This past November, a few classmates and I decided to go check out Penghu. Penghu is a small island located to the east of Taiwan’s Yunlin County (云林县), which is west of Taiwan. The beaches at Penghu have white sand and clear, turquoise waters, making Penghu a well-known place for surfing and diving, so originally, we planned on doing that.
First, we used the high speed rail from Taipei to Kaohsiung which was about an hour and a half. Then, we took the ferry from Kaohsuing (高雄市) to Penghu. The boat ride from the Kaohsiung port to Penghu was about 90 minutes. Those were the worst 90 minutes of my life! I usually avoid boat rides at all-costs because I easily get motion sickness. I even get motion sickness on long bus rides, but still I was somehow convinced by my friend that the ride would be smooth and fast. Besides, he said, I should be all-set if I popped in a couple dramamine pills...
Yeah, about that...That didn’t work out. I should of known better.
The ride was horrible.
Of course, the waves decided to be abnormally big that day. The catamaran violently rocked side to side the entire trip. Sometimes, It felt like I could of fist-bump the waves. And sometimes, It even felt like the boat would leap off the waves to mid-air. Ten minutes into the ride, I popped in two pills, but thirty minutes later, along with about 80 percent of the passengers, threw up. Ironically, the friend who persuaded me to get on the boat was the first one to go. That was hilarious! Anyways, I spent the next hour in the bathroom kneeling over the bathroom sink, surrounded by other random fellow victims.
When we arrived, it was like a Walking Dead episode, everyone was a zombie, especially me. I was in no shape, or mood to be a tourist that day, so I spent the rest of the day recovering in the hostel.
The next day, after breakfast, we went to a place called Whale Cave (澎湖逍遙遊). The Whale Cave is to the north of Xiyu Township (澎湖逍遙遊), on Shomon Island. This cave isn’t much of a cave at all, actually it's a basalt cliff coast that naturally eroded into an arch because of the monsoons and seawater. The view by the sea was beautiful. The place also had traditional stands and shops at the excavation center (not clear on the history with the center). After we walked the trails by the water and saw the cave, we quickly went to ventured into the traditional shops.
After sight seeing Whale Cave, we wanted to go to the beach and relax, but before that we made a quick pit spot at the Erkan Historical Village. This village is rich in culture and traditions, dating back to the 1820s. It’s also unique because the original traditional Asian style homes still remain and they are well preserved. Their almond milk is also delicious! Tourists can smell the aroma of almonds just by walking around. It’s for sure a must drink. There is also a pretty cool coffee shop with staircases that lead up to the roof. The two owners are two young Taiwanese girls who’ve traveled just about everywhere in Asia, at least according to all the pins on their map. Of course we couldn’t pass up the chance to drink coffee on the roof, would you? Nope. We sat there drinking coffee and cracking jokes while watching the sun set.
[Slide Show- despite no people in the pictures, this place was actually crowded. But I like my pictures with no people in it!]
Night came and we still thought of sipping a few cold ones at a local beach and just chill, surrounded in good company. We went to a nearby beach where we bought a couple of Taiwanese brand beers from a restaurant right before they closed - Yeah, we were those last minute customers everyone hates. The temperature was comfortable, not too cold, not too hot. About 30 minutes into drinking and chilling, the night turned a bit odd...
We saw a UFO...?
I’ m not particularly arguing for or against the existences of aliens, so when I say UFO, I mean it in the literal sense of the word, unidentified flying object, at least to us. This thing first maneuvered as a ordinary commercial plane, until it got closer to us. In mid air, it took sharp left and right turns. We also noticed the ship had three headlights in a formation of a triangle. It danced around in the sky for about 3-5 minutes and then it passed over our head disappearing behind the tall buildings towards the city. Regardless of what it was, I’ll admit, I thought that was pretty exciting!
Now came next morning, and the Columnar Basalt was next on our list to of things to see. The columnar is similar to the Whale Cave, in the sense that it’s a natural formation. It looked a lot shorter in person and not as wide as they looked on Google images, but I'll still recommend going. I took a couple snapshots and then got ready for Yuwengdao Lighthouse (漁翁島燈塔).
When we got to the lighthouse, we saw a group of locals. This place is a tourist attraction, but I'm not sure if those locals were ready to see actual foreigners tourist. They appeared to be very confused we were there. Their facial expressions was priceless!
The sea water was calm and the sky reminded me of autumn, because of the orange tinted sky.
Beautiful.
We watched the sunset again. When it got dark, in the distance on the sea, I noticed lights were beginning to appear. It was the lights of boats returning back to the lighthouse, but I imagined it as an invasion coming to Penghu by the way it looked.
I decided to take a plane back to Taipei the next morning. There was no way in hell I'd get back on that catamaran. I should of taken one to Penghu. The flight back home was smooth and short.
