An Adventure in Chia-yi with Typhoon Usagi Approaching

After a very full morning of climbing Tashan mountain, exporing a few temples and incredibly large trees around the area, having a nice local breakfast followed by a hot shower, Ella and I hopped the bus back down the mountain to an odd little city called Chia-yi, where we would be staying another night before returning home. Buzz had been stirring about Typhoon Usagi for a week or so, and many had cancelled their trips. We decided that we would rather sit in a hotel room watching movies and drinking rather than in our homes watching movies and drinking, and often times talk about typhoons is just that: talk. Luckily there had been no signs of a typhoon yet in the mountains and since it had deterred many tourists from coming it wasn't unpleasantly packed either.

We checked in to the Shin Kao Hotel about two minutes away from the train station. We soon concluded that we had gotten quite the deal with our cheap find of 830 NT (about 28 USD) for the both of us. The shower pressure was astonishing, the bathroom was large, the A/C was new, and cable and internet were included. The bed was a bit hard but both of us like hard mattresses and both woke well rested.

There are some good things about Chia-yi and some not-so-good things. For one, I don't believe that they are very accustomed to foriegners. We are both living in places where we rarely see another foriegner and so we are accustomed to cellphone shots, cars stopping in the middle of the road, and people calling out to say hello to us. What we are not used to is virtually every single person we pass stepping in our path to say hello. However, the parks are enormous and always seem to have music or perfomances on the corners. Chia-yi offers a multitude of free to cheap things to do. We stopped at the cultural center to look at the pottery museum (free). And hit a few of the largest temples I have ever seen before taking a break to watch some old people exercise in the park.

A sculpture are the Pottery Museum. The details were incredible!

Chengyuang temple.

The shopping in the nightmarket is great, but it wouldn't be my favorite night market. The streets are not closed to cars and scooters and it makes it diffucult to navigate, and there were smoothie stands and stinky tofu but little other options for food. The city lay out as a whole is very easy to navigate as all of the roads seem spread out like a starburst with a big fountain in the center.

We didn't spend much time in the night market as we were on the look out for dinner. But between the nightmarket and one of the large parks we found an acclectic burger joint named Cato with an American theme and delicious, although unique burgers. I had a squid burger. It was phenomenal.

Cato. Great burgers!

I am happy that Bogie is one thing that represents the US in Taiwan...not so happy that the other is Will Farrel...

The day started with the best coffee that I have found in Taiwan. We actually passed the place thinking it was someone's home, and I'm still certain it doubles as a living space. The man did not speak English but he understood what we wanted and bustled away, with his young daughter helpfully near and curiously watching us.

Love my coffee!

I really thought it was someone's house!

Then we were off to Runyar lake, thinking it would be a nice little walk. Wrong. Once again we were lost, although this time we both maintain that it was the misleading map. It made the trip seem as if it were a 20 minute walk. After 20 minutes we were wandering around Chia-yi University with no idea where to go. We made friends with a security guard who spoke a little broken English and he got us into a car. We drove for about 15 minutes before we found the Cafe that we were looking for. The name is "Cafe" and it is completely hidden unless you are looking for it. But if you have a sweet tooth you should make this a stop. Or if you like good coffee. Or if you like breathtaking views. Or if you enjoy eating outside on the roof or patio (something that is a rare gem in Taiwan).

The view from the Cafe roof.

I love eating chocolate waffles with this view!

Again I state, I love my coffee!

Our last stop was the 100 year old park. This has to be the most culture that I have seen in one space in Taiwan. The architecture was stunning, the gardens were beautiful, Paintings and sculptures were placed throughout and wildlife lurked quietly in the bushes. We even watched the sword dancers practicing for a while. This is a must see for visitors of central Taiwan.

After some research, I think this little guys is and Asian Dowicher. He let me get super close although he kept an eye on me!

I loved this park, it was so beautiful!

And enormous!

