Taian: Are You Lost?

So on May 18, I turned 29. The days preceding this particular event were a blur of teaching, making props for our kindergarten performances and transitioning through the middle portion of our semester here. That being said, we have been busy and we were looking for a break. So my birthday weekend was a great excuse to cut out of town for a bit to try to unwind.

Our recent trip to Jiashi opened our eyes up to the relieving and restoring properties of the Taiwanese hot spring. Not wanting to ride the train this time we found a place on the map not too far away known for its exceptional hot spring water: Taian. According to our guidebook, the area was almost completely unspoiled and a kind of haven deep in the mountains. Sounds good.

So we got up early on Saturday, hopped on the scooter and made the two hour drive southeast to the "area along highway 62" in search of a hot spring hotel and a comfy bed.

The drive was pleasant, the weather was nice and before we knew it we were heading up the windy road into the mountains.
We followed the road all the way to the end then climbed off the scooter to have a look around. Besides a few hotels along the way and some very old, faded signs there was not a lot in the way of people. It was nice. We made our way back down the road and after a fairly extensive search (that is to say we went into several hotels, had a look around, saw the room then left to compare with the other places), we settled on the: Sunrise Hot Spring Hotel--your home away from home, as it informed us. Dennis, the manager of the hotel restaurant and for some reason, charged with helping us (his English was very good), proptly asked us, "How did you find this hotel? Are you lost?" To his suprise we actually were in the right place.

The hotel was beautiful, set in a picturesque spot beside a mountain and a river.

Here is the view from a balcony.
As we went to enter the hot spring area, one of the ladies at the hotel stopped us and asked if we had our "Li-mau" (pronounced lee mow). Naturally I thought, "Of course...I always bring my..." then she pointed at the words "shower cap" and I realized we foolishly left those in the shower. After we grabbed our one shower cap and took the liberty of borrowing one from the abandoned desk at the spa we made our way to the springs.

Now it is customary in Taiwan to wear a swim cap at these kinds of places so once we saw everyone else we relized the importance of the shower cap. However, as if we didn't stand out enough, we were the only ones wearing actual shower caps and not swim caps.

Here is the picture I will send to the company as my modeling audition:
Yes, you guessed it...I am still an English teacher.

The springs at the hotel were wonderful. They were set up on multiple levels offering different views of the surrounding mountains as well as different temperatures in case you couldn't handle the really hot stuff.

Here are some shots from the day and evening spent out there:
After a very relaxing day and a great sleep we were out the next day to explore the area. We took two hikes: one up into the mountains and one along the river. Here are some shots from those walks:
It started to rain in the early afternoon so we made our way back home. As we drove near a town called Beipu, we noticed the rice paddies and realized that we had never taken pictures of them. So here are some shots of them from beside the road:
All in all it was a great weekend and yet another reminder that there are still so many places to see in Taiwan.

J is for Jiaoshi (or Ch, Depending on Your Romanization Scheme)

So it was May 2nd and it was time to break out of Jubei. April was a month of new challenges and the prelude to a few more stress-filled months of teaching in Taiwan. After some deliberation during the week, Katie and I decided to pull out the old tour book in order to find a place we wanted to go that we had not been. To be honest, we have begun to feel that after being here for eight months and doing our best to travel over the island during that time, that there were few places in Taiwan left that we really had the urge to visit.

A friend at school told us about a beach on the north coast in a small town called Toucheng. It had no mention almost everywhere we looked, but she assured us that it was a beautiful black sand beach just waiting for our discovery. In fact on Friday (May 1st) she was planning a trip for herself and her husband for later on that month. So we thought, there has to be something up there...

We caught an early train out of Hsinchu on Saturday morning and almost four hours later we stepped off in the tiny Toucheng station. There wasn't much at the station (which was promising) and we saw the beach from the train as we pulled to a stop. So we crossed the street and began to make our way toward the water. After crossing a few streets, walking down some alleys we marched down a road with rice patties on either side. At the end of the road was a very small and newly built park showcasing this statue:
Yeah I don't know either.

But it definitely looks better with Katie next to it.
Moving on, we found our way to the beach. Now I am not sure if it was the weather (which had turned from sunny to very, very gray), or the construction (on most corners of town as well as most of the beach), or the wave-breakers/cement ugly things, or the garbage (which is an unfortunate fact in Taiwan beaches in general as well as other Asian countries--but it was particularly landfill-ish at this one), or if it was a sign of our overall disposition, but we were disappointed with what we found

Here is the best picture we took:
Now despite the statements above it wasn't that bad. But it was the coming to a head of several different factors at the same time. Basically, we were looking for something here that we didn't find: a new place. A place that we could explore and a place that we could relax.

