Tainan

The next two weekends were almost identical. A quick trip on the train up to Taipei for a short overnight stay and then 6AM hockey practice on Saturday morning in Tucheng. We would typically stay at one of the Morwing hotels in Banqiao. No more visits to the Norway Forest love motel. The Morwings are cheap and close to the rink and decorated with some sort of theme(best was the Bruce Lee room).

Then another trip down to Kaohsiung on Saturday followed by some sort of family activity on Sunday. We discovered another mall/amusement park near our house. Taroko Park has a really awesome go cart track(1/10 scale of a Formula One track) as well as a great food court. My mom also came out toward the end of the month so that she could experience Taiwan with us and also experience Hong Kong. Mom went with us back out to Cinjin island for another round of bike riding and eating seafood from the restaurants. She and I also went to the Jade Market where she bargained for a teapot to take home.

View of Kaohsiung from Cinjin Island

    On April 22nd we took a quick trip up to Tainan. Its one of the oldest cities in Taiwan and perhaps most famous for food and old historical buildings. Its only about 15 minutes away on the high speed train. In fact you spend more time getting to the HSR station in Kaohsiung and then getting from the HSR station in Tainan into town than you do on the train itself. Margaret had a classmate from college who was opening an art gallery in Tainan and invited us to the opening. After the art opening we went to explore Tainan a bit. The highlight was probably the old fort area and something called Anping Tree House. Banyan trees will take root if the seeds land on the roof of the house. If left alone they will send out roots and accessory trunks and eventually take over the entire building. An example of that has become a tourist attraction in Tainan.

5 day weekend

    When the kids got back from GET week, they were told they had to go to school on Saturday. Apparently this is a deal the government makes with the people of Taiwan. The following week happened to have national holidays on Wednesday(Children's Day) and Thursday(Tomb Sweeping Day).  So rather than making everyone come back to work for Friday before heading out for the weekend the government declared the Saturday before to be a work day. All businesses, schools, and government offices are supposed to be open for regular business and in return everyone gets a 5 day weekend instead of 2 two day breaks the next week.

    We decided to use that time to tour central Taiwan since we weren't getting to see a lot of Taiwan otherwise. We started off with a drive up the west coast to Chiayi. We were a bit curious about Chiayi because the kids had an offer to go to a school there as well and we almost end up living there. It's been described to us as an urban-Asian-Boulder or Fort Collins. It's a medium sized university town on the edge of the mountains. Just outside of town you head up into Alishan National Park which is a big mountainous park similar to Rocky Mountain National Park except much more tropical. In Chiayi we borrowed bicycles for the day from our hotel and rode to Chiayi Park. We walked around the park and did a bit of geocaching. We also went to the top of Sun Shooting tower for a view of the area. Sun Shooting tower is an art museum, cafe, and landmark all in one.  Then it was time to head back to the hotel and hit the road for Alishan. The roads were very twisty and narrow with trucks and tour buses often filling the way and scooters and motorcycles darting between cars.  Probably some of the more uncomfortable driving I've ever done.

Floor of Sun Shooting tower

  We never actually went into Alishan National Park as it was far too crowded that weekend. Instead we stayed in the scenic area at Yi Pin Tea plantation in Rueli village. It was an actual working tea plantation on a mountain top surrounded by tea orchards, bamboo, and mountains. There was a vegetable garden right behind the hotel. The hotel itself seemed like it was not at all used to having western tourists and seemed to cater more to Taiwanese tour groups. These groups would all eat together in the restaurant and then tour around in a giant bus. The first night we were lucky enough to arrange dinner at the hotel. Turns out there were no restaurants in the area and all meals have to be at the hotel. But, if you don't tell them early in the day that you will want dinner you are out of luck. That night we went on a firefly walk organized by the hotel. Alishan is famous for fireflies. Somewhere between 3 and 42 different species depending on which guide you listen to or which plaque you read. I think 42 is closer to the truth. Anyway we went for a short walk through some fields and saw tons of fireflies. Then we went back to the hotel where they had organized some activities. These included pounding cooked rice in a giant mortar and pestle to make mochi for dessert, a variety of aboriginal dances, and a game where they spin you around blind folded and you then have to take a pitcher of water and dump it in a bowl.

Vegetable garden behind our hotel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinikling

Sydney about to dump water somewhere near Piper's bowl

Pounding Rice

dividing up mochi with chopsticks

Fireflies in Alishan

  The next day I made what was possibly the worst mistakes of the trip.  We were going for what I thought was going to be a short hike of only 1.5 miles or less round trip. It was supposed to lead to a few caves and some waterfalls as well as Yuantan Pco-park. At least that is what the map showed. What I didn't realize(no contour maps) was that it was actually longer and essentially straight down to the bottom of the valley. I also didn't listen to one woman in Rueli who warned us it was steep.  It was called Youth Ridge trail because it was used originally to bring supplies into Rueli and the trail was so named because only the youth of the village had the endurance to climb it. It started off as a gentle walk through beautiful tea plantations but very quickly started dropping down one set of steep stairs after another. It was very scenic but in almost no time we were a thousand vertical feet below our starting point with more descending to go just to get to a road.  Margaret had wanted to drive to the sites. Since finishing herceptin in January she has felt better but  still has been suffering through out the trip from aromasin side effects of intermittent hip, knee pain along with wrist and shoulder tendonitis. Worsened pain and fear of heights made her not enjoy the steep descent. Climbing back up would have been torture for her and probably impossible before sunset.   I made matters worse by not being sympathetic and just trying to push everyone to get to the end. We had heard there was one bus in the early afternoon that we could catch from the bottom of the trail back up to Rueli. If we missed that bus we were going to have to walk all the way back up. We made it with about 15 minutes to spare but by then no one was having any fun. Along the way were some women we call the  "Hello Kitty Girls" of society. Their husbands had driven them to the bottom of the hill so they could take a short walk to the waterfalls while wearing cute dresses and shoes to pose for pictures while other women were fully decked out in hiking gear, boots and hiking poles. One husband even held an umbrella as sun shade for his wife since she was holding hiking poles in each hand to descend stairs that weren't half as steep as the other side. Made me look like quite the big asshole in comparison.  Anyway we were sitting at a little road side stall, exhausted and grumpy, waiting for the only afternoon bus when the bus just blew right on by without even stopping.  I chased it up the road but it did no good. At that point Margaret would have been completely justified in killing me.  Fortunately a man also sitting at the stall turned out to be a taxi driver and for a fairly steep price offered to take us all back up to Rueli. Margaret had heard him talking on the phone and jokes that he called the bus driver to tell them there were no passengers at the bus stop. I loaded everyone else into the taxi and then I spent the afternoon exploring the valley. I wanted to figure out where the sites were so we could hit them with short walks from the car the next day.

Starting down...

bottom of canyon

  The next morning after checking out from the hotel we drove down to Yuantan Eco Park. Their parking lot was completely stuffed with cars with no hope of finding parking so I dropped everyone off at the park entrance and drove a good way back up the mountain to another lot and then hiked back down a chunk of the trail we had hiked down the day before and which I had hiked up the evening before. I pretty much had it memorized. Yuantan Park has some various nice waterfalls and is quite scenic. The trails are flat and easy. There is also a restaurant for lunch.  We spent a few hours exploring the area and then I hiked back up the trail a ways(having now seen some sections of it 4+ times) to get our car and then we headed off to the next scenic area of Taiwan-Sun Moon Lake.
   Sun Moon lake reminds me a lot of Twin Lakes in Colorado. It is surrounded by green mountains.  It is composed of two lakes, one is supposed to look like the moon and the other the sun, joined by a narrow connection.  Like Twin Lakes the lake level and contour was changed substantially when a dam was built about 100 years ago. Even the size of the lake is similar. Sun Moon lake though is much busier with thousands of tourists. It has two main towns. One is more Chinese and the other more aboriginal. There are dozens of ferry boats crossing the lake between the two towns. The lake is completely surrounded by roads and has a dedicated bike bath around about a quarter of the lake. We stayed in the local youth activities center. These are hotels/hostels that are found in many Taiwanese national parks. Most look like they were built in the 70's and are a bit run down. However they are often in prime locations and are quite affordable. Margaret especially loved this one because each room came with a shower and two toilets each in their own separate little room/stall. No more waiting for the bathroom when sharing a room with the kids and me!
  For our one full day in Sun Moon we split up. Margaret went to the Formosan Aboriginal Village. This is a local theme park accessed via a tram. It has cherry groves, some rides, and exhibits on all the aboriginal cultures of Taiwan. The kids and I took a ferry across the lake and rented bikes and rode the bike trails that went around part of the lake. It was very beautiful but crowded. We had lunch at a pizza restaurant that had been built under a highway overpass and rode to the end of the bike trails. The last mile or two of which had some steep hills and much fewer people. In the evening we met back up with Margaret and explored the evening market fo Yi Da Shao-the more aboriginal of the two villages on the lake.