As we were walking back to our hotel we got a call from a friend. The typhoon that they had been talking about for days had turned to a level 5. She told us that we had better get home. In a panic we grabbed our bags from the hotel an hopped on the first train back. Only once on the train and almost home did we realize that there were no signs of a typhoon. Not even sprinkling. Finally we looked it up and found that the typhoon had hi only the southern tip of Taiwan, about 100 miles south of us and was curving right around us and was going to slam into China. So while we were in no danger of the typhoon we definately felt the butterflies that come along with travelling in one. With the destruction and flooding that it had left in the Phillipeans and southern Taiwan, were were grateful to not have any confrontations with Usagi.

Climbing Mountains Before Breakfast Time

Ella and I were up and dressed before 4 AM. In the lobby I poured enough coffee to make the locals look at me wide eyed. We were already on the trail by 4:10 with a camera, some water, an umbrella, a blanket and about 6 mooncakes stuffed into a backpack. Our plan was to have a nice breakfast at the Alishan Mountain viewing platform while watching the sunrise--the thing that Alishan is most famous for. I had seen the pictures of the sun rising above a sea of clouds that completely engulf the mountain tops. The way the sunlight bounces off the drops of water sets the entire sky ablaze. We were going to hike up there early to get a good spot instead of taking the train with the 100+ Chinese tourists--we wanted a good view.

And so we departed from the manicured walking paths of the tourist trails of the Alishan National Forest Recreation Center and entered into the rugged paths winding through a forest in the dark with only a cellphone flashlight. As we passed the eerie and silent Elder Sister pond we both had goosebumps up our spine. We refused to acknowledge how creepy the thick forests were when you could only see a few feet ahead of you. The darkness was so thick that I mistook the deck to the gondola in the middle of the completely still pond for a bridge and came far too close to falling off the end and into the pond. We listened for noises of animals that would be unfamiliar to us, but really, what could we have done in the dark if a wild boar charged at us in the dead of night? But we pushed those thoughts to the back of our minds and continued onwards. This was going to be worth it.

At least that's what we thought when we started. At 10 to 5 after climbing endless stairs (and with endless complaining) our hearts sunk as we realized that we were going to miss the sunrise. It was befuddling. Everywhere that we had checked said that the hike would only be 20 minutes long, how were we still on the trail? At every bend of the staircase we would say "It must be just around that corner!" and after every corner our hearts would fall to see more stairs. After an hour and a half of climbing straight up a mountain I was angry at the forest, angry at the stairs, angry at the guidebook and angry at myself for believing the guidebook, and for the past half hour I had been only moving onwards so that we could take the train back because I knew that there was no way that I was going to be able to make the hike back. I'm not fat by all means but I swear I'm allergic to exercise and Ella and I were literally lifting our shaking legs up the stairs one by one with our hands because they were refusing to rais high enough to reach the next step on their own. I sat down and told her I would catch up. I was done; ready to take a nap in the middle of the trail in the the Alishan forest.

Then I heard her yell "You should come see this!" So I hauled myself up and slowly made my way up the mountahin to where she was. I was past believing that the platform was anywhere near us so my curiousity moved me forward. I had yet to see the rising sun but I noticed that it was light enough to turn off the flashlight. I was on the edge of a cliff and looking down at the smaller mountains against a pale sky. I even identified the little town that we were staying in, just barely as it was only a cluster of white dots, but it is the only town on the mountain with a train stop so I was sure it was our town. I was dumbstruck buy the beauty and the distance we had walked.

This is the town that we were staying in in the Alishan National Forest Recreation Center.

I found Ella only a little farther up the trail on a bridge between two mountains with a sign reading "The Panoramic View." And was it panoramic! All of the trees were cleared with a view of mountain after mountain below a pale pink sky! I looked at Ella and said "I take it back. This was worth it." We were alone on the side of Tashan Mountain with a breathtaking view at 5:15 AM, before most people have even woken. As if on cue, the sun rose. It broke above the mountain in quick, bright splendor. It was not above the clouds like the view we had set out to see but we wouldn't trade that pure, crisp, golden sunrise alone on the side of a mountain for a sunrise above the clouds while packed in a viewing platform with hundreds of Chinese tourists for anything.

