How Green can an Island be?

Green island! There is only 3 words to describe this island. Fun! Fun! Fun!. Ok actually that is the same words repeated 3 times. Nonetheless, it is Fun that you will find here. Many popular islands in South East asia had been given a makeover to cater to tourist and rows of hotels, bars, al fresco dining could be seen lining along the beach front. That however is not what you will see here, though i cant say that for the future of this island.

Arranged with our transport to the jetty at our hotel for 250NT. Together in the mini van were 2 elderly ladies who were touring the area and they didn't seem to mind that the driver drop us off at the jetty first. We chatted on the way through the empty streets and they were surprised we came all the way from Singapore and were venturing out on our own.

Prior to this day, we had booked a package for green island and i would recommend everyone to do so. My friends know me as a person who avoid tours and package as much as possible so why this time, i opted otherwise?

Green island is a very small and tight knitted island and the main lucrative business would be those providing for tourist such as accommodation, food, transport rental, water activities, island exploring. The number of competitors vying for the same piece of bread isn't that many, some even providing a few different services at the same time. The price difference as well is almost none existence as the operators usually are the inhabitants of the island.

Package with Jack's Hotel: Cost 2400NT
Lodgings for 1 night
Ferry Return ticket (400NT on its own)
Scooter rental (400NT on its own excluding petrol)
Outdoor spring tickets (250NT on its own)
Snorkeling
Night Tour
Breakfast

Alright, back to our trip!The harbour isn't just used for ferries to green island, there are boats to lanyu and many fishing boats docked as well
Our ride to green island

The 40mins ride to green island is well knowned to be vomit magnet, and you had better believe it. Countless people were seen with white faces and plastic bags just 10 mins after we embark. I named the ride "roller coaster on water" and it had lived up to its (nick)name. I took a video at the deck and even though it may not seem to be rocking hard, you can still see the slight movement on the camera, now multiply it by 50 times.

Audrey decided to come onto the deck after feeling bored in the boat. Something occur ed and i bet she wished she had stayed inside.

While we were enjoying the strong breeze and hanging onto dear life on the deck, a young lady who was standing bout 5meters before us started to feel sick. The next thing that happened was her lunch flying out of her mouth and with the wind blowing to the back of the boat, landing on the numerous people standing along her side, audrey being one of them. The end result? Fresh puke over her clothes! I feel bad but i couldn't stop laughing the whole trip, i guess that's how i survived. Thanks audrey!

The aftermath without the bigger "pieces"

i took a video of someone puking in the sitting area. She seemed to have noticed me. And i met her again as we went on a snorkeling trip together later.


We were greeted at the harbour after the longest 40mins for some people(not me though) and brought to Jack's Hotel by Jack and his wife. I picked this place mainly due the pictures shown on the web and the prompt reply to questions posted. The price is the same as many other places.Stairs leading up
Living Room
Happy Buddha
Our scooters
Jack's Hotel

Another alternative for those who are afraid of riding a scooter is golf cart. Amelia was hesitant about riding and opted to rent one. The price is expensive at the 1000+NT range and requires a licence which she didnt have, resulting in a no go at the end. Fortunately the scooters didn't a licence...Shhh don't tell others i said that.

It was the first time we ever a rode a scooter and after a few minutes of warm up, we were all riding with the wind. Now.. where is the horn?
This is audrey's first 1 minute on a scooter! and 10 mins later she was speeding down the lane. Its that easy! whats more? parking is free! On a side note, i was inspired to get a motorcycle licence after this day and i had went to start!


Feeling hungry after the boat ride, we went to have our lunch and dessert. Sea weed Ice!! Let me tell you, this is the best sea weed i ever had. A must try for all who comes to green island. The whole place is beach theme even with shells used as bowls. Nothing beats eating off a shell with the sea breeze blowing in your face. Table decor Sea Weed Ice
Amelia's red bean almond ice
Audrey's strawberry ice
Immediately after our ice dessert, we had our snorkeling which audrey decided to opt out since she is already a frequent visitor of the underwater and got on the net to search for accommodations in Hua Lien(花莲). For first timers like me, it was a great experience though. The colourful features of the fishes and the water organisms is still a fascinating unknown to me. It sparked off my thought of going for diving trips. My camera is afraid of water, no pictures for it.

