Taiwan Road Trip 2015 #16: The final stretch of unwillingness

The final hours of the journey was all driving and lots of time to think. From the roads of freedom in Taitung with nothing in the way to regulate one's pace to semi-rural country side in Hualien and the appearance of traffic lights, each stationary moment waiting for the red to turn green became more and more of a frustration because its increasing frequency also means the near end of my journey and return to what I was trying to escape from. The thought of enduring another year of chaos was amplified by the traffic congestions as I drove through Hualien city, and the rain, thick fog and packed roads seemed to be pre-arranged as a means for me to acclimate before the "real world" really kicks in.

Driving through Su-Hua road, which is supposed to be a twisty road on a drop-off cliff with spectacular view, I had little to no intention to stop and enjoy it. The weather was bad, roads in poor condition as well and road of jam packed with trucks hauling rocks and cement. Arriving at Su-Ao, where I am supposed to be back in civilization, also where the freeway starts, I told myself that I am in no hurry, and took my time finding a place to have a simple dinner. Then, I decided that I did not want my last bit of the journey to be on the boring freeway, took a big detour and had a blast carving through the pitch-black and wet mountain roads from Yilan to Taipei. Driving hard on the extremely twisty mountain road and working my car was like the final struggle before my departure of this journey back to my regular life. From pitch black to occasional street lights, to houses and then shops, I was back in the city in no time. I was running lively in the mountains like a dog off leash then, now I am stuck sitting in the traffic, watching the counter telling me how much longer of wait before I am allowed to move again. Life is ,once again, regulated.

And so I am back at home, a place where I station myself in the urban. In a way I was trying to reduce the "pain" by quickly unpacking everything and returning my life to the normal state as if the journey never happened, like returning from Vegas, except it wasn't just an escape, but ultimately where I hope I can live a life. Like a blockbuster movie with sequels, I look forward to the next one, with the difference that I know it's not going to be worse than the original.

Taiwan Road Trip 2015 #15: Bonus Program - Taibalang Festival

A-Mei Tribal group is the largest in Taiwan with its people distributed mostly along the east coast of Taiwan, and Taibalang tribe is the largest of the A-Mei group. I wasn't planning to stop over at any site along my way back to Taipei but a friend said he was going to be photographing Taibalang's annual festival, and asked me to stop by, so I did. A-Mei tribes typically have their annual festivals between July and August and I missed most of them since they are usually earlier in the summer, so this is one chance I have to visit one. The annual festival is their version of the new year as they celebrate the past and look forward to the future. Tribal folks will return home from all over Taiwan to be apart of this festival and therefore this is a big reunion for them. They dance, eat and drink, follow specific rules and conduct specific rituals. Most of the time, outsiders only get to see the most typical performances. You have to be a part of the family to participate in the more specific rituals.

Nevertheless, as I've photographed the smaller one at Taitung, the atmosphere and vibe is exactly the same, except in a much larger scale. People return and reunite, eager to see each other again. They dress in very vibrant traditional clothing waiting for their turn to perform group dances, from men, women to children. It's a mission to them, not just a ritual, to perform as a group and be proud.



























































A side note was, since this was a major event for local folks, and that politics sticks its dirty hands everywhere, both the mayor and one of the presidential candidates showed up, so did lots of reporters and journalists.

Taiwan Road Trip 2015 #14: Route 197

Since when I was living in Taitung I've been curious about this particularly twisty road between Chishang and Taitung City. It's not the usual Route 9 that everyone knows, but a road that coils around the mountain range to the east of Route 9. This time, I have to check it out.



This is Route 197. It's a smaller and much less travelled road that links the tribes along the mountain. To me this is an absolutely refreshing sight because I've never seen this part of Taitung before. Small mountain tribes with over view of the main valley and the towns below. The rice fields aren't as large but sit on terraces, like those stepped paddy fields. One of the most interesting features I've found is this water wheel that lifts water from the main irrigation canal to the field that sits higher than the canal, with an opening on the opposite side of the field to let water out. This helps to maintain the freshness of the water in the field, keeps oxygen level up and reduces the risk of diseases from staying and take hold.