A panoramic view!

A golden sunrise

By now we had accepted that we were on the wrong trail and decided to hike back rather than become incapacitated. We were fueled by our excitement of the view our fatigue died; we knew we could make the trek back--especially since it was all down hill this time. And our delight grew as we walked home. The darkness had shielded amazingly beautiful landscapes of woods, railroad ties, mountains, and bridges. We were amazed that we had trudged through this forest in absolute darkness. Those moss covered stairs in the first hour of sunlight were gorgeous--we hated to love them. As we crossed the bridge above the railroad, we heard the train. We watched it approach, felt it pass beneath us, watched it leave and saw the man running the signals on the ground hop aboard as it passed like he was jumping over a mud puddle.

Once halfway down the mountain we found a map that we had passed unseen in the dark. We realized that we were on the wrong mountain to find the sunrise viewing platform.

Passing Elder Sister pond in the morning light was like a picture from an ancient Chinese storybook. It was something that I wouldn't have believed was a real sighting if I didn't have the pictures to remind me. It was not at all like the still creepy vision we had seen only hours ago.

Elder Sister pond

Once we got back to the hotel we read the guide book. It clearly stated that the bus to the train that would take us to the viewing platform was only 20 minutes away. Oh, that group of people standing in front of the building that we passed shortly into our journey who seemed to be waiting for something? Yes. There was no trail that led all of the way to the viewing platform. Instead of feeling bitter at our folly, we were grateful. Once again, Ella and I had stumbled into something that nobody else had the chance to experience. And I maintain that our sunset was the better of the two.

And then, we finally ate our breakfast of bacon cheese dan bing around 9 AM. What an experience!

Oh Alishan!

Finally reaching the top of Alishan Mountain and looking over Tashan Mountain

 And we're off! At 6 AM and Ella and I were on a train bound for the capital city where we wandered around for a few blocks before finally finding the 3-floor bus station in which our bus was located.

 We miraculously managed to find our bus to Chaiyi only minutes before departure. About 6 hours later we are dropped off at the train station of Chaiyi. From there we grabbed some mind blowing fruit tea and hopped on yet another bus to go up the Alishan mountains. Two hours later we finally reached the town where we would be spending the night. Between the long chats, the cocktails and the view, however, we did not feel like we wasted the day traveling--we were definitely already in vacation mode, and the journey itself was enjoyable.

Our bus trip up the mountain

Even on the bus, some sights made me catch my breath

The 2.5 hour bus ride up the mountain was really amazing. It was incredible to watch the forest change from tropical to deciduous right before my eyes. We passed the tiniest villages, farms full of coconut and banana trees, mountains as far as the eye can see and tea fields in abundance. Alishan is known to have the best Oolong tea in the world.

Endless beauty

Farms in Taiwan look very different from farms in Michigan!

The tea fields

By the time that we checked in to our cozy little hotel room at Gau Shan Ching hotel (on the very edge of the mountains) twilight was falling upon us. But that wasn't about to stop us. We wanted to see the nearby temple of Ciyun and the natural phenomenons that our map showed were only 2 km away. So we set off and ran into a few Taiwanese couples who said that we should go back because it would take one hour to reach the temple. We reached in less than 20 minutes. The Taiwanese tend to walk a lot slower than us westerners (imagine that, mom!). The temple was next to a beautiful koi pond and although we couldn't go inside, the outside was worth the short trip.

The koi pond

Ciyun temple

Ciyun temple doors

A stone tiger carving right outside the main door of Ciyun temple

A golden peacock ceiling on the porch of the Ciyun temple!

We did get caught in the dark after the temple but we didn't mind at all, it made the manicured trails much more adventurous! It also meant that we had the entire woods to ourselves with the exception of two that we kept running into. After about the 3rd time of running into India and Jaxon we decided to team up with them for the rest of the trails.

It was towards the end of our woodland adventure that the fireworks began to burst and the full moon was in clear view. It was, after all, the actual night of Moon Festival (believe me, Ella and I ate plenty of mooncakes to celebrate!).

