Hot Springs, White Water Rafting, & Driving on Green Island

An excellent photo of all the twelve Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) right after eating hot pot! (For the original photo, please contact me)

Dear friends,
On May 15-17, the twelve Fulbright English Teaching Assistants of Kaohsiung, Taiwan went on an adventure to eastern Taiwan. This was my first time to this part of the country. We took the train to two different destinations and later took a ferry to reach our third destination.

 Our first destination was Ruesuei in Hualien county. It was a pretty hectic the day we left because I had to teach in the morning and then frantically run to the train station to catch the noon train. The train ride was four hours long with one stop over in Tai-dong. So, you can imagine that by the time we reached Ruesuei, I was ready to relax.

Some of us in the hot springs

At Ruesuei, we stayed at a hot springs hotel where they had three outdoor springs at different temperatures--cold, warm, and hot. It was very soothing. Ruesuei is known for its "rustic" hot springs, as my guidebook tells me, so I'm glad we got to experience that. The hotel is nestled at the top of a mountain so it was quiet and secluded.

The next day, we got up early to go rafting in another part of Ruesuei. The rafting company we chose had rather old gear (old lifejackets, old rafting boats, old spongy helmets), but they saved us at least NT$300. We rafted for five hours, going over 23 rapids, and over a distance of 25 kilometers. A few of us fell out of the raft a couple of times, but nobody got hurt. We also had some pretty excellent water battles with neighboring rafts, where we used water buckets to throw water at each other. Of course, we're not supposed to do that, but it was still pretty fun because it turned into a battle between the Taiwanese and Americans; the Taiwanese would yell "Welcome to Taiwan!!" And then they would throw some water at us while we would yell back "No honor! You just said 'Peace'!!" It was a good time. This rafting trip would not have been possible without Gered & Rebekah, two of our Fulbright ETAs, organizing it, so a big shout out to both of you! Thank you for organizing the trip!

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Click to enlarge the above pictures

The river we rafted on (picture taken from inside a car)

After a day of rafting, we went to Tai-Dong in the evening by train. There, we stayed a night at the aboriginal culture hotel. We didn't do too much exploring in Tai-Dong because we arrived so late. The next morning, we went to Green Island (Ludao), an island off of Taiwan.

At the 'Little Great Wall' on Green Island (Ludao)

We took the ferry to go to Green Island and unfortunately, I threw up multiple times. I don't usually get seasick, but this ride was 40 minutes long and I already had a slight headache in the morning. So, the combination of those factors culminated in a not-so-pleasant experience. Anyway, I digress. When we finally arrived on Green Island,  we realized that we couldn't take a tour with the glass-bottomed boat like we originally planned because it wasn't running on that day, which happened to be a Sunday. At that point, we had to decide if we wanted to ride golf carts around Green Island, which is only 6 sq miles, or 16 sq kilometers around, or rent a car for about $30 for three hours. We chose the latter.

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Rock to the left = Dog, Rock to the right = Sleeping Beauty (Yes, those are the rocks actual names)

Green Island was formed after a volcanic explosion. It is famous for many things including oddly shaped volcanic rocks, a prison for political dissidents (or that's what I hear), and lush green mountains. We saw all of that and much more in the span of three hours. We were very efficient with our two rented cars.

All in all, it was an excellent trip and I'm glad I got to see eastern Taiwan. You should check out more pictures in Taiwan Photo Set 35!