Orchid Island

We're back... and tired. We left on Friday/Satruday at midnight.... I'm usually not sleeping well in a car so it's like sleepless nigth for me. We then arrived in the harbor in Kenting at 5 AM... 2 freaking hours to early. Took the medicine for sea-sickness early and doze off more in the car. Pushed by a bunch of older tourist we got seat in the boat... according to the strategy - in the middle in the back of the boat. Generally WE didn't puke... other... not that lucky... the guy next to me was puking all 2 hours long -_-

We lucky ones arrived to Orchid Island around 11 AM feeling physically well :D We got a very old and well-used van... of course without car plate, becuase on this island car plates are no necessary, and so are helmets for scooters. They didn't even provide any later when we rented 2 scooters. We first left our stuff in the small guest house, owned by my landlord's friend and then went in the bouncy van to see some of the island. It was windy, bouncy and beautiful :) We've spotted many goats on the way. Cuties I must say, just why they walk on the streets like it's made for them? However I was surprised how skilled they are in hopping around the rocks. Generally the island is just big mountains... green mountains... but we didn't have time to go hiking :| too bad. We tried some taro icecreams, then water with taro icecreams inside. Good and refreshing, if you love taro as much as me :D After the crazy ride we went to the place we had all our meals on the island. It was also owned by my landlord's friend, and actually pretty Taiwanese-like :D Round table, steamed cabbage, taro soup, friend fish (flying fish), pork, friend squid and so on :D

After lunch we went back to "xiu xi" (rest), as we all were sleepy and we had over 1 hour till snorkeling. I went by myself too look for souvenirs and photos... and that was a little awkward. Orchid Island is less touristic place I think. There are a lot of locals on the streets and I couldn't really see tourists. Houses and streets are very small so once you walk the street it feels like you walk on the yard of local people... I wanted to see small cute church on the top of tiny street. WOW... I felt like intruder... people where all out in front of their houses talking and eating, and turning silent when I passed. I was so afraid to take out my camera, and just nodded apologizing for intruding their personal space. Well I must say I couldn't take my eyes of a wooden cage of the size of one pig (exactly!) in which dwelled a pig, not very happy I guess... she was making a lot of noise. DOwn the road then I met a hen with kids.... this I dared to snap a photo of :D

Then I went back to the room and also slept. It came easy!

SNORKELING time! Ok.... I am a new huge fan of it! We first went to get the equipment... the diving outift, shoes, glasses and the tube (?) and floating vest :D then we drove to the northern part of the island and got to water there. The coach gave us small training of how to use the mask, how to breath with it, how to stand up in water and so on. Then we got a hang of the floating wheels and we went to watch the underwater world. It was so alive and even on such a shallow level (that we were stepping on) . It was so bright and clear, colourful. We've seen a lot of those "nemo" fish (dunno English name) and also the "Doris" fish (nemo's friend :D).

Later on the instructor let us take of the vests and just swim around in the suits, and also taught us a little about diving. I tried to dive by myself but my body was keeping on going up. grrrr... then me and Leah, we just were almost crawling around the shallow part of the reef with our faces under water. Too bad I cut my finger and had to go out earlier. The water was so salty it really hurt to keep it there.

On the way back we did some more souvenir shopping (got a bracelet). After taking shower (or not) and playing some BANG! meanwhile we went for dinner. Was similar to the lunch actually, just the guys drunk a lot of beer. After that they didn't plan anything more so I talked Aaron and Leah into renting scooters and going around the island on our own. We first wanted to go to see the lighthouse, but our landlord's local friend told us it's dangerous because of the spirits in that area. She said duirng the day it's ok but not at night. Ehm... yeah well, we changed the plan to just going around the island also because it was so dark and the road to lighthouse seemed a little dangerous. On the ride we stopped few times to watch stars. At last we could see loads of them, not like in the city. It was very windy, and me and Leah might have hit a crab on the way... but it was good:) After that we went straight to beds and fell asleep in seconds.

Sunday? Didn't do much. Breakfast, more souvenir shopping, boat. It was only nice to see the guy who rented us scooters came to look for us because he didn't know we needed scooters only for 2 hours and he charged us for whole day, so he gave us back some money. WOW! I got a necklace for myself too... I just liked it... one of thos time when you can't stop yourself because the thing is just supposed to be yours :)

On the way back my stomach was ok. We even went to the upper deck to see Taiwan from "outside". Some people have seen doplhins, but it was when I was dozing off. The way back? Nothing special, just tiring, and raining.

Being back to reality is always hard~ tomorrow 2 exams, meeting my professor, and visiting doctor at 9 pm... will be a long tiring day! but in 3 weeks I will go home. I really want to this time.