Pedals through Guanshan: A day trip south

Yesterday we took a long shot and went to Guanshan. It has been a busy week, Crystal is preparing for her schools big performance, and we had a freakishly last minute day off granted. So, we thought about our options - the ocean, the mountains, the biking trips, studying (yes, really) and we came up with a short jaunt to a little town south of us. We had never been there, but it is one of those typical places that is close enough that you never plan a weekend to check it out, and far enough that you cant get there after work, etc. So, it is a place that would be mostly skipped in a normal circumstance. But, we read up on it, heard it had a wee li'l bike path and some stunning scenery, so we went. Bought a train ticket just before lunch, got into Guanshan just after lunch, grabbed a meal, rented a bike (which had the front gear shifts disconnected...for some reason) and hit the trail. We anticipated it being a super calm ride, short and boring. But, what we got was something all together different. A long ride - 12km perhaps - and through some pretty neat scenery. We both ended the day a little tired, extremely happy that we took the bait and went there, and filled with that feeling you get when you expect drab, but get glitter.

Yeah, kinda like that.

So, from a quick lunch at the market to the backwoods (backfields, I suppose) of the Taiwanese countryside, we got a tour of a brand new part of Taiwan, one that is almost in our backyard...too close and too far all at the same time. It was the perfect day trip....topped off with yet another pizza once we got home!

Taiwan, in a nutshell. Rice, betel nuts and a lot of hard labour.

Trevor, in the market for lunch with a refreshing gulp of water. Beside is the parking space we found outside of the market. Not the usual views, perhaps? Sausage, anyone?

No, no, no....nobody eats cat (or dog) here. But, it was a funny picture nevertheless. Cute little kitty though, she let us play with here for a while (even though we woke her up from a sunny slumber). On the right is the contraption that actually plants the new rice in the fields. They drive it through the fields, and the roller in the back clips off little bits of the flat of rice and plunks it into the muddy soil. They can do a whole field quite fast, which was a bit of a surprise.

Trevor, pausing along the beginning of the ride to .... not sure. Probably get the camera out, which Crystal then used. To the right is a placid pastoral ricified picture.

Views along the path as we entered the gauntlet of palms! On the right a critter searches for the meaning of life, or some other nectarry treat.




A bee, with a taste for the sweeter side of life. Crystal taking a break from the bike and strolling along the field berm (hard to think that in a few days this field will be tilled, flooded and planted with rice!).

A field, starting anew. Once the rice is cut and harvested, the fields are drained and planted with flowers. Once the soil is all hopped up on nitrogen and the views have turned a stellar yellow and purple, the fields are harvested and tilled, then flooded. Then, back at it with rice. Here, the flooded fields are just a few days old with rice poking up.

Crystal, as we took a pause along the bike path to watch endless numbers of bees and butterflies swarm about in the vast fields of flowers.

Purple tomato? And a pagoda along the way....

Working the fields. In the foreground are newly planted rice fields, in the background are two buggies getting down to business - on the left is the rice planter, on the right is the tiller (there are actually two styles, one for dry soil and another - like this one - for the mud). In the very far background are betel nut palm trees, the secondary backbone of the Taiwanese economy.

All in all, it was a short but intense day in Guanshan. We never really expected it to turn out as such, and were quite prepared for a quiet and nominal day. But, as Taiwan always does it seems, some surprises were tossed our way - gorgeous views, delicious food, a nice encounter with the nice lady at the coffee shop/bakery, long bike ride, strawberry fields (in Taiwan?!?!?), tea with a view, sunshine and a nice introduction to an entirely new part of this here Country.

Explore and thee shall find...

A Tribute to Taiwan: Everything she has to give

A gorgeous morning view....everyday.

Rice fields filled with things other than rice...the seasonal variation and colouration....

Fields of colours that warm your eyes...drowned in sunshine.

Crisp flowers...

Well staged community service by the Buddhist Church, caught on film...

