Happy Blasphemy Day

I know this is a travel-based area for you all to see our daily deeds, but...

On this special day, with such a bat-shit insane clip released from one of the most bat-shit insane news agencies, from the most bat-shit insane character...

Not believing in a adult myth is the root of all our problems...

"It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes."

It's not enough to have one tormenting typhoon bearing down on us....we have to have an even larger one trailin gbehind. This weekend should be a whipper-snapper of a wet one! Perhaps our plans to scooter to the high mountains and go hkin gmust be put off; it is also the Moon Festival which, I will write about later I hope, is a major family and travel time here. Weather may win this one....

Typhoon...a guest for the Moon Festival?!?

Might go north...might straighten out...time will tell. I dont think Taiwan is looking forward to another massive Typhoon as they are still cleaning up and fixing from the last one.

Bike Camping Trip: To the Ocean and Back

This weekend we took to the streets and pedaled our way from our nearest town (RueiSuei) to the coast and back. We originally decided to camp and return the same way, but once we actually got to the coast (and realized that going along the coast for a while would mean flat road...a highly welcomed change from the cross-mountain roadway!) we decided to change the trip and return home across a second, different, cross-island roadway. We left home in the blazing sun, the glorious heat and with a blue sky bidding us farewell. We ended the trip, back home, in a torrential downpour.

Here are the, slightly smaller, pics:

Me making my way to one of my schools in the morning rain.

Crystal waiting patiently for the garbage truck to swing by. The truck announces itself to each area by playing a loud song over its speakers. This is good, because i reminds you that it is on the way, but it has routes all around our village and only sometimes passes by our specific drop off point....which means that we hear the song almost every night, but only sporadically does it actually come by our house. So, almost every day we run to the front door with garbage in hand...look up the road for the truck.....wait to hear the song.....realize it is on a back road and not ours...and put the garbage away. The next day....same thing again.

And here it is....accepting our waste.

Those were recent pics of around home, now we get to the trip. We biked 20km across the mountians to the coast, 10km along the coast, and another 20km across the mountains again and then another 10km back up our valley. An awsome trip....wet, drenched and a bit damp on Sunday, but Saturday was optimal weather and granted us stunning views.

Our valley. This was taken after the initial climb, in the distance you can see a bridge crossing a river; the mountains in the distance are the foothills of the Central Mountain Range. What we were biking across was the Coastal Mountain Range.

Trevor taking a break after the initial climb.

Crystal doing similar...perhaps trying to balance, perhaps trying to pose....who knows!

Another of Crystal....

Crystal biking up one of the myriad hills that we met along the way.

Our bikes taking a rest...we stopped here for a small breather and a snack. About halfway across the mountains. We were already anxious about seeing the lovely blue ocean...enjoying the ride, but excited for the destination.

Another pause along the way (we did more than justtake breaks...honest!) looking back at the road less traveled.

Ocean. Finally! Here we try to find a calm place to stop for lunch and to shade ourselves in a waiting rice paddy.

Trevor, returning after lunch at the same place.

Tropic of Cancer monument.

Awsome flower - petals evolved themselves out of the game and stamens elaborated. These dotted the coastal roadways.

ABOVE and BELOW: The view from our campsite.

Our tentsite. We camped by a lovely stretch of beach, protected by erosion barriers (which are actually amazing seats), that started dry, and ended saturated.

Crystal just before dinner taking in the ocean view.

Said ocean.

Said ocean, part 2.

Crystal unpacking her bike and getting our campsite ready. This was taken as the evening was setting in. We went to sleep in the gusting wind and watching a massive thunderstorm across the ocean. It was spectacular to watch, but as we sat for hours sharing some wine and a moon cake we noticed that it was moving very slowly towards us....we tried to ignore it, tried to tell ourselves that we would stay dry. But......not so. We tried to sleep without the fly (the heat with it on was immense) but were awoken by a sudden blast of water. Water that puddled. Water that pooled. Water that saturated everything in the tent! out we (Crystal) went to put up the fly, and asleep we fell in a damp and sloshing tent.

Trevor in the morning rain getting his bike ready for the trek home.

...our campsite was illegal, sort of, and directly across from a police station. We stayed under the radar for the whole night and never had to explain ourselves to any officer of the law!

Our bikes in the morning, with a postcard view behind them.

We woke up, packed quickly in the downpour, got on our bikes and hit the road. Very soon afterwards we came upon a ubiquitous mini temple, saw that it had a roof...andtook advantage of our fortune. We made our breakfast, drank some hot coffee and planned our attack for the route homeward.

The route homeward. This is the road that took us back through the mountains and back to our valley.

Us, in the (still) rain.

ABOVE and BELOW: Along the way home we came upon a wonderful sight - hot springs. After a night of being drenched, a day of biking against the wind, up stunning hills, in the bullet-like rain, we found ourselves eager for a nice soak in the hotspring. It also turned out that nobody else was there, so the place was ours....privacy and solitude in the geothermal glory of the hotspring!

