Children's Day and Tomb Festival

Tomb festival (also Children's day) was a public holiday that fell on a Wednesday in April this year. Me and a group of friends (my Monday night crew) made plans for a BBQ at Tiger Head lake, but because of the threat of rains changed our destination to one with some kind of covering. They chose a place called Green Dragon Mountain on the grounds of an enormous temple. There were trees with orchids, swings, covered stone picnice tables, it was perfect. There were also artistic statues of musicians and mothers like an outdoor sculpture garden that led me into the temple itself which was more like a mini art museum than temple. (Photos here).



There was an assortment of veggies, a massive stew, and lots of meat; Taiwanese greasy sweet sausages, fish balls on skewers, giant prawns, mussels, clams, squid, a great seafood collection. My favorite was the squid, so sweet and light and refreshing, incredibly fresh. We also drank lots of tea, some of them (Vicky my Saturday afternoon language exchange buddy) brought her 5 star bag of tea and it was a great mind/body high all based on oolong and fellowship. All together there were 17 adults and 9 children.

We ate and grazed all day, playing with the kids, taking pictures. My favorite was taking care of the newest little member.

There was live KTV set up across the parking lot and no one was singing. The guitarist was pretty good, he was jamming, I was surprised he didnt know Jonny Be Good, which I would of sung. The aboveYoutube song is some Chinese number I have no idea what it is.



It was a wonderful break in our busy schedules to be with each other and make new memories. Last year we went to Alishan for the weekend, and we'd love to have more entire family get togethers like this more often, but so hard with busy schedules so it just happend with our kids on Monday nights. (And Vicky and I on Saturdays).

High in Hsinchu 新竹市: The Magical Mystery Tour

I have been wanting to take a weekend trip up north to visit my friend Grace, she recently moved to Hsinchu from Tainan. (Photos of our trip are here.) Hsinchu is a mystery to me, its a place I hear about and usually see from the window of a passing bullet train on my to or from Taipei, on those rare times I go to the big city.

We took a bus Friday night after work and arrived  in 新竹市 Hsinchu late, around 10pm. It was a late night for all, the kids were excited, the moms were tired.  My friend Grace's new apartment was fabulous in a block full of newly built apartments (all sold out) across from Costco and down the street from the famous Science Park. Hsinchu is Taiwan's Chicago (the Windy City 風城) and their Science Park (新竹科學工業園區) is Taiwan's "Silicon Valley," all engineers, factories, people who are movin' on up. The city also has 2 of the top 5 Universities right next to each other. Its a city full of highly educated people and the place is seems to buzz at a much faster pace than mellow Tainan.  It just looked like any other Taiwanese city, but I didn't get any feeling that it was artsy like Taichung or Taipei. It did seem like there were lots of expats and not the English teaching, partying kind. I really didn't spend enough time there to form more than this superficial impression.

 

The next day, early Saturday Grace made a quick and hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast  and then we were off on our road trip adventure. She took us to Neiwan 內灣 about 30 minutes east, outside Hsinchu City. First stop 7-11 for an ATM machine, some drinks and then we crossed the street to our first of two suspension bridges.There were so many go-carting tracks in the area, I thought for sure we would all be in these soap box go-carts, but when the opportunity came, the kids fell asleep so we moved onto other, more fun things, like hiking up a mountain.

On the other side of the first suspension bridge was a little tourist trap of kiddy games, go-carts and suspension ropes. Jeffery went first and it didn't take him long to master somersaults midair. Then it was Z's turn and I guessed rightly that she would not do the somersaults (they assisted her a few times but she didn't like it), but she did request they make her higher a few times, and they did. I wondered (and hoped)  they knew what they were doing.

After that we crossed back over the bridge and took a leisurely stroll down the town old street, checking out the vendors, scouting a place for lunch. We let the kids blow off steam at the local school's playgrounds and then continued on. My highlights for this street's wares and fares was the Hakka restaurants in old Hakka style wooden buildings (looks almost Japanese), the fresh Noni juice (almost bought a bottle), the old Japanese era cinema now converted to an overpriced restaurant, the local wood carver artisan, the pickled, smoked preserved green veggies (looks like tobacco) that we later ate stewed with soy sauce and pork fat drippings at one of those Hakka joints for our lunch.

