kinmen

for the past few days, during my spring break, i went to xiamen, a city in southern china on the coast. we went for a coworker's wedding. some of us had really been wanting to try to go to kinmen, which is an island off the coast that is part of taiwan. this is the main thing we had planned to do for the past several weeks since we would be near there for this destination wedding anyway. going to the main island of taiwan was too far, but kinmen was only about an hour by ferry. we all wanted to the new passport stamp, to be able to say we'd been there. we were excited!

after hearing from multiple sources different stories about the prices of the ferries, which wharf to go to, how long it would take, if we would actually be able to get off the ferry, etc, we finally just took a taxi to a wharf that we knew a name of, and figured once we got there we would actually be able to know. it turned out that we just bought tickets, stood in line, went through customs, and there we were on a ferry!
we were the absolute last people to get on the ferry, and when we got on, it looked like all the seats were full on the lower level, so we decided to walk up to the upper level. it turned out to be the first class cabin and no one was up there. we were just standing on the deck outside not knowing what to do, but the ferry was about to leave and workers were telling us we couldn't stand outside while the ferry was going, so we went inside the first class cabin and there we were for the rest of the ride! there were a bunch of seats like airplane seats in the center, and on the sides with windows there were little rooms with booths and tables, so we sat in one of those.
it's funny the things you can get to do completely by accident...

we got off the ferry and went through customs, and we were in taiwan! we walked out of the building, and there we were. now what?? haha... we hadn't planned *anything* beyond the fact that we just wanted to get to kinmen. the goal was already accomplished. what is really funny to me is that it never even crossed my mind until we were standing there on that road that we might have wanted to look up ahead of time what there was to do in kinmen. usually i think of things like this. i didn't think of it at all. the only goal was to go there! so. we exchanged some money. we saw some tour busses, but we didn't really want to take an actual tour bus. we got some "directions" to a regular bus and started walking up the street.
so, walking the streets of kinmen...haha! but we were there! there could be no disappointment about the day, because there had been no expectations. we already had exactly what we wanted. so we just did whatever happened. this is so weird to me, because it is not normal for me to do things this way. i wonder how much i have changed by living in china sometimes.

anyway, there was quite a variety of things to see. this place was much more rural than anywhere i have been in china for a long time.


there was definitely not a city, i would call it a town.

it was nice though. we walked around, and had some lovely noodles with good seafood for lunch.

we took a bus to this bus station, and then after lunch we just decided to get on a bus and see where it went. we did that 3 times, i think, and saw several different areas of the island just by riding the bus throughout the entire route. we saw that bus station so many times. we even had the same driver driving a few of the busses. he must have thought we were kind of crazy! especially since we only ever got off of busses at the bus station, nowhere else! there wasn't anything super exciting to get off for, and the busses weren't that often, so it would have been silly to get off to see something that may have taken 10 minutes to see and then have to wait at least 1/2 an hour for the next bus.

the variety in the houses was interesting to me. i guess i haven't seen houses in a long time! in cities there are literally no houses. really, none. just apartment buildings. i didn't get that many good pictures through bus windows, but the new scenery was pleasant.


also, we found these Lonely God chips!!??
=)