Coffee beans lazing in the sun, to keep the toasted tea leaves company....all under the watchful eye of Buddha...

Reminders that one shoudl rotate pictures before uploading them....

Rice...ricelettes....growing strong in the afternoon sun, ready to be planted...

Surgery, Beer, Walking, Chinese, Taxi, Betel Nuts, Work, Bills, Illucidated Preoccupation Devolving into Preconceptual Nocturnal Obfuscations: Part II

Our water has been disconnected for not paying our bill. There is one flush left in each toilet, a sink full of dirty dishes and enough drinking water to get us through half a day. I tried to pay it tonight, but was ultimately 20 minutes late.

Not including coffee......not.....not including coffee. If we want coffee that cuts our water ration to 1/2 a day minus one pot, or: 1.5d-.03

Life, eh.

I stole some from the train station to keep us going. Nobody cared. Or nobody saw.

Surgery, Beer, Walking, Chinese, Taxi, Betel Nuts, Work, Bills, Illucidated Preoccupation Devolving into Preconceptual Nocturnal Obfuscations

Stuff to do in Yuli, Taiwan, at night.

Ask and thee shall....

Here are some pics of Trevor at work. Totally random and mixed, no order at all.

But, there are clues:

1) Sweat stains = Sept-Nov
2) Santa Hat = Dec
3) Sweater = Dec-Jan
4)Shaved Head = Oct
5) Beard (and I mean a hefty chunk of fur) = pretty much right now



Morning english lessons; while the rest of the teachers have a meeting I take all students, grade 1 through 6, and learn'em some gooder inglis.



Packed grade 6 class.



Sports day, relay race (I pulled through on this one and brought in a nice 2nd place for our team..which means we won soy sauce instead of shampoo).

Me and one of my grade 4 classes.

Grade 6 again.

The front of one of my schools. This is a drab looking picture, but the schools here are stunningly picturesque. Not square brick buildings, but buildings with colour and personality...a warm hug of architecture.

Forget the name of this flower, but it was HUGE! One of my collegues is heavily into ecological sciences, developed a butterfly conservation area, and maintains the school grounds like a conservatino area (growing all sorts of endangered plants, protecting butterfly trees and the butterflys themselves....). He gave me this - he knew I would love it as we talk 'nature and science' every day. Pretty awsome guy. Knows everything about Taiwan's nature.

The school grounds of one of my smaller schools (I teach at four schools).

School bulletin board. Yet to be bulletined. Bulletinized. Bulletinnated.

During the height of the H1N1 outbreak, signs went up everywhere. In multiples. These are a couple of them on the school grounds.

School hallway, again. The schools here are very linear, with an open hallyway (like this) as the main walkway, and the classrooms leading off from it.

Last week....Moon, Jupiter....lovely.

Teaching the teachers.

I have help in all my classes, and here is a picture of the school soldier (who lived in Australia for 8 years, so his English is comparable to his chinese...its grand) helping out a couple of our kids.

If anybody is doing the math on the pictures above - yes, you are right. I always have a second teacher, and I have 6 students. Another few classes have 4 students. Its gooooooooooooood!

Teaching colours to a grade 3 class, preparing them for their review bingo game.

Grade 3's, again.

The grade 5's and 6's at one of my school, by the school pond.

Guitar time. Chugging my way through a few songs with the grade 6's.

Teaching the teachers again. Most of them have somewhat decent writing skills, but absolutely no speaking skills.



Staff dinner (pot luck). You can see my (Crystals) bread at the bottom left. It was a crowd pleaser, for sure, after I convinced people that although it wasn't white bread, didnt have jam in the middle, and that there was no sugar to sprinkle on it, it was still good.

The perception of what bread is over here is quite absurd. It is a dessert here.

Me, all 'stached out, at the same staff dinner as above.

One of my schools students, all of them, lined up at our sports day (Track and Field). Parents are on the far right.

Me bringing a piece of canada to the grade 3-6's.