...then we got back on our bikes and made our way back home. Some stuff is still drying, but most is fine. It was a quick 2 day blast through the mountains and along the ocean, but what an adventure! Good timesto be had in the wilds of Taiwan.

If anyone has a copy of Conrads' "The Secret Agent" I may want to borrow it when I return as mine got a wee soaked and is now more like a single block of paper than an actual book. It started good......what will become of Mr. Verlock?!?!?

Crystals Birthday Journey: Taroko Gorge!

ABOVE and BELOW: HappyBirthday pizza...in snack size!

And what better way to end the birthday snack-sized dinner than with a whopping pile of shaved ice, beans, peanuts and some tastey unknown fruit.

Trevor getting his hair trimmed at the local pomelo market/barber.

Crystal patiently waiting for the fish to spawn...

The next few are from the weekend trip to Taroko Gorge, one of the prettiest and geologically amazing places in Taiwan. It is a stunning gorge with limestone/marble/schist towering above you. The road winds its way around the meandering gorge from a small ocean side village to the village of Tien Shiang.

Park flags and the Taiwanese flag together at the park gate.

Looking up the staairs of the Tien Shiang Pagoda; Crystal looking down as she climbs.

View of the Tien Shiang Buddhist Temple; the back story here is huge, involving the indigenous Taroko people, Chinese and Japanese occupations, a war, a war after the war and a massive Typhoon. All in all, the people had to move the Buddhist Temple to this location on the brink of a collapsing pinnacle of rock, sustaining itself for now. It is a beautiful temple, in a beautiful location, in a beautiful country. But a temple nonetheless....soooooo.....

The Village of Tien Shiang. The road to the right goes East to the ocean, the road continues past Tien Shiang to the massive beauty of the HeHuan Mountain range - one of the few places that receives and maintains snow during the peak winter months.

Crystal, a massive marble...literally, and in the far distance stands a Buddha statue.

An on to dinner. Local specialty of the Taroko people - the rice is jammed into a bamboo shoot freshly falled from the forest, mushrooms are added, and the whole bundle is steamed until ready. Kept warm, it is a delight waiting for you when you find yourself wanting a meal in Tien Shiang. This is an excellent, I would suppose, way to transport rice for meals on the go, hiking, biking, etc. Perhaps a bit heavier than plastic containters, but all the more practical and biodegradable.

Crystal walking through the garden at our hotel; this place, called a hotel, is much more like a bunch of rooms scattered amongst a forest with obtuse walkways, adventurous placements of washrooms and a veritable garden throughout. It is both a beautiful - authentiuc beauty, not maniucured beaurty - and calming to wake up here in the early morning and see the butterflies flutter, the mist drip off the leaves, the clouds dust the mountaintops and the morning cicdas sing their tune.

Trevor in the bamboo forest above the village proper of Tien Shiang; walking along the Houran Pavillion Trail. This has a story too, and here it is highly abridged:

The Taroko people were inhabitants of the low lying areas of Tien Shiang, at the confluence of two main rivers, farming and raising animals. When the Japanese occupation started, they found the Taroko People to be highly violent (read: defending their families and territory) and "troublesome" so they pushed them high into the mountains. The Taroko were forced to etch out a new living on the three or four terraces above the floodplain - they planted new crops, built new houses and grew/maintained a bamboo forest (the one in the picture). Eventually they were deemed too troublesome still, and ushered out of the entire area. Some went inland and inhabited the high mountian regions and some went downstream to the ocean. Now there are two (many, actually) tribes in areas that are somewhat un-ancestral, and Tien Shiang is left as a memory of a past life, a past existence and a past culture. The village still contributes, as some people have returned since the 70's and built what they now have (and the development of the National Park has supported this development). It is a veritable place to awaken and to hike around. The pieces of the past, though, voice a different time.

BELOW is a picture of basalt stools in a circle. Not sure about the age, or source of tha basalt, but it was very cool. I presume these are more recent than the Taroko habitation.

Scenery....

Crystal, taking in the view along the Houran Pavillioon Trail. Just past this point the trail is closed due to Typhoon damage, which we found and tried to get around....but Typhooons are wicked things, and the trail followed a precarious ridgeline that had basically slipped off the mountain. So, no luck.

Pointing to where the trail, and the road, would go if it were not for the typhoon damage.

Crystal, de-scootering at the Tien Shiang cafe along with the other patrons.

The view of the main Taroko Gorge road. This is an absolutely stunning andscape that no picture can explain. You should come see it. Nudge, nudge....

After our excursion to the gorge, we returned ocean-side to grab some lunch, a coffee and pause while taking in the ocean. Living in a valley between two mountain ranges this time around we rarely get to see the blue-green ocean do its thing. So, when we get a chance, we take it!