The Adventures of Lstan: Lunar New Year 2011 in Taiwan- Day 3,4: Green Island

Notes from Green Island:

Our Hostel on Green Island, our scooters out front

Day 3 and 4 were spent on the unforgettable Green Island. Many people were surprised we came all the way from Korea to Green Island; it seems most visitors on the island were from mainland Taiwan. Here is a run down of everything we did:

Arrived at Fungang Harbour before 8am to pick up our ferry tickets. Round trip ferry cost just less than $30CAD ($920NTW)
With the warnings of a rocky boat ride echoing in our heads, we opted to take the hour journey on the top deck of the boat and soak up some sun and wind while we rocked back and forth to Green Island
We arrived to the island with a sign from our hostel owners held up. They introduced themselves to us as Fishy and Shark
They helped us rent scooters, and got VERY uncomfortable when we told them that none of us had driven one before
They took us to lunch, and then Shark informed us that he would take us on a scooter tour of the island that afternoon, and a deer watching tour that night.
On the scooter tour we saw the Green Island prison, the memorial, a huge cove, and a cliff that had goats running around!
Emilie and I went on a "family snorkelling" trip in the Shihan diving area. AKA we held on to a long line of flotation buoys and looked at the coral while our instructor pulled around the group. Zero swimming required whatsoever
Ate dinner at a mother-daughter run restaurant "Crazy Fried Restaurant"; on the way home a baby goat that I held tried to eat my finger. Awwwww!
After the sun set Shark took us up into the centre of the island into the mountains to look for deer. We would ride in the dark and he would point a massive flashlight at the woods. We saw maybe two other people on the road that entire time. So peaceful!
He lead us to the hot springs to finish off the night with a dip in one of the 3 natural salt water springs in the world. We sat in hot tubs, warm tubs, cold tubs, and back to hot tubs again for almost two hours. It was loveeeely.

Next morning I got up at 6:30 to go SCUBA diving. Shark made me a breakfast of dates, onion pancakes, and toast with fig jam and some milk tea.
At the dive shop, Vincent hooked me up: total cost of rental equipment and two-tank dive came to $1,125NTD ($38CAD... outrageously cheap)
After the dive we scootered to the Green Beach Restaurant and had some lunch. Along the way we met a hilarious little dude (see the picture)
After lunch we motored up "fire burned hill" and took pictures from the top of the island.
Biked back down, packed up, and headed back to the harbour to catch the ferry.
Took the shakiest boat ride of my life, tossing and turning for an hour.. getting SOAKED by the waves. We would have taken pictures but it was so wet no one wanted to take out their camera.
Caught the overnight train back to Taipei
Came home

Thus ended the most wonderful of trips I've had in a long time. Everything worked out perfectly. The prices were cheap, the people were so friendly and the sights were beautiful. While Taiwan wasn't really in my thoughts before I went, it definitely is now. I LOVE TAIWAN.