We sat on the cement benches for a few minutes feeling like we had seen all the places that we had wanted to see and now we were just disappointed. Thankfully this feeling didn't linger long and we decided not to give up. We still had the whole weekend ahead of us and we weren't going to whine anymore (ironically, we discovered the next day that we had actually gone to the wrong beach and the one we wanted was one stop earlier...all well, save it for another day!).

We hopped on the next local train and took it down to the next town: Jiaoshi.

We had never heard of the place, but while eavesdropping earlier in the week about Toucheng we heard that Jiaoshi was known for its hot springs. We did some reading in our tour book (which was sparse at best) and discovered that there was quite the waterfall not far from town.

Without exagerating we were completely suprised.

As soon as we stepped out of the train station we saw a small communal hot spring pool for dipping your feet and streets of small shops, restaurants and hot spring hotels.

We made our way up the road and after looking into several different hotels we found one off the main strip and dropped our things off in the room (which had hot spring water piped directly into it).

After wandering back and forth on the same street trying to understand the map we walked up the road toward the waterfall. It was only 3.5 km from town and after a short while we came to the end of the road and followed a wooden path to Wufengchi Falls.

This is the first of several on the hike:
This is the second tier. Unfortunately (but not that unfortunate actually because we were pretty tired), the trail to the top of the falls was closed so this was the highest part we were able to get close to:

We found another path leading in a different direction so we followed it (hoping to find food) and wound up at a Chinese Catholic Church at the top of a mountain. It was one of the most picturesque places I have seen in Taiwan with views of the top of the waterfall from a distance and of Jiaoshi all the way to the cost:
After taking some pictures (but finding no food) we made the walk back into town. We explored a little on the way back to the hotel and after dinner we set out again to visit the hot spring park in the middle of town.

I want to preface this with saying that this was one of the places in Taiwan where we can genuinely say they really did a great job. The park was a great place to walk with open paths, vendors selling food and several covered outdoor cafes. All of these were built around a variety (varying both in size, style and set up) of public hot springs. These are pools of soothing mineral-filled water surrounded by benches for people to just hangout around and talk. It was a really cool, laid-back place. Naturally being the only white faces around we drew some attention, but after mustering up some courage we squeezed in with a group and sat with our aching feet soaking in the hot water.
We appreciated the communal feel of the place. Everyone just gathered around these various pools and talked. After sitting with this group for a while, we called it a night and made our way back to the hotel.

Here is Katie at the place we sat the longest:
Our hotel room was very nice and after a great rest we set off the next morning to try another coastal town: Fulong.

Here is the hot spring area at the train station. We sat here while we waited for our train to leave:
We knew very little about Fulong (including how to say the name as no one seemed to know what we were talking about), except that it had a beach and apparently it was a nice place to hang out. Admittedly we were skeptical and once again we were so happily suprised.

Fulong is a very small town right on the coast connected to several other towns via very well made and kept up bike paths. We walked down to the beach first since...well...that's what we do.

Here are a few pictures of the beach:
Next we rented bikes and made our way down the coast to see what we could find along the bike trail. The path went along the beach for a ways then over a suspension bridge:
Here is an old bunker built by the Taiwanese to watch for a Chinese invasion:
Here is a view from inside the bunker:
The trail ended at an Anti-Japanese Memorial. Random? Well, the Japanese occupied Taiwan for many years and they weren't very nice to the people here. Here is the memorial:
We wandered around the area and discovered they had a free "swimming pool" area next to the beach:
We made our way back to Fulong beach, took a few more pictures then jumped back on the train to head home:
A few hours later we made it back safe and completely refreshed. This trip was wonderful as it reminded us not to give up, but rather to keep heading out to find those nooks and crannies that really do make Taiwan a great place.

A Breath of Fresh Air....

As April quickly approached, Luke and I (but especially me) were eagerly looking forward to my college roommate's upcoming visit to Taiwan. We felt pretty honored that Rebecca would choose Taiwan for her Spring Break '09 (she's a teacher in the states). Knowing that she was coming a long way, we wanted to show her a good time so we spent a good amount of time planning and plotting her trip.

