Green Island

I had organised for a 2 day “package” of Green Island, which included the taxi and ferry rides, accommodation, scooter hire and a snorkeling trip. Jack picked me up from the ferry terminal and set off towards his hotel, giving me a quick tour on the way. Green Island only has one main road that circles the island, and takes about an hour and a half on a slow scooter ride. We passed the main attractions – the airport (they make a killing, as most people come by boat, and can’t stomach the thought of the return and buy last minute flights), the old prison (very interesting history), the new prison (it’s still a prison, so don’t go in and try to take photos) and “downtown” ( a strip of about 10 shops or so).

Jack set me up with a room (absolutely magnificent room with beautiful dark teak floors and furniture) and showed me my scooter. He was more than a little worried when he found out I had only ridden a few times, and made me practice a few times in front of him, but I must of passed for he let me take the scooter anyway.

Jack's Inn, the boutique hotel that I stayed at whilst on Green Island.

Jack's Inn, the boutique hotel that I stayed at whilst on Green Island.

I ended up at the BBQ joint opposite the hotel for dinner. Furtively looking around, I copied everyone else as we chose our meats and veggies from the fridges and barbecued them ourselves. Just as I was finishing up, two girls from one of the other tables came over and asked me to join them. I joined their party and we had a great time eating, drinking, singing karaoke and playing UNO (which they were delighted to find out works the same in Australia, including Laura’s crazy rules!) The group turned out to be Taiwanese and Hong King students from Tainan – students of what I still have no idea!

Our group at the BBQ joint

Our group at the BBQ join

They invited me to head to the hot springs with them, so we jumped on our scooters (me still trying to get used to mine – this lot has been on scooters since they were tiny) and headed off. A couple of kilometers up the road, we stopped (in the middle of the road, on a dark and windy area) and one of the guys pulled a torch out of his pocket. Jumping off his scooter, he headed to the side of the road and started looking in the trees. Looking closer, I noticed this dude was much older than the rest of the group, who followed him over. Turns out we were on a nightime wildlife tour (I missed that somehow) and he was pointing out some crazy big insects. He continued with us for a while, pointing out deer and water buffaloed and whatnot before disappearing and us heading onto the hot springs.

Look, it's a deer

Look, it's a deer

The hot springs were fun – one of only three in the world, they use salt water instead of spring water. Various temperatures, from almost freezing to about 42degrees. Unlike Japanese onsens, it is mixed bathing, and swimwear is worn. We had a great night, and my Taiwanese friends returned me to my hotel before continuing onto their dorm.

Chilling at the hot springs at midnight

Chilling at the hot springs at midnight

The following day I was up early for my snorkeling tour. The weather had changed and was no longer still and sunny, it was now windy and rainy. Still, off to the snorkeling shop I went. My guide fitted me up with a wetsuit (I was the only one on this trip), wetsuit boots and a lifejacket. I’ve been snorkeling a fair few times before, but I’ve never worn a lifejacket and I’ve always used flippers. I attempted to say I didn’t need the lifejacket, but he wouldn’t have any of that. We jumped on our scooters and headed around the corner to the beach, where he handed me a rubber ring and a mask and snorkel?? After walking a few meters out, he instructed me to lie on the rubber ring – and out my face in the water. He then proceeded to put his flippers, and tow me around to see everything! I’ve since seen groups of 3,4 and even up to 8 people being towed around by a single guide – the lazy way to snorkel indeed! Certainly not what I’m used to, but a fun experience nonetheless. Bonus that the sites under the water were deceptively beautiful, huge coral reefs and a crazy neon colored fish, and I didn’t even remotely have a fear of being sunburnt.

Snorkelling group heading out

Snorkelling group heading out

Getting their safety rings

Getting their safety rings

Getting ready to "jump in"

Getting ready to "jump in"

And the leader leads the way!

And the leader leads the way!

The rest of my time on the island was spent riding the scooter around – once again I’ve fallen in love with scooters and am trying to figure out how practical they would be back home. This morning I spent an hour or so by the beach, patting a friendly lone golden retriever and contemplating the trip back.