In front of the Neiwan rail station

Z captivated by the wood carver

 

A few km outside of Neiwan, going up the mts we stopped at an another, much nicer suspension bridge. The view of lush green mountains unfolding all around us, the sound of a rushing, clear mountain stream below us, I thought to myself this would make a nice place for a minsu 民宿 (B&B). Guess what was on the other side of the bridge? A nice minsu with camp sites available (600NT), cafe, happy bunny rabbits lopping around big eared and attracting the kids. Z and the boys had already let themselves in and made themselves quite at home, by the time Grace and I caught up to them. I hope we can return there one day and camp to the sound of that mesmerizing, mountain river. 

 



We continued up the mountain, passing little aboriginal villages, following the giant dish signs to our mysterious elusive final destination, the D-Sky cafe. It was a near vertical off road and we were surprised people on scooter even made it there. We arrived in the late afternoon, the air cool and I was trying to get our crew on the trail so we could make some altitude before it got too dark for our descent.  

Mountain river views

 The kids kept on getting side-tracked and I didn't think we would see any view, but with a lot of, "come on kids" we didn't make it to the top, but we certainly had an adventure not falling off the mountain and saw some incredible views of the valley below and mountains in the distance. We definitely got some good exercise. The air smelled so incredibly fragrant and fresh I was beside myself, smiling, telling Grace every 10 minutes how wonderful this was and thank you. We found a few nice flat camping spots that just asked for a tent to be pitched there.



The sun was setting and we made our way down fast enough, walked to the cafe, up the 3 flights of stairs for the rooftop sunset view. It was incredible, the golden light of the setting sun bringing out all the different shades of green. There was a friendly foreign couple, tall, blond giants (Canadian male for sure) who were chuckled at Z's Mandarin and made light conversation with us. Later Grace and I wondered on the drive back how they got there, car? motorcycle?

The owner of the cafe was very friendly and flirting with me, although he was old enough to be my father. Like most Taiwanese, he asked me where I was from, if my husband worked here, then if my husband was Taiwanese. After this I always reply, I'm not married. Then they ask me where Z's father was and I always reply "America." I call it the Hello Drill. Usually after that, they ask what I do and how long I've lived here.

He thought I was Middle Eastern and he told us he was still single, but still had the body of a 30 year old, Grace and I were having a few laughs about this. Our entrance fee ticket included 100NT off of a drink so I had a glass of red wine, Grace the milk tea, the kids juice and some onion rings and french fries. The owner kindly gave the kids some extremely tasty mango pudding, which they couldn't finish (so we did.)

The evening air was cold, and the D-sky was buzzing with young couples on first dates or older business colleagues having a quiet evening. It certainly was a romantic enough place and only a 30 minute drive outside of Hsinchu.

The next day Grace took us to the city's municipal zoo. We walked through a market to get there, nibbling on piping hot sweet potato. The zoo entrance fee was a mere 10NT. The park was the oldest in Taiwan, so was full of old, tall trees and black, Victorian round cages. It wasn't impressive or grand like Taipei's zoo , more like a park with animals, but the weather was perfect. It didn't take long to see everything. My highlight was holding hands with the monkeys. This clever one took a fancy to Z and had her follow him as he showed her 2 different holes in his entrapment where he was able to get some affection. She thought he liked her because they had the same color hair, which might be true.

After the zoo and a quick coffee Grace treated us to lunch at the very popular and bustling Din Tai Fung restaurant for some soup filled steamed dumplings (rather than the tried and true dumpling soup). We had to wait a half hour for a table and passed the time at the international supermarket where I bought a small (and rare) portion of Australian cottage cheese and plain yogurt to take home to make my own from.

At the restaurant Grace ordered so much we couldn't even finish all the dumpling and the soups, she is generous like that, I always eat well with her. These dumpling were light so although we were full, we didn't feel uncomfortably stuffed, it was perfect. Both of us were tired from the kids being tired and fighting with each other. We fantasized aloud of a kid free lunch.The Din Tai Fung food was excellent, the service was the best I've had in Taiwan, if not over the top (they must of had some difficult customers) and I was surprised how extensive the chain is, that they have branches all over the world, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Australia, the US, and of course in Taipei and Taichung.