As we heard the fireworks sound, we found ourselves on a platform overhanging the edge of the mountains, just us five. We were close to the highest point in Taiwan, and were looking down at the clouds slowly rolling through the mountain peaks; we were at eye level with the full moon that lit the surrounding mountains. Small towns speckled the darkness like stars below, as if we were in space. It is one of those sights that is etched into the memory so vividly that the snow white version of ones self sees it in old age; one of those stories told to grandchildren about the time in ones life that choices are made without quite so much thought and often results in the sort of wonder that many will never experience. And I'm glad this is so, because none of us had a camera good enough to capture that sort of beauty in absolute darkness, not that any camera could do any part of the Alishan Mountain range's beauty justice.

By the time that we reached town again we were in a great mood and starving, so we found a little restaurant that was once a railroad car and ate some wild boar and trout hot pot. Hot pot is one of the most common dishes found in Taiwan.

Wild boar

Yes, that is a full trout in our hot pot. We just sort of peeled away at him with our fork.

Hot pot is a sort of soup. Some are pre-mixed and just continue to boil table-side to cook it as it is scooped out for all members of the table. Others are individual hot pots, the ingredients chosen and put into the boiling water to ones taste. From vegetables to meat, to mushrooms to noodles to spices--whatever floats your boat can be put into your hot pot. They are more popular in the winter, presumably because of the colder weather.

This hot pot is from a different adventure--the night that I met Fae's parents. To the left are my uncooked vegetables, noodles and meatballs. In the center is my uncooked beef. To the right is my water that has not yet come to a boil. Interacting with your food is very popular in Taiwan.

India and Ella looking over the menu

It was a fantastic first day of our first vacation! Stay tuned for day two!

Moon Festival in Taiwan

It's Moon Festival  here in East Asia (otherwise known ad the Mid-Autunm Festival).

The full moon on the night of Moon Festival

As a part of my training I was taught the story that goes along with Moon Festival (yes, seriously!). According to legend:

There once was a tyrannical King named Hou Yi. He was a master with his bow and slaughtered many terrifying beasts. Once there were ten suns circling the earth, but they were much too hot for the earth so he shot 9 of them down. He was married to Chang Er, a beautiful and gracious woman. One day Hou Yi stole the elixir of life from a goddess and planned to rule forever. But he was an unfair king and his people suffered. Chang Er stole the elixir from him and drank it herself to save her people. Hou Yi was very angry with his wife and so she flew to the Moon to escape him. However, he loved her so much that he did not shoot down the moon.

So now every year on the day of the full moon of the 8th Lunar month the Taiwanese people barbeque on the sidewalks, decorate pomelos (They taste like grapefruit and look a bit like pears) and gorge themselves with massive amounts of mooncakes.

The decorated pomelo that my housemate left for me. His name is Dr. Pomelo. I made a match for him who was named Madam Pomelo.

Mooncakes are delicious and they go great with coffee. They come in endless flavors. The more traditional ones are shaped like lotus flowers but the newer styles look like plain miniature cakes. My favorite thus far has been the blueberry filling but they come in infinite varieties including pinapple, prune, coffee, chocolate, nuts, cream cheese, chicken floss, ice cream, green tea, mango, pomelo, sweet bean, lotus, even curry! Basically, if it can be made into a paste or filling, it can be found in a mooncake somewhere (although I have yet to encounter cherry or raspberry as those are fruits found only on a rare occasion on this side of the world).

They also get 4 government required days off for this festival. This year Ella and I took a trip to the Alishan Mountains in the center of the island to get out of the city. But the night before we left I found a puppet show held just outside of the temple a block away from my house in Neili. It was all in Chinese but I'm fairly sure it was about the legend that I just told above and it was interesting in any language.

The puppet truck on the street outside the temple

Before the show started

I believe this to be Chang Er

I believe the one second from the left is Hou Yi

I love the temples here, each one is unique

This is just outside the temple

The moon festival is a popular time for praying and for burning incense in the temples

Wooo! Wuuulaiii!

