Friday April 2, 2010

I woke up to some grey skies. Those grey skies came with some wind and rain, and that meant some pretty heavy seas. The boat was quite large (I thought), but I guess large is a relative concept when you’re out in open ocean. The waves out there didn’t care how big the boat was. They tossed the boat around like it was a toy. I stayed outside on deck the entire trip partially to avoid the intense air conditioning and horrible music inside and partially to try to stave off seasickness.

But to begin at the beginning: After a quick breakfast in Taitung, I went back to the hotel and packed up. That took just a few minutes, though I was wondering, again, why I had so much stuff. I wonder how in the world I managed those trips to Guinea and Ethiopia. I’ve got this huge backpack and daypack, both packed to the brim, and I don’t have any camping gear, no sleeping bag, no tent, no sleeping pad, no food, no water, no camp stove, no pots and pans. How did I manage it in Ethiopia and Guinea?

The boats to the islands leave from Fugang Harbor, which is about six kilometers from Taitung proper. There might be a bus out there, but I hadn’t heard of it, and I just hopped in a taxi. That was far more convenient. The only trick there was that the taxi driver had his wife and young son installed in the back seat. Perhaps they rode around back there all day? Perhaps they were just there temporarily? The fare to the harbor came to NT$225 – a bargain by Canadian standards.

Things got a bit confusing when I arrived. I had booked my ticket over the phone, and I had no idea what the name of the company or the ferry was. I got the impression that they all booked through one central place anyway. There was a group of people out front of a building and I assumed that was the ticket office for the harbor. The door was locked, however, and I couldn’t get inside. A bunch of people tried to help me, but none of them spoke English, and there was some confusion as they tried to figure out which tour group I was with. A few people were going through checklists and clipboards trying to find my name. I got them to understand that I wasn’t on any list. So they imagined I wouldn’t be able to get a ticket – it was too late. But I had a reservation.

Apparently, I had some time to kill, so I got out my Aria and wandered around the harbor. It had been a long time since I had the SLR out. I’d forgotten what a pleasure it was to hold a camera like that and look through the viewfinder. Everything is bright and clear and vivid – unlike what you see or don’t see with a digital camera. I had the 50 mm lens on it and just left it on. I liked that as well. I liked that it tightened up my field of view and focused me on things. If I wanted to get a larger field of view, I simply backed up a few steps. There were lots of fishing boats around, and I snapped a roll and a half of images of boats and all the junk that piles up on them. I didn’t try to take pictures of people.

Fish Auction in Fugang Harbor

My SLR failed me when it came to the local fish market. I stumbled across a fish auction underneath a nearby roof. Various fish large and small were in piles on the cement floor. Each fish or group of fish had a number on it, and people were looking at what was on offer and preparing to bid on them. It was a bit dark under the roof, and the Aria couldn’t get an exposure. Then I got out my little digital camera and shot some pictures of the fish. There were tuna, moray eels, stingrays, and a whole bunch of things that I didn’t recognize.

Getting on the Boat

It wasn’t clear where my boat was, but a woman pointed one out and indicated that it would move to a dock area when it was time to board. Quite a few people were waiting, and I was surprised to see that they were all students. There were no older people at all. And I learned that almost all of them were going to Green Island. Green Island is closer than Lanyu and is much more developed. Only a few people were going to Lanyu, which made me wonder what all the fuss about tickets was about. This always seems to happen. I had a lot of trouble getting a reservation on one of these boats. But when the boat left, it was practically empty. I’d say it was at about a fifth of its capacity in terms of seats, if that. The same was true of the train. I was extremely lucky to get the seat that I did. All trains were sold out. Yet, the train was half empty for much of its trip. I think the bottleneck comes out of Taipei. When the train left from Taipei, it was full. But at the very first few towns, many people got off, and the train slowly emptied. Few people got on to replace the ones who got off.

When I paid for my ticket at the counter, I saw my name on a computer screen. It listed both the boat that I was taking today and the boat that I was returning with on Monday. Still no boat on Tuesday that I know of. I was disappointed at first about there being no boat on Tuesday, but it actually worked out for the best. I got out here a day early, so I will have this afternoon, and then two full days and a morning on Lanyu. It’s pretty clear that if I’d tried to take the 3:30 boat on Tuesday, I wouldn’t have made my flight. I understood that the airport was right beside the harbor, but I was wrong. There is a runway there, but it isn’t the public airport. That is far away. And it didn’t take 2.5 hours to get here today. It took 3 hours. So I wouldn’t have gotten back on Tuesday until 6:30 or later, and that is when my flight leaves.

