Away for a While...

Pingxi: back in the spires

2012-01-26T06:40:00.000-08:00

A mid-week trip (Chinese New Year holiday is just revving up....one week down, four to go) to Taipei County got a little turned on its head for us this time around. Originally we intended to stay in RuiFang, catch an early train to Pingxi and go hiking for the day among the spires and ropes in the forest. However, after leaving home around 6pm and arriving in Ruifang around 9pm we were greeted at the only hotel in town with a "sorry...no...". They were closed for the holiday and we were immediately homeless.

We cranked out as many ideas as we could muster - Ruifang is not exactly a bustling place, nor is it really near any other bustling places - that would give us a place to sleep and allow us to get into the mountains the next morning. Dry on all accounts, except for the last: Keelung to the north.

Another train, more waiting and then .... Keelung! Hotels! People! Alive!

Full. Full. Full.

One last try, one last place....and they had rooms. But we were far enough away from where we intended to go that we decided to opt out of hiking and visit the Gold Ecological Park. A memoire of Taiwans gold mining past, it was supposedly a nice place to visit. It was raining, it was cold....we checked out the brochures.....not happening. On a nice day, with bird opportunities and perhaps butterfly observation possible, ok. But not on a day like this.

Back on the train....back to Ruifang....into the mountians....

We ended up where we intended to go, it just took us a little longer to get there.

Pingxi is well known by hikers as a haven of spires to climb with formidable stairs and vertigo inducing views and climbs, but also as a mecca for lantern releases. The simplified version of this is - you buy a lantern (they are HUGE) write a wish, light it, watch it fly off up to heaven where your wishes and prayers will be answered. Obviously that doesnt happen, for no best wishes can possibly counteract the physics of reality. Namely gravity.

All within the forest surrounding Pingxi are countless....we literally lost count....piles of aged, burnt, ugly wishes and prayers of yesterday. It is abysmally depressing to see the air filled (seriously filled) with lanterns and families joyously lighting them and watching them fly away....and countering that with the wretched garbage dump that has become of the forest around Pingxi. Beautiful place to hike, nagging reminder that superstitions and faiths not only ruin minds, but pollute forests..and rivers. Pingxi is proof. Ongoing proof....

The animals we see here....

2012-01-22T05:15:00.000-08:00

The last week.5 have been a mix of things for the both of us, and instead of updating the specifics we will hit only the highlights - the critters of the woods.

I spent the last week in Kenting National Park doing my first fieldwork, and Crystal met me on my way home in Taitung. We ventured to Zhiben National Forest for a wee hike and some quality time with monkeys. Here is the result of a few night hikes, a rainy day hike and a chance encounter with Taiwan's macaques and birds.

L: Blue Monarch; R: Gem Faced civet

L: Bamboo Viper; R: Taiwan Habu

L: Oriolus chinensis; R: Strix leptogrammica

Snow Mountain

2012-01-22T05:14:00.000-08:00

This past

weekend we got our chance - through a permit and a ride into the misty mountains - to stand atop Taiwan and look down at the island we call home.

We met up with out group in Yilan in the midst of consistent rain.

Freaking surprise - rain in Yilan. Who could have imagined such a state?

Leaving the sodden Yilan train station we and 9 other "standing almost on the top of Taiwan" hikers to be made

out way into the dark valley of the central mountains. Arriving at the

trailhead at a shade after 1am we re-organized, prepared and started the 1.5 hour hike up into the hills to the first cabin. Arriving at the cabin after 2:30am we did what all high mountain adventurers do...set out our bedding, arranged out wet gear to dry during the short night ahead and guzzled water to abate the approaching high-altitude desiccation that was approaching.

Perhaps.

What we really did was drink wine.....freaking good wine at that stage of the game.

The next day (in summary) was an uphill battle through intermittent sunny breaks and spells of drizzle to the next cabin. Stunning scenery....simply stunning. Taiwan high mountains fail, yet again, to disappoint. Sub-tropical alpine madness.

We made it to the cabin, warmed ourselves (a pointless endeavour in the high mountains) and ate. Then to bed, with the altitude welcoming us with headaches and nausea. We were there...almost....we could taste it. We could feel it. I wanted to drink liquid advil and vomit because of it....

