A Little Piece of Heaven! Part 2 (Green Island)

We woke up bright and early (5 AM) on Sunday morning to watch the sunrise! We heard that watching the sunrise at the hot springs was awesome, so we decided to do that.

But it was rainy and cloudy that morning because of Typhoon Megi heading towards the Philippines, (which is relatively close to Green Island). So we didn't quite get to watch the sunrise. But as it became lighter, we realized what a magnificent little place we were located at!

The surroundings were beautiful! We had a little black hill on one side with the beautiful contrasting green growing on it (You can see a little bit of the hill in the picture above). We had the rocky shore of the ocean in front of us with huge waves crashing against the rocks. We had more black, rocky mountains on the other side of us, but in the distance.

This is the natural part of the hot springs! They were closed while we were there (because of the huge waves), but we could walk up to them and see how beautiful they were! The hot springs that we swam in, in the pictures above, had the water pumped in from the natural hot springs below.

These hot springs are one of only three salt water hot springs in the world! They were amazingly beautiful and relaxing! I loved it!

See that pool of water in the background... well that's part of the hot springs too.

After a couple of hours at the hot springs soaking up the beauty and the water, we went back to our hotel and ate breakfast and got ready for the day.

Before we left our hotel for one last time, we had to visit our little friend, the pet deer, I mentioned we visited in the last post.

He was a beautiful and sad little creature! He was tied up and had a tiny cage to sleep in.

Our next stop was the Little Great Wall! The view from the top was amazing!


This was on the way up the Little Great Wall! Haishenping Bay! Look at the cool arch in the rock on the right hand side of the picture!


On the way up! I loved this little hike!

On the way up the Little Great Wall looking to the left!

This is looking to the right at the top of the wall! What a magnificent view! It was breathtaking!


On the scooter! Tricia drove most of the time, but I did drive for a little bit too :) It was fun! Depending on where I live when I get home, I would consider getting a scooter as my mode of transportation!

I don't even know how to describe the beauty of the next place we went! It was lovely, beautiful, breathtaking, magnificent! Those words don't even do it justice. The next 10 pictures are from the same place. Notice the diversity of the scenery!

Black mountains with contrasting green growing on it! Green grass in the valley with an occasional patch of purple wild flowers!

Waterfall on the mountain and grass almost as tall as me!

Rocky shore and the rock island!

A natural arch!

Me!

I have no words to describe!

Ocean waves crashing against the rocky shore!

A little river of water a long the way!

Notice the animals grazing in the field :)

This is near the place in the above pictures! We got pretty dang close to the shore.

Look at the wave crashing against the rock in the background!

Some ancient ruins! Youzihu! I think they were once houses of some aboriginals that lived on the island! What a beautiful location!

Youzihu!

Our next stop was the Green Island Prison! That was a fascinating place! It was once a political prison during the White Terror! If you want to learn more about it click here.

The phones really worked! I was the prisoner, Tricia was my visitor :)

The Taiwanese flag in the prison.

That writing on the mountain says "Exterminate the Communists, Restore the Country." This is right outside the prison.

Here are just a few of the hundreds of prisoners who were locked up in the prison!

Can you tell which people are real and which are not?!

That is a wax figurine! They were amazingly realistic! Looking at them from a distance, I totally thought they were real and kept on having to remind myself that they are not real.

This room showed the living quarters of some of the prisoners. It was pretty cramped in there.

Some lived in worst conditions. Like in an 8x8 padded cell with one little window near the top of the room.

Here's an up close picture of one of the wax figures! The details were intricate!

I learned a lot from this little museum. It was fascinating to learn a little more about Taiwanese history.

After the wax museum, we went to the lighthouse! It was beautiful! We walked around the beach there and searched through the coral and shells that had washed up on shore.


Me in front of the beautiful lighthouse!

The lighthouse was our last stop before we got on the ferry back to mainland Taiwan. This picture was taken at the beginning of our ferry trip from hell.

I'm not even sure where to begin. First I'll just say that Typhoon Megi was heading toward the Philippines, which is pretty much directly south of Taiwan! And although the typhoon did not hit Taiwan at all, we still felt the effects of it on our ferry ride.

This was out the window of the ferry during the ride. On a clear, calm day, you should be able to see in the distance. There were at least 20 foot waves. We rolled side to side and up and down. I thought we were going to tip over and sink. Seriously! I was scared. I can't even really describe the experience in words.

I honestly feared for my life. I had a lot on my mind on this ferry ride. I thought of the song "Jesus, Savior Pilot Me." I thought about my family. I thought about what I would do if the boat did tip over. I thought about a lot of things, but mainly I just prayed. I prayed hard. I wondered if anyone happened to be up in America and was praying for me at that time too.

Thankfully though, we made it back to mainland Taiwan safely! I said many prayers of thanks that day! The Lord was watching over us!

When we got back to Taitung to catch the train back to Changhua, there were no seats left on either of the trains we needed to get back home. So we stood up and sat on the ground for the two-hour train ride to Kaohsiung. Then I had a seat for about 45 minutes on the train from Kaohsiung to Changhua, then I sat on the floor the next 2-1/2 hours.

I actually didn't mind it! It just added more to the adventure of our trip!

Green Island really was a little piece of heaven! I loved every minute of it, even the scary parts (looking back on it). I love nature and I love adventure!