The boat was nothing special. One thing I didn’t like was that you couldn’t go to the front. You could either sit inside or you could hang out at the back on two levels. There was no front part. I keep hoping someday to be at the front of a ship with dolphins swimming in the bow wave. It’s never happened to me on all the boats I’ve been on.

There were two other foreigners on the boat – both with Taiwanese girlfriends. I spoke to one of them for a while – a nice guy named Manny. He had had the same troubles I had getting train tickets and that sort of thing. He had to resort to an overnight bus to Kaohsiung and then another bus from there to Taitung. He hadn’t slept all night. He could have made some other arrangements, but he didn’t want to take a day off work. It surprises me how many people think like that. The idea is that by taking a day off, he loses NT$3,000 in salary. So he mentally adds that to the cost of the trip. I get the logic, but I don’t see that it makes any difference. You aren’t losing that money. You just aren’t earning it. There’s a difference.

A young Taiwanese started chatting with me while I was hanging out at the back of the boat. He had just graduated from university and he was with a big group of classmates on a school trip. He and his classmates were only going to Lanyu for one day. He said that that was all they could afford.

The trip was pretty rough, as I hinted. I can’t say for sure how high the swells were, but the biggest ones were easily 15 feet high from the trough to the top. In terms of the effect that they had on the boat, it wasn’t their height that impressed. It was their sheer size. They rolled past us like mountains and simply tossed us around. Occasionally, a swell would hit us in just such a way as to take the whole rear of the boat and spin it around. It often felt like we were on a roller coaster. I took some Dramamine to stave off seasickness. I can’t say whether it worked or not. I didn’t really get seasick, but maybe I wouldn’t have anyway even without the Dramamine. Only toward the end did I start to feel a bit queasy. I have the sense that if the trip had gone for much longer than the 3 hours, I’d have started to get sick. I really had to be careful as I walked around the boat. I had to hold on to something at all times. If I didn’t, I would have been thrown off my feet in no time, it was that rough.

Arriving on Lanyu

The views of Lanyu when we came into the harbor were spectacular. Being of the movie generation, I instantly thought of the island in Jurassic Park. The mountains came almost right to the water’s edge. Green and round. Very beautiful.

I wasn’t sure what would happen when I arrived. I had called ahead to the homestay guy, but his wife answered and said that her husband wasn’t home. She said he would call back, but he never did. Everyone was being met at the boat by a vehicle of some kind. I started getting ready to walk into town. I had no idea where to go or how to get in touch with this guy, but I assumed it would all work out somehow or other. I had just put on my backpack when a van pulled up and a young guy showed me a clipboard with my phone number on it. It turns out that the homestay guy had gone to Taipei for the day (he’d flown, I think). This guy with the van was the scooter rental guy. He was in touch with the homestay guy by cell phone, and everything was cool. He drove me to a village up the road and we stopped at a church there. I thought I was going to spend one night at the homestay, but something had changed, and I was at the church already. The room was very basic – just three mattresses on the floor with some quilts. There was no bathroom, but there was a bathroom in the hallway nearby complete with a shower. So I’m sitting pretty.

I dropped off my backpack, and then I got back into the van with the scooter guy. We drove to the main village and to his scooter shop. He gave me the keys to my scooter, and I was very pleased. It is very new though smaller than the one I have in Taipei. It will be interesting to compare the two. Right next door to his scooter shop was a restaurant, and I had a great lunch of vegetables, chicken, and rice, plus an iced coffee shake of some kind. They’re playing old jazz standards. It’s a very nice place with a gorgeous waitress. I seem to be running into beautiful women in the service industry all the time lately.

Driving Around Lanyu for the First Time

Update: 6:45 p.m. The Epicurean Café.

And no, that name is not a joke. This restaurant – a lovely place – is called The Epicurean Café. They are also playing oldies. It’s very odd. The Epicurean Café just happens to sit right beside the church where I’m lodging. Every table is full – occupied by young Taiwanese. It seems that Orchid Island is the preserve of the young.

To back up: My first task was to get gas for the scooter. When I was on Palawan and I rented the motorcycle, the guy gave it to me with an empty tank. The same thing happened here. I drove through the main village – Hongtou (also called I-mowrod)– but I didn’t see anyplace to get gas. I drove out the other end and turned around and came back again, but I didn’t see anyplace with gas. I asked some people, and they just pointed down the road. I kept asking more and more people, and they just kept pointing up the road. I figured out that the gas station must be in Yeyou – the town near the harbor. Hongtou and Yeyou are the two main villages on the island.