It's been about 3 months since I landed in Taiwan and I finally feel somewhat grounded now that my paperwork has made me a legal resident of Taiwan, so it's time to get this blog started!

 My first trip was to Wulai Falls. We took the train from the small suburb (still about the size of my college town) of Neili to the massive capital city of Taipei and from there the 4 of us split a cab to get to the top of the mountain (not the very top, but close). Located in Taipei County and nestled in the jungle just outside of Wulai Hots springs village, this massive waterfall made me feel my true insignificant size in nature.

Directly across the viewing platform for the waterfall are a few aboriginal shops. The beautiful trinkets and breathtaking jade carvings were worth the half hour stop on our way down the mountain.  Ella, Fae and I decided to get jade bracelets to remember our trip togeth

er while Jameson opted for a tribal bag instead (I don't think the bracelets were his color).

Our jade bracelets

We found these guys in aboriginal clothes standing outside one of the shops.

Jade carving

Incredible ornate jade carving

Wood carving

I fell in love with the Jade frogs in Taiwan. They are so adorably ugly! It will definitely be something that I bring back to the States!

We couldn't have gone on a more perfect day. It was a drizzly Sunday and so that deterred the Chinese tourists from visiting and we were virtually alone on the mountain. The sprinkles didn't ruin our day--on the contrary--it made the colors more vibrant! A tropical storm had just come through only a few days before and so the waterfall swelled and water gushed from every crevice of the mountain. During our walk down the mountain we found miniature waterfalls every 5 minutes.

Jameson's picture of the gorgeous town of Wulai

This waterfall is not normally there when there hasn't been as much rain

Water gushing under a staircase

Water pouring down the mountain next to a house

I don't think any of us regretted the hike down the mountain that we opted for instead of a taxi--the views were incredible!

Even the power plant is beautiful here!

Once making it partway down the mountain we decided it was time for some natural hot spring action in the village. There are two ways to get there. One is to walk down the side of the river. The other is to walk across the bridge and float down the river to them. Ella and Fae decided to take the road. Jamison and I decided to take the river (keep in mind the gushing river from the storm). Jamison made it, but once I got up to my hips and felt the current tugging me I knew there was no way I would make it across unscathed. So I dragged myself out and walked to meet the trio on the other side.

The town of Wulai Springs

Jameson after he made it across the river. Apparently the locals had been watching out endeavor because once we reached the other side they said that he was a hero and I was a chicken!

Once we were finally in the hot springs it was scalding and we had to alternate between jumping into the cold river and jumping into the hot springs before finally deciding it was time for a new spring at a better temperature (and not so many creepy old men who wanted to serenade me with English songs).

Jameson and I are outside the hot spring because it was tooo hot!

This hot spring was juuust right!

A small collection of the many hot springs on the side of the mountain

Since Jamison and I were the only two to bring our bathing suits it wasn't long before we trudged on to find some grub--literally! Enter fried bees!

Fried bees!

Taiya Popo is one of my favorite places encountered in Taiwan as of yet. It is a quaint little restaurant empty but for us four with amazing aboriginal dishes and interior walls made all of bamboo to complete the feel. And a bonus--the menu is both in Chinese and English! Our dinner consisted of sticky rice cooked inside bamboo, mountain greens and dried fish, sweet gooey balls (the name escapes me), and the highlight, deep fried bees! They actually taste like popcorn!

Mountain greens and dried fish

Mushroom sticky rice in bamboo

Sweet gooey pastry balls

Fried Bees!

After our delicious meal it was time to hike through the town to the bus station and past all of the delicious smelling street food. If you want authentic food in this country, eat the street food. While I have eaten some questionable things (chicken feet, blagh), for the most part the food is delicious and cheap and the vendors are super excited to serve you.

This will not be my last trip to Wulai, there are many more trails to discover and a natural water slide that I can't wait to try when there hasn't been quite as much rain. As for this trip to the falls, it was the perfect first adventure in Taiwan!