Anyways, last weekend was a holiday weekend {more to come about moon festival too! Haha} so no school on Monday called for a nice long relaxing weekend with the girls in Penghu, Taiwan, a small island off the west coast of Taiwan…yes and this is where you ask "aren't you on an island?"...yes, we went to vacation on the island's island lol.
Tory, Kristen, Rebecca,
little Brody and I couldn't have been more excited to board our ferry bright
and early Saturday morning headed for tropical paradise, looking forward
to a nice warm, relaxing weekend…haha…oh how plans so quickly can change!
*** Enter the ferry Puke-Fest 2015*** {if you have a queasy
stomach, now's the time to stop reading!}
Please try to imagine for a minute a
small 2 story ferry boat, full of about 200 people, on a sunny Saturday
morning, with waves covering the 2nd story window, and 95% of the people
vomiting, for 2 hours, all ALL ALL over
the boat…yeah, let me tell you we figured out what those cute little puke bags
were for real quick. Although I was a lucky one and didn’t actually get sick,
you still know you feel like poop when you are willing to share a gag bag on a
boat with a friend and don’t think twice about it at the time:/
AYWAYS! We did eventually make it to Penghu, and after cleaning up
from the ferry we were bound and determined not to let anything ruin our trip….
Haha, such naïve little travelers we were!
Day 1 was filled with a late afternoon trip to the beach, running into an 'out there' 30th birthday party, fireworks, a beach bonfire, and throwing in the towel and ordering some good 'ole fashion pizza for dinner!
--- Day 2 --- Sunday --- --- --- --- --- ---
After an attempted snorkeling trip and realizing the waves were crazy high from the approaching typhoon (yes I told you our troubles continued!) we traded in the snorkeling for some relaxing time swimming at a much calmer beach! Dinner consisted of some kebob like grilled "things" (please see the picture below and try to describe it as anything more than things lol!) and a night walk parts of the island.
--- Day 3 --- Monday --- --- --- --- --- ---
I'll start off by saying today was our INTENDED day of going back home...haha, yeah...about those change of plans again...all ferries and boats to and from the island have now been canceled...we are stuck, along with everyone else you went to Penghu for vacation, on a teeny little island. We began waking up to pictures like this (just for giggles, check this out, a typhoon bigger than the country I live in is headed straight towards us, while I'm off the west coast on a teeny tiny island, with winds up to 130 mph and gusts around 160 mph...yeah looks like fun to us too!)
Adamant that we weren't going to let a little wind come in the way of our now extended vacation, Kristen, Rebecca, and I made plans to have a taxi pick us up and tour the island stopping at the main attractions and interesting locations along the way. We stopped at a light house, an old fort, went across the bridge connecting 2 of the larger islands, went to whale cave (which sadly does not even closely resemble a whale) saw a giant tree with 100+ uncovered roots, and sample some delicious foods and typhoon winds along the way! {the video below was taken near whale cave & may give a glimpse at the crazy winds we were experiencing Monday afternoon}
After arriving home and assessing our windburn damaged faces we decided to round out windy day with a nice fresh seafood dinner (and by fresh I mean we watched them take the live fish out of the tank, put them on the sidewalk, whack them in the head with a mallet and then take them inside to cook...talk about fresh!) To say dinner was delicious is an understatement!
--- Day 4 --- Tuesday--- --- --- --- --- ---
(the day after we should have been home...but on the bright side...school was canceled for a typhoon day!)
Seeing as the typhoon hit hard Monday night everything was closed Tuesday morning and the few convenient stores that were open looked like they had been robbed dry; luckily we were warned and stocked up on food before hand! Tuesday was by far our lazy day! We found a shaved ice stand that was open and enjoyed some red bean shaved ice for a late breakfast and then hung out at the hotel while the town started to come back alive, open their shops, clean up the branches, and pickup the fallen scooters. Dinner of a typical moon fest BBQ at a local restaurant rounded out our relaxing day!
--- Day 5 --- Wednesday--- --- --- --- --- ---
(2 days after we should have been home if you're keeping track!)
We were finally able to book plane tickets home and are still waiting on reimbursement of our ferry tickets since the ferry was still canceled as of Wednesday. ALL tickets back to main land were sold out and ours ways delayed by 30 minutes, but once we got on that plane it was a quick 40 minute hop, skip, and a jump until we were safely in Taipei!
--- Summary --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Did we have fun: oh my goodness yes!!!
Would we go back to Penghu again: umm maybe?!
Would I ever step foot on that ferry again: most certainly NOT!
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