Welcome to...

This time, let's go to Lanyu

or Orchid Island.

In this video I will show you

images and footage of

a trip we made last month

to the beautiful island of Lanyu

also known as Orchid Island

which is located off the coast of Taitung

in southeastern Taiwan.

Here you can see a map of Taiwan and Lanyu.

We started our trip at Taipei as usual

and took the train down the east coast

to Yilan, Hualien,

and further down to Taitung.

From there we took the ferry...

There you can see Taitung.

North of Taitung is Fugang Harbor.

From there you can take a ferry to

Green Island, and further down to

Lanyu, Orchid Island.

A beautiful island.

This is how it looks.

It's one big rock.

There is a coastal road circling

the island and connecting

the few villages, like Yeyou,

Hongtou.

Further down, there are no villages

but interesting rocks, like the

Dragon Head Rock.

And then on the east coast there are

two villages. One is called Ivalino

in the indigenous language or Yeyin

in Mandarin and Dongqin.

Then further north there are some more

rocks, like the Warship Rock.

And on the northwestern side, there is the

Orchid Island Lighthouse.

And then there is Kaiyuan Harbor and

Yeyou Village. There you can see the

airport as well.

So we took the train from Taipei,

we took the night train, which starts

at 11 in the evening and takes 7 hours

to get to Taitung.

We tried to get some sleep

and we arrived at Taitung at 6 o'clock.

Then we took a taxi to

Fugang Harbor, which takes about 10 minutes or so.

There you can see the ferries.

It was early in the morning, so not

much going on there.

There you can see some fishing boats.

There you can see the harbor manager.

A fishing boat.

It's a small harbor north of Taitung.

We got the tickets at the ticket

hall here. And then we went to the ferry,

which is somewhere behind the boats

in the background.

Some fishing boats again.

And there you can see our ferry and

there you can see some other passengers.

Some tour groups.

And then we started our trip.

This is the ferry to Green Island.

And we slowly left the harbor.

I went straight to the upper deck

cause I like to sit outside.

And there we met a tour group, elder people,

who were happy to see a foreigner.

Then, after leaving the harbor,

the ferry follows the coast for a while,

and there you can see the high

mountains of southeastern Taiwan.

As you can see the sea was calm and

the weather was fine, no rain,

which is not always the case.

Sometimes the sea can be very rough and

can be quite "rocky".

There you can see the sun was shining actually,

although it was cloudy.

Everyone on board was looking forward to

get to Lanyu. It was the first time for us

and we didn't know what to expect and

we were very excited.

There you can see Green Island

in the distance.

You can see the island for an hour or so

on the left side.

It's much closer to the coast than Lanyu.

Then it was open sea. We couldn't see

Taiwan anymore, and we couldn't see

Lanyu yet.

My fellow travelers were sleeping inside

like many other people.

I don't like to stay inside, I like it on

the deck outside, watching the waves

and the wind.

The ferry takes about 2 and

a half hours to the island. And there we saw the

island for the first time. It's a huge

big rock in the ocean.

There you can see some of the

interesting rocks

on the left side and on the right side.

My first impression was, oh, the mountains

are quite high. Didn't expect that.

And it is a very green island.

Not many people live there, only a

few thousand or so.

There you can see the mountains are quite

tall, high.

I think the highest are about 500 meters

above sea level.

It's a very green island, lot of trees.

Then we approached Kaiyuan Harbor, which

is on the west coast, the only harbor

on the island.

In the background you can see the

Mantou Rock, Steamed Bun Rock.

There are not many ships there,

just small fishing boats.

Then the owner of our guesthouse

picked us up at the harbor and

he did drive us to the guesthouse.

Here you can see the first village.

He drove us to the guesthouse and

showed us a bit of the island.

Our guesthouse was in Yuren Village

on the west coast.

We also passed the small airport.

There you can see Little Lanyu, a small

island off the coast of Lanyu.

Our guesthouse was at Yuren Village.

The guesthouse is quite new,

but nothing special.

