Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Green Island

Okay- I guess it's finally time to bite the bullet and write my last blog about Taiwan. I would love to keep blogging after this but since my life has become drastically dull here in America, there's not much to blog about except for tedious job hunting.


ANYWAY, here it is...the final days of my fabulous, fun-filled adventures in Asia!
June 23rd: We're finally all packed up and ready to leave. I stocked up on motion sickness medication because I knew the ferry to Green Island was going to be rough. Jessica and I had a little too much fun making commercials for the little box of pills I bought. Bomit...don't vomit!



It took me several tries to get through the commercial...on the last take you can see the mascara streaks running down my face from laughing so hard. Yeah, I'm a dork...










We started our trip with dinner at the toilet restaurant. They serve your food in little toilets, bathtubs, and sinks...lovely.



Then we went shopping... you know how sometimes you get on an elevator and forget to hit a floor...






We had booked our trip with this high-strung South African guy named Eddie who took us to the bus stop and lectured us on sunscreen and driving safely on our scooters- "I don't want to get a call from the clinic- there's only one doctor on the island and he's always drunk." Remember Eddie's advice...it'll come up later in this blog.

It was kind of a rough night...the all-night bus had no air-conditioning, but we finally reached our destination the next morning. Most of us took a motion-sickness pill and we boarded the ferry. Not long after the ferry pulled out, I could hear people all around me retching. The boat was equipped with plenty of plastic barf bags and I soon joined my co-passengers in emptying the contents of my stomach. The Bomit medication definitely did not work. I got up and a steward wearing rubber gloves was ready and waiting to take my bag from me. He gave me two more empty bags and I headed outside for some fresh air where Tammy and Lauren were looking green and leaning over the railing. Joseph was gloating on how unaffected he was by the non-stop rocking motion of the waves. I got my revenge on him when I tossed my cookies over the railing and missed. Joseph accidentally put his hand on the railing and got a lovely surprise. Oops. Too much information? Here's the evidence on my shirt...disgusting...
If you ever get a chance to read the Lonely Planet Travel Guide for Taiwan, look up what it says about the "Vomit Barge". I'm lucky I survived.

We arrived at the island, rented scooters, and spent the day on the beach. That night, we ate dinner at a Taiwanese Barbecue...




We sang karoake and got a standing ovation from the Taiwanese tourists there.




We came home and found this gianormous spider in our bathroom...





Then, we gave Joseph some dreads...



He had some bad hair and a headache the next morning.


Green Island was amazing!!! We rode our scooters around the small island, swam and played on the beach, snorkeled, sat under the stars in the natural hot springs, and laughed our guts out in the hotel every night.





Then, tragedy struck! On our third day in paradise...while riding our scooters along the beautiful coastal road, I wrecked my scooter into a wall. These are the sunglasses I was wearing when my head hit the pavement.


I got eight stitches above my right eye and broke my left wrist.




It turns out that the only doctor on the island isn't always drunk- Here he is putting a cast on my broken arm.




Poor Jessica was on the back of the scooter and the pavement tore up her leg and foot. I'll forever be sorry for putting her through all that...she's one tough cookie.




With only one functioning arm...I was pretty useless, but I had a ton of help from all my personal assistants. I couldn't reach my head to do my hair and make up so from here on out... all the pictures of me are scary... Humidity is not my friend. I felt like Monica on that episode of Friends when her hair frizzes out into an enormous afro. Sad.




Try this at home... bend perpendicular to the wall, lift the chair, and try to stand up. Guys' center of gravity isn't in their hips so they can't stand up, but girls can...

That's it for now...There's lots more, so stay tuned for the second half of our trip to Thailand...elephants, kayaking, wild monkeys, hill tribe villages, and snorkeling...all with a broken arm!