Illegal Hikes of Taiwan: Part II

...good idea

Only, this one was supposed to be legit. Things just have a way of turning sour when dealing with permits in Taiwan...where to begin.

Lets start with a calendar.

We wanted to hike in a different park than last time; last week it was Taroko National Park, this week it was Yushan National Park. A different bag of socks, they are. Yushan hosts Taiwans tallest peak - topping out at +4k masl - and a slathering of other peaks that make you fill your mind with glee. Taroko hosts Taiwans greatest visual treasure - Taroko gorge - and is an epic adventure in of itself.

Both are a hikers dream, both are exceptional.

Taroko asks for your biography, blood sample, first born, hair follicle analysis and retinal scan to enter and walk on their trails. Yushan asks that you just let them know where you are going, basically. So simple.

So, we intended to hike the Walami Trail, one that goes for 7 days across the entire island, but we intended to do a 26km return jaunt as a day hike. So, we sent for a permit, Crystal did the paper work, signed on the dotted line and had the validation of our intent - our first Taiwan Hiking Permit evah! - as we scootered our way to the trailhead on a sunny Sunday morning.

The only hiccup was that the permit was for Saturday. Hence the calendar. We picked the wrong date, and were thus, by accident, hiking illegally once again.

So it goes...

The good news is that we didn't get caught, like last time we tried to hike this trail. It was a weird, momentarily scary moment then. Nobody saw us this time, heard us or realized we were there. We were invisible, and happily so.

The Walami Trail is one of many Japanese-era trails that were carved out of the cliffs, etched along the river valleys and permeate the mountains of Taiwan. the Japanese needed a way to get armory and people through the mountains to the other side, and to battle the tribes that lived therein. So, they constructed what is today a diverse and dramatic set of trails all through the mountains. Todays trails are yesterdays war zones.

The Walami Trail itself follows the LaKuLaKu River into the mountains, and traverses some wonderful cliffs and ridges along the way. Monkeys, so many birds, Muntjacks (wee li'l deer) and the promise of the Sun Bear (never seen, endangered). Wildlife galore, and the sounds of giant bees, chirping birds, calling primates and waterfalls gushing downward followed us the whole way. Here are some pics:

Crystal pausing to scan for flying critters, and a fruit that is used to make a jelly in the summer time. Let it dry, harvest the seeds, put them in a cloth bag, soak it, let the seeds ooze their internal juices into the water, let water sit....turns to jelly. A grand summertime snack, so we were told.

Us on the trail.

One of the more stunning, but silent, birds along the way.

One of the many species we saw/heard along the trail. These fellas were silent, thus perhaps ladies, and were stunningly beautiful. The right hand saide picture is a memorial of some sort for the history of the trail.

Everything gets slippery in Taiwan, left; Trevor testing the engineering practices of the Japanese, right.

One of the four bridges that we had to cross. This one, and the one that followed, would be considered...um...closed...in Canada. This is the thing that really stings us - a delapidated bridge that spans a torrential waterfall below can be missing planks, have rusted bolts, creak and groan when you walk on it, have 2mm lanimate board covering gaps that are not secured to the bridge...and its all ok. Cross as you like.

But a trail that make you work a little harder than normal, a few uphills and perhaps a river crossing on foot....closed. Deadly. Do not go. Danger. Permits needed, but we wont give you one because it is deadly dangerous and you need three guides, but we wont give you the guides because it is too dangerous...

A bridge that is on its way to falling apart....go for it.

Immediate danger is ignored. Potential danger is abhored.

More trail shot along the way...

Me and the wonderous Elephant Ear plant.

Trail and bridge...

Bridge ...

Now we take a break from the Walami Trail. Just before heading to the trail these pictures, below, were taken. The growing season here flips between rice-flowers-rice, basically. We are in the flower season. The flowers are planted for two reasons, one is for nitrogen fixation, the second is for food. They let them grow, harvest a bunch and till the rest and the stalks. While they are here they make for gorgeous scenery.

...and a tea field to remind us where we are.