Taiwan--Day 5 - Sophia and The Magic Ferry Ride

Our fifth day was adventure filled. We woke up early and wandered down through the nature reserve close to the hostel. There was no beach, but there were beautiful rocks that jetted out into the water. When we got up close, we realized that the rocks were actually an ancient petrified coral reef.

We then spent some time wandering through the village and we came across this local Buddhist temple. The detail was phenomenal. I wish the pictures weren't so washed out because in person it was almost magical the way the creatures were so colorful and multidimensional.

Just after noon we were taken down to the harbor to catch a ferry boat to Green Island, which was just about 35km off the coast. The wind was pretty rough that day which turned our ferry ride into an hour long roller coaster ride. We had heard that it was going to be bad so we took sea sickness medicine, but to no avail. I have never gotten severe motion sickness until this ride. I was so sick, I thought about jumping overboard and swimming to the island. Sophia got it the worst, she puked about four times. Fortunately, the boat had sick bags hanging by the hundreds all over the boat. The other kids all curled up into balls in their seats, moaning occasionally. When we finally arrived and we disembarked, we had to watch where we stepped because, obviously, we weren't the only ones made ill by the tumultuous seas. I was sick for about three hours afterward.

When we got to the island, we were greeted by some locals who took us to our bed and breakfast inn. It was adorable and clean! We had three separate rooms, which was lovely. We were also given a little, clunky van to drive around the island. We unloaded our bags and jumped into the van to explore. The first stop was an overlook point on one corner of the island. I can't even describe, nor can the pictures accurately depict the serenity and beauty of this place. I wish that I could bottle these places and take them home with me. I was a little nervous taking all seven of my overactive children to this place because it is sheer cliff drop-offs on three sides--and they did push it to the limits--but ultimately, none fell off.

Next we went to another cave, which had also been Buddhaized. It was fun anyway. After that, we went to another beautiful look out site on the other side of the island. Once again, the vista was breathtaking. We were so excited to be on the island and the most awesome part was that there were very few other tourists. We practically had the island to ourselves the entire time.

I know I've mentioned it before, but seriously, the food was extraordinary--especially compared to Korean food. We went to a restaurant called Monica and Marco's and the seafood was outstanding as well as the fried rice and chow mein. I had a lobster salad that almost made me cry tears of joy! The other awesome part about the food in Taiwan is that everything is so much cheaper than Korea. We all ate until we could barely walk out of there.

Finally, we finished off the day with a trip to the hot springs. It is one of only three salt water hotsprings in the world. The facility is built right on the shore. They have alternating pools of hot and cold salt water. The kids had a fabulous time shocking their systems with the icy water and then jumping back into the hot pools. I wasn't stupid enough to get in the cold water :). It was the perfect ending to an almost perfect (minus the sea sickness) day.