Morning came early and the altitude did not let us get away with a simple morning, but we fought through. At 3am we awoke and prepared for our trek to the peak to see the sunrise. Choking down breakfast, wanting to vomit with each bite, time ticked on until we were in line and stepping up away from the cabin to the forest and alpine ahead.

By 6:30am we were watching the nuclear furnace that we all revolve around poke above the horizon. The cold, the pain, the tiredness.....everything melted away. Taiwan sunrises are simply stunning, especially when you have to work for it.

And here follows the visual repeat of the story you just read......

Taiwan's second highest peak has for some time been off limits to our vibram soles due to a whacked permit system. At more than 3800masl it towers above the rest (save for Yu-Shan) of Taiwan and is a hidden gem among the central mountains.

Update....

2012-01-11T06:26:00.000-08:00

This is a mash-up of things from the recent past that we have been too busy to update properly.

New years and an owl rescue (attempt), a marathon on the west coast and a nice day of raptor watching along a river near town (spot billed ducks, ospreys and cormorants were our visual feast!).

These are us trying to help an injured owl; trying to put it back in a nest (it ended up being a...um...well...ok, it was a swallow nest, not an owl nest......we all make mistakes!) and below are some action pics of us finding it. Despite the brevity of this post, it was a most moving and sad moment.

Here is a view of the river bed we scoured (briefly!) in search of some ospreys and fellow birds.

Crystal coming in to the finish line in Caotun, taking 5th place. This was new years eve, which we celebrated in a hotel room because there was nothing else to do in caotun!

3 minutes?!? 2 minutes and 50 seconds off, but its a start.

Snow Mountain trip approaching....should be some epic pics from that jaunt.

Illegal Hikes of Taiwan: The Journey Continues....

2011-12-10T21:09:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning...up....pack...on the road. Our scooter zooming along the highway to Taroko Village, through gateway and into Taroko National Park for yet another journey, sans permit, into the wonders of Taroko's mountains.

We spent the day hiking, got a little lost and then a little found, saw some (new!!) parts of Taroko and ... after dinner...while hiking through the evening darkness looking for creatures of the night....we found.....on...two...three(!) flying squirrels. This was one animal that we honestly thought we would never actually see yet, here in our favourite part of the island were three of them. Totally amazing to see.

Thats all for now...

A Green Island Farewell

2011-12-06T16:31:00.000-08:00

Lets just get this out of the way first. Winter in Taiwan means wind. Wind from the north is bad, cold and wet. Wind from the south is warm and clear. Tuesday and Wednesday last week were south wind days.....gorgeous. I was in shorts and feeling the heat at work. Thursday turned a little cloudy....by Saturday it was a wind-fest. But Dry...windy and dry.

Wind and the ocean - this is another saga. When said wind interacts with said ocean, and you are on a boat on said ocean....you vomit. Just like the rest of the 60 or so people on the ferry with you. We took the ferry (I never want to step on that fetid boat ever again....) and we felt the pain of being a small chunk of fiberglass on the mighty rolling Pacific.

However, after a wretched hour or so trip through the pacific we arrived at the blissful Green Island (LuDao). And immediately went to bed. An hour and a half later we awoke, showered, picked chunks of hardened vomit off of (my) beard and went about having a grand old time on the island. Seashore, animals, tide-pools, hotsprings, epic volcanic spires and rounded volcanic nubs reminding us of a history unseen...a wonderful weekend. It was also the last weekend we would get to spend with our fabulous Jhong-Li co-escapaders. Claude and Claire are moving to Australia...and that is more than a weekend adventure away. So, this was to be the last time we would hang out for the next little while. A sad goodbye, a hard goodbye, but not forever. A "see you later..."

Here are some pics to enjoy.

(we flew home...)

Us sharing a drink and a laugh Friday night after (finally) arriving in Taitung; Crystal on the ferry as we leave Fugang Harbour and head out to sea

Prison used by the communist Chinese government during the "White Terror" period in Taiwan. Poets, academics and intellectuals were confined here by the KuