2 Days in Green Island: Day 2--Snorkeling Trip

     Green Island sleepless! Because it is a famous tourist location, it has attracted many tourists to visit the island and travel around by motor scooters. The population was 3,199 people with 3,580 motor scooters in 2010. Most young tourists like college students love to ride their motor scooters at night with group of people. They enjoy a sense of excitement and tell some ghost's stories in the dark and rural areas to scare their girl friends or classmates, being romantic at night under the beautiful sky. In the early morning, tourists wake up early to enjoy the sunrise in the early morning. This is the life style of traveling on Green Island.  
     Our hotel room was next to the main road. It was midnight and people still rode their motor scooters on the street which made an lot of noise in the quiet country side. The noise from the motor scootors made it difficult to fall asleep and rest on the first night of travel. Counting sheeps didn't help at all. Finally I got a little rest. But once morning came the unresting sounds of the motor scootors broke the slient sky in the early morning. The dawn had come. My first night on Green Island was a sleepless.

My huband and I decided to go
on our own and not followed our
 group for the ecologic trip on our
first schedule. Our goal was to 
visit the lighthouse and village.
It could lead us to know more
about the island and would it be
worthy to come back to visit it
again?

I was surprised to learn about this lighthouse
which was related to American Red Cross.
In 1937 the President Hoover cruise ship ran
aground on the coast of Green Island and more
than 1,100 people were rescued by the islanders.
In 1938 American Red Cross donated money to
build this lighthouse to commemorate this
accident. It was destroyed in WWII and rebuilt 
in1948. 

Information about this cruise ship:

http://www.takaoclub.com/hoover/wreck.htm

The surrounding environment of the lighthouse

Riding bicycle here was a pleasure in the
morning and less traffic here. Most people probably
 went out the night before and were still in bed.

We arrived at the entrance to the
lighthouse. The main gate was
closed but we found there was
a creatures going in and out the
main gate without hesitance.

"Here I am. I am the creature! Don't look at me
and piss me off! I am ready for a fight" It was
fun just looking at it and taking pictures. This was
a land crab which is very common in Green island.

     After the exploration we went back to join our group for snorkeling. We were offered wetsuites and snorkels. I was afraid of water and didn't want to go for this activity. The trainer encouraged me to go and he promised me that he would keep me safe and watch me all the time. At the same time I knew if I didn't go, my husband wouldn't go either. It would be a pity for him who liked water activity to see the beauty of the underwater in Green Island. So, I wore a life vest and a life ring. It sounded crazy but I couldn't do it without these two things and still was in fear.

    The trainer took 12 people with a rope of life rings attached for each person and walked into the water. At certain point he gave us toasts to feed beautiful and colorful tropic fish. " Ouch, it hurts!" I was bitten by a beautiful fish while feeding them toasts on my hand. Also we were led to see the third biggest mushroom coral in the world. Believed or not," the tallest and oldest mushroom coral which is 12 meter high and 31 meter wide is in Green Island and the widest mushroom coral is in Australia." (1)

     Even though the fish and corals were beautiful and fantastic, my heart was beating hard and fast. I thought too much about all kind of mania questions to scare myself away from the beautiful scenery like a sudden tidal wave stroking us. Finally I couldn't take any more and asked the trainer to take me back to the land where I could stand firmly on the ground. It made me feel more safe.  

Our two days trip was ended with a wonderful
snorkeling trip. If I was not so panic, I believed
the snorkeling trip would be the best enjoyable
activity on the entire trip. Yes, I had to build a
strong confidence on playing in the water.  Also
I would say if a tourist didn't partisapate in the 
snorkeling trip on Green Island, he or she has
made a major mistake as that is the reason to go
to Green Island.

Good bye Green Island. We couldn't forget how
much fun that we had and would be back again.

Photo was taken by呂縉宇  in June, 2012.
 https://www.facebook.com/pig11
Some motor scooterists stopped their vehicle
to yield to this land crab while it was
crossing the road.  

After above picture was posted on Face
Book, it attracted many people and medias'
attention. A lot of crabs were killed
by tourists. This clip urges tourists to
slow down when riding or driving their
vehicles on the island due to the massive
land crabs or other animals crossing 
roads in summer time. 

     If you plan to visit the island, remember there is only one gas station on the entire island. You can rent a motor scootor when you arrive on the seaport. The visitor center also offers free bicycles or eletric bicycle rentals.

     The East Coast Tourist Bureau works with the local government to subside the cost of electric motor scooters to encourage the scooter rental stores to replace their old motor scooters with electric scooters in 2010. Hopefully it will work to reduce the air and noisy pollution.



P.S. It has been almost two years since we went to Green Island. If you asked me if I would visit Green Island and do the snorkeling again, I would not hesitate to say "yes." I will bring a waterproof camera with me for this beautiful tropical underwater marine life trip. 

1. National Taiwan Museum.  " 海洋台灣特展綠島的海底大香菇".  27 Apr. 2011. http://ntmedu.blogspot.com/2011/04/blog-post_27.html 23 July. 2012