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?

2 Days in Green Island: Day 1--Bicycle Trip

       Hot, hot, hot! The temperature in Taipei reached 37C (100F) with humidity 50-70% and the dew point 24 C which feels like 42 C (112 F) for 7 days in a row in July 2012. The extreme heat has kept people away from the streets and staying at home or going to a beach to cool down.  

     What would you like to do when you plan to visit Taiwan for your summer vacation? If you like water sports such as snorkeling or scuba diving? I think Green Island which is an offshore island on the southeast coast of Taitung county is your best choice for the trip.  

     A couple of years ago my husband and I attended an ecogreen trip which was promoted by the government to ride bicycles around the island instead of riding motor scooters. It was a two day trip with the bicycle ride, ecological visit, and snorkeling on the island. 

     We arrived in Taitung city one day early prior to the trip. We stayed at the Teacher hostel in Taitung city which offered a reasonable price and comfortable accommodation. Its location was good. There were a supermarket and McDonald next to it. It also offered free bicycle rent for its guesses. We took the advantage of this free bicycle rent and rode along the bicycle trail which circled around the outskirt of the city. 

The view was taken from the Taitung City
bicycle trail loop.

We met the tour agent in Fugang Fishery Harbor
 which was the main public transportation port 
to Green Island and Orchid Island from Taiwan. 
Schedule and Info:
http://travel.network.com.tw/tourguide/island/sanasai/rd.asp

Visiting the Fisherman's Wharf in Chenggong Township

     "All the fishing boats have returned to the harbor and well prepared for embracing the strike of the typhoon and now the wave is getting bigger...," said news corespondent. This kind of news was very common when a typhoon appeared to hit Taiwan. It was also time for me to learn about harbors' locations in cities or counties from typhoon news. Chenggong Harbor was one of the harbors that I had learned from the news.  

     This was the first time that my husband and I stopped in the fishing town of Chenggon on the East Coast taking a leisure travel day. When we arrived in the town, lunch time had past.We drove a few blocks and found the seafood restaurant which was indicated or recommended in our GPS system. When talking about eating in Taiwan, some western travelers, perhaps I should say my husband, can't understand Taiwanese eating philosophy, such as waiting in a long line just for gourmet food etc. 

     Almost each city or town has its special or famous food in Taiwan. The food became popular because the town or city is located in an agricultural center or a seafood market and the main sources of the food are directly from this area. Sellers emphasize the freshness and good quality of the food and special ingredients and taste of the food which attracts visitors to visit their stores.  

When we arrived at this restaurant, there were no 
costumers. We wondered if the store was still open 
after lunch time during weekdays. We walked in 
and saw the writings and photos on this wall which 
meant it was a popular and famous restaurant. It has
 hosted celebrities and other important people. They 
signed their name on the wall as witnesses to proof 
that food was good. 

When Beautiful Bay Is No Longer Beautiful!

     Sometimes, translating a place or a word is not easy to explain its real meaning or one' s thoughts. How to choose a word becomes a critical issue in the translation process. Beautiful Bay sounded like it would be a really beautiful place for me to visit when I first heard Beautiful Bay. But after I searched for information and detail about it , I found out it was not a beautiful place but ugly to me. In fact, Beautiful Bay is a hotel name which was built illegally at Sanyuan Bay on the east coast north of Taitung city. 

Driving on the east coast highway 11 near Dulan village,
Beautiful Bay hotel was very obvious sitting next to the
highway. I was very curious about the beach where the 
hotel was located. I tried to find a road to reach the beach 
since the hotel blocked the access. A local resident pointed 
his finger to the north to show me that there was a road; 
however it didn't do any good because I found it was a small 
and narrow road. I asked my husband to park our car 
and waited for me on the road side.   

A Secret Pathway in Dulan

     We didn't have specific plans for this trip. We just played it by ear on the east coast in Taitung county. I decided to visit this small aboriginal town of Dulan because of its well-known and humorous name to common people in Taiwan. Dulan which is Atolan in the Amis tribe language means walls built by stones. But it is not the reason that made it so well-known in Taiwan. 

     The pronunciation of Dulan has made it famous. Du is a verb which means poke. Lan refers to male sex organ in Taiwanese language. Dulan means poke male's sex organ which infers to being unhappy, dislike, and other meanings, like againest someone's opinion etc. It is folks' way to express their feelings toward somethings or someones whom they dislike. 

     If you come to visit this place, you might be surprised why there are so many vendors selling school bags. To my understanding, it is because of the printed characters of Dulan on the bag.  

The view was taking from the entrance at the  Dulan Mountain trail.
We drove 4.3KM from the main highway arriving at the entrance.

Xiaoyehliu- Natural Rock Formations on The East Coast

     I visited Yehliu Geopark on the northeast coast many times but I had never been to Xiaoyehliu on the east coast near Taitung. I was curious what the differences were between Yehliu Geopark and Xiaoyehliu Natural Stone Sculptural Park. From the meaning of the words, xiao means small which refers that Xiaoyehliu is smaller than Yehliu.  Hence, different rock formations and shapes are differences between the two . 

This is the visitor center. It is very different than other national parks 
or national recreation areas. It is very modern and it looks like a church.

This sculpture is displayed outside of the visitor center.

Exploring Donghe Township on the East Coast

     Before I visited Donghe township, I was unfamiliar with this area. It was never on my map and had never been a popular place in Taiwan. The only thing I heard about it was its famous steamed meat buns. Most travelers just parked and ordered the steamed meat buns to go and then continued their journey. 

     It was also not on our schedule this time when we visited Taitung county; however, for some reasons we started exploring this small town. The population in Donghe is only 1,367 people. The population is divided into two groups which are 993 indigenous people the Amis tribe and 374 of Han decent. 

This is the famous steamed meat bun store which is located
on the main highway 11. It attracts a lot of tour buses, cars,
and bicyclists stopping here. The steamed meat bun is a northern
Chinese style food.