Penghu Pt. 2

When we first arrived at Penghu on Wednesday the 29th (it took me one week to post these because 1) I'm lazy and 2) I knew there were going to be a crap ton of them) we took a ferry out to a place called Bird Island, which houses a fishing village. It was overcast and the breeze off of the water felt wonderful, unfortunately, this is also where we got the most salt over us. But just watching the water was very calming. I think I know why so many people love the ocean now. I'll spare you from the amount of pics I took of the water.

The statue in the entrance to Bird Island.

Dried fish (tastes like fish jerky) and a sorting table for them.

A tiny orange Crab on Bird Island.

The fish BBQ we had in the fishing restaurant.
I felt sorry for the puffer fish since it was out of the water, but at least I got a pic with it. It was subsequently returned to its home. I guess since it has people feeding it everyday, it could at least give people photos with it.
Sorry my hair is a mess. It was an extremely windy day.

I want a giant incense burner!

A wall of Buddhas inside a temple.

Bird's nest outside a ferry house.
If you look closely, you can make out the smiley face in the lower right firework.


Some guy brought his big iguana to the fireworks. It was just chillin' on his shoulder! He let me hold it for a photo, sorry for it being sideways.

A less busy beach where we were able to ride a lot more water rides.

I'm standing in a square with a roof made entirely from the branches and roots of a single tree. Many of the roots grew long enough to touch the ground, making tall root-columns.

Steph and I in front of an arch of Penghu's great bridge. Apparently a lot of people around here know about it and take a pic just to prove they were there, so here's my proof.
A geology center for the basalt and other rock formations of Penghu.
Whale's eye cave near the geology center.



This pumpkin is huge, but not quite as big as the pic makes it out to be if you consider the bucket and the table in the background, haha.
These are special orange flowers that only grow at Penghu.
We stopped at a village inhabited by people with the same last name of Chen. They strive to keep traditional Chinese architecture in their homes and workplaces.








Some native cacti.
The sunsets on these islands are famous, and I can tell why. :)


On the last day we were there, Saturday, we went to the other side of the island to look at this watchtower and find some of the beaches. On the rocks, there were fisherman and woman catching their dinner. We went to a much sandier beach, but at that point, it was the hottest part of the day and I wanted nothing more than a cool drink and to sit down. Apparently these people had never heard of sitting out the hottest part of the day in an air conditioned place. While they were prancing around in the super hot sand, I relaxed in a shaded gazebo and read.



One of the happier times I had on the island was when I got to go off on my own for a little while and search for some place with air conditioning. Apart from many stores, I stopped inside one of the temples to look around.
A wall of rocks that looked pretty cool.
An offering to the ancestors and the gods can be made in the form of soda and oatmeal.
An inner-temple store where you can buy said soda and oatmeal.

A really fancy calligraphy set in the temple.

All of these guys are life-sized statues found inside the temple. Well, they're a lot bigger than me, at any rate.





Did you know that the train platform to Hogwarts is actually in Taipei? I didn't think so.
Giant Beetle. This was a friend of Yu who was kind enough to take Steph and I in with his mother after we got back to Hualien really late. Here we see a giant beetle really liked him.

As far as I can tell, they store giant Letter H's on the beaches and then throw them into the water in order to ward off something. Or they're just barricades for flooding. :P

This is a wall of coral and ocean rocks that people have taken and used to build in their structures. The rock is difficult to shape, so they just threw the rocks together as they were.

You can find Buddhist temples everywhere on the Penghu Islands. The people are in danger of storms when they live on the Pacific Ocean, so the temples give them a feeling of protection.