Green Island (0)

Posted 13 April, 2009 in Travel

After a couple of months of working I was more than ready for a holiday so Me and Debs booked ourselves a short 3 day weekend break to Green Island. Green Island is a small volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean, about 20 miles off the eastern coast of Taiwan.

We decided it would be nice to splash out and have it all sorted for us by greenislandadventures.com. So we did, and it was.

Here’s the story of our green island adventure:

Thursday 9^th / Friday 10^th April

We got the train to Taichung and then got the night bus from Taichung to Taitung, this bus departed at 11.20pm and took about 6 hours so we got some kip. We woke up at about 5.30 am, when the bus driver wanted us off his bus, and sat on the nearest bench at the side of the road. The reason we’d decided to pay a bit extra for the trip was because we didn’t want to have to think, and think we did not, we didn’t even think to ask what the logistics of the trip were. So we sat and we waited and we didn’t think some more and eventually a taxi pulled up with a little sign saying Simon. Excellent. We got in the taxi and he took us to the ferry port in Taitung.

Whilst we were waiting for our ferry we decided to do a puzzle but since we still weren’t thinking Debbie had to ask for help from a 6 year old girl.

 

The ferry ride (ride is definitely the right word here – It was like being on the pirate ship at Alton Towers) there was filled with the sounds of people throwing up and the stench that comes with it. I needed a wee but didn’t really want to go in the toilets so instead went to sleep.

A little bit later we arrived at the island, a man with a minivan was waiting for us and holding a sign that read “Simon”. Sweet. He took us to our hotel and gave us a room and a scooter! Our hotel was called Jacks, here’s a map of the island: 

 

The island isn’t very big, you can easily drive a full loop around it in about 30 minutes on a scooter and we had the best part of three days.

To start with we went to the lighthouse, here’s a picture of me with it:

 

The 33 metre high lighthouse was built after an American ship ran aground in the coral reefs around Green Island back in the 1930s. I think the Americans even paid for it.

Next we went and had a look at some caves over on the north east of the island and found a cave goat. We got some food, had a look at some old gun turrets and then headed over to the hot springs on the south of the island. Here’s a picture of the hot springs:

 

These hot springs aren’t just your run of the mill hot spring, oh no, they are one of only three, known, salt water hot springs in the world. The WORLD!

We spent most of the rest of the evening relaxing in salty, sulphur water and it was great!

 

Saturday 11^th April

In an attempt to see the sun rise over the pacific ocean we got up at 5am, pulled on our clothes, got on our scooter – stopped at a 7/11 for chocolate milk and oreos – and drove around to the eastern side of the island. Here’s a picture of my wrist watch to prove the time:

 

It’s not very often you’re sitting on a small island out on the Pacific Ocean at such a silly hour so we figured a celebration was probably due and got out a bottle of champagne we’d been carrying around just in case such a scenario ever occurred. Here’s Debbie opening the champagne:

 

When I took the picture I thought it was just my eyes out of focus - due to not being awake properly, my eyes do usually focus themselves -  but it would appear that the photo is also out of focus – my camera is supposed to focus itself but sometimes doesn’t.

After yet another failed attempt at seeing a sun rise (I’m beginning to lose faith in the sun) we headed back to our hotel and got a few more hours sleep before driving to the summit of the island.

We couldn’t get to the actual summit because it was owned by the military and trespassing didn’t seem like a very clever idea considering what the consequences could be, but we did find a nice hiking trail and did that instead. On the trail we must have seen at least a thousand lizards - seriously I’m not exaggerating. Also, and I’m still not exaggerating, there were spiders as big as your head. Well ok I’m exaggerating a little bit unless you have a tiny head, which I don’t. But anyways, these spiders were massive and we were lucky we didn’t get caught in their webs. Here’s one of the spiders we had to leg it passed:

 

After the hike we went snorkelling but not before we’d eaten some raw fish to re-affirm our position in the food chain.

I don’t recall ever going snorkelling before so probably never have but I will definitely go again now that I’ve seen what I’ve been missing all these years. I don’t have any pictures to show you as my camera isn’t waterproof but I can assure you it was amazing. I must admit I was a bit freaked out when the snorkelling instructor gave us our crappy snorkels and a leaf to clean the manky mouth piece with but I soon forgot what I was biting down on once I saw the fish, they were like rainbows and some of them had tools (like a saw and a hammer) for their head!

 

Sunday 12^th April

 

Green Island was the home to three prisons (they’re still there but they don’t have any prisoners in them, one might actually, but the other two don’t, and without prisoners they’re basically buildings hence why I said “was the home” and not “is the home”. Anyway we decided to visit the prisons, sorry buildings, to experience a bit of the islands history and, obviously, because of morbid curiosity.

Oasis villa (1972 – 1987) was the main one open to the public and was once home to many political prisoners. I don’t know a lot about it so won’t pretend to and instead will show you a picture of it, here is a picture of it:

 

We had a wonder around a few more sites such as the Human Rights Monument dedicated to the people held in the islands prisons, went to the deer park and stroked some little dears (oh dear I just made a deer joke). And then went to the beach to chill out for a while before starting the long journey home. Apparently I had a sleep too.

 

Unfortunately Debbie didn’t.

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