Home Run! Moving House in a Typhoon

My kid and I's dream of a mountain manor where we can have chickens and a goat, providentially came true! Its a funny story how we found this place. I was late paying my water bill, so I went to the water department in Yuanshan (near my work, it was my lunch break) to pay it. They insisted I could pay at 7-11, but I was doubtful, only because whenever I am late with my Chunghua Telecom bills (phone, internet, cable), 7-11 doesn't work I need to pay at their offices.

In another example of Taiwanese kindness, the one lady insisted on driving me down the road to 7-11. I was perfectly capable of going there myself, but whatever, I was open, and then we started to talk. She grew up here, she went to the same little mountain school as my kid and her childhood classmate, still one of her friends, had this little house available to rent. Now this was back in February right after CNY and it was only abundant Grace that kept this house from getting snatched up until our lease ended in July.

 

 We moved out of our Yilan City apartment the end of July during this crazy weekend of an approaching typhoon and my friends visiting from Tainan. We decided to have the movers move the big furniture on Friday instead of Sunday because of the typhoon. It took them 2 trips in their blue truck, which cost me 4000 NT (132 USD). We sat out the storm in our Yilan City Apartment with our guests.

 My friend Chris Knight, a walker (he once walked the entire Ganges River), traveler, disaster manager, and animal lover was now walking around Taiwan with 2 boys, one an old friend of ours who is 12 (who also walked the Camino de Santiago with his mom last year) and his Taipei friend who is 14. They had been camping, sleeping at police stations, walking days, raising money for homeless dogs. Admire and marvel at their incredible journey at Footprints of Formosa.

One sweet dog Jiji had adopted Chris and was traveling with them (Z and I hope to adopt her the end of August). All four of them crashed with us for two nights during the typhoon, in the middle of my moving house, with most of my towels, bedding, and no refrigerator, but they were the easiest of guests. We ate at Balagov's, swam at the cold springs in Yuanshan, waiting for typhoon Nesat to pass. My kid thoroughly enjoyed having cool kids her age to play with and I enjoyed having some adult conversation!

Checking out political art while waiting for Nesat to strike

Yuanshan Coldsprings

Nesat hit fast and hard, all the windows flooded except the kitchen (balcony). We survived, our guests walked the next day from my house to Taipei 101 (nuts!) as we were hustling to clean my old place, which was a mess from the typhoon waters, trying to get our security deposit back (which we did). Then I was engrossed unpacking into our new, mountain abode.

Nesat destroyed the banana field in front of the house

Ah the house, its spanking new, no one has lived in it. Its in the middle of a tea farm, a tea field beside us, and tea behind us on the mt in the distance, my other neighbor has a ginger farm. The banana field (owned by my landlord) in front of us got completely destroyed from the typhoon, half of their pomelos that border the tea field and our house were on the ground, but the jackfruit survived unscathed. The landlady's mother has a vegetable garden beside us and if we don't pick the sweet potato leaves, okra, gourds, en choy ourselves, she molests us with bags of the stuff. We have been having en choy or potato leaf omelettes for breakfast almost daily.

Digging holes for flowers! "Mom I'm gonna dig a hole all the way to America!" When I was a kid we tried to dig holes to China😅.

The benefit of our new abode besides the quiet, the views, fresh air and proximity to my work and my kid's school, is that water is free. It just comes from the mountain. Another benefit is this place is made for bike riding. The roads here are small lanes, that circle in and out of the orchard farms, perfect for a late afternoon leisure ride when the day's heat subsides. The last benefit is we are gardening. I'm not sure how long we will stay here or in Taiwan, but for sure this is our last and final homestead. We have planted yellow and orange hibiscus, lotus, some flowering bushes I don't know they names of, garden herbs, dragon eye tree, lychee tree, and a cherry tree (which the monkeys prefer over the riper pomelos). I imagine how handsome it will be in 5 years, 10 years. It's peachy keen if we aren't here to enjoy it then, as I see it already in my mind's eye. For now we enjoy caring for them. The ground is unforgiving rocky, I broke one of the old lady's tools, digging out the stones and it was back breaking work digging those holes. The road to our home has this natural compost of fallen tree leaves on the road that have never been swept or cleaned, so we scraped 3 inches of the finest, blackest jungle humus and added it to our plants. So far so good.

 I tell people I live in Yuanshan because thats basically were we are, except because I live on the other side of a river I technically live in Jiaoxi! My address on Google map sends everyone down the road and lost, its mid August and I still haven't received any mail. I'm still waiting for my landlady to fix my mailbox that was blown away during Nesat, but still no green mailman on his motorcycle around these parts looking for us.

Adjusting wasn't hard, even with Chunghua taking 20 days to install cable and internet (we played lots of chess). The exception is getting used to the critters,  but so far no snakes. There are macaques behind our house in the mornings and evenings, they stole one of  my kid's shoes and sometimes are on the roof right after dawn. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw a side-widing centipede in my living room, which I wasn't able to catch and then 2 more in the shower. I located which farmer's supply store sell DE (Diatomaceous Earth) and sprinkled it around the outside perimeter and inside where I think critters would hide. It apparently keeps snakes away from the chickens, which is good to know, as we plan on getting chickens and a dog the end of the month.

