All the reasons for living abroad

My original plans for the extra days of travel Catherine and I were tacking on to the trip were relatively ridiculous. I had us going to 4 places in four days that were not exactly close to each other. The day before leaving to Kending I amended our plans, narrowing things down to Tainan and Alishan. First stop Tainan. This is an amazing city. We arrived in the evening and checked into a crappy little hotel noted in lonely planet. We were then out on the town. We thought we would see some of the sights by night since we didn’t have much time, but unfortunately many were closed, we did see some nice spots and without any other tourist per say. After several hours of wandering we thought it high time to find the night market and eat. Before we went we stopped at a cute little coffee shop, of which there are tons in Tainan, especially around the university. I had hot chocolate with dollops of fresh whip cream sinking into the cup. We also stumbled upon a very cool art house with installations in each room. The girl manning the house was one of the artists who did a very cool piece which involved images of election posters plastered over mirror onto which was projected a video of a white wall with the occasional cockroach. The cockroaches climbed over politicians’ faces while at the same time the mirrors caused their images to be reflected around the room. We had a lovely conversation and I gave her my e-mail. I don’t really know what for, but if I could move to Tainan and hang out with artists I’d jump at the chance. It was one of those cities that as soon as you arrive you think I could live here.
The search for the night market was a little insane. We went tot he street that LP said had a good night market only to be directed by locals away from that street back towards where we had been earlier in the evening. We both walked silently along the highway with cars speeding by on either side. When we finally heard the rinao of the market we were elated. We gorged ourselves. Hakka or Aboriginal (I’m not sure) rice cooked in bamboo. Lots of meat on a stick, veggies on a stick, dough balls, gooey rice egg thing, shao xiancao and watermelon juice. I must say Ilan is good at the traditional sweets and I wasn’t in love with Tainan’s shao xiancao, but that was about it. Maybe it was our hunger but we were happy with almost everything that went in our mouths. We did not find any of the coffin bread that Tainan is famous for, but we did pass by a real coffin production store on our way too food and I think that counts just as well.
The next day we headed over to the Anping area of town where a lot of artifacts of the Dutch remain, or at least remain in part. It was an interesting area. To start the main fort’s Dutch name is fort Zeelandia and I simply don’t think anyone should miss a sight with a name like that. We arrived too early and wandered down some old streets, running into a traditional hostel that if I can recall was used by sailors from a specific group when they came to Tainan. The fort itself had been mostly torn down and rebuilt by the Japanese leaving only two very old walls. It made me wonder though why I am infatuated with things like old walls for the fact that they are old. I suppose it’s the sense that if the walls had eyes all the things they could have seen. From the fort, we followed Tainan’s very accessible tourist instructions to a few places not in the Lonely Planet. The most interesting to me was the one called the tree house. It was an old salt warehouse built by the British after they received trading rights from the Opium war. Now, the whole building has been taken over by a few fig trees that have wrapped roots and limbs around every part of the house. The history of the house went from ownership by the Tait company, a British salt merchant to use by the Taiwan Salt company to abandonment. It was interesting to me how much of the signage related to the Opium wars. It seemed to me that there was a subtle underlying message about relation to the West. Although the British forced intrusion into Tainan (treaty port) had created the building the earth and nature of Taiwan had taken it back, showing Taiwan to be an independent place that has come into its own. Maybe it’s a little far reaching, but I saw and enjoyed the parallels. Before the afternoon arrived we headed over to the Confucius temple. Catherine wrote down the slogans to translate and we both left our academic wishes, mine being that I should find out what my academic wish is. Somewhere on this journey we discovered that each tourist site has a stamp and we reveled in stamping parts of Catherine’s lonely planet book that she didn’t care about.
We left Tainan a little late and went to Chaiyi. We had missed the train up the mountain, but I figured there would be a bus. There was, but it went all the way up to the top and we had a homestay halfway up the mountain at Fengqihu. Our only choice was to pay out twice as much money and take a cab. The cab felt like a death ride. I am sorry dad for ever criticizing how you drive up mountains because it has never been like this guy. He barreled around turns and occasionally honked before speeding around blind corners. I soon felt as though I was going to vomit and Catherine began to fear for her life. I resisted my stomachs churning primarily out of fear, what do you say once you have vomited in someone’s cab. We made it and had a lovely evening at a Bed and Breakfast of a family who had been on the mountain since he Qianlong era. We also began to discover how popular the Falun gong is on the mountain. Catherine asked about doctors and the woman said they only had Catholic missionaries you could go to, but that they don’t get sick because they don’t do bad things and they practice Falun dafa. Catherine, who is always sick found this at least amusing and came to the conclusion that has she been born on Alishan she would be dead.
The next day it was up to Alishan park. We didn’t have a reservation and proof arrived that Catherine and I make great travel partners. I got us to the mountain and had a list of hotels and she had no problem calling a bunch of them until we found one with open rooms. We spent the afternoon sitting at a shop that sells tea, asking questions and drinking various types. In the end, we bought some of the famous Alishan tea as one must in these situations. Though the night was young, we went to bed early so we could go see the sunrise.
Everyone told us that the sun would rise at 7, which, since I get up everyday at 6:30 and it’s light, seemed a little late. We also wanted to hike and you can never be sure how accurate people’s judge of distance is. So we got up at 4, left at 4:30 and hiked for a 1-½ hours. As we started the trail a black dog ran up to greet us, wagging his tail. He climbed the whole mountain with us stopping where the path forked to make sure we would go the right way. When we arrived it was dark and rainy and the thick fog seemed to indicate that we would see nothing. We waited and soon the light began to peak through the clouds. The fog dispersed and the famous sea of clouds came into view. Still there was no one else. The morning light progressed, shifting the colors of the sky and hills. At one point fog rolled back in, obscuring everything, but it rolled away as I glanced down at my camera. The sight was truly sublime and although I am pretty sure trying to record the sublime with a camera is futile, I tried anyway. We stood and stared at the changing landscape for nearly an hour before anyone else arrived. Before the sun peaked over the mountain, but after I thought most of the cool stuff had past a few other tourists showed up. Still I was surprised. I had been told that the mountain would be packed and that I should not prepare for a peaceful morning. It was not until the sun had come up allowing us to bask a few minutes in its light and we walked down from the upper viewing platform that I understood. There were scores of people who had arrived on the train and on tour buses, but none of them had bothered to walk to the upper level where they could get the best view. Check, I guess.
The rest of the morning we spent hiking around. We saw the few old cypress trees that the Japanese had not cut down, a phallic monument built by the Japanese to appease the trees spirits. That awed me. To be aware and thinking about the trees spirits, but then to think that a big stone penis will make it all okay. We also saw a Buddhist temple built by the Japanese. I liked the simplicity of it that the Chinese temples lack and of course, the wood floors. I even thought I would like to be a Buddhist nun if I could do so there. Then again, I would have to lie to my master, saying something like, “I don’t think I can give up my earthly love for the city” to get an assignment like that. Outside of the Daoist temple was a whole exhibit of Falun gong stuff. The only thing I can tell about the religion is that their slogan is “Falun dafa is good” and that they are upset that the PRC is torturing their practitioners. I should look into this more.
We left the mountain at 1:18 and took the 3 ½ hour train ride down. I tried not to sleep so I could see the beautiful views along the tracks. After that it was another 3 hours back to Taipei. I’m pooped and ready to go to China.