Sunday, July 19, 2015

2015 Taiwan Summer Trip 08: Astonishing Scenery and Seaweed Food at Green Island

On the second day at Green Island, we had our lunch at a restaurant called "18 Haili". The food was quite nice compared with the braised rice (or Huifan in Mandarin) bought the day before. There is a large window facing towards the sea in the restaurant. Customers could enjoy their meals and the beautiful sea view at the same time.


18 Haili Restaurant


Peanut Tofu (highly recommended), it tastes like yam cake in Malaysia or Singapore, the meat paste is made by deer meat (I did not intend to eat it, but only realized after tasted....)


Fried egg with seaweed, it's so huge in size and what we ordered was small one



Fish soup, another big portion of their "small portion", the fish is milkfish. Its meat is quite chewy.


We started to explore the Green Island after lunch. Besides the Oasis Villa introduced in previous post, its natural view is another feature on the island. Heading north along the west coast of the island, and passing by the streets of restaurants and shops, Lyudao Airport could be seen at this point. Turning right will come to the north side of the island. First to be seen is Jhongliao Village, where houses and grocery shops are built in this area. There is a small path could lead to Lyudao Lighthouse.


Lagoon beside the lighthouse




Lyudao Lighthouse was built in 1937 to commemorate the help provided by locals in the grounding incident of an American cruise "President Hoover" near Green Island. It was sponsored by US Red Cross, designed by Japanese and built by the locals on Green Island.


Entrance of Lyudao Lighthouse


View of lagoon from the hill where lighthouse is located


The runway beside Lyudao Lighthouse

We left lighthouse and came back to Jhongliao Village, then continue our trip to the Oasis Villa introduced in previous post. There is a small path which lead to hilltop that we saw Sika deer during night travel. If riding along the main road, turning right at the Revolution Gate, you will reach the east side of the island. First you will see Kuanyin Cave. A stone Avalokitesvara statue is enshrined here. The statue is actually formed naturally by stalactite. However, I could not imagine how the stalactite looks like a man-shape statue.

After passing by Kuanyin Cave, there is no more man-made architecture could be seen along the main road. Both sides are jungles. There is a lake called Youzih Lake at east side of the island. A zigzag downhill path at the left side of the main road could lead to the lake. There are a few stone-made deserted houses beside the lake. These houses, called as Gucuo, were built by locals in early days.

Youzih Lake


Back to the main road and heading south, we came to the famous "Small Great Wall", Haishenping and the rocks of Pekinese Dog and Sleeping Beauty.


Small Great Wall


Pekinese Dog Rock (left, at sea) and Sleeping Beauty Rock (the cliff at right), the bay in front is Haishenping


The bottom part of the rock exposed from clear seawater, the pillar-like pattern on the rocks are called volcanic neck. It is formed when lava hardens within underground vents and exposes for erosion after rising to the surface caused by tectonic movement. Locals called it as "Rocks piled up by deity".


North side view from the big pavilion of Small Great Wall


West side view from the big pavilion of Small Great Wall


The seashore next to Youzih Lake


The main road became downhill after leaving here. We saw a small dear, which eating grass at roadside. I planned to take photo of it, but it was so shy and ran into jungle quickly.




We reached sea-level after riding past those zigzag downhill road. A small goat, which was tied up, was eating grass at roadside. Another large herd of goats enjoyed the grass at seashore too.





Confucius Rock (the cliff in front) at north side


South view along the main road


Goats at seashore


Heading south will lead to Jhaorih Hot Spring, located at the southeast of Green Island. It is quite famous for its sunrise view, but we were unable to wake up so early in the morning, so we decided to come during cold night. However, it was quite disappointed to me. The water temperature was lower than the hot water bath in homestay! I could not even see the water vapour risen from the hot spring. And it was so crowded. It was totally different from what I expected.


After passing by Jhaorih Hot Spring and heading to the west, there is a beach, called Dabaisha, which covered by white sands.


Dabaisha

There is a bridge after Dabaisha. A small path appears at right side of the road, which lead to a small bay. There is a staircase for us to go down and have a closer view of coastal rocks.






Small crabs and fishes could be found here.  There is a small crab in the middle of the photo, hidden below the gap of the rock. Could you find it?



On the way back to homestay, there is a huge sea cave on the road. Vehicles will pass through the cave. It is quite dangerous around there because the road is quite crooked.


Sunset

We found a lot of discount vouchers of ice dessert in homestay. One of the famous seaweed food at Green Island is seaweed ice. Those shops selling seaweed ice are mostly designed in a theme of prison. Following "Prison Ice" is one of them.






Super large bowl of seaweed ice, luckily we just ordered one bowl.
That marked the end of our Green Island trip. We will take another long ride of train to Jioufen the next day.


Next:

Lively Jioufen Old Street, Enjoy Tea at Amei Teahouse





No comments:

Post a Comment