We have an island before us and the best transportation ever, the next best thing we can do is some exploring. There is only one main road in the island and whichever way we go, we would end up back at the hotel. With a simple map we were given, we went down the road and chanced onto a beach with a light house. Fishing in the sea
Empty waterfront
Except for these dried fishes
I got this picture of audrey in 1 shot!
And she had to do 10 before she can get this of me
I would move here to stay

For dinner, we had BBQ buffet(250NT/pax) by the sea. The boss was very friendly and keep checking on us to resupply our bbq. BBQ by the sea
In three!

At night, we actually had a night tour with the puking girl group, the ones we went snorkeling with. And the tour guide is actually the snorkeling guy as well! We decided not to opt for it at the very last minute as we were tired from the day's activities. However, our butts couldn't sit still, in the end me and audrey went for our very own night tour. Most of the sights were stated on the map and all we had to do was to follow it, or so we thought....

The streets at night were dimly lit and the only lights were from our scooter. Somehow we had ridden off the main road unknowingly and went onto a rocky trail which was very difficult to navigate. It was deserted and although my instincts told me to turn back, my adventurous side urge me to find out what is at the end of the road.

What seemed to appear before us is a dark field of some sort, void of human life and quiet and the moment we turned our headlights to looked around, we saw rows and rows of tombs lined up on the slope of a hill!! Needless to say, we quickly turned tailed and hurried back the way we came. We head back to the main road and immediately saw a big group of people riding scooter like ours. We figured they must be doing the night tour and followed them. Turns out the guide of this group is actually the BBQ owner we met earlier and he remembered us! We followed him, listened to his interesting stories about the various caves and about frogs having the ability to jump onto the "rich one". Again my camera is afraid of the dark, so no pictures again.

There is a 24 hours sea water hot spring on the island. One of the three on earth and it was said we could see the fabulous sunrise from there. Still feeling disappointed with Alishan's Sunrise, we went to try our luck at 4am. We rode in the empty streets with freezing sea breeze blowing onto us and rode our way to the other side of the island with chattering teeth. The walkway to hot spring in the sea!
Eggs that we bought
Spring "holes"
Another spring "holes" 3 in total with varying degrees
This unfortunate fello picked the wrong spring to mess with

This time again, we did not manage to see the sunrise. But we did have fun with the aunties who were soaking there. We left after the sun rise and instead of riding the way came from, we went the other direction(remember how i said there is only 1 main road and would lead us back to the hotel). The road was easy to navigate with lots of scenic views. We felt like we owned the island!

Empty roads
Doggy and Sleeping beauty rock formations advertised by the locals
HAHA!
Was feeling mischevious and told them that this is another famous rock formation bearing resemblance to a rat and they totally bought it!
It was a great view
When you are standing up there, it feels like you own the world
The vast ocean
Good times will always be remembered

On the way back, we pass by the "off the beaten track" route to the tombs and with the sun on our side, we decided to see what is really there. This time round, the place didnt seem so scary anymore and we even got a brief history lesson by amelia who could tell tons of information just by looking at the tombs. I'm impressed.

Hidden behind the darkness the night before is a totally unexploited beach. Although there are signs of human activities, it still feels like we were the first explorer to this land.
Hidden beach

We went walking around and found this really interesting cave, much like those that were used in ancient times. We even made our own discovery planet clip on it!


Following that, i conclude our Green Island Exploration Adventure. Go there not to look for luxury, comfort or shopping, you would be disappointed. Go there for fun, adventure and the sense of primitive experience. You would not want to leave. Go there quick before it gets a make over and turns into the uniquitous island scattered around.

Room 815

It is a great feeling to wake up and the first thing thing you see is fresh green vegetation soaked in morning dew right at your door step. However, that is not the case for us. Especially when we had to wake up at 3 in the morning!

Instead we were greeted by darkness, icy cold breeze and hordes of tourists.

Alishan isn't just famous for the mountains, alishan ladies, alishan hunk or the song that depicts them. What is it truly famous for is the SUN RISE, other than the humorous mayor who gets a chance to see it everyday.

We had reached the train station at 3.30AM, thinking that we would be the only few people there. What unfolded before us is what seems like the whole Alishan Population waiting for the train(150NT) to the peak of "Chu San" Chu Mountain.
This is what the interior of the train looks like BEFORE it was filled to the brim

On the way up to the peak, i suddenly remembered a blonde(no offence to all blondes out there) joke i came across.

A blonde, a brunette, and a redhead, all working for NASA, were trying to figure out where to go on the next trip. The brunette said, "We should go to Mars." The redhead said, "We should go to the Moon." The brunette and the redhead sat there arguing for a while. Suddenly, the blonde shouts, "Stop arguing! I know where the next expedition should be to ... the Sun!" The brunette and the redhead looked at each other and started laughing. The brunette finally said, "You can't go to the Sun. You would melt or burn up before you even got close!" The blonde said, "DUH... Not if you go at night!"

