A Few Other Pages of Interest

After seeing these photos, if you find yourself wanting to read more detailed thoughts about my trip to Penghu, visit http://outintheworld.blogspot.com/2005/05/penghu.html. To see photos from other islands around Taiwan, please visit http://outintheworldkinmen.blogspot.com/ and
Lanyu/Green Island. Enjoy!

On the first day, Natalia and I started out in Makung with a bright blue sky and great hopes for a wonderful trip. It turned out well, though perhaps not as well as it might have as rain sent us home without having had a chance to see much of the main island of Penghu. On the first day, we visited BaiSha and Xi Yu, two large islands that are connected by bridge to each other and to Penghu. Unfortunately, I did not conquer my fear of riding a motor bike on this trip and so a good deal of time was spent waiting for buses on that first day. 

The second picture of the trip, and as blue as the sky would be. 

I either really like this picture or I don't like it at all. I can't tell. It illustrates something I found rather frustrating in Makung. The sidewalks were always cluttered with things, worse even than Taipei, so there was often no choice but to walk in the streets. The streets were not so wide, though, so cars were always coming just a bit too close. It was especially awful in the rain. 

I really like the colors of this chair and of the wall behind it, taken on a bright morning between breakfast and a bus ride. 

Walking around Makung while waiting for our first bus of the day. 

A small neighborhood near the aquarium on BaiSha Island. I wouldn't advise a trip to the aquarium, to be honest, as it has little that can't be seen in the aquarium in Taipei, or for that matter the Living Mall. This was a nice place, though, except for a barking, snarling dog that reminded me of Kinmen and made all the more real my fear of both dogs and of riding a scooter - both irrational, I know. For the next hour or two while we waited for the bus I was exeptionally pissy and I'm sure Natalia was wondering how we could ever possibly travel for months at a time together. 

A splash of color in an otherwise whitewashed world. 

Wall as painting. 

A small tableau I noticed while looking for where exactly we were supposed to sit and wait for more than an hour while flies flew around our feet and the sun grew ever hotter. 

The last picture taken before the bus finally came. 

WaiAn, the southermost town on XiYu (Western Island). This was the pleasant town where Natalia and I ate lunch. 

The harbor in WaiAn.

I don't know if this was meant to be a bunker or what. I do know that the sand on the beach was quite inviting and that signs said any swimming was done at your own risk due to a lack of lifeguards and rather rough water. 

On the hillside above the beach seen in the previous picture. The hillside was filled with these red and yellow wildflowers, stones, and graves. The road leading from WaiAn had also been spotted with graves and grazing cows. A very peaceful scene. 

An abandoned house filled with bare trees in NeiAn. 

After visiting WaiAn at the very southern tip of Xi Island, Natalia and I walked up the coast to NeiAn where we found several old stone houses filling a difficult to navigate town (though it is so small it would be impossibe not to find your way back to the main road sooner or later). 

Another picture from the maze of narrow lanes running between houses in NeiAn. 

Near the bus stop in NeiAn. 

As we waited (again) for a bus to take us back to Makung, I took a few pictures of the sparsely decorated trees / brush that covered so much of Xi Island. 

On Sunday Natalia and I went to one of the northernmost islands of Penghu, ChiBei. The boat ticket cost about 500 NT (about 16 US) and took about 40 minutes from the port on BaiSha island. There are several islands in the north and these are the focus of beach activities in Penghu. Unfortunately, the weather was not the best on the day that we went there, but we still had a good time listening to Taiwanese guys squeal like little school girls as they rode on 4 wheelers around us. This guy was working on the boat and he caught my eye because of the hat he was wearing - apparently taken from his wife's closet. 

As we were nearing ChiBei. The narrow strip of land between water and sky just visible to the left of the trees is all beach and extends to the edge of the photo. 

Looking up at Natalia from down near the water on the huge beach on ChiBei. At the southern tip of the island is a long spit of sand. This is where people wanting to play in the water come to jet ski, paraglide, and ride four-wheelers. It would be so much better if the beach was not filled with coral, and thus rather uncomfortable to either sit or walk on.  

There were some abandoned buildings and burnt-out carcasses of buildings between the long spit of beach you see in the previous pictures and the main town on ChiBei. There are also several construction projects in various stages of completion and of being forgotten. The is a picture of one of the abandoned buildings.  

An old, weather-beated sign outside a shop on ChiBei. 

A rather strange looking tree on ChiBei. I saw some similar trees on Monday in the south of Penghu as well. Anyone know what there are called?