Half way down the road there was a section of gravel that stretches for 14km. It was very tempting but I was driving a car with low ground clearance. I was just thinking what will happen if I get stuck in between, there's absolutely no help! So for that section I chickened out and took the main road, and then rejoin 197 when the gravel ended.

The road twists and climbs, and eventually makes its way towards the Pacific Ocean where I could get a wide view of both Taitung City and the airport. This is one road that I will definitely want to ride on again.

Chicken crossing Route 197!!!

Taiwan Road Trip 2015 #13: Same dimension, different worlds

The night out there in the sea isn't as quiet as it is on land as many from the village are out fighting for their livelihood. These are small boats that sail out in the near by water to fish for squids in the middle of the night. They use lures and rods, not nets, and catch more than a hundred squids on a regular night.

How do I know this?

“One, two, three, four, five.... he says he will be the fifth light from the right..."

A middle school kid sat by the shore as I took photos of the stars, watching his father at work out in the ocean and awaits for his return. His father is the only kin his got.

It was a night of the stars but the sky wasn't in the best condition. I stopped shooting and got out a blanket and laid on the ground to just gaze at the stars. The kid, who was playing with hermit crabs followed suit and laid down while using his flip flops as his pillow. And the two of us who don't know each other and barely saw each other's face in the dark chatted for the next two hours.

So I will address him as Zhuang as that's his last name. Zhuang is a middle school boy who goes to the school in town. He used to live in another town called Tai-Yuan located in the mountains as opposed to being a coastal town like this one. Zhuang then told me that he used to hike into the mountains, up to 1.5 hours in, by himself to gather wild vegetables and hunt for meat.

"A kid wanders into the mountain by himself and hunts?"



I couldn't quite believe him, so I asked leading questions for him to complete his story. Zhuang then told me which plants are edible, how to set up traps for small animals, how to hunt snakes and how he once dragged a 200kg wild boar that he killed with a trap, by himself, back to his home from the mountain. His story seems to be quite complete and sounded like it's told by a first person point of view. I have absolutely no right to doubt him being someone who knows absolutely nothing about the nature.

Then a meteor shoots by and I gasped at its beauty. He did as well. Then I asked him if he knew what stars are. He doesn't. So I explained that stars are all Suns like the one that we have, but they are very very far away and therefore very small, and judging by how small they seem and how many there are, it shows how small we are on earth.

May be that knowledge blew his mind away, but his description of his survival skills and knowledge about his world is something that I will never be able to match. I am blown away by him.

"Why not just buy food from the market?" I asked.

"It's too expensive!" He said.

That's what he kept saying every time I asked about using money in exchange for food because it's more convenient and sounds like a hack a lot less trouble to me. However after hearing about how he and his father lives on wild resources, it taught me something that I would otherwise have never thought about. Money isn't the only measure in value. We've lived in the urban for so long that we all depend on money to exchange for resources. Without money, it's crippling. To these folks who don't make much money, we can probably say they are poor. However they really aren't poor. They don't make much money because there isn't many jobs here, therefore money is something that is hard to make, and therefore anything that requires money will be expensive to them. But not hunted meat and picked wild vegetables. The labor and time and risk involved in harvesting from the nature, to them, is more affordable than to make money. To them, they are wealthy not because of how much dollars they have, but their strength, knowledge and skills that they survive on. I always think that the man with the most money with the least skill will be the most worthless person on earth should the entire economy go under. I am absolutely impressed by these simple yet sophisticated folks. If there are human survivors after an apocalypse, they deserve every right to be them.

Taiwan Road Trip 2015 #12: Night life in Taitung

Some people prefer the city because that's where you can enjoy a variety of night life. I say they are completely wrong. During the nights of the summer, the coasts are restless. Countless boats are out in the water fishing for various kinds of catches with lights that made it look like as if they are having a party out there. Close to the shore, another group of brave men gathers food in ways very few will attempt. Surface diving with propelled spears. These men will dive close to the rocky shore with crashing waves with powerful flash light looking for lobsters, crabs and fish within the cracks of the rocks.