Street lights coming on, first night on Green Island

Street lights coming on, first night on Green Island

Waiting for Jack to take me down to the ferry terminal, I met the two Europeans staying at the same hotel, who were due to head back on the boat with me. They didn’t have as good a trip as I on the way over, and begged me to share my stash of “miracle drugs”. A little apprehensive, one of them took a photo of the Chinese-only bottle, declaring that at least this way he had “something to show the emergency department”!

We had an uneventful return to the mainland, whether due to the drugs or a better crossing, I’m not sure. They did tell me a funny story about the island though – this morning they were riding their scooters around, when they came across a lone golden retriever in the middle of no-where (“I know that dog!”, I said). The first guy scootered around it, the second stopped just before it. The dog looked up and him, as if saying, ‘well, where have you been?!’ and proceeded to jump onto the scooter! Apparently the expression on Ari’s face was priceless – and he tried to shoo the dog off the scooter, to no avail. Appears the dog has been riding scooters for a lot longer than Ari, and managed to stay on as he took corners at crazy speeds to push him off. He eventually got off when he was ready to, where I must of met him only half an hour later!

I’m now in Hualien – I’ve booked my tour of Tarako Gorge for tomorrow morning and have got a load of washing on. Thankfully it’s a bit cooler here, as I’m wearing only my leggings and my thick jacket as everything else is in the washing machine – fingers crossed everything dries before I pack up tomorrow (but it can’t be as bad as Alex the Austrian, who is jumping on a 20 hour flight tomorrow morning with a backpack full of wet diving gear, ugh).

Ferry ride from hell

Lonely planet writes “Only twice in my extensive travels have I found myself, face pressed against a rolling floor, stinking of my own vomit, begging for the sweet release of death. The first time was on the boat to Green Island while researching the chapter you’re currently reading. The second was on the way back.” (Taiwan 2007). And so it was with a little trepidation that I headed for the ferry in Taitung. With my excellent miming skills, I managed to buy what I prayed were seasickness tablets at a small chemist in Khaosiung (there was no English on the bottle, so I was putting all my faith in the salesgirl!). I’m not prone to seasickness (hell, on one of the ferry trips between china and Japan I went through the tail end of a typhoon with no ill effects) but given the blurb in LP, I decided to skip my morning milk bubble tea.

I arrived at the train station and was whisked away by a taxi driver holding a sign with my name on it – the trip to the pier takes 25 mins, the ferry leaves in 30 mins and I still needed a ticket! Needless to say his driving was excellent but not exactly law-abiding. In slang Taiwanese he also managed to convey how beautiful Green Island is, and what a shame you had to get through hell to get there (referring to the ferry ride) :/

We made it in time and I jumped on the ferry and found a seat to leave my suitcase. Every single seat had a number of empty sick bags on it, with plenty more spares hanging from the railings. I raced upstairs to be out on the deck as we left land. The sun was shining, there was a light breeze and there were a couple of groups of 20 year old hanging around chatting and laughing. Within minutes the waves were reaching the deck and the sun was gone.

I ended up hanging around up out on the deck for the entire trip – I was already soaked, and everyone was having a ball (it was kinda like a wet roller coaster, with that real fear of death). Luckily I was surrounded by a group of well-built local guys, the few times I lost my footing and went sliding for the rails they would grab me and haul me back to where I belonged. I should point out here that although there was railing around the deck, there wasn’t a gate on the stairs down to the bottom level – I can’t imagine being thrown down them would be fun! One of my travel partners headed inside early on and returned wearing goggles – we all laughed, but in the end the laugh was on us!

The "ferry from hell" aka the trip over to Green Island. The sun is shining, everyone is happy, dry and smiling...

The "ferry from hell" aka the trip over to Green Island. The sun is shining, everyone is happy, dry and smiling...

The wind has picked up, people are starting to get wet.

The wind has picked up, people are starting to get wet.

There is no hope, pop on your goggles, cling to the rail and hope for the best!

There is no hope, pop on your goggles, cling to the rail and hope for the best!

A combination of my strong stomach, the miracle drugs from the chemist and being outdoors meant I didn’t feel ill at all. Not so for pretty much the rest of the entire boat – most of the sick bags had been used and there was a putrid smell in the air when I returned to grab my suitcase.