Yet I was in a dilemma, a traveler's dilemma. I had the money, I found the cheap flights and guesthouse, we could of gone to Jeju Island- today in fact. (We could go there still). Twice I was this close to finalizing the payments of the air tickets and then I closed the window.  I think its a combination of being tired of blowing what little I have in the bank and starting from zero the next month (that was us after last month's Singapore trip) and wanting to take it easy. There are activities to enjoy here, we have yet to surf this year which is a sorry state since its now August (but the sun is so abhorrently strong), we could go diving here too. Mostly I didn't buy those tickets to Jeju because our home is so dang relaxing. I have the month off and our home is a sanctuary, and with my easy schedule, I cherish everyday being like a Saturday. I don't desire to be anywhere than where I am. Contentedness is highly underrated.

Autumn: It Blows Hot and Cold

What a relief, November is nearly finished and winter is nipping at our heels. Its difficult to pinpoint exactly when autumn came and left. I think winter officially came two weeks ago, when we started to wear coats and sweaters, and of course its been raining most of the time since.

I think autumn in Yilan started sometime after all those typhoons hit Taiwan in a cluster in September and October; Meranti hit during the Midterm Autumn Festival and later Megi, with some tropical storms in between. We were blessed in Yilan. The TV news anchor literally said both times how there seemed to be a slice of typhoon cut out over Yilan; Tainan and Taitung were hit harder, there were places nearby in Dongshan and and Sanxing without power for several days, but my daughter and I, except for leaking windows, were fine. We enjoyed the extra days off.

In the beginning of October, we finally were able to explore some of the nearby Fushan Botanical Gardens 福山植物園 (by reservation only.) We saw rare water birds, bats and macaques. A winter return is necessary if only to catch rare rhododendrons in blossom. Can you believe pangolins live there too? But impossible to see them during the day.

For our 10/10 Holiday weekend, I took two more personal days off and took my daughter to Busan for a long weekend. South Korea was still recovering from their own massive typhoon (Chaba) and they were just finishing their beach cleanups when we arrived. It was a thrill to leave hot, sticky Yilan and feel a raw autumn bite in the air, even in the sun. Unlike Seoul, Busan is super chill and the trip was extremely relaxing.

Hakka Farms outside Hsinchu

In the beginning of November, we went to Hsinchu to stay with one of my oldest Taiwanese friends, Monica and her husband Roger and son Mark. Monica and I worked together 16 years ago in Tamsui. It was great to hang with them again, as they are fabulous hosts. We met them in Taipei and they stopped at a beautiful historical gardens of the Lin An Tai House from the late 1700s. Our kids played tag among such venerable beauty as I happily snapped pictures. Roger didn't mind driving us up to the mountains of  山上人家森林農場, as high as we could go, stopping at Hakka farms drying sticky sweet persimmon along the way. Another relaxing weekend enjoying the season.

Then the American election hit me, and probably most expats, like a reality grenade. Rattled, baffled and then after the shock, just more concerned in general. With the days getting shorter, nature seems to be mirroring our own fascination with darkness, sensing this undertone our time is running out. Turning inward, with greater solitude, finding solace in prayer, feeling my own inadequacy, culpable complacency. My bubble burst, my winter came.

I got a surprise last week; 2 free tickets to hear Jane Goodall speak with President Tsai-Yingwen at Taiwan University of Science and Technology. My kid and I made it for the bus station after work and were just 5 minutes late, we felt so blessed. Professor Goodall credited her mother, her dog, she talked about the intelligence of animals, how even bees can learn from watching other bees, the intelligence of octopi. President Tsai-Yingwen talked about her needy cat and apologized for all her security. I had long planned on a weekend trip to Taipei for cultural outings, but never seemed to make it. Hearing Jane Goodall's gentle wisdom was influential on my kid. Her eyes swelled up with indignant tears when Goodall told the young people, "Your future hasn't been borrowed, but stolen!" Not leaving us there, she encouraged everyone as individuals to make the right choices, collectively we can reverse climate change, although the window is small and immediate.

I suppose that's what autumn feels like now, a small window of light fading, time is shorter, latent with importance. Being away these eight Thanksgivings, it all seems such a shallow shadow from over here,   especially in the light of the Oil Pipeline Protests. Still I try to make giving thanks a daily devotion and I'd had loved to sit with my family for dinner, all 4 brothers together.

My kid loves the short days and rainy weather, Yilan is perfect for her. My ideal day is right now, the heavens like dark blue corduroys, thick on the verge of pouring, but it doesn't and its just too brisk for short sleeves (because of the humidity); which is what I wear anyways, so I can run up the four flights of stairs without breaking a sweat.  As I keep pace with the year's coming end, autumn was one walloping exhalation.

