Green Island, Tai-Tung. 绿岛，台东县。

Green Island is about a 50 min boat right east of Tai-Tung (台东). First impression: It is a double edged sword. One side is candy; the other is gukkk.

What do I mean? Biggest mistake since a long time:

This morning I had goat milk, gyoza (fried dumplings Japanese style) in Ping Dong. Vicky drove me then to the train station. I got myself to Tai Tung and tried their famous Ikeue Bento (池上便当) with some yogurt.

A super friendly lady at the Tourist Information Centre at Tai Tung Traing Station explained to me the logistics of Green Island, then personally drove me to the docks where boats leave for the island!!! She happen to be going off-duty and heading that way ... but still, I didn't get this kind of treatment since days in Canada.

So I made a super deal with one of the service providers there whereby I pay 1500NT for a 2-way boat ride, accomodation (not fancy but decent), a scooter, and breakfast. I was very happy given the 2-way tix cost 800 by itself. I help myself to some watermelon juice and bought 2 pills for motion sickness (this was a rip off: 20NT a piece). The guy told me they don't sell this on the island so that's why I bought 2. Well, they do sell it on the island.

Anyways, I get on this jet boat with some students in high spirits. For the first 15 minutes they enjoy themselves outside being splashed by waves ....

Ok. Cut to the chase. There's a young sailor on the boat, and his primary task on this particular trip seemed to be collecting vomit from us and replenishing fresh vomit bags. Well, this gentleman got real busy about 25 minutes into the ride. From me, he got 2 loads.

Holy cow I hadn't thrown up this much in recent memory. -- Sorry for taking so long to make my point.

Advice: Don't eat that much before taking this ride to green Island. These "Pacific" waves ain't pacific at all!!!

On the island I take the locals' good advice of sleeping the pain off until 5pm, before which I better fill my scooter with gas or else the gas station closes (turns out there are shops that sell gas around the clock). Here I had a problem.

I kind of know how to ride a scooter, thanks to my ex-boss in Japan, who lent me his for a week during his vacation. (Thanks Ken!) The problem was for the life of me I couldn't remember how to start one.... Daan! I was pushing close to 5pm. Passer-bys are all on scooters going pretty quick so I couldn't stop one to ask. I didn't want to ask the hotel because that puts them in a difficult position, given one is supposed to have a license to drive this thing (Well, the emporor is far away -- 天高皇帝远). So asked this hotel cleaning lady. This nice looking local girl showed by how to start and run a scooter ...

Green island is awesome. The feature attraction is an "underwater" hotspring. Supposely one of only 3 in the world. The other 2 are in Hokkaido, Japan, and Italy. So called "underwater" because I guess the spring comes from an underwater volcano? I know from this mornings ride with that nice lady that this part of Taiwan lies on 2 different tectonic plates. One connecting to the Phillippines and the other the rest of Taiwan.

I didn't bring my camera with me because I heard there weren't storate facilities at the beaches. So, in my swimmers and a shirt I happily jolt off in my old sticky (with salt water) scooter and headed of to the hot spring. Along the way I take mental note of landmarks and restaurant menus. It took a good half hour before getting to the site. Of couse I had no helmet so was only riding at 1/3 the speed of what would actually turn me on =) , and, along the way I stoped by Guang Yin Dong (a buddist "cave", 观音洞) and prayed for my existence. I'm finding that this give me faith in what I'm doing and makes me feel a bit safer venturing on.

I get to the springs. The only scooters parked there belonged to people climbing to the top of some hill -- nobody soaking the spring water. Well, nobody except me. It wasn't the greatest hotspring - more salt than sulphur, and enclosure was cheap cement, the one I went to in Dong Pu was much better. But the surroundings made me feel like taking a bath in the ocean. Overall score: Pretty good feeling.

Feeling a bit lonely and weird after awhile, I also climbed that hill before dark, and started to head back before the moon takes over completely. The night ride was a happy one, just like the day ride. It feels so free. I Yahooed and Woohaaed my way back to where the restaurants were and tried some local stuff -- BBQ dear, more "ice". But I mostly filled myself with porridge due to the unfortunate puking that fragiled my stomach. Then I bought some nice gifts for friends and headed back to hotel to unstick myself.

Guess you know what happened next.... Given I'm writing this story in Green Island. Yes, Cybercafe.

It's almost midnight. Tomorrow I'm waking up at 5 to catch the sunrise, while bathing in "underwater" hotspring. I'll try to take some nice photos then. Ciao!

Next Morning

Woke up late at 8:30. Oh well, it was heavy overcast with some raindrops -- wouldn't hv seen any sunrise anyway. I took my scooter and made another tour of the island. I have to say this scootering around part has been the most fun part of my visit to Taiwan so far. The view here is short of spectacular but very natural and scenic -- Pacific Ocean, volcanic rocks, nice forest. Best part is I got to cruise around in it, kind of like Tarzan, but faster and no tree-climbing.

The setup on this island is perfect; it's developed to just the right extent. People get off the boat, get a room, the scooter around, then hotspring and BBQ their way to blissful oblivion, all on budget. This ain't Bali nor Phuket, but great for students and families looking for good fun in the ocean.

This was my overnight experience on Green Island. I would recommend it to people who speak Mandarin, and not afraid of getting salty.