With a handful of sunflowers in one hand, and an umbrella in the other, I greeted my family at the High Speed Rail station. It's weird to anticipate something so much and then have it finally happen. I'd been missing my family more than I realized until the moment I saw them. Then it came to me. These are "my people".... and I have to tell you, they rock.
A walk in the rain around Lotus Pond
I took these fine specimens back to my house where we reunited over a shot of whiskey and cup of coffee (It was about 10:00 am). I lead them to a little motel down the road which I believed to be a high standard location, however after seeing the love contraption next to the bed, I realized I'd lead my own parents to the local LOVE Motel. They kept insisting that they were only using it to hang their dirty clothes on... I kept insisting that I really didn't want another little brother or sister. Erik and I came over to meet up with the parental and after knocking on the door, we heard "coming!" then thud thud thud thud bang. Pappa took the fast route down the stairs- by way of his rear end. The following argument went something like this:
"Are you OK? Do you want to sit for a minute?" Erik, Mamma, and I chanted over and over
"of course i'm ok," insisted Svend, "Why? do you want to sit?"
"...well you just fell down a flight of stairs."
"are you guys ready, i'm waiting for you."
"it's ok... we can hang out. You're bleeding from the head!"
'It's fine... it doesn't even hurt. Let's go already."
"...but you're leaving a trail of blood around the room. Maybe we should wait till it stops."
After a few days of R&R in Kaohsiung, we loaded ourselves into a nice little Toyota (with a GPS of course) and began our Taiwan tour. Our first stop was the hot spring town of Guanziling where we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast named "How to Run a Successful Bed and Breakfast." We spent the afternoon/evening hoping between different temperature pools. There was even one full of little fish that eat the dead skin off your feet. Erik probably spent an hour there with his little piggies as fish food.
The next stop was Sun Moon Lake, which is a major tourists destination in the middle of the country. We went on boat rides to different places around the lake where we saw Taiwanese Aboriginal dances (they're much friendlier than the Aussie Abos), and little villages. It was a beautiful setting, especially when the cloud cover cleared.
The next day, we started a treacherous but absolutely breathtaking ride across the Central Cross Island Highway. This road was built in the 1950s and is frequently washed out after the Typhoons that come crashing through the island every year. After winding up for hours, we finally reached the peak of the range which was void of trees and completely above the clouds. While we were standing there at nearly 3,600 meters, with blue skies over our heads and a sea of clouds below us, we heard thunder. We were actually hanging out above a thunderstorm (which we soon met on our drive down in elevation). The final part of the road, is the most spectacular. It enters into what should be one of the world's natural wonders :Toroko Gorge.
From the Central Cross Island Highway
At the top of the mountains
Carved by the Liwu River, this gorge stuns even the most jaded visitor. After hours of driving through these wonderful mountains, our jaws still dropped and probably didn't return to their rightful places for the last half hour. Pictures and words completely fail in describing this place. We spent a day in Toroko: hiking, swimming in the aqua colored river, and visiting temples.
Good looking people in a good looking place
After Toroko, we headed south and wound up spending a night in the little fishing village of Shihtiping. It would have been easy to miss if we weren't hungry and sleepy, but the heavens were kind because we wound up at this stunning B&B right on the ocean. The family who owned the house were lovely, and ingratiated themselves to us right away. They lead us to a delicious restaurant, and were waiting with a bag of beer upon our return. We sat under the start that night, and competed over who could see the most shooting stars. Life was good. The next morning, we went snorkeling after breakfast and saw all sorts of sea life... right in the "backyard."
not so shity breakfast in Shihtiping... dragonfruit, mango, meat products,
fried egg, processed cheese, and a salad.
From Shihtiping, we made our way over to Green Island, one of the peripheral islands of Taiwan. Now a popular tourist destination, this island was once home to a famous prison camp where political opponents were sent while the country was under martial law. Despite the bleak past, the current state of the island is something along the lines of.... paradise. We rented scooters and rode around. I particularly enjoyed riding with my darling mother on the back. She wasn't hindered at all by her official role as the passenger. If she thought I should move right, she'd just take my body and turn it right. She seemed to think that my goal was to drive off the cliffs rather than turn around the nicely marked bends in the road... but I do have to giver credit where it's due: she did get on, and put her life in the hands of her daughter.
Riding Dirty
After seeing all the fish we could see, and eating all the fish we could eat... we eventually made the journey back to Kaohsiung. We spent a few more days doing things locally. We visited the huge Buddhist monastery of Foguansan, which is supposedly home to one of three teeth that were left behind after the Buddha's body was cremated. Time passed quickly, as it does when things are going well, and we soon had to say our goodbyes. We'll all be together again at Christmas in Boston, so I'm looking forward to that now.
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