Eating Korean Barbeque… IN KOREA!

Asia ~ South Korea ~ Busan

Last week I decided to swing by my travel agent in downtown Fukuoka to see if they had any deals for travel to South Korea, as it is so close to Fukuoka, and I’ve never been. When I found a deal that included the return trip on a boat, and a night in a hotel that was cheaper than just the boat trip, I decided to grab it. As a result, 24 hours later I was speeding across the Korea Straight towards Busan on the JR Kyushu ‘Beetle ‘ hydrofoil…

As per normal, I had the normal issues travelling… Got to my local bus stop to see the bus leaving, even though I was 5 minutes early… Raced to get the bus, but it wasn’t until halfway to town I realised I had left my alien registration card (my Japanese ID card) at my apartment. They made a big fuss of it when I left Japan last time, but I decided I didn’t have time to go back and get it… Then the bus, which was supposed to go to the bus terminal (so I could change to a bus headed for the port) stopped at the station, and said it was going no further! Turns out when I raced for the bus earlier, I had jumped on the earlier bus, not the right one that went all of the way, so I had to try and find the bus terminal on foot. Everyone I asked didn’t know where it was, cos I was ages away from it… Finally found the correct bus stop and got to the port terminal, where I went through emigration with no issues – the girl asked for my ID card, but when I said I’d left it behind, she was fine with it. I suspect that if I hadn’t of spoken Japanese, there would of been problems.

The JR Kyushu ‘Beetle’ hydrofoil is a very small ferry that takes 3 hours to make the crossing between Hakata (Fukuoka, Japan) and Busan (South Korea). We were warned to keep our seatbelts on because they often “have to swerve quickly to avoid whales and dolphins”. I kept my eyes peeled, but didn’t see any. Did see a very interesting lighthouse as we were leaving Japan that was bright red and decked out as Santa for Christmas (complete with white beard and all).

Beetle Ferry

See the boat at the back (it says BEETLE)? That's the ferry that we crossed international waters in, only 3 hours, but still, it's tiny! The ferry at the front is the international overnight one from Shimonoseki (only 1 hour from Fukuoka).

When I mentioned to my Japanese friends that I would be heading to South Korea for a night, I asked them what there was to do in Korea – everyones response was “Shopping and food”, so I headed to Busan with a list of markets to find and foods to try. On arrival, I headed for the main train station, where I jumped on a double decker tour bus, which proceeded to take me around the city for only ₩10,000 (approx $10 AUD). I jumped off at Haeundae Beach to get some lunch (time to start crossing of the “food list”!). Surprise, surprise, at one of the most touristy spots in town I ended up munching down on good ol’ Aussie burgers, not a Bimbimbap restaurant in sight. Wandered around the area for a while (saw the Fish Car – a small car near the aquarium that has been turned into a fish tank, with large colourful fish swimming through the steering wheel and gearstick).

Fish Car at Haeundae Beach

Fish Car at Haeundae Beach

Checkin to my hotel was quick and easy – upon discovering I spoke Japanese, communication went from haltering English to fluent Japanese. Helps of course that I was staying in the Japanese part of town, in a Japanese hotel, but still much better than attempting to communicate in my non existent Korean (but perhaps my next language to learn?). My day finished up with a Korean barbeque for dinner, recommended by my hotel as “cheap and delicious”. And they weren’t joking, at only ₩12,000 (approx $12 AUD) for a huge amount of quality beef, kimchi and beer. They didn’t bat an eyelid when I came in on my own (despite Korean barbeque being a shared dish), and the owners mum helped me sort out the barbeque. I have never had real Korean barbeque before, it is eaten quite different in Korea compared to Japan – a long piece of beef on the barbeque was cut up into pieces (by the amused owners mum when she realised I had no idea what I was doing), and then dipped into sauce. Kimchi is added (all of the various bowls around the table are kimchi) on top, and then eaten. And, if you’re like me, and the owners mum is amused by you, she will put all of this together for you and basically spoon-feed (chopstick-feed) you!

