I couldn't take any decent pictures. I heard that it was a two hour drive to Kenting, so when he picked us up at nearly 6am I was worried we would miss our 8am ferry.
He drove it in 50 minutes.
The ferry harbor was pretty cool, a lot of boats the likes of which I've never seen before. Wind power wind mills sat in the hazy distance just beyond green hills. The ferry itself seemed pretty solid, if expensive ($30 US each way). I didn't expect much in the way of sea sickness unless we hit some serious chop out on the open water; which we did. It was a very long two hours out to the island. Luckily I brought my mp3 player so I could put on soothing music and try not to think about my stomach, or food, or fluids, or the dozens of Taiwanese people around me all vomiting into plastic bags. But, once we got there and I stepped off the ferry...wow.
Never in my life had I been so overwhelmed, so moved by a landscape. I dare say that I was on the verge of tears at its beauty; something I had been waiting for and wanting to see my whole life. The sea was a deep, cobalt blue, with patches of rich turquoise closer to shore. Grayish black coral reefs marched out of its briny depths to meet the bottoms of several mountains that seemed to rise right out of the water. I have no idea how tall they were, but their amazingly green bulk dominated the island.
We grabbed our rental scooters, filled up the tanks and headed off down the only road for a weekend of good times. I hadn't ridden on a scooter without a brain bucket until then and it was strangely liberating, if a little scary. We camped literally in the yard of a school, setting up our tents in the grassy area inside the outdoor track. Lunch was had at one of the few actual restaurants on the island, in the village between us and the harbor. I say village because that's what it was, not a town. Roosters and stray dogs wandered the dusty streets between concrete homes and ranshackle tin sheds. A few pigs even strutted around, just for good measure. Did I mention there are also wild goats everywhere else?
I think this was the first time that I had been swimming in any ocean in October, and it was glorious. The beach was nice...but very different than what I was used to. It was mostly cobblestone instead of sand and there was a lot of driftwood, a lot of trash, and even a dead goat that probably got caught in the last typhoon. However! The water was absolutely wonderful, nice and warm and clear as glass. For awhile I sat in a sheltered cove area with fish the size of my palm swimming around me while I chewed the fat with Brian. During his story about his discovery of an amazing American drinking game that invloves solo cups and ping pong balls, a few goats waltzed by, stopping now and then to size us up.
After our dip we spent some time exploring the island, scootering around and taking photos of just about everything. At one point we were going down a stretch of road in between villages and in the short grass on the shoulder I saw a huge crab. As we zoomed by it gnashed it pincers at me as if to say "Yea you better keep going pal!" But we didn't. I made everyone turn around so I could snap a few pictures of my new, surly friend. Right after I jumped off the back of the scooter and pulled my camera out a local dude in a wet suit and life vest screeched to a halt right behind us. His whole face was lit up like it was Christmas and he kept saying "Hao suh! Hao suh!", which with the Taiwanese accent means "Good to eat." He's the dude in my Flickr and Facebook photos who is holding the crab up for us to see. Once he figured we had a good look at it he said thank you to us, popped the boot (trunk space under the seat), dropped the crab inside, shut it, then zoomed off. What a guy.
That night around 11 of us gathered on the same beach and made a driftwood fire that we enjoyed and then let burn down. Good hot driftwood coals grilled up our pork, whole fish, and prawns. It was a cool night on tropical island in the South Pacific Ocean, with the moon shining down, a beer in my hand, a belly full of awesome food, and another two days of vacation. The waves lapped gently against the rocks and I stared at the stars, and smiled, not a care in the world.
Next time: Day 2 on Orchid Island (Lanyu for you googlemappers). Snorkeling around the reef and when we thought we lost Brian. Why the north side of the island feels way more tropical and the stuff we saw there. The trial of trying to get home and yet another lunatic driving us around.
Take it easy, kids. Keep it real. Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-Wild goats are cool.
-Crabs on Orchid Island remind me too much of spiders.
-It's apparently a good idea to have a cooking show on TV during a 2 hour ferry ride in rough seas.
-There are eight mountains over 400 m high on the island, the tallest mountain is Mt. Hongtoushan (552m) (Wikipedia :P)
-Rented scooters come with an empty gas tank.
-Most people on the island are farmers that grow Taro or are fishermen.
-All cats have three names.