Then I went straight to the coast

to have a look, there is a small beach.

There were some people swimming, tourists.

There you can see the boats Lanyu is

well known for, or canoes.

There you can see another strange rock.

This was around noontime,

the weather was fine, quite hot acutally.

Close to the guesthouse are two churches.

These are taro fields and you can see

some goats.

Then we had lunch at

Yeyou Village, close to the harbor.

We had flying fish noodle soup,

fried rice with flying fish, and this soup,

which was a bit oily.

Then we had a look around at Yeyou Village.

We saw some drying fish there,

flying fish drying in the sun.

So we went there in May, the flying fish season.

You can see fish drying all over the island.

There we saw a church in Yeyou Village

and a small lane there.

Then we went to the high school of Lanyu,

which is quite beatiful because of the

patterns. From there you can see the

Mantou Rock.

Looks like a Mantou, like a steamed bun.

This is also at Yeyou, we saw more canoes,

quite pretty, clean and painted very nice.

But you are not allowed to touch them,

I didn't know that before the trip.

Then we saw some pigs. You can see a lot

of animals all over the island, pigs,

goats, dogs, cats. So if you drive or

ride a scooter you have to be careful

always look out for the roaming animals.

Then we went to this place, close to

Kaiyuan Harbor. We took scooters, the

guesthouse gave us motor scooters and

we rode to Kaiyuan Harbor. There is a

small lighthouse on a hill there.

And from there you have great views

There is the harbor. And there you can see

motor scooters you can rent and there

is also the only gas station on the

island, which is good to know.

You always have to look out that you

have enough gas in your tank because

there is only one gas station.

Also at the harbor we saw a fishing boat

where the fishermen unloaded the fish.

They just threw it on the ground there.

Quite a lot of flying fish.

The fish is not very big.

Maybe 20 centimeters. Big eyes.

The kids there decided it was too hot

and they just jumped into the harbor.

Simple joy.

It was actually quite hot on that day.

This is how they prepare the fish.

Not very hygienic.

Then they dry the fish in the sun.

Then we went further up the coast

to see the Lanyu Lighthouse,

which is on a hill. There is a small

road from the main road up the hill.

And there you can see great views

across the ocean.

The lighthouse itself is nice, but

you cannot get close to it, which

was a bit disappointing.

Then, in the evening, the owner of the

guesthouse took us on a little boat trip.

He is also a fisherman, so he took us

on a boat and showed us how he pulls in

the net with the flying fish.

He actually caught quite a lot of fish.

Big eyed flying fish.

In the net there were also some

smaller fish and longer fish and also

a bigger one.

There is the bigger one.

That was fun. So guesthouses might

arrange this kind of fishing experience.

Then the next morning I went to the coast early.

And I saw this scenery, which looked

a bit more like Ireland or Scotland

than a tropical island.

The coast there is quite rocky,

no sandy beaches.

I did make a short timelapse.

Interesting how the clouds are moving across the sky.

Then our photographer went on a little

scooter trip down to the south.

There he saw some goats and made pictures.

So you can see goats all over the island.

Sometimes they just walk on the street.

They are always nice to watch. A bit shy

but you can get good shots of them.

Then we had breakfast and after breakfast

our guesthouse owners arranged a

snorkeling trip for us. So we went to a spot

close to the airport. And we were really

amazed by the beautiful coral reefs.

Lot of different tropical fish and

a lot of different corals. We had the

life vests on and had floating rings, so

we were just floating at the surface.

And you could see quite a lot of beautiful fish.

It was like swimming in the aquarium.

So this is definitely something

you should do if you visit Lanyu.

Make sure you go on a snorkeling or

diving trip if you can dive. Very beautiful.

The visibility was quite good too.

Then we went to the other side of the

island to the east coast.

There is a road across the mountains

to the other side from where you have

great views.

There you can see Yeyin Village and

further up the coast

there is Dongqing Village.

In Yeyin Village we saw some pigs

on the road.

They were actually crossing the road

disregarding the traffic.