Arrival to a peaceful beauty in the ocean: Lanyu/ Orchid island

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!

In Jioufen, day 1 - how the relaxed time can turn into extreme stress

Probably I have not introduced my girlfriend on my blog up to now, so here we go. Her English name is Ruby, she works as a hair designer in a huge hair salon at the busy Ximen district of Taipei. Since we met in October her English improved a lot and from early January she attended to an English course beside her busy work schedule. Apparently, she creates much of my motivation in learning Chinese. :)

The first trip I made with her since I’m back in Taiwan was on the 22^nd of February. Our plan was just to spend a nice Sunday in Jioufen at the north-eastern coastline. Everything begun perfectly…I went by my scooter to the Main station to meet with her after she finished the English class at noon. In one hour we got to Rueifang, where we changed to a bus which took us up to the mountains where the famous tourist destination, Jioufen took place with its amazing sight to the Pacific-ocean. After we got off from the bus which was completely full of families who brought their loud children for a walk, we had to face with a massive tourist invasion. Plenty of Japanese tourists occupied all the places at the edge of the mountain road where you ultimately want to make pictures of this beautiful coast and of the mountains nearby. Of course they had to take pictures of each other from all possible positions, so it’s easy to understand why they freaked me out a bit after a while. Anyway, it was a beautiful sunny day so instead of nattering over them we were heading into the narrow market street which is the most famous and obviously the most crowded place in this small village. The atmosphere of this long and a bit smoky walking street is much different from what the usual night markets have in Taipei. You can get the feeling that this place is an excellent representation of the ‘real’ Taiwanese culture with all the nice foods, decorations and little souvenirs sale by the nice local people.

I bought a calligraphy brush whit special papers what I can use to practice the Chinese character writing with water as the writing disappear after a half minute . She also graved my Chinese name into the bone part of the brush…this is what I call customization!

We really enjoyed the time together in this lovely place but till the lunch I didn’t realised that my keys are not in my pocket as I believed but in my scooter in Taipei! Huupss! “Ok, let’s get back to Taipei immediately!” Ohhmy goodness! My girlfriend told me that nobody will steel it, I shouldn't worry so much...;)After one of my most stressful hours in the bus back to Taipei Main station I found my intact scooter at the same place with the keys in it...:P Afterwards I had to calm down with some Taiwanese beer...:)

Comment: Taiwanese people does not steel…!

Check out the pictures in my Picasa!

'Video Game Live' concert

The world famous Video Game Live has arrived to Taipei again on the 20^th of February. Basically, this is a creative concert event by a professional orchestra which performs video game music from the ‘old school’ to the newest pieces. The audience can watch how the tunes of each game match with its video graphic animation on the enormous screens. These game visuals are all synchronised in amazing cuttings to the music, giving an extraordinary show with all the effects, fireworks and interactive parts. I’m not a video game fun as only a few games could engage me in my ‘lovely childhood’ for shorter times but I thought it’s going to be fun so I came along with many students from the dorm, even though that was a quiet chilly night (around 13 ^oC).

The event took place on the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (which one of my favourite places in Taipei). It was really not only for game fanatics but everyone could enjoy it who likes just a little bit what a classical orchestra can provide within a show like this – actually those members were the best in Taiwan. However, I’m pretty sure that many of the Taiwanese people came along with concrete expectations about games. They were crowing like this “Final Fantasy 7!!!!!!!!!!!” and “Diabolo-diabolo-diabolo!!” –yeah, this is video game fanaticism…:) Anyway one the interactive part was quiet funny, when a local guy from the crowd went up to the stage and played a “fight against the aliens” retro style game with the curiosity that his move on a lateral line directed his spacecraft on the screen. completely crazy…

At the end as the crowd was cheering, everyone held up some mobile, digital camera, PDA or other electronic devices to say thanks for the show by imitating the feeling which was trendy in the ‘60s-‘70s by using lighters. This concert was really a lot of fun, I knew that people go crazy for video games in Asia but I didn’t expect that they do this much. All the people were so excited from the beginning and they were so happy when one of their favourites appeared on the screen. I’m sure that it was also a good sign for the video game industry that supports the word tour of this team that the new games which they showed us will be popular here and that Taiwan is still a potential target.

Some more picture about the concert in my Picasa.