Green Dream, Fushan Botanic Gardens, October

Bloody Moon Festival Weekend

Hello Moon Festival  or Mid-Autumn Festival a three day holiday weekend, celebrating the much needed end of summer. I have so many pleasant memories associated with this harvest holiday,  yet this year's was a little different.

Last year we went to three separate waterfalls including the amazing Auhua waterfall in Yilan County,  as well as Mingchi Forest, a wonderful memory, a fabulous weekend (read post here). A few years back when we lived in Tainan, my daughter and I headed to Guanshan to witness rolling hills of orange daylilies against the backdrop of the blue mountains that separate the east coast from the rift valley. A distinct, amazing mid autumn festival weekend. A further Moon Festival weekend of note was  shrimp fishing  at my friend's family business, where we joined her family BBQ, surprisingly dazzled by their impressive fireworks celebration.

 Friends back home ask me what Moon Festival is. In Taiwan it amounts to accepting the obligatory invitation to a communal mass BBQ which is a smoky, loud and carnivorous endeavor. (For a thorough explanation click here).

Zen and I went to a pre-Moon Festival BBQ in Toucheng with friends the weekend before the actual holiday and that was quite enough processed meat, pomelo and smoke to last me.


This year's blood moon wasn't visible in Taiwan, but the absurdly powerful gravitational forces were indeed felt in the form of a wicked typhoon.  The night before the typhoon came, I overheard my neighbors beneath my balcony complain I was boring for not BBQing (among other things), so I went down and joined them and had a good time. It was a more subdued and less smokey affair.



Leaving work Friday I told everyone I knew, "Just you watch, it will be a 4 day weekend" and sure enough Typhoon Dujuan indeed gave us in Yilan another day, Tuesday off and a rain free one at that. I admit watching the news I was starting to feel apprehensive, the typhoon was literally bigger than all of Taiwan and it was hitting smack into Yilan. Local news was vastly more entertaining. There was Yilan train station a sea of people all pushing each other to try and take the afternoon Monday train back to Taipei before all hell broke lose. The high-speed train stopped running at 3 pm leaving millions of travelers on their holiday weekend stranded.
                               

On the morning of  Monday the 28th it was calm. Zen was playing with her friends outside. The wind started to pick up so the girls were playing with the gusts, trying to walk against it. Around noon I called her in and at around 1pm the rains came and it looked like being inside a car wash looking out of our windows. The news said the typhoon would hit us directly at 9pm, but it seemed to have come sooner. Our windows were leaking in our bedrooms and kitchen. We went thru all our towels and some blankets trying to sop it all up. It was a minor inconvenience, but we were safe. Little did I know that all our neighbors lost power and my coworkers lost running water too. I had filled up my bath tub just in case.

My daughter and I drank pots of chai and British tea and watched episodes of Portlandia, reveling in being utter couch potatoes for a day. Typhoon Dujuan left at 1am and Tuesday was called off everywhere but Tainan. Yilan received  914 mm of rain, just second after Su-ao which is still Yilan County and a 15 minute drive down the coast.

My favorite doorman, Moon Fest BBQ with neighbors the night before Dujuan

 The weather Tuesday was perfect, the better to assess the damage and clean up. All the trees in our neighborhoods were blown over, completely uprooted, the topsoil was ripped out by the winds. In other parts of Yilan and Taiwan the rivers were flooded. I spent most of the day cleaning my balconies and floors, washing the towels and blankets that quickly dried in the sunny weather on Wednesday. If it weren't for the fallen trees and blown off building signs, you would haven't guessed a typhoon was in town the day before.

The fallen soldiers at Yilan Sports Park

Not the most ideal mid-Autumn Festival weekend, but I can't complain. Taipei dwellers tend to flood Yilan on holiday weekends anyways and working full time and Z doing homework at her anchingban til 6:30 makes kicking back at home a necessary and joyful relief.

Mid Autumn Festival BBQ, Toucheng.

Stay Safe Taiwan: The Wrath of Soudelor

Luckily I'm missing the Pacific storm of  the season, "Soudelor" which just sounds demonic. My heart goes out to the family who already lost a mom and 2 twin 8 year old daughters. Read, "Taiwan Braces.."

I just hope it isn't as bad at Morakot, which I experienced in Tainan 2011, that killed 500 people. My 5th floor apartment was flooded, Z and I were huddled on our sofa, the winds were coming from the south and just perfectly angled to penetrate the cracks on my windows. We had no running water for a week. Yet we were comparatively lucky. There were aboriginal villages in the countryside of Kaohsiung that were buried alive under massive mud slides.

Sending prayers from Colorado. The weather here is perfectly pleasant, dry, not hot or cold 86 F/30C partly cloudy. We were playing in the yard all morning. But in the back of my mind I hope Taiwan stays safe, that my cat won't be terrified all alone and the 6th grader watching her, remembers to batten down my hatches while we are away.

8 hours ago