Here's the hero of this blog, getting ready to set out with her "Royalty." Trust me, I became well- aquainted and an accomplice to many of The Royalty's antics on this trip.
Finally, the days counted down to zero and she landed safe and sound in Taipei at 6 AM after a 14 hour flight and experiencing her first Taiwanese meal on the flight...rice soup. Mmmmm...welcome to Taiwan, there will definitely be more of that! Rebecca, brave and adventurous soul that she is, made her way from the airport to the High Speed Rail and then to the Hsinchu station where her first scooter ride of many awaited her.

That day, Rebes spent the time walking around Jubei while we were at work and later that night was introduced to her first love here in Taiwan...milk tea.
Luke and I decided to take the following Monday and Tuesday off so that we would have four days to go on a trip and show Rebecca some of the island.

The next morning, we headed out to the southern city of Kaohsiung where our gracious friends, Nate and Khyra, offered to let us crash at their place that night. Our first stop was Lotus Lake. Luke and I had been there before but it's one of the best places to see temples (which are a must-see in Taiwan). Here are a few pictures from there.
Later that night, we decided to venture over to Chijhen Island where we had never been before. The ferry ride across the harbor was a pretty steep $15 NT. Chijhen was cool, with a night market and a beach. Rebecca and I bought some earrings and Rebes got a good survey of the food choices at said markets. After that, we met up with Nate and Khyra, had some Mexican food (mmmmm....) and called it a night.

We had planned on heading down to Kenting (the beach at the southern tip of the island) the next morning but learned that the biggest music festival of the year in Taiwan was still going on and it would just be absolutely crazy. We decided to stay in Kaohsiung one more day. We had a leisurely day, tripling on the scooter, shopping and seeing more of the sights, including the Love River, the harbor and downtown.
A quick side note...Luke lived in Kaohsiung fourteen years ago and at that time you were not allowed to smoke near the Love River because it would light on fire if any sparks came near it. These pictures are a great example of the strides that Taiwan is making. The river is now beautiful and a lovely place to hang out. Go Taiwan!!

The next morning we caught a taxi for the ride down to Kenting as we figured it would be mostly cleared out by then. This taxi ride turned out to be one of the most treacherous of all our lifetimes. 160 km/h in a 40 km/h? Almost hitting a motorcyclist? Driving on the shoulder? Driving on the wrong side of the road? Who does that? Insane taxi drivers in Taiwan...that's who. Here is The Royalty as they are praying for their lives.
All that to say, we made it to Kenting in record time, found a hotel and were on the beach in no time.
It was beautiful....for about 3 hours. Then, the wind and the rain came. Unfortunately, it was like this for the rest of the day. We woke up the next morning, hoping it would be better but sadly, it was not. So, we decided that 3 hours on the beach was better than none (especially with Rebes getting pretty sunburned...it's that tropical sun) and headed back up to Jubei/Hsinchu.

We suited up for the drive to Hsinchu as it was raining up north as well. Here is Rebes, looking very Taiwanese. Our apartment guard just happened to come around the corner and got caught in the picture, like a deer in headlights.
We wanted to take Rebecca on one of our favorite past times in Hsinchu...shopping! We introduced Rebes to Hi-Mart, Rainbow and all that is in and around "the circle." Here are some pictures. One of the most entertaining things about shopping here, is indeed the shirts. Rebecca took some pictures of some real gems which is probably what we should have been doing in all our time here.
Yes, those are couple shirts and people definitely wear them here. Luke and are so getting some before we head back to the states.
Just in case you're wondering if you read that right...It says, "Hopes and Fears, Merry Christmas from John and Yoko."P.S. This is a guy's shirt and it says, "World looks crazy because of because of because of FASHION."

Here's a picture of one of our favorite signs in the Hi-Mart.The next day, it was time for Luke and me to return to work so we sent Rebecca on a day trip to Yingge, the pottery town where she did some shopping and picked up some gifts for back home.

All of a sudden, it was time for Rebes to head back safe and sound to the states. Her week here flew by. It was great having her here because it reminded Luke and me that we still have a lot of Taiwan to see and we need to take advantage of the time we have left here. The winter has been pretty long and dreary and we haven't wanted to go out and have been in a bit of a rut as far as getting out and experiencing things. Rebes' visit inspired us to get out the guide book and keep going, every weekend if possible. The spring and summer are looking bright!!!

And....just to end this post with some culture....Here are Luke, Rebecca and I engaging in a very Taiwanese past-time...Print Club.