The highest mayor(red) in Taiwan! LiterallyThat is like 800 over HDB storeys!Awaiting the arrival of the SUN! And then it was over before we knew it

It was kind of disappointing that we did not manage to catch the sunrise due to the heavy fog. All we saw was the sky gradually lighting up the surrounding mountains and that was it, completed in a matters of minutes. All we are left with are breath taking pictures of the sunrise at the train station.

Feeling tired and sleep deprived, we went back to our hostel to sleep, not before taking some pictures and breakfast!

Train to the peak

11degrees, even colder than the night before

Some kind of meatballs that taste very much forgettable

Same with the noodles

There wasnt much stores around Alishan in the first place and being so early in the morning, most of it was not opened yet. I would say other than the steamboat, the rest of the meals were nothing to rave about.

The first view of the catholic hostel when coming in from the entrance

And you have to go down this long slope
Enter the door and you will find the front desk, the missing attendant can be found inside his private mini room behind the desk.

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The rooms in this hostel is expensive for what it is worth. The room is bleak and very basic. The private toilet is more like a big toilet with partitions. Sound proofing was terrible. We can hear conversation from the other room through the toilet! 1 door from our room to the toilet, the partition in the toilet and another door from the toilet on the other side to the next room. It was very chilly at night and there wasnt any heated. The only food that we can find in the 200m radius is cup noodles from the front desk. The place seems to be understaffed. There was only 1 person in charge that we saw and he couldnt get the dorm rooms(250NT/pax) ready for us in time so we had to take a room instead. Luckily there wasnt many people staying there.

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Currently the other accommodation in Alishan is restricted to mid to high end hotels. At non peak season, it works out to be of better value. Do look around before deciding on one.

At noon, it was time to roll down the mountains! on the much talked about Alishan train of course. The 3.5hrs ride was not as magnificent as i thought it would be. In fact, i slept through most of the trip(we woke up at 3am remember?).

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Another Alishan celebrity is the Railway Lunch Box or "铁路便当". The price is in the 200NT range. Again, this is another disappointment as all 3 of us thought that the meal simply...sucked. Not going to comment much, try it for yourself. As the adage goes, one man's poison is another man's treasure.

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An interesting event that took place on the train was when Amelia lost our Taiwan Phone! We had got the Taiwan phone(digital tour buddy they call it,links to it was posted earlier) from the tourism of Taiwan. We had used up all the credit so Amelia and Audrey went out to top it up as well as to get their Starbucks fix(yes they have an outlet on Alishan). We were halfway down the mountain when she realise that she could not find it. The train isnt stopping for another 2 hours and even if we were to wait it out and get off at the bottom, there would not be any transport to go up again, not to mention we have absolutely no idea where it could be. So all 3 of us started to panic and begin ransacking our packs, digging every single pockets. After 20mins of blood intensifying search.

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JK: Amelia, did you check your pockets?

Amelia: (Shuffling her jeans pockets)yeah it is not there.

JK: How bout your jacket pockets?

Amelia: What jacket pockets?

JK: (Pointing to the slits in the jackets) Those..

Amelia: (Tapping her side jacket) Ah, i found it...

JK: -_-"'

Then i went back to sleep. zzZzZZ(In)Famous Lunch Box
Looks not too bad, taste very much worst

Our destination after Alishan was Green Island(禄岛) and to get there we need to get to Taitung(台东) which was at the other side of the Formosa Island(Taiwan). Our day from noon till 10pm was spend on 3 different trains, one after another. We did not book any accommodation in Taitung but instead of being worried, i was feeling kind of excited. Before we left taiwan, michael had said that people in Taitung are very friendly and he even spend a night in a police station cause he could not find any place to sleep. Naturally being the dare devil me, i wanted to do that but was opposed by the 2 ladies. Lucky for them, we spotted many advertisement for minsu the moment we emerge out of the train. So no police station tonight for us. We walked around a little and found a hotel with giant neon signs 10mins away from the station. The place is called Xing Long"星龙" hotel. Bargained a little to 1500NT for a room for 3 and we gladly took it. The place looks very unoccupied, in the morning we only saw 1 other pair of customers. The room this time was better than what we had last night. Big room with 2 comfy queen size beds and full of toiletries.

Looks creepy at night
A face lift in the day

Room 815

The next day we head to Green Island, the place where we cant wait to be there. Stay tuned!