Scooter Trip - Day 5 - Taitung to Green Island.

We got up early to make sure that we got on board the first boat out to Green Island. 

We were at the harbor well ahead of time. 

I even had time to pretend to meditate. 

(I do meditate from time to time)

On board the boat we soon hear the familiar sound of people throwing up. People were throwing up everywhere. (It wasn't that bad weather)

We made it to the island and soon we had gotten our scooter off the boat. Found a hotel. Found a restaurant. 

And the restaurant is the place this photo was taken. 

People go to Green Island because of the diving and snorkeling. It just turned out that my father never had snorkeled before and it was my privilege to get him under the waves for the first time. 

He got himself ready for the adventure.

When we got under the surface there was a myriad of fish. And there was a myriad of colors. My father saw both a Murray eel and a Scorpion fish. He was so happy about that. I found a diving mask on the bottom. To get it I had to dive down a hole. My father didn't like that I did that though. 

After the snorkeling we decided to go swim in some hot springs.

Green Island have one of the 3 only places in the world where there are hot springs IN the ocean. 

We went there and the place in the ocean was closed for the season. They did however have pools with hot spring water in it. 

It was good enough.

I think it was a tired old man who came back to the hotel room that evening. 

And he wasn't the only one who was tired either.

To be continued....

Food for thought.

Drawings that makes you think... LINK

Stay awake. 

Love Ove

Scooter trip - Day 4 - Hualien to Taitung

My dad had already been outside picking rocks at the beach when I woke up. 

We had a cup of newly made coffee on the balcony (the owner had made the coffee for us)

We talked the day over and then we put on the swimmers. 

The ones who have followed my blog knows that I cant pass up an opportunity for a swim. This was no exception. 

The waves were big and I was quite concerned about my father. More than once the waves pushed him over and swept him towards the beach. I have some video shots of that. I will show you a video from this trip when I have covered the whole trip in photos.

With salt in our hair we set out for Taitung. It would be around 170km but we were both quite excited about the ride because it was all along the coast.

Like before we needed a rest every now and then. These stops were also filled with opportunities to explore.

Like watching these locals fish for squid.

Or standing exactly on the Tropic of Cancer. Every summer solstice (on the northern hemisphere) at 12.00 the sun shines down from a small hole in the top of this thing. The sun is for one day at an exact Zenith.

You can see the hole as a small dark spot in this photo.

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After some time we both got hungry and we came upon this place that signed that they sold Pizzas. They didn't however. They did have bread though and soon I was teaching them my way of baking bread. 

(all in Chinese)

We made it to Taitung and after taking a well deserved break we set out to find some food. I asked where the local night market was and when informed I took my father there. 

On the way we passed this temple.

The night market was "Waking up" and thus there wasn't that much people yet.

My father finally found his "rice hat"

And yes those are his teeth.

With the dark came the people.

Feed and happy we left the night market for some cultural food. 

At TieHua cultural village you can hear great music played live every day. 

There is also a small pub and you can buy organic coffee and stuff.

I bought a t-shirt.

This girl had an amazing voice.

When we walked back to the hotel there was a car passing us. They called out to us. 

It turned out to be the girl and her friends. 

Back at the hotel we talked about the day and about life as we know it.

And then I heard my fathers heavy breathing as he fell asleep.

To be continued.

Food for thought

It´s not always just beer...

Beer´s you might think twice about drinking - LINK

I leave it up to you what you do but now you know.

Stay awake. 

Love Ove

Scooter trip - Day 3 - He Huan Shan To Hualien

I woke up to a sunny day. 

I write I because my father was still asleep.

 I put on my clothes and went outside.

The air was fresh and I wanted to climb a mountain top. And so I did that. 

I made it to this top and from up there I could see for miles and miles.

I wasn't alone.

Here is a kind of a panoramic photo of the valley that we had outside our hotel window.

This was the road that we came in on.

It would also become the road that we would use leaving.

 Some mandatory "Been there done that" photos.

I didn't want to miss out on breakfast so I made it down to the hotel again. 

My father was still asleep so I had my breakfast by myself and when I was done I went up to the room to wake him up. 

He woke up happy as a can be and after he had had his breakfast we started for Hualien.

But first we made some friends.

Most of the people I talked to didn't speak English so I had plenty of opportunities to practice my Chinese.

And then it was time for the road.

We had some breaks.

Sitting on a scooter for that long makes your butt hurt after a while.

I have a remote control for my camera.

And yes... Those are my fathers teeth.

Lower and lower we came.

I never did see the monkeys but I heard them and I did see the trees move.

Often when I travel by myself I end up with no photos of myself. Well on this trip I had my dad with me.

We came to an old tree.

A rest stop in the clouds.

And another one below the clouds.

We came to a tribal village. There we had some food and my dad bought a little souvenir. It was a key chain canoe.

On and on we went until we came to Taroko gorge.

Its one of the places to visit if you do go to Taiwan.

After Taroko gorge we came to this Buddhist temple. 

There we had time to contemplate upon things that were important to us. Upon life in general.

There we had time to send out a prayer to whatever might be out there.

I went for a walk. There was a bell tower up along a mountain track.

But first you had to cross this bridge.

I made it there by myself.

It was all quiet but for a whole bunch of frogs in a pond. As soon as I came close to the pond the frogs went quiet though.

I struck the bell a couple of times and then I headed back.

There was something special with that place but I can not put my FINGER upon it.

Well we did leave that peaceful place in the end and we made it to Hualien.

There we had some food at the local Night Market.

Yes... I was tired.

Back at the hotel there was an electric guitar...

I played and sang and my audience was made up by my dad and the owner of the place.

We had a really nice evening together.

We both fell asleep to the sound of waves that night.

To Be Continued...

Now to something I feel very strongly about but I leave for you to make up your own mind about. 

GMO

Here is a YouTube video that talks about the topic. Its a little bit more than 1 hour but its well worth seeing. It might change the way you live your life...

Trailer: Seeds of Death

Full Movie

Stay awake. 

Love Ove.