It is Monday 6:00 am when we arrive to Taitung after more than 6 hours of train journey from Taipei. I decided to spend rather 5 days with my girlfriend within Taiwan than go for a week abroad without her. Even after 8 months here there are so many places Taiwan can offer to me to spend a tranquil holiday. So our first step is Taitung towards the Orchid island or Lanyu in Taiwanese. Taitung is the biggest city in the southeastern cost but it’s not just the multi cultural (or multi aboriginal) population which makes it important but the large territory it occupies and its location making this city a great base to explore the southeast with the offshore islands – just exactly what we are planning to do! A leery taxi driver takes us to the port from where a ferry should bring us to Lanyu. But after we got the reserved tickets to hand, a fatty biggie guy with sun glasses wearing loose unbuttoned shirt announces that the ferry has broken down… no way to go by boat…but I really liked the little smile on his round face, he was the head of the port. OK let’s call back the taxi and head to the airport! The train station, the port and the airport are located in a triangle and the funny thing is that the port is like 5 times farer from the train station than the airport from the railway station. So basically we took the longest possible way to get to the airport by taxi and the driver charged us the tourist fee I guess. Forget about the tiny problems; let’s check out the plane schedule. As a matter of fact, there is one single plane going to Lanyu 3 times a day carrying 19 passengers. Also ticket reservation is highly recommended in advance since the waiting list for those who turn up with no ticket in hand –like we – has around 30 to 40 people to fill in the vacancies of 3-4 on each plane in order. So with reasonable calculation our progression on this list would take at least 3 days to get on the plane :). My girlfriend admits that we got a problem… and without doubts, it seems to be there is no chance to get to Lanyu today. Oh come on, I came from a place where these problems can be sorted out – goes me to her while sending her outside to wait for me in the shadow of some palm trees. Five minutes later I’m coming out with 2 tickets for the next plain leaving in 15 minutes… She was shocked as everyone else around us when we checked in. Basically, I just had too many and too much complicated questions about the south eastern air transportation in general as well as regarding the current situation… there is always a small gate when the main one is closed –always keep that in mind!
Flying by such a small plane was more than fun. I loved when the smoke like clouds came into the pilot’s cabin first and snaked up from under our feet. From above the view is simply gorgeous to the high mountains go into the whitecap-coasted Pacific. After 20 minutes we arrived to Lanyu (or Orchid island) what I felt just so different from any other places I have been in Taiwan. The plants are so green, the air is so fresh and the whole atmosphere of this pace is just so alien. For sure I was very excited by looking forward to all the adventures we’re going to have here. Féjű Mama (means the flying fish which is a symbol of the island) came to pick us up and took to our nice accommodation. First we got our scooter which is essential to make the most of your time here. We got a Japanese style room with wooden interior that had a perfect view to the ocean. It was absolutely reasonable for the 800 NTU/room/night rent. Féjű Mama is a purely aboriginal grandma who is one of the several locals who are highly involved in the tourism business of the island.
As we obtained some basics about the island from her, we took a round trip just right after we had a nice meal and siesta in the room of course. The outstanding beauty of this awesome place amazed us while we got around in like 50 minutes. So the island is quite large including pretty high mountains and small rivers and it has a population of 3500-4000 aboriginal (Yami) people living in 5 separated villages around the coastline. It is said that these people have traditionally strong cultural and linguistic links to the Philippines’s Bantan Islands. The tribe has for centuries made its livelihood from fishing and farming. Their strict code of taboos helped them to maintain the cohesion of the tribe and to ensure a sustainable supply of rare resources. Many of these taboos related to respect for life and protection of nature back up them to survive tough centuries on such an isolated tiny land in the Pacific.
After dinner we spot a great bar just right off the road on the beach which seemed to be perfect to get involved into the local social life. After some drinks we were invited by an archaeologist professor to a special bbq party where we were sharing super expensive oysters with champagne in good company with his former students and European business friends till late night. What a perfect final of this awesome day!
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