The Green Island Trip (綠島)

The place we stayed at on the island.

This post needs to be subtitled. Thus, it shall be subtitled by the following:

The Green Island Trip: An Exercise in Group Synergy

I liked the trip a lot! However, I think that was a result of not being particularly attached to any certain group of people (I felt). I know that for others it wasn’t quite as fun as it could have been. I’d like to suggest that this was so for a few reasons:

• A lot of people went on this trip together (17 people)
• There were a bunch of different groups put together
• Communication was spotty at times
• Different cultures were put together (Taiwanese, Cantonese, Japanese, American, Canadian)

Despite this, I thought it was interesting to watch, observe and take part in all the seen and unseen developments that happened over the Mid-Autumn Festival break at Green Island.

Next time, if there is a next time, I’d suggest a smaller group of people (if the same people were to go) and clearer communication. I felt that communication at times wasn’t too clear perhaps because of cultural differences. Certain actions could have been misconstrued as impolite by one person when another thought they were being polite. Lastly, clearer communication would be facilitated by proper introductions. In this way, the potential of group synergy could have been realised.

However, I’d like to just note that this is from a Westernized point of view, so on my part, I’d like to acknowledge that there is also bias and misunderstanding. Still, though, I had a bunch of fun on this trip and I think that watching and taking part in the group(s) was a useful and enlightening experience.

Other than that, please enjoy the pictures and the commentary about the trip!

To kick off the trip, we traveled down the west coast to get Taitung (台東).

(L-R)
1) Early morning on Green Island. Pretty little waterfall.
2) Early morning on Green Island. Gosh, steep hill!
3) Early morning on Green Island. Don’t think that I went to that pagoda.

1) The docks at Taitung. There’s a wall around most of the harbour with a painted mural that for a moment, I thought were real sea creatures were in the harbour.
2) One of the boats that ferries you between Taitung and Green Island. They’re killer on the waves, so much in fact that the first time we went on them almost everyone threw up. I didn’t.
3) The road back to the place we were staying at.

1)The goats kept walking away (agonizingly slowly) from me. Snooty things! XP
2) Pretty Green Island. It’s really green.
3) Lizard!

1) The crab is different from the ones at home..
2) No, really, it’s _not_ a cliff.
3) Sharing a moment in the pondering of the world beyond.

1) What a cute sign! Hard to decipher at first glance, though.
2) The steps to the ocean. We had golf carts that day. No longer stuck by lack of transportation!
3) Trying to capture the fantastic lightening storm.

1) Golf cart racing at night. I like this shot. We couldn’t rent scooters.
2) Apparently, I scared them when I jumped in front of the carts to take the picture. This is the backside.

Coming ‘home’ to Taipei.