Soup in a dumpling

simple tofu veg soup

After lunch, Grace took us to the train station so I could run in and ask about trains to Tainan and we ended up taking a bus back to Tainan, recovering in a nap on the way down south. All and all a nice introduction (seduction?) to Hsinchu. I wasn't so impressed by the city itself as much as curious to what mysterious delights the mountains might hold for me and I am also curious of the state of the nearby beaches, if they are comparable to my neighborhood beach here in Tainan. You see I have this tasty job offer outside Hsinchu and I might be back there to check it out some more...More than that it was refreshing to spend some time with Grace, for the kids to play with each other, to connect with each other, although the rascals were at times exhausting.  When Z and Jeffry weren't trying to kill each other (he with blows and she with kicks) with little Simon stuck in the middle, they were like lovebirds. That afternoon on the mountain was magical.

Moon Dancing in Guanshan

For the upcoming 3 day weekend (Moon Festival/ Mid-Autumn Festival), I really wanted to go to some obscure beautiful place in Taiwan, preferably w/hots prings. Well, truthfully I wanted to go to Hualien (yes I’ve lived a total of 5 ½ years in Taiwan and still have yet to make it to the Taroko Gorge, but I have been to Green Island, Penghu, Kenting and Alishan). All the accommodation in Hualien was booked, hostel minzu, hotel, full. I knew the orange daylilies in 60 Stone Mountain were now in bloom and imagined it might soothe the soul to take a change of scene and frolic in rolling mountains, fields of orange daylilies (yummy in soup, that’s why they’re cultivated). For photos click here.


I decided to make Guanshan (關山鎮) our base camp , 40 km north of Taidong on Highway 9 in the picturesque mountain valley between 2 mountain ranges. Guanshan is well known for its flat bike paths through pastoral rice paddies and sugar cane fields. We also saw tons of water buffalos, slogging in the murky river runoffs.

I had bought a train ticket last minute a few days before our departure, which meant no seats, but I didn’t mind sitting between the carriages. Our train departed at 6:30 am for Kaohsiung and the same train continued on to Hualien (stopping at Guanshan somewhere after Taitong). I’ve taken early trains before and actually this same on when we went to Green Island via Taitong, but it was like unseen forces restrained me from making this train on time. I hit every red light (optional in Anping, but I don’t do it in the “city”). Halfway to the train station my scooter backfired a few times and died, wouldn’t restart and when it did was tediously slow (grandmas on their bicycle passed us). We finally pulled into the parking lot adjacent to the station and in my hurry the scooter fell over and all my crap spilled out. (Z calls it our transformer scooter, half scooter, half trash can.) Picked up the scooter gathered our bag and made it to the man taking tickets at the gate just as I saw our train pulling away heading south. Two more minutes maybe one and we would of made it. Well, I’ve learned by now from traveling(which is life magnified), I’m too blessed to stress,  that it all works out for the best and it did, on the next train we at least got a seat. We even had time to go home and the Anping’s morning market (my fav place to be every other Sat morning).

There was some confusion at the ticket booth, he spoke zero English and it was all my broken Mandarin and facial expressions, but we got the next train around 1030 am, no charge and a seat. At Kaohsiung we changed trains. I called the minus owner and tried to explain we missed the train and we’d arrive later (she was supposed to pick us up.) She didn’t seem to understand what I was saying, but I understood her, she said call her when I go there. I had to have my friends Vicky and Allen call her and tell her we‘d arrive at 1:45, so she would be there (impatient me didn’t want to wait.) Of course when we got there she wasn’t there and I was saying hello to every auntie for about 10 minutes and then called her and she came 5 minutes later.