The weather continued to deteriorate, so I found myself getting wetter and wetter as I drove. At the gas station, I finally gave in and got out my full set of rain gear and put it on. I met an Australian at the gas station. He was filling up the tank on his scooter. He was obviously a permanent resident of the island. He was far too sensibly dressed and well put together to be a tourist. He told me that he was there doing research. I assume it had something to do with nature and wildlife, because he was dressed for the bush and had high-powered binoculars.

The weather was miserable, but it was still early in the day, and I really didn’t have anywhere to go. I’d had a fantastic lunch and felt full of beans, so I simply kept driving. The Australian had told me about a great snorkeling spot up the coast a little bit (just before the tunnel) and I drove in that direction. Then I kept driving, and I was rewarded with some truly outstanding scenery. I stopped again and again just to gaze around me. This is a beautiful island. It was quite dark, so I don’t imagine the pictures will turn out, but I took a lot of pictures. I shot with the 50 mm for a while and then I had to give in and put on the wide angle. The mountains were simply too alluring not to try to jam them all in. I honestly couldn’t believe how beautiful and dramatic it was. The island is far outstripping my expectations.

I passed beautiful mountains, incredible beaches, rugged harbors and interesting villages. The whole island is volcanic, and the rock formations were extraordinary. There were lots of caves to explore. I simply couldn’t believe my eyes. I’m starting to think I’m leading a charmed life of late. Every experience I seek out turns to gold. Admittedly, the weather could be better, but I’m taking the weather in stride. The drizzle and high winds gave a kind of rugged charm to the setting. And I have hopes that I’ll get at least one sunny day out of the trip, if not tomorrow, then Sunday, and if not Sunday, perhaps Monday morning. All I really need is that one day of a bit of sun. Even if it rains the whole time, I’ll still be satisfied with my decision to come here. Being here makes the thought of going back to work that much more unpleasant. But it is work that gives me the money to be able to do this, so I shouldn’t complain.

The island is relatively small, and I ended up driving entirely around it. Even with all my stops, it only took about two and a half hours. Driving non-stop, you could probably drive around the place in an hour. I have to say that now that I’ve had a chance to compare the two scooters, my Attila far outstrips this one. This scooter is quite new, but it is a basic Sym and a 125. Mine is a 150. I don’t know if that extra 25 cc’s make a big difference, but it sure feels like it to me. This 125 feels like a toy compared to my 150. The 150 has far more power and is much smoother and more fun to drive. The 125 kept pulling to one side and when I hit the throttle, it took a long time to respond and then did so only half-heartedly. My 150 responds instantly with much more acceleration and power.

The island was picturesque all the way around, and the road was lots of fun. Most of the time, it was just a narrow cement track. It wasn’t a road at all. And there was almost no traffic. The people were completely unguarded and friendly. I rode without a helmet and everyone could see that I was a white guy. Everyone smiled and waved and nodded at me. They aren’t jaded from tourism at all. There is even a road that goes through the middle of the island and over the top of the mountains. The view from up there is supposed to be great, so I’ll drive up there tomorrow or the next day.

I drove around the entire island and then stopped off at an outdoor place for a coffee. I probably shouldn’t have bothered. I was quite wet and cold with that damp cold that really gets to you. My fingers were wrinkled like I’d been in the bathtub for an hour. After my coffee, I drove around a little bit exploring the town, and then I drove back to my room at the church. I was pleased to find that the bathroom there had hot water in the shower. I soaked in that and got warmed up. Then I unpacked and lay in my room for a while resting and reading until it was time for dinner.

It looks like food might be an issue over the weekend. Today is only Friday, and this restaurant is jammed. At first, they even tried to make me sit outside. It’s too cold and wet though, and I asked if I could sit at the bar. They’re surprisingly well organized with a large menu. They even have a free Internet connection, but there is no way I am getting on the Internet. I’m sick of the Internet, to be honest.

So far, this is ranking up there with the stranger little trips I’ve taken. I was picked up at the harbor by a guy who doesn’t speak a work of English and dropped off at a church and then handed a scooter. I have no idea who is in charge of anything or who I should pay. I don’t have a key for my room at the church. I assume that the room is mine alone. There are three mattresses in there all pushed together, though.

 

Tags: Friday April, Fugang Harbor, Ivalino, Lanyu Trip, Orchid Island, scooter, Taitung, Taiwan, Underground house, Yami