Korean Barbeque

Korean Barbeque

On my second/last day in Busan, I headed out to fulfill my shopping component of my list. Busan is famous for it’s Jagalchi Fish Market, but having been to the world’s largest fish market in Tokyo, I wasn’t particularly interested in seeking out this one. Despite my intentions, I ended up at the fish market whilst trying to find another market. The fish market was surprisingly clean and not too smelly, and I saw plenty of interesting sights, including tanks upon tanks of sea snakes, and octopus’s making a run for it in the street. I eventually found the Gukje market, but didn’t buy anything, as I’m going to China soon, and much of the stuff at the market was similar to the things I usually see in China. Had bimbimbap for lunch (another tick on the “food list”) at ₩4,000 (approx $4 AUD), which was much spicier and tastier than other versions I have eaten in Japan and Australia. My day ended with me wandering back to the ferry terminal, where I caught my speedy boat back “home” to Japan.

I’ve just begun to start thinking about my Christmas shopping, how’s everyone else going?!

Please not be ill

Asia ~ China ~ Qingdao & Beijing

‘Please not be ill’ is the only English message on the fast moving public buses of Beijing. But that’s jumping forward a little – cast your minds back a week, when I was just about to leave lovely, civilised warm Japan…

The boat trip from Japan to Qingdao was easy enough – no where near as luxious as the boat from Shanghai to Kobe, though. The boat obviosuly used to be fairly important in its day – from the huge dining hall to the lavish dancing hall you could see that it was used to lots of important guests. Unfortunatly, that wasn’t the case for our trip. Although the boat can hold 350 people, we only had 12 people on board, including an American family teaching English in west whoop-whoop China and a Japanese painter importing expensive Japanese dolls into China. I had a 12 bed dorm to myself and was over the moon…

Sunset from the boat

Sunset from the boat

I arrived in Qingdao, hoping to organise a train ticket for that night… Ha! The entire city of Qingdao is under construction for the upcoming olympics – the main train station was closed, as were many of the other main buildings. Luckily, my friend the Japanese artist had already told me this, so I managed to get a taxi to the correct station. And -woooosh – I had to swap back to Chinese mode to try and secure myself a train ticket. Luckily the language part of my brain complied, and I was able to comunicate my desire to the railway staff… Only to be told no tickets. And none for the day after… Finally got myself a ticket for two days later and made my way back to the local hostel.Where my slight cold that I’d been nursing in Japan turned into a full blown cough-all-night, blow-nose-all-day ukky cold. The weather in Qingdao was so incredibly totally and utterly cold that I went to sleep of a night wearing my full body suit of thermals, my pjs, my gloves and scarf. And the heater was on. Of a day I sported my new face mask – fantastic in keeping out the bone-chilling wind. After spending two days wandering Qingdao I caught my train to Beijing and walked into my old hostel, what a relief.

Beautiful, if slightly freezing, beach at Qingdao - notice the crazy guy running into the water brrrr

Beautiful, if slightly freezing, beach at Qingdao - notice the crazy guy running into the water brrrr

First day in Beijing was spent at the hospital, after being convinced I needed to go there by a variety of people. I was right – despite what I looked and sounded like, I wasn’t dying, just a bad cold. The doctor loaded me up with a suitcase full of pills (really, there are heaps of them) and off I went… Shopping… Where I’ve been every day since I got here, loving it. It’s also how I managed to experience the warning to foreigners to ‘please not be ill’ – a little late! Being at an international hostel is nice as well, our room is full of Swedish, American and Australians, so getting to chat to a lot of people who are starting their travels in China…Well, tomorrow I’m off to Thailand, to grab some sun before heading home…

xoxo Bobbi!

