Shao Liu Qiu is the name of the island we went to yesterday. We had gone out there with some friends back in the early fall and have been wanting to get back there ever since. Last time we took our bikes and spent a very hot day riding around the circumference of the island. This time we took the metro to the end, took a half-hour taxi ride to the ferry, took the ferry to the island and then tried to rent scooters. Unfortunately they saw how me and our friend Nancy handled our scooters and took ours and Lee's away and gave us electric bikes instead.

This picture makes it look like a clown's bike but it was actually really nice. We couldn't raise the seats so Lee was a bit uncomfortable with where the pedals were but I loved mine. You get the power of the motor so I only had to pedal on the steeper hills and it was zippy enough for me. The scooter was pretty intimidating considering we had to figure out how to control the beasts in a crowd of people who don't speak English but wanted to give you lots of advice. We had some basic driving tips from our friends Les and Linda, who had brought their scooter with them, but it wasn't enough for me and Nancy to prove ourselves in the two minutes we had to figure it out. I'd like to try again, but in an empty parking lot instead.

But on we went, with Linda and Les in front going half the speed Les normally drives his scooter, but they were very patient with us putting along behind. We stopped along the way for some stunningly beautiful hikes along the coast. The island is an old coral reef so the rocks are all these interesting, craggy, jumbled shapes. As we hiked along I imagined how my brother and sister-in-law could have been scuba diving in among the rocks.

There are places where you have to duck to fit through the outcroppings but at least they warn you ahead of time.

The rocks were thrust up out of the ocean so recently that you can see the old coral formations really clearly.

The island is about 10 miles from the town where we caught the ferry but the difference in the ocean is like night and day. The water at the ferry terminal in Donggang is murky green with trash floating everywhere. The water at Shao Liu Qiu is aqua blue and crystal clear.

At our last couple of stops before we got back to town we saw sea turtles swimming along the shore. The next time we go to the island I want to spend a night or two and go snorkeling. It's supposed to be pretty spectacular.

When we got back to Donggang we decided to meet up for an early dinner at a noodle shop that Linda and Les like so Les took the scooter and Linda walked with us to find the restaurant. We got a little lost and ended up walking in a big loop for an hour only to find that the place didn't open for another 45 minutes. Les, however, was nowhere to be found and it turned out that Linda had both his and her phones so there was no way to reach him. We sat outside the shop until it opened and ate a fabulous dinner. In the meantime, Les gave up looking for us and headed back to Kaohsiung, figuring that we had all hopped on a taxi to come back on our own. It felt like we were living one of those Newlyweds game show questions, "If you were separated and lost what would your husband do?"

As Lee says, in Taiwan, it's all good. We had a great day and a delicious dinner. We left Linda at her apartment to figure out a different answer to that question with Les.