The minzu’s name is宜客山莊Suitable guest mountain village, and tel: (089)810736, the address：台東縣關山鎮新福里溪埔路22-1號 No.22-1, Rd. Xipu, Sin Fu Li, Guanshan Town, Taitung County. http://ekweb.svu.com.tw/

The minsu room was cozy and roomy, with views and from the patio. Our room had a queen and single, AC, vanity, bathroom, cable, table and chairs for 1800NT a night, including breakfast ( a run to the local breakfast shop; Taiwanese style sandwiches and warm soy milk). We immediately went to the local bike rental shop (several big ones) and got an electric lazy lady for the whole weekend, for 200NT. I strained my knee the day before, squats with a barbell, plus sitting on the train immobile w/ Z on my lap, my knee was hurting. I felt guilty about being lazy as I like riding a bike, especially outside enjoying the scenery, and my daughter said, “Oh mom you just have to take it easy.” Maybe my knee was just a way to be lazy, but it was better than really damaging my knee and actually by Tuesday it was 90% better. About 10 minutes later we were hitting the trails for the remainder of the day as an afternoon storm blew in and quickly cooled everything off. Our bike was ridicules, it had a huge rectangle canopy that was useless in the rain, front basket and kid seat in the front, with this weird metal frame right in front of Z’s face (she said it didn’t bother her, she just tilted her head around it to see). It had a kickstand like a motorcycle that eventually fell off (they fixed it while we slept). But it was fun, I let Z do the power and she was tickled to believe she was really driving it, laughing, perma- smiling as we made up songs about our lazy, lady electronic bike. It reminded me of simpler times when I was a kid and my Dad used to let us do the power on his motorcycle when we rode front or when he let us steer the car when we sat on his lap.

It took about 10 minutes to check out the town of Guanshan itself, a hit and miss by car. The street parallel to highway 9 had the majority of the sites, eateries, traditional market, temples, the only English bushiban. It was getting dark so we bought some groceries (yogurt, fruit, ginger tea, noodle soup) and had a late lunch/early dinner on our veranda as it rained.

I forgot to turn off my alarm clock off on my bootleg i-phone and woke up at 5:30 to catch the tail end of the sunrise. The minus lady came at 7 with breakfast and we were off on our bike until lunch. After lunch we waited an hour for our supposed driver but he was stuck in traffic (60 Stone Mt). I didn’t mind, and had a quick power nap. He finally arrived in a massive guzzling blue van and I thought, Im not paying for that, so they called a relative w/ a taxi and for 1000NT had him drive us to Loushan waterfalls and 60 Stone Mountain (and later the other direction to the Hongye hot springs). No one would rent me a scooter w/o a license ,according to the Minsu lady, which might have been true, but I doubted it (she gets a cut from my taxi, plus I’ve rented in other parts of Taiwan before, best to deal with scooter rental people face to face). I wasn’t going to push it, Z was tired and I in my lazy mode didn’t feel like driving. It was a better decision because 60 Stone Mt, like all beautiful places in Taiwan on a holiday weekend is packed bumper, to bumper.

If you go to Loushan waterfalls, bring a swimsuit!! Had I known there would be the loveliest, cool, crystal clear pool, void of swimmers I would of worn my swim suit under my clothes. Z could hardly wait to strip to her undies and cavort like an otter. I was jealous that I couldn’t do the same, “Just take off your clothes like me Mom! “ I wish, but we weren’t in Europe. So it was enough to stand knee deep, take pictures, admire the families already beginning their BBQs on the large boulders, a boy catching crayfish for lunch. The view from the bridge there was amazing, the valley sprawling below, the indigo mountains in the late summer haze in the background. I wasn’t even aware then how majestic the waterfall was until I saw it from the nearby Volcanic mud baths. It was tall and vertical, Polynesian.

Soon we were stuck in the traffic of 60 Stone Mountain. The road was at some points so narrow that the oncoming lane would have to wait, there were no buses. The top is a relative term, because just when it seemed we arrived there was more road, more rolling hills of exploding orange. Fortunately Taiwanese like to travel in packs and so it was easy to find a piece of peace and quiet away from the hordes. We walked, took photos until the day was cooling and the sun dropping. We saw an interesting rainbow that was so low, it was actually on the daylily fields, not in the sky. Z was feeling peckish so on the way down we stopped at one of the snack stands by the crowds for some sausage stuffed with daylilies and I bought a few bags of the dried flowers as gifts. The rest of the evening we spent soaking our bones in the beautiful hot springs of Hongye. Actually it was my 2^nd time there (I was there 4 Moon Festivals ago on a staff trip), but we went so late the first time it was too dark to see the beauty around it. We admired the rising full moon from the warm, odorless, mineral pools. We had our driver stop at the local dumpling place for dinner.