Kimonos and fast trains

Asia ~ Japan ~ Kobe, & Kyoto

Brrr, since when is January cold?! Ok, I’m too used to the Australian seasons, so sue me! When I last wrote, I was suffering from a ‘hangover’ brought on not by too much alcohol, but rather the lack of sleep and the thought that I had to deal with a cross-water trip…

I got myself to the ferry terminal with minimal trouble – why is it that the only dodgy taxi taxi I take in China is the one when I have all my baggage and I need to be somewhere by a certain time?! But I sorted him out – he didn’t realise I could read road signs… hehe. The boat trip was amazing – I caught the Shanghai-Kobe ferry across to Japan and had a great time doing it – certainly beats flying. The trip took a little over 44 hours, and the boat was basically a luxury cruise ship. We had beds – 8 to a cabin (only 6 people in mine) – complete with dooners, pillows and a curtain to close out the outside world. The ship also had 2 bars, a karaoke room, a mahjong room, washing machines (tough that all my stinky clothing was in my checked luggage!), a variety of vending machines (beer, softdrink, sake, noodles) and even a duty free shop. Best of all was the fact that all of the staff (and a fair majority of the passengers) spoke both Japanese and Chinese, so even I in my confused state (swapping between the town languages is hard, I keep using Japanese grammar and Chinese words, or vice versa, or worse still I use a mix of the two) could understand me. The journey itself was uneventful – made friends with an old Japanese guy touring the world after retirement and a number of younger Japanese returning from a tour of China.

Weather was fine, except on one of the nights, where the boat was a bit rocky – but I didn’t get seasick, must be more like dad than I thought. *edit: turns out it was rougher than i realised – the rough weather was from a series of seismic activity – earthquakes or something* My room had 2 younger boys in it – one who was about 15 and wasn’t a trouble. The other one was about 10, and spent most of the first evening running around and shouting. Try to sleep, I finally had enough, opened the curtain and told him ‘shizuka!’ (quiet!). That was enough – he didn’t quite know what to make of a blonde foreigner telling him to shut up in Japanese and was quiet for the rest of the trip. In fact, word must of got around, because when the kids ran up the corridor screaming, they would always stop shouting two doors down and wouldn’t start screaming until three doors past us… hehe … check my ABC’s of backpacing for more information on the Shanghai – Kobe Ferry.

View of the pearl tower from the ferry

View of the pearl tower from the ferry

Arrival in Japan was, once again, a great feeling. I wowed the dudes at immigration with my (dodgy) Japanese, but the Italian guy next to me had more than a little trouble, turned out he had just down a visa run to Shanghai, and the Japanese officials told him ‘last time you come to Japan!’ . Glad I didn’t go through immigration with him! Asako’s mum and dad picked me up from the dock and so began my Japanese adventure…

I arrived on the best day – ‘Adults Day’ – a bit like horses birthday for Japanese – all people who turned 20 in the past year celebrate their birthday on the 8th of January, all the girls are dressed up in beautiful kimonos, wandering the streets, fantastic sight to see. After coming from China, everything seems so civilised – the cars stop for you at the crossings and no-one hawks after you in the shops, they merely say ‘welcome’! I went and exchanged money the other day, and what an experience! I walked in, and the guard politely asked me for my address. Whilst I was writing it down, he asked if he could ‘please have your passport’, after which he bowed and photo-copied it. He then passed my information to a bowing lady, who changed the money, then returned it, complete with sweets, a pack of tissues, an envelope for the money and a bow. ‘Sorry for wasting your time’ they said as we left the bank… What a country!

I’ve spent my time in Kobe visiting once again with Asako and her family. We’ve been shopping most days, today we spent the day being truly Japanese. On the boat trip over, I spent the majority of my time reading ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ and today I spent the day in Kyoto. Incredible, after reading the books, then strolling the incredibly old streets and watching the girls dressed in kimono at the temple gazing off into the distance. I even got my fortune – although I can’t read the paper (I’m still busy translating it), I’m told it’s pretty good. This evening we went to the onsen (hot springs) which was lovely, as it’s been so incredibly cold. There were outside onsens, so we sat in really hot water (about 40 degrees), whilst the air outside was incredibly cold (probably about 4 or 5 degrees). The best part of being here is just interacting with Asako’s family and friends – everyone is so kind, and willing to explain everything slowly and carefully to me. Her Uncle and cousin were even chatting to me in Chinese the other day! Tomorrow I’m off to Fukuoka on the shinkansen, serious speeds here I come!

Asako & I in Kyoto

Asako & I in Kyoto

xoxo bobs