"There's too many jelly fish, I had to get back up and call it a night"

I'm sure no food will taste better.

Taiwan Road Trip 2015 #11: Boys trip!

So "the day after" came and the boys were eager to leave. So we did and in a big way I was also quite eager to show them the car.

" Wow, is this a sports car?"
" Well, it kinda is."
" Wow, it goes to 260km/h!" Pointing at the speedometer.
" Nah that's just bluffing, to make you think it goes fast."
" So how fast can it go?"
" Not really too fast."
" Not too fast? So it's a sports car that doesn't go fast?"
" Yes it's a sports car that doesn't go fast"

So there we go, a full day, Boys' trip. In a way, if they are older, it may have been a bachelor's party. Anyway, I thought they probably don't have much chance of getting out of their little village, so I wanted to take them along, to see the mountains, the river, the monkey, the golden needle flowers and the stars. Yes our final destination was Mt. Sixty Stone (again). To start, we arrived at Donghe to get some of the famous meat buns. They weren't hungry, so we continued our way into the Dong-Fu route, a very twisty mountain road but one with spectacular view. The front portion of the route was particular exciting for me, because it's a two lane twisty mountain road with not much traffic and I am eager to try my car's handling here. However, having two monkeys onboard, I wasn't sure how they would take it.



Just as we are getting started, Bolin seemed to have a particular concern.

" Did you get gas?" Bolin asked.
" No worry, we've got plenty of gas already."
" Are you sure? Will we run out of gas?"
" What's the matter, you seem to be really worried about gas. You ever run out of gas before?"
" Yeah, once my dad drove his car to town for gas and we didn't make it."
" So what did you do? Push the car?"
" I don't want to push the car."
" Well, that's what we will do, push the car if the gas runs out!"
" I don't want to push the car."

So I guess there was some bad experience there.









"Do you get car sick?"
"Nope!" Said both of them with pride.
"Are you sure?"

Sure enough, after about 15~20min of aggressive mountain driving, one was really not feeling well, slumbering over and holding his head down. I rolled down the windows (realized that they are more used to fresh air than AC) and it helped a bit, but not much. We made it to the first stop which was only about 1/5 the way and the Webber was not holding it too well. Nothing came out of his system, but he definitely wasn't too keen on curves.

"Webber.... how are you doing?"
" ...... "
" Are you ok?"
" Nope."
" How nope?"
" Very nope."

So we stopped again, right under a sign that says "10km to Fuli Township". The kids just squat there, not moving, especially the morally defeated Webber.

" Oh come on pussies, get up and man up!" I said. " Either you get back into the car or walk the rest of the way, and get kidnapped by the monkeys!"

So we continued.



"So where are we going?"
"Mt. Sixty Stone" ( Which sounds like Mt. Sixty Egg in Chinese)
" I thought we are going to Yuli?"
" If we have time, but I don't think we will."
" So when are we arriving at Mt. Sixty Egg?"
"Soon"
" How soon?"
"Soon"



"So Webber" Pointing at the beautiful mountains "Don't you think the green and mountains and blue sky are beautiful?"
"Nope, I see them everyday, don't feel anything special"
"Ok..."

And we continued. After having some ice cream and fed some Kois in a pond, we finally arrived at the foot of Mt. Sixty Stone.

"There's going to be more twisty roads, really narrow and tight corners!"
"Oh no, are you kidding me?" Webber complained.
"Nope, it's going to be really twisty and very high!"




As we climbed, Bolin said," Where's Mt. Sixty Egg?"
"What egg?"
"You said Mt. Sixty Egg?"
" No there's no egg!"
" I thought there are eggs on this mountain when you said Mt. Sixty Egg!, eggs that cost sixty dollars!"
"What kind of egg would cost sixty dollars?"
"I want eggs that cost sixty dollars!"
It was a long trip up the mountain.



