Green Island, Taiwan

 Notes from the journal:

6/3
• Took a bus from the Taitung train station to the ferry port and went to our nice little B&B next to the port. Sat outside on the balcony and enjoyed the breeze and views of the ocean. The trash truck came around the neighborhood playing a loud tune that sounded like an ice cream truck to alert people to bring their trash out.
• Went to an amazing little restaurant nearby in the village for dinner and got flower tea, sashimi (even better than the sashimi in Japan in my opinion), braised pork belly, and seafood soup.
• Walked around the village to stock up on snacks at the 7/11 and came across a cool temple.
6/4
• I went to the ferry port to pick up our pre-reserved tickets while Tyler ordered our free breakfast. I forgot his passport so I had to go back through the village.
• We had a weird interaction when we got on the boat where they took our tickets and ushered us on but then kind of shouted after us so we turned around and then they waved as if to say nevermind. The boat started to move 30 mins before the departure time so we realized we had gotten on the wrong boat. I asked a passenger with google translate where the boat was going and they said Green Island so we realized we just got on an earlier boat accidentally (so the ticket interaction made sense).
• The ride was very wavy (it’s known for that) but our sea bands were very helpful!
• There were lots of old ladies trying to sell us moped rentals but we declined and asked around for the ONE shop that rents bicycles. As a side note, I did not do any motorbike rentals in Asia due to lack of international motorcycle license and safety. This made things more difficult at times and I had to do a lot of cycling, but it all worked out.
• Biked through town to get to Lyudao Lighthouse and Oil Cave lagoon, which had nice clear and calm water in front of the lighthouse. We swam for several hours and then had some seafood soup for lunch in town.

• We had SO much trouble finding our B&B and biked all over town due to the address being incorrect, but eventually found it using a blurry image from Booking.com and comparing it to every building we saw in the village 
• Tyler wasn’t feeling well so he took a nap while I went to explore some caves and coastal areas on our side of the island and swam at the lagoon again.
• We headed out for dinner too late and just ate at 7/11 due to places being closed/expensive.
6/5
• Went to a nice place for breakfast with great omelettes and tea, then set out to bike the circumference of the island.
• First stopped at Da Bai Sea snorkeling area and used our goggles to see some coral.
• Had to walk our bikes uphill for awhile but saw a beautiful view from the little Great Wall and rode down to Youzihu to see a sea cave.
• Made our way to the Blue Cave over lots of sharp rocks and had it all to ourselves. We got to snorkel inside the beautiful sea cave which was SO cool! We didn’t have lights so we didn’t follow the cave back very far but there were lots of coral, rocks, and fish.
• Finished our bike around the island and stopped for lunch at the same place as the day prior for egg drop soup.
• Went to get some amazing boba and drank it at the lagoon before going to laze around at the B&B.
• Got a baked curry for dinner in town.
6/6
• Went to same breakfast place as the day prior. The family was super friendly and one of the girls was practicing English so she chatted with us a bit.
• Got more boba from the same place, returned bikes to rental place, snorkeled at Shilang snorkel area where we saw lots of tropical fish
• Took the ferry back to the mainland, took the bus back to the train station where we waited for awhile before taking the train 3.25 hrs to Chiayi (nice views until it got dark)

Read if I referred you to this post:

• Okay I’m going to hook you up with train info for the east side of the country bc it’s easy to find trains for the west coast but there’s barely any info online about the east coast and it’s so beautiful over there! You can book affordable train tickets a little while in advance on the Taiwan Railway Corporation site: https://tip.railway.gov.tw/tra-tip-web/tip/tip001/tip123/query
• Green island was AMAZING in my opinion. You can pretty easily bicycle around the whole island in half a day (a few walks up steep hills) and the coastline views are absolutely stunning. The bikes gave us a lot of freedom to explore at a leisurely pace.
• The snorkeling isn’t anything super spectacular but there is some pretty coral at Shilang and the Oil Cave Lagoon and Blue Cave for swimming are great!
• It is a bit difficult to find good, affordable food but we loved 鮮茶道(台東綠島店) for Boba and Tai Yangguang Breakfast Restaurant 泰陽光早餐店 for breakfast. The whole vibe of the island is very relaxed and friendly and I would recommend staying in Lyudao.
• We booked our ferry tickets in advance on Klook because I couldn’t figure out another way to do it and I’m not sure whether or not they still had walk-up availability when we went but the boats didn’t seem to be full buying in person might be a cheaper option.
• Here is the dinner restaurant in Taitung that we really liked: 海賓滷肉飯鮮魚湯（海釣魚料理）