Orchid Island Day II

Howdy folks,

Day II of OI, as promised, sits below. Forgive any mistake or incoherencies, I woke up on my couch at 6am this morning with no pants on and a light wallet; life in the city.

On Saturday morning I woke up for the day around 8am or so, and crawled out of the tent into the hazy tropical morning. The air was still cool from the night before and a good wind was blowing from the north. Fresh air always makes a hangover feel better. On the ground less than ten feet from tent was Jon, slumbering peacefully in his sleeping bag after a night in the open air. Delightful.

Within thirty minutes or so the rest of our six person crew was up and ready for another day. Breakfast, we heard, was to be had at place in the next village down the coast to the south. No showers for us, we were on vacation! Five minutes on the scooters brought us to one of the nameless groupings of shantys and three story concrete fortresses. A black stray dog sat disconsolately on the front steps of said breakfast establishment, afflicted with what looked like mange and a small armada of flies. It seemed that everyone else that was touring the island got there right before we did so we didn't see our food for about an hour. I passed the time sitting on the side of the street watching the stray dog beg for food and pry open old food boxes with practiced ease to get at the tasty bits inside.

Then it was back to the home base for a few for a nap and some frisbee. Jon and Jay drove north the harbor village and rented us some snorkeling gear from the only snorkel guy there was. Back down to the beach and across to the coral reef. At first I thought the reef at the far end of the beach was bed rock, the bones of the island jutting out and down into the sea. But, once I got closer it became clear the formations were, now, fossilised coral. Walking on top of that stuff was what I've pictured alien planets being like: sparing vegetation only in select places, razor sharp coral beneath my feet, and the turquoise ocean slamming into the reef, coral spideres skittering across its sheer surface like creepy spiders (shudder). We strutted around for around half an hour looking for a place to jump in and explore the reef under the water and hoping the tide wouldn't come in and wash away our stuff.

Eventually, success. Of course, the water was fantastic again, if a little surgy. In my photos I have online of the campsite, that huge boulder thingy on the right side of the sunset photo, that's where we snorkeled. Right next to the behemoth and all around the area between it and the reef. Nice. I'd say my days snorkeling in the Florida Keys were much better as far as stuff to see, but this was still pretty cool. Some seargant majors, a grouper or two...pretty much the only fish I could identify. Jay and Allie swam out past the behemoth to the ocean side and then quickly came back as the current picked up quite a bit; nothing ruins a good vacation than a nice, strong rip tide. We stayed closer to the shore/reef...except Brian. He was a bit away from the group and didn't hear the news. For a few scary minutes we thought he was gone for good until Jay spotted his snorkel coming back around the corner. Jay went out to make sure Brian got back ok and the rest of us stayed behind...much to our disappointment. On his way out to Brian Jay came across a manta ray about eight feet across; thats a big guy ladies and gents, considering most of us saw fish no bigger than a softball. Some guys have all the luck.

After the snorkel it was nap time, some snacks and recouperation time. Lunch was ordered in the harbor village in a small restaurant with a menu that Jon couldn't quite decipher despite his prowess with Chinese. So, we reverted back to what all of us did our first few weeks in country: smile, point, nod. It worked. I got noodles of some kind with some beef bits, reminded me of linguine. Allie's noodles looked like alien seaweed or soggy fiber optic cables only with the glow.

No thanks.

Rested, eaten, energized, ready to rock 'n roll. It was back on the scooters and this time we turned our eyes north with cameras on our backs and snorkel gear in hand, just in case a spot looked particularly inviting. Which none of them did. The very second we rounded the bend to the north side of the island we got hit by the wind, which went from a nice breeze to a snarling animal in a blink of an eye. As this was a pretty nice day for the most part it wasn't surprising that there were considerably fewer villages out here. If this was a nice day, what's it like on a bad day? I've been through two typhoons and even in the heart of a city it was a bit scary; I can't imagine enduring the unbridled fury of such a storm in a hovel made from sheet metal and driftwood boards held down with rocks. There were also less scooters and combined with the fewer indigenous people, the north side of OI felt much more wild, almost jungle like. We stopped here and there to take in some sights, one of which was a big cave mouth that led to a dank interior with water dripping from the ceiling. A wooden cross jammed into a pile of rocks lurked in the rear of the cave, which branched off in a few other directions. I've seen how this movie ends, the curious dude with the sarcastic wit and nice camera is the first to go...wait, that's me!

