Road Trips in Taiwan: Road Trip #3

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Man and Machine

As per usual I hit the road without a clear destination in mind. Having still never made it to Taipei I had a vague notion of crossing the mountains and working up the east coast of Taiwan to Taipei and then down the other side. After 2 1/2 years on the island I felt it was probably about time I made the effort to get up there, however this was not to be the occasion. Right: Yakou, South Cross Island Highway summit

As I came down the western side of the mountains it began to rain so I headed South for Taitung which was much closer than Hualien in the North. The trip over the mountains is excellent. I travelled across the South Cross Island Highway two years previously with my Scottish friend Joanne. I camped one night in the mountains and took the time to read a Tennesse Williams play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". They made a movie of it a few years back with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman (and Burl Ives as Big Daddy). Liz was pretty hot in those days.

Taitung: There are really only two cities on the East Coast, Taitung and Hualien, and they are relatively small cities. Taiwan's development has largely been concentrated along the West Coast where most of the flat land lies. Taiwan is the second most crowded country on Earth, apparently, and when you consider that the mountains which run through the centre are largely uninhabitable you get an idea of just how crammed together people are. From my house there are three 7/11 (all night dairy) stores within 5 minutes walk! Being Chinese New Year it was difficult to find a hotel that wasn't too expensive and still had rooms available. Eventually I checked in to the appropriately named Dung Bin hotel (The Last Resort!). Having stayed there before I knew what to expect. I figured as I was in Taitung it might be a good time to visit Green Island (Ludao) or Orchid Island (Lanyu), the later being home of the aboriginal Thao people. Orchid Island wasn't possible due to tourist demand however I was able to catch a boat to Green Island. The island was so nice I immediately changed my ticket so I could spend two days nights there. I rented a motorcycle from the hotel and set off around the island. It didn't take long as the island is only 17km around, but there's plenty to see. The island itself is indeed very green and largely composed of volcanic rock with some interesting coral beaches. There is even a hot spring. I didn't bother to take a dip as every man and his dog were already there. This is pretty much to be expected of Taiwan during vacation time. Green Island is possibly best known for it's prisons of which there are three. One is where political prisoners were kept during the period of martial law. Conditions were said to be horrible. Many of the detainees went on to found the DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) which finally wrested control of Taiwan from the KMT (Guomingdang) in the last elections. There was a very nice bush walk to the summit which I took. Some of the ocean views were spectacular. I had a bit of a battle with my late Uncle Lawrence's camera which I still hadn't totally come to grips with and in my haste ended up removing a film and rewinding it by hand under the bedsheets in my hotel room. I realized my mistake later but I actually managed to save most of the film and captured some very nice shots. Most of my students think it's a bit strange that there are no people in my pictures. You have to have people in your photos! Returning to Taitung I first stopped to check out the views from The Dragon Phoenix Temple. I met a couple of Thai factory workers up there enjoying their day off, I don't think they get too many. I then took the southern highway down to Kenting. The beaches are superb along there, reminiscent of parts of New Zealand's West Coast. Once again I decided to take an alternative route around the southern tip and once again I got lost in the dark. It's the third time that has happened. The maps here are woefully inaccurate and misleading coupled with the complete lack of road signs in some places. Sometimes you come to a major intersection and there's no directions at all, or a sign saying "Dogfart 5km" one direction and "Mousecrap 10km" in the other direction, very helpful. Major destinations are hardly ever mentioned. Sometimes you can be hurtling down the road when you find yourself lost in the middle of some unknown town off the highway wondering how the hell you got there and where it's impossible to retrace your steps because of the one way motorcycle ramps. We have lots of fun trying to make sense of it all.

