Good Times - Jishan Beach

Back to Sunday, June 22...

For the second week in a row, I decided to head to a north coast beach. After experiencing the Taiwan Strait at Baishawan Beach, it was time to head northeast and test the waters of the East China Sea. So Ben, Andy, Adam, and I got a bus headed for Jishan Beach.

It took a bit longer to get there (about 2 hours) but that's mainly because we left from the middle of downtown and it took an hour to get outside of the city. We passed several beaches along the way that will have to be explored at a later point. Once we arrived, I immediately started comparing it to Baishawan. The bad? The beach was dirtier. The good? It didn't seem as crowded. And Mr. Hasselhoff was no where to be seen. Could this mean no designated swim area!?!? Yes! Finally, freedom to swim where I pleased.

After a failed attempt at swimming to Japan, I decided to just enjoy being in water that was deeper than my waist. It was so nice. That is until I got stung by something. I felt a prick on the inside of my elbow and it burned like hell for 5 minutes and then went away. Not cool I didn't think it was a jellyfish because I thought they brushed up against you and this felt like a needle in my arm. Later, I was told that the waters here have a lot of really small jellyfish and that's what it was. That's a first for me. And hopefully a last.

But in the end, the longer commute and presence of jellyfish didn't stop me from having a great time. And the fact that I can swim at this beach definitely is a bonus over Baishawan. Until next time...