25 May 2009

Lanyu island

Before going to Taiwan I bought the Lonely Planet guidebook to get an idea of what I could do there. As I have always had a thing for small islands, I specifically looked at the various islands off the coast. I would have been interested in Kinmen, a Taiwanese island that is very close to the Chinese mainland and therefore heavily militarised. Yes, admit, I was less interested because of the beaches or other scenery and more for the atmosphere that must be pretty peculiar.
And then I came across the chapter on Lanyu. It`s a small island in the South East of Taiwan and quite off the beaten track still (well all of Taiwan is off the beaten track in terms of European visitors pretty much). It has an aboriginal population and is very different from the mainland plus it seemed to be naturally beautiful too. So a good destination for a hop off the main island.
I did the trip from my "home base" in Kaohsiung and my friends helped me organise the plane ticket and accomodation and a rental scooter. I took the train early in the morning to Taitung and then ventured to the small airport that had a very easy-tropical-breeze vibe. Except for being called back for a hairspray in my luggage the check-in was as quick as it gets. A tiny 19-seat plane is flying to Lanyu 6 times daily. Somewhat bumpy of course, but fun for anyone who is not afraid of flying. Upon my arrival my host mother waited for me with the scooter and I then rode it, following her car to the accomodation. Luckily I managed to do it well enough not to wake suspicions that I had barely sat on one before in my life...
I did a first tour of the island right away. The tour around the island by scooter takes around 1.5 hours if you don`t stop. There are many impressive rock formations around the island which itself is mountaineous as well. Little beaches that are virtually deserted show up once in a while. On some you can see the traditional long boats with beautiful paintings that are typical for the local Yami tribe. The locals like to hang out in small huts that are on stilts and right next to the road. Looked a bit like the "fale" in Samoa that my sister showed me. They were friendly for sure and always greeting and winking at me, the benefit of a rural place. There is little traffic on the island, most people ride motor scooters and there is just one bus that tours the island 4 times a day. The major traffic obstacle are actually the ubiquitous goats.
I
n the evening, after sampling some of the host mum`s fish soup (hm, very bony - soup, not the host) I went for a night tour of the island to watch animals. We were around 20 people to unite at the guide`s home. Robert, a Spanish guy and me were the only non-Chinese speakers and the whole introduction as well as the tour were in Chinese. We had some friendly translators though. We ventured out on our motorbikes to a small forrest on the hills to watch night animals like owls and various insects and endemic plants of Lanyu. The Yami, the local aboriginal tribe is still quite connected to nature and know how to use the various plants and have a lot of mythological stories associated with them as well. I got translated enough to make it interesting. The only annoyance were the long breaks because everybody wanted to take bad pictures in the dark. Not just a Japanese thing, this constant clicking obviously... We ended up in the harbour to see some fish that glow in the dark. I was glad to make it back home since I was running very low on gas. But I even made it back to the airport the day after, but then the tank was probably more than empty.
In the morning I had breakfast at the LP recommended cafe "Breakfast" and enjoyed delicious pancakes, coffee and fresh homemade soymilk. We could also delve into politics a little. It seems that the relationship with mainland Taiwan has not always been the best. The island was cut off for a long while and very underdeveloped. It was then chosen as a dumpsite for toxic waste which still lies off its South coast and of which the locals were not informed. The Yami also feel treated as a bit of a tourist curiosity for the Chinese descendant Taiwanese. Taiwan has a population with around 98% Chinese descendants who immigrated from Southern China mostly, a long time ago. The aboriginal tribes make up for few people only and have been somewhat instrumentalised, even though publicly nurtured by Taiwan`s government as they make a good argument for Taiwan`s cultural difference to the mainland.
In any case Lanyu was a very worthwhile trip and is probably naturally one of the most beautiful spots in Taiwan. It takes a while to get there, but the rewards are rich.

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