Kenting is Taiwan's main resort area and as such is crawling with holidaymakers during vacation time. Hotels were going to be out of the question so I pitched my tent near the beach where a ghetto had sprung up. I think it was free, in any case no one was leaping out to demand cash. Kenting is not really my cup of tea to be honest, the massed throngs of tourists that gather at holiday times can be a bit intimidating. It's a resort town and as such performs pretty well, Taiwan's answer to Surfer's Paradise. The following day I decided to check out the Kenting National Park Recreation Area. I was particularly interested in checking out the viewing tower from where you can see the Pacific Ocean, Taiwan Strait and the Bashi Channel (between Taiwan and the Philippines). Of course when I got there it was being renovated. This is pretty typical of Taiwan. Perhaps the busiest time for visitors and the main attraction is closed! They really aren't very organized when it comes to tourism. In the park I met a Canadian girl from Kaohsiung with her father who was visiting. He seemed pretty excited about the whole deal, possibly experiencing the early stages of culture shock. Further along the road was Sheting Natural Park which was free and actually I thought a lot nicer. By coincidence I bumped into the Canadians again. He was fairly animated at this point having seen a serpent eagle, and the butterflies, and....and.... he was beside himself and his daughter was trying to reign him in a bit. Actually for bird watchers some parts of Taiwan were made in heaven. The butterflies were huge too. On the way back North I stopped for a swim and then to have a look at a local waterfall which was quite spectacular once I actually found it. The track was kind of vague but fortunately there was a trail of garbage signalling the way. Yes the Taiwanese had left their mark.(Unfortunately they are dreadful litterbugs) Having missed the waterfall I ended up following the riverbed right up to where the creek petered out completely before realizing my mistake. When I did get down to the waterfall I had to do some pretty rugged footwork with knotted ropes to get down the side of the thing, and I ruined my favourite shirt but it really was very nice. A series of six pools each spilling in to each other. Worth the ordeal, I'd say. I guess some deity or other must have heard me let out a few choice words as I was scaling the waterfall because on the way back to Tainan I blew a piston. As it was a Sunday nothing was open but I managed to find a mechanic with the help of a local petrol station. I arranged to leave my bike there and call them the next day. They even helped me flag down a bus to get home. Who should I meet on the bus but the two Canadians! Perhaps it was Yuan Fen ( the Chinese believe these kinds of chance meetings are fated), probably just a coincidence. The father was pretty much shagged out at this point, we chatted for a bit before he drifted off into oblivion muttering something about serpent eagles. I transferred to a train in Kaohsiung. Oh well I get to spend another weekend in Kenting, worse things could have happened.

I was relieved to hear that my bike was fixable and the following weekend took the bus down to pick it up. Some ratbag taxi driver in Kaohsiung (dribbling betel-nut everywhere) tried to convince me to take a taxi for a mere $1500. They must think you're fresh off the boat sometimes. The bus took me directly to the bike shop for $139. The job cost me NT$3000 (say NZ$200, I don't know what a piston would cost in NZ but it seemed about right for Taiwan) So one night in Kenting. I stayed at the teachers hostel and got the dormitory to myself (NT$300). The next day I decided to check out the National Marine Park. The park is quite well constructed and well worth a look, but I strongly recommend not visiting on a Saturday if possible. It was bedlam. Kids everywhere screaming at the top of their lungs. Some seemed more interested in staring at the foreigner than what was crawling around in the tanks. It's funny how people talk about you as if you're not there in this country. "Hey look an American!" (Apparently we're all Americans) "I wonder if the American speaks Chinese". Sometimes you get banal "Hello"s or "How are you?"s screamed at you accompanied by giggles. Some of the little monsters outside the tanks were far more disturbing than the big sharks they had swimming around inside them. I entertained myself with vague fantasies of what would happen if I turfed a few of the little sods into the sharks. Clearly the massed throngs of humanity you encounter in this country is something I still haven't quite got used to. Anyway all in all another good trip. Despite its various failings (traffic, pollution, population) there is still a lot of beautiful scenery in this country and the local people are generally very receptive.

Linyuan, south of Kaohsiung

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