day 11 in taiwan

today we left tainan, heading for the "little luichiu island",
located south-east of taiwan. to get there, we had to take a
train to pingtung, going on by bus[03-04] to donggang, and there
taking the ferry[05-06]. on the ferry they had television sets,
and that's when we noticed there's a nasty typhoon heading right
towards taiwan. the ferry harbour was very busy with loads of
people - less going to the island, than leaving it. so we also
boarded a ferry. we knew we were pushing our luck since we did
not book any hostel or hotel in advance. but since it was during
the week we thought there should be plenty of free rooms avail-
able. but it turned out we were slightly wrong with this esti-
mation. the little island is a holiday and day trip destination
of tons of tourists. we felt pretty naive, and additionally pret-
ty lost since there was no tourist information center on the is-
land. but an old woman at the pier asked us if we needed a place
to sleep, so we took her offer. luckily there were some english
speaking people around again, that arranged a transfer to the
hotel and a room at the hotel - puh, stupid western tourists.

 

the hotel[07-13,22-26] itself was about five minutes by car from
the harbour, and pretty expensive compared to what we had paid
so far. but this was a real luxury hotel (in a strange greek
look and style, mixed with some western european elements) with
huge rooms, a big garden, and a nice terrace with an awesome
view over the sea.

with the typhoon coming, there was only one ferry the next day
at nine in the morning, and the next one most probably on satur-
day by the earliest, depending on the typhoon. so we had to de-
cide whether to stay or leave. nina has already seen a typhoon
on her last taiwan trip, so she knew that everything comes to a
halt when the typhoon hits the mainland, so it did not matter
where you are. so we decided to stay on this little island, also
because the staff offered us the room for half the price while
the typhoon is over taiwan. we preferred staying in this luxury
room and wait, over some small hostel on the mainland for the
same price. also we thought a little luxury would be best for a
recovery break during the typhoon, since we both are already
pretty exhausted from our journey so far.

 

it turned out to be a family-run hotel and one daughter was
the local primary school's english teacher. so she translated
for us. also she brought umbrellas, raincoats, and cookies for
us - a small typhoon survival package.

in the evening we took a little walk[14-21] around the close-by
area. seems like taiwanese people refuse to walk, because at the
pier the people were almost shocked when we said we walk by foot
and do not want to hire a scooter to get to the hotel. also with
all the escalators in the bigger cities people here seem to get
pretty lazy and try to avoid walking whenever possible, even for
the smallest distances.
later, back at the hotel we had an awesome meal, with various
meats, vegetables and salad-like food. unfortunately we did not
bring our cameras with us, so no pictures of that feast.

track: day 11

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