GET week

   The kids', school has something at the end of March called GET week. It stands for Global Exploration and Travel.  Most of the grades have a single organized class trip for most of the week. The whole class goes  on the trip together and the trips usually have a specific theme.  The 10th grade class is a bit different as they offer multiple trips around the world. Options included Fiji, Thailand, Vietnam and Australia. All of the trips had community service aspects but are really more about travel and are pretty expensive. Fortunately for Sydney and Piper they also offered a trip within Taiwan and the majority of their class chose that trip. Since the kids had yet to see most of Taiwan and we wanted them to get to know their class we chose the Taiwan trip for them. Their trip was to a little coral island off the coast called XiaoLiuqui(Little Okinawa).  It was actually run by the Taiwanese version of Outward Bound. Outward Bound in the states means camping, hiking,  and cooking over a campfire.  Outward Bound in Taiwan still means camping but in a seaside campground. Instead of hiking every kid was given an electric motor scooter to ride around the island-even though none have driver's licenses. They had to cook for themselves but it was over electric burners. The days were filled with snorkeling, kayaking, and community service. The Outward Bound philosophy of group decision making and forcing the kids to figure out solutions to group problems was just like what I have heard about Outward Bound at home.  The kids got to know their classmates really well and the entire week was conducted only in Mandarin which was exactly what we wanted.
   Nick's class had a slightly different theme. Theirs was dedicated to learning about the indigenous cultures of Taiwan. Before the arrival of the Chinese Taiwan had multiple indigenous groups. They are Austronesian and not Chinese in origin so culturally and linguistically they were more closely related to indigenous groups in the Philippines, Malaysia or even Polynesia. Over the centuries due to intermarriage, migration, and even outright genocide many of the tribes nearly disappeared.  A few decades ago there began to be a resurgence of interest in the indigenous cultures and restoration of indigenous rights. Those that were left began teaching their languages again and even recovering lost lands. Lalu island in Sun Moon lake was returned to the Thao for example. Nick's class went to the countryside near Taidong to learn about indigenous culture.  They went hiking in the jungle and learned about native plants. They shot native long bows and made native fireworks in bamboo tubes. Since the indigenous tribes have businesses growing and packing coffee and rice the kids even worked briefly in a factory grinding coffee and vacuum packed rice.
    Since the kids were all away for the week the parents had GET week trips too. The Millers went to Siargao in the Philippines to go surfing and we went to Green Island.  First we took the slow train from Kaohsiung to Taidong. Once in Taidong we discovered that the only ferry to Green Island for that day had already left. So we walked across the street to a hotel close to the port. They seemed to be closed but Margaret called the phone number on the front door and when someone answered they let us in. We were the only guests. We walked around and explored a park with interesting rock formations near the ferry terminal and then had dinner in a local seafood restaurant. The next morning we caught the ferry to Green Island. It's about an hour crossing and famous for causing sea sickness. No one got sick on the way out but there was a fair bit of vomiting in our cabin on the trip back.
   Green Island is a very popular get away during the summer but not so much in March when it is supposed to be colder and windy. When we got off the ferry there were literally thousands of scooters lined up on the streets of town waiting to be rented. I would hate to be there when there are enough tourists to rent all those scooters.  With only one or two ferries a day in March and with only a handful of tourists on our ferry there wasn't much demand for scooters on our arrival.  Someone offered us a scooter almost immediately and even followed us when we went to the bathroom to make sure no one else grabbed us. We paid cash for the scooter, didn't have to show any ID or license, and no deposit.  So we loaded ourselves and our suitcase on a scooter and headed off to our hotel. The whole island is ringed by a single road and is only about 15 or 20 kilometers around the whole thing. Almost all the hotels and restaurants are in one or two villages and mostly on the north end of the island. Our hotel though was alone on the southern end of the island in between Zhao Ri hotsprings and the best beach on the island.
   Green Island reminds me very much of Hawaii only much smaller and at least when we were there, almost completely empty. Tall jagged volcanic peaks covered in jungle running right down to an ocean of clear blue-green water full of coral.  We spent the next several days riding the scooter around the island while exploring walking trails, beaches, caves and historic sites.
   The beaches are nice white sand but you can't really go straight from the beach into the ocean as the coral starts as soon as the sand ends.  Several of the beaches have stone piers going out into the ocean so you can get from the beach out to snorkeling water without navigating all the shallows. The snorkeling was great with lots of fish and eels and live coral. I would imagine the scuba diving is even better.

Fishing and Ferry Harbor in TaiDong

Octopus Jerky drying in the sun

Favorite beach shot from Green Island

   Zhao Ri hot springs is a truly unique site on the island. Its a natural salt water hot springs. One of only three spots in the world apparently where there is salt water coming from a hot springs. Its open pretty much 24 hours a day. There are several large pools down amongst the rocks and coral on the beach. These are a bit rustic but look amazing. Unfortunately they aren't open during the winter. There are also several pools of varying temperatures that are more modern looking and higher up on the beach. The most unique pool though is the egg boiling pool. This is a small pool with boiling salt water. People throw food in there to cook for their picnics. Judging by the trash in the can nearby eggs, shrimp, and corn are the most popular. We went there once on a rainy, windy evening and again for sunrise another day.

Egg Cooking Spring at Zhao Ri

  Green Island is perhaps best known for its dark history as a political prison. From the 1950's until the end of military rule in Taiwan in 1987 Green Island was home to a succession of political prisons. Since being emptied with the restoration of civilian rule many of the political prisoners have gone on to careers in Taiwanese politics and the prisons themselves have become a human rights memorial. We spent several hours walking around the prisons. It was interesting to see how the prisoners lived. On the one hand the cells were tiny and the facilities for solitary confinement frightening yet there was a little garden and fountain that the prisoners had built in one corner of the prison yard. There was also murals and slogan painted on many of the walls which were still visible today.

Garden and Fountain in Green Island Prison

Old Murals. Green Island Prison

Remember the scooter we rented on the day we arrived?  When it came time to leave I couldn't find any sign of the people who rented it to us. Since they had no paperwork on us and we had left no deposit I figured it really didn't matter. So, I left it parked with the keys in the ignition amongst hundreds of other similar scooters in the parking lot of the ferry terminal. I figure they will find it eventually.