On Sunday I planned on taking a local public bus from Guanshan to Wulu to admire the east end bit of the famous (and for me elusive because I’m w/o a car) South Cross Highway. The minsu lady was a riot and insisted there was only one bus and Id never make it back for my train. She was actually too much, talking loud, telling me in Chinese, “you’re not helping me” which was hilarious, she wanted me to pay another 1000 NT and hire her relative to drive me. She followed me to the bus stop and refused to let me wait in peace and got the other passengers in the conversation. Finally Z told her “why cant we just ask the driver ourselves! My mom thinks you’re annoying!” Actually I was calm, I knew this old song and dance and have been bested by the best of them (Delhi touts) and had this amazing supernatural composure to ignore her ravings. Of course there was absolutely no problem on the public bus. We were the only passengers on the way up. Z got car sick both ways (poor thing I should of bought medicine before).




The Wulu gorge was amazing, majestic vertical cliffs dropping into the wide Beinan River(卑南溪) below. The river was grey, cement colored, chalky, hence it’s name (white is bei). The road was narrow and winding and even I felt a little nauseous. I couldn’t imagine hiking down to the river to these makeshift hot springs I’d read about. Definitely not with Z and not with a bum knee, but the desire is still there. The bus passed through Wulu and onto the aboriginal Bunun town of Lidao. We had an hour to explore and found the elementary school playground with this curious mural of two traditional Bunun kids South Park style. I’m from Littleton, Colorado so the South Park reference seemed all the more personal, like a confirmation of my right for us to be there at that moment. We walked around the town admiring, the farms, the local stone cutters art and ran back to the bus surprised to find it packed w/ young indigenous on their way back to Guanshan (and presumably the big city of Taitong). Our little bus was held hostage by one young man, who was still drunk the previous night’s Moon fest activities, I’ve  been there before. I liked the way he spoke Mandarin, although I’m not sure if it was the accent from his Bunun tribe or his intoxication because he took up all the space for speaking, no one else spoke.


I had a dream the night before that the bus stop was at the red traditional gate by the market and down the street from the temple. I had no idea where the bus stop was. Turns out that’s where the bus dropped us off on the return trip and we walked across the street to the local grocery store and called the minus lady to pick us up. She did and we spent the rest of our time (2 ½ hours) chilling in the patio shade, me catch up on reading and Z doing her simple addition, taking breaks to check her work, drink some tea or share a laugh.


The train back to Kaohsiung was what I was expecting, seatless crammed between the carriages. At every stop more people got on, until when boarding passengers would just look at us, and try their look at another car. For the first hour Z and I sat on our bag, next to a nice enough young man. After an hour I couldn’t sit anymore and stood, sometimes leaning on the wall, always one hand on Z’s shoulder when the doors opened (I was afraid from al the pushing and shoving she might get knocked our the door as she as on the edge of the step.) That was part of the experience and to her credit she didn’t complain once, and stood the last hour herself, leaning on the bag (there was no room for sitting). She did ask the last couple of time if we were there yet. At Kaohsiung I bought us both seats on the fast train to Tainan and we arrived in Tainan for the first time, she yelled “hooray we’re back in Tainan!”


LINKS


Maps and info http://eng.taiwan.net.tw/m1.aspx?sNo=0002123&id=R172
Hiking Mt. Guanshan http://www.taiwanese-secrets.com/guanshan.html
Biking http://www.taiwan.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=34661&ctNode=2158&mp=1004
http://www.guanshan.gov.tw/eng_page3.php
Wulu Gorge http://eng.taiwan.net.tw/m1.aspx?sNo=0002123&id=14294
Taitung Hongye Hot Springs http://tour.taitung.gov.tw/en/AllInOne_Show.aspx?path=1669&guid=52228058-a2d6-41dd-bf9a-de1bdb406b46&lang=en-us