" I was here last night you know, and saw some snakes on the road."
"Really? You came here last night?"
" Yeah, I saw a Umbrella stripped snake last night"
"I am not afraid of snake. The only think I am afraid of is spiders" Said Webber.
" Spiders? What about mountain roads? You afraid of mountain roads" Since Webber had such a bad experience just now.
" Yeah, spiders and twisty mountain roads"
"So which is worse, spiders or mountain roads?"
" Mountain roads...."

Great piece of information, will definitely come in handy down the road. It's always good to know kids' weaknesses.

We arrived at Mt Sixty Stone and Bolin was finally convinced that there is no egg here. The flowers are in full blossom and I said I will buy them some dried flowers so their parents can cook them. That's better than leaving without eggs that cost sixty dollars.

I wanted to visit this tea farm that I've been buying tea from and perhaps the kids will appreciate good tea too. They did, loved the flavor and appreciated its goodness, one cup after another. They were also excited about the basketball hoop, and played basketball. Then they saw the badminton rackets, and played badminton. Then they saw the big friendly dog, and played with the dog. They enjoyed all the "unimportant" things despite surrounded by gorgeous landscape and golden needle flowers, but that really all that matter, that they were really enjoying themselves.

It seemed that the clouds love to follow me around and it lingered while we were at Mt Sixty Stone too. Upon seeing a spot of sunlight, I quickly took the boys up to the top of the mountain where I shot my stars the night before. They were excited, not about the flowers and the great scenery. They were excited to role play commandos while holding the hiking cane that I let them use.

"Phew phew!"
"Fire in the hole!"
The entire valley echoed their voices.
"Keep quiet, you are disturbing all the other folks in this quiet valley!"
After some unwilling shots that I took of them, disrupting their role play, the clouds once again moved in and we decided to have an early dinner and headed back to the tea farm where we had made reservation.

Since we were back early, the kids wanted to play with the dog again. However the dog is now on leash because more guests will be arriving for dinner. The dog was calm and lied on the ground, and the toddler daughter of the tea farm owner came and displayed her severe cast of "princess syndrome" as we call it, meaning she's extremely spoiled. She wasn't really talking very nice to the dog and was stepping on the paws with her foot. The dog probably was used to her roughness and didn't even flick. Immediately we told her that it was not right and she needs to respect all animals, and the two boys was teaching her a lesson on animal cruelty.

Next we sat at the table waiting for the food. The little girl walked by us and said with an attitude , "The dog is my little brother, this is my home, I can do whatever I want!"

Speechless, we looked at each other. The girl then walked away. A few seconds later, Bolin said, "It's ok, us adults shouldn't mind the little girl".

I love being with these kids. They often remind me of what's really right and how we should react to difficult situations with open heart. I then thought more about this, and realized that since what they think is what we taught them as adults, how is it that we forget what we preach? I think as we march further into adulthood, we need more time to reflect and reset our mind to find the true north, get our bearings right before we continue. That's what this trip is about.

The food was great and Bolin liked everything, also tried his best to finish the food. Webber, however, as a little picky.

"All the ingredients are local, organic and fresh!" said the tea farm owner proudly.
" Especially the winter melon. It has the flavor of tapioca, very unique!"
"Oh, of all food I only dislike winter melon" said Webber. "No it's great, you should try some!" Said Bolin.


Seeing that encouragement isn't working.....


"Ok Webber, if you don't try at least one piece, we will take the long mountain road back home instead of the shorter route"

Thinking really hard, he said, "Just one piece?"
" Yes just one."
"What if you bluff me?"
"I won't"
"Just one?"

And he did. Like I said, it's useful knowing kids' weaknesses.

And that was almost it. The cloud got thicker and thicker and it was also raining, there was almost zero chance of seeing the stars let alone meteor shower. We headed back, through the shorter route, but just as twisty.