Scooter Rider

DAY 1 - Peng-Hu Vacation

This lovely day actually started at 8:30 p.m. when we left our apartment. After a scooter ride on a rainy night (2 problems there – water and darkness), we arrived at the port. We were early. Great. So we walked around and found a café. We both had chocolate au laits – mine was cold and Yvonne’s was hot.

We boarded the boat around 10:30 and it left around 11:30. We had bunk beds so we brushed our teeth and went to sleep. It was mostly a steady ride. Except for the very beginning – we hit some big waves. The ship was tipping a lot. I was happy to be lying down! Then I didn’t fall all over the place. Sleeping was quite nice, but there were 2 girls in one of the other beds and they were talking and kept moving the curtain. It was irritating!

I guess I should describe the room. It was very small with 2 bunk beds. And there were 4 shelves between and a cupboard with life jackets (good thing). We each had a light above our bed and curtains to give us some privacy. There was no door. And I could stretch out and touch both ends of the bed :) I’m just not made for this country!

So, we arrived at 6 a.m. and disembarked. Then we walked around the town for awhile. I wishing for a taxi since my bag was heavy. Oh well. It was good exercise. We stopped and saw a very old temple and we took a few pictures. None of the stores were open so shopping wasn’t an option. We found our hotel and luckily they let us check in right then. I don’t know what we would have done otherwise!

The two of us plopped down on our single beds and were dead to the world until 8:30. It was lovely to sleep some more since we only slept for a short time on the ship. Time to explore the town!! We walked to a street right by our hotel and found some breakfast. I called it the breakfast street – it had a bunch of shops that served breakfast.

We did more walking and shopping. I remembered packing my sunglasses but couldn’t find them. So I “had” to buy some. :) We also bought some slippers (Yvonne’s name for flip-flops). We got a good deal – buy one get one free.

Our next stop was a travel agency place where we waited for the other people in our group. There were 6 of us altogether. Jason (went to Kenting), Sam, Charlene, and I can’t remember the other girl’s name (it was a hard one!) were the 4 people that completed our group. We rented scooters from the travel agency and filled them with gas. It was lunch time and we went driving around looking for a well-known place. And we didn’t find it. We went to a different place. Yvonne and I just chuckled at how we were driving around in circles.

And at lunch I got to taste 2 new things! Yeah. Yvonne has decided not to tell me what it is until after I’ve eaten it (smart). She actually took a video of it, but I couldn’t get it to load on the blog. So I tried this red cube which Jason said is his favorite. I didn’t like it. After I swallow they tell me it is pig’s blood. Yes, pig’s blood. EW! Why would anyone want to eat that? Ugh, gross. The other thing I ate was pig intestine. I think that is worse than pig stomach. That is the piping used to take out the trash. I sure hope they scrubbed it well. It didn’t taste too bad; it was just very chewy.

The rest of the day was one long scooter ride. We covered the 4 islands that are all connected by roads. And I was dumb enough to not put sunscreen on my thighs (I was wearing short swimming shorts). Man were they red by the time we were done! Boo hoo. That necessitated the purchase of aloe vera. We stopped at 2 different banyan trees. They are cool trees that grow huge and put down roots to support their weight. The 2 other girls read the sign and discovered one tree was 300 years old, and they said that is older than the U.S.! And Yvonne translated for me. It was pretty funny.

We also had some cactus ice cream. Well, it comes from the fruit made by a certain cactus. It’s good! We also drove across a bridge that is VERY long. They aren’t sure if it still holds the record for the longest bridge across the ocean, but it did at one time. Our last stop was a cool for that used to be used to defend the island. I got to climb all over and that made me happy. Jason found a way to get on top of the fort. But you had to lift yourself onto a set of stairs set high in the wall (about the height of the middle of my back). All the other girls had problems and used the boys’ help. I turned around and boosted myself right up :) I think they may have been jealous. We also stopped at a traditional village that has been kept up as it was long ago. I was feeling my sunburn by then and wasn’t too interested. Oh yeah, we also had aloe vera ice cream. Funky, huh?

I think that about sums up the first day. It isn’t too interesting, but there was a bit of a time delay. The scooter rides were great, 1 because I didn’t have to drive 2 because the wind flew by me and cooled me off and 3 because I got to look around and see the beautiful scenery.