Green Island Saturday Part 1

This past weekend I went to beautiful Green Island. I went with Melissa and a Taiwanese guy named Kevin. Kevin is one of three navy boys that she hangs out with and teaches them English.

We left Friday night after I got off work and took the train to Taidung. It was about a 3 hour train ride. I learned a little bit about the history of Chang Kai Shek along the way. He is an important man in Taiwan history. He was from China and his political party was in trouble or lost to the Communist Party so he fled China and came to Taiwan. My impression was that he either wanted to create an independent nation or he wanted to get enough people behind him so he could go back to China and take back control from the Communist party. My impression of him was favourable and I thought that all the Taiwanese thought of him favourably. Since there is a huge memorial for him in Taipei. However I learnt that only about 50% of the Taiwanese people like him because they feel that he was fighting against them and not with them. Plus his son let the Japanese occupy the island and opress the Taiwanese (not sure if I remember that fact exactly but something like that).

I taught Kevin about the history of Canada. After explaining the fur trade to him and the colonisation that occured as a result, he summed up the history of Canada in one sentence, "so, an animal, the beaver started the country of Canada". Brilliant he summed it up in one sentence. I had never thought of it that simply before but yes it is true. I wish I was still in school so I could use that as a thesis on a paper. I don't know if that is rather sad that Canada developed because of the greed of other countries to exploit it's natural resources and inhabitants or just proud to be a Canadian.

Anyway, stayed in Taidong for the night at a military hotel. It was super cheap and clean. Had some Taiwanese breakfast in the morning, some cheese dan bing, which is egg and cheese in a fajita shell and you eat it with chopsticks. And took the boat over to Green Island. We all took some Gravol for the boat ride over because the boat ride is notorious for people getting sick. The boat ride was enjoyable because we sat outside on the deck and could feel the breeze on my face. However the waves were huge and rolling. I'm glad I took that Gravol. The boat ride was pretty quick only took an hour.

Once we arrive we rent two scooters to tootle around on. Then head over to the campground to check it out. Kevin had booked us a site but all the sites with roofs were reserved because there was a concert on the island many people were coming to see on Saturday night. However a typhoon had just hit and another one was predicted to be coming on Monday. So luckily there were cancellations and we got a site with a roof. We found a spot we liked overlooking the ocean. It had a beautiful view.

Heres our campsite.

We eat a quick lunch of raw veggies that Kevin called "foreigners food" because they only eat vegetables that have been cooked. Then start our tour of the island.

The island takes about 30-45 minutes to drive around. Here is a picture of some of the driving scenery.


This is the road that goes all around the island along the coastline.
Here are some cool rock formations we saw.

This one is a sleeping puppy.

This one is sleeping beauty.



We went to Baisha Beach which means white sands beach. It had a walkway out into the ocean that was really cool but very scary. We walked out on it and there was no water on it. Then some big waves come in and come over the walkway. The current is quite strong and I can feel it pulling me in two directions. We take some pictures.

Here it looks like I am surfing but I am merely bracing myself for the wave you can see the pull of the current.

Melissa goes out to the end of the walkway and a big wave comes in and she almost gets pulled off the walkway. She had to put her hands down to hold on.


We decide maybe we should get off. Then a group of ten Taiwanese people decide to go on. They all shuffle out and it looks like they are having fun playing in the waves. Then all of a sudden uh oh. They all fall over like dominoes in a wave. It looks like they are alright. The wave recedes then they all get up and start to come back to shore. When most of them have gotten safely back on shore we look back and I see that two of them are still down and are flailing about in the water trying to get back onto the walkway. It is a boy and a girl and the boy was really struggling to stand up. The girl looked like she was trying to help him up and when they were almost up they would fall over again. So needless to say we were all starting to worry and debating if we should go out and help. One of their friends goes back out to help them but luckily at this time the waves had calmed down a little so they were able to stand up and then he helped them get back onto the walkway. It was definetly a scary thing to watch, how innocent playing can turn dangerous so quickly.


Heres the three amigos.