After spending two nights in Taidong I am now in Lanyu, the orchid island. I am really enjoying life here, even when a Taiphoon is not so far away and I still dont know how long I have to stay here till I can take a boat to mainland Taiwan.
By the way, I have a cellphone number now: 0934037740
In Taidong I had the luck to meet two very nice couchsurfer, Yu Wen and her friend Rui Yu, who hosted me in a really cool place, an old house a bit out in the countryside, very simple but also very cool.
I really enjoyed myself with them, chatting, drinking tea and sharing stories of our travels.
The next day I wanted to get a boat ticket to Lanyu but had to return without result because in the offseason they only have one boat a day at 8 o'clock in the morning. It was already a bit after 9 o'clock, so I had to wait another day.
But nevermind, this way I could have a nice bicycle tour around the city, go swimming, sightseeing and had a great time.
So the next morning Rui Yu brought me to the busstation and I took the bus to Fu Gang, the port. If you go all the way back to the time when I took my sister travelling, also to Green Island, you might recall an incident where we met these really great people in Fu Gang who asked us to stay for dinner and the night. The young mother at whose place we stayed that day, was still there and I met her that morning.
Then I took the boat to Lanyu, starting with perfect blue sky, over big rolling waves of blue water into a storm with thunder and lightning and heavy rain. All around me people clinging to their sea sickness plastic bags and feeling not so well..
Luckily I am quite immune to air and sea sickness, so I enjoyed my self on the ride.
When we finally arrived in Lanyu after about three hours, I got picked up by a friend of my friend and taken to the airport. On Lanyu I am now with Tim, my former roommate at the time at the firedepartment. He is now flightcontroller in training, at the moment for 20 days in Lanyu.
The Island is amazingly beautiful, lush green, steep mountains, beautiful rocks, blue ocean. The weather is very changable, from sun to rain to storm to clouds in a short time.
Being at the Airport with the personnell, staying in the tower to be with my friend and using the internet reminds me a lot of the time at the firedepartment.
At the evening we had BBQ together with all sorts of people connected to this place, also with some really funny kids who really got to like me..^^ See the pictures for more.
While riding the motorcycle around the island I bumped into a small TV team shooting some travel story who asked me to take a ride in one of the aboriginal canoes and then interviewing me. Funny what possibilities the status as foreigner opens.
I am now back from my second trip to go swimming with the waves of the coming Taiphoon and then riding through heavy rain back here..