Back out into the sunshine, thank you very much. We saw a lot of goats on the north side but they were usually pretty distant, sitting or prancing about high up on those crazy steep slopes they call home. The ocean up here would have been a snorkeling nightmare so we bagged that idea and headed home. Dinner was at the Epicurean which had English menus, score! A bottle of beer and some fried pork chops later I was feeling pretty great. Some whiskey sent me to bed; almost outside on the grass, but I left that to Jon. Too bad it started raining so he had to crawl into the tent at around 2am. I was the only one to wake up for a possible sunrise on Sunday morning so I went back to sleep as it looked cloudy anyway.

A morning swim, a dreadful tasting motion sickness pill called "Bomit," no I'm not joking, and it was back onto the ferry at 10.30am. The ride back to the mainland was considerably better than the way out. I stayed up on the top deck for awhile to say good-bye to Orchy, which slowly disappeared into the hazy distance. I saw some flying fish popping out the water as the boat motored for Kenting. Very strange animals. How come there aren't birds with gills or fins?

Then...then it was time for another maniac driver. I think there is a secret lunatic-driving school somewhere and all these guys could be professors. Instead of our driver from two days before we were picked up by two cabs, one of which already had two people in it. Shady. And definitely the scariest car ride on the planet. Emily drives her car with her knees and I never got that used to it but this cab driver...holy shit. For one thing he had those terrible, mossy, red teeth that comes from Betel Nut addiction. For those of you in the know he could have been an asian version of the Baron Harkonnen...fat (rare for Taiwan), ugly, and weird. I had to ride shotgun and sit right next to him. Joy. No big deal, except we were driving 120km/hr at least the whole way and he used the break down/scooter lane to pass at least a dozen cars with considerable regularity. Smoky and the Bandit comes to mind, this guy was driving like his pants were on fire. Holiday traffic sucks just as much here as it does back home and we hit a pretty good amount, lengthening out ride to a bit over 2 hours, even at lunatic speeds.

I had been placed in charge of counting how many betel nut's Captain Lunatic ate while we drove. Although I dozed off a few times I counted around eight or so. Keep in mind, betel nut is very similar to chewing tobacco and we were in the car for over two hours.

He didn't spit once.

Getting bus tickets from Kaohsiung (Gaow-shung) was like being at the circus. There must have been thousands of people all trying to get out of Kaohsiung in the next few hours and every bus was full and/or had an 80 person waiting list just to ask for tickets. Yet, Jon still found tickets...what a guy. Some weird flower lady street-urchin type pulled him to a booth and we scored tickets for a bus to Taichung. Right, cool, another good chair and an easy ride.

Hah.

The seats filled first, then the aisle, and then there were people sitting in the baggage area on the bottom level of the bus (seats are on 2nd level). Did I mention the ride to Taichung was five hours or so because of traffic and endless stops at nameless bus stops that could almost be put into the arm-pit areas of Los Angeles? At least I had a seat.

Next time: Halloween in Asia, yea they 'celebrate' it here too. Cheese, and how much I miss it. And other things of note I can't think of just now. Give me a break I didn't really sleep last night :D.

Take care of yourselves, as always.

Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.

Fun Facts:

-Thai food is really spicy.
-Mindless gameshows are just as mind numbing even if you can't understand what anyone is saying, or what they are doing, or anything else.
-Driving a car in Taiwain should be Jason Statham's next movie: Death Race II.
-Shrimp chips are weird!
-The temperature here is still around 28 when I go to bed at night, which is still in the 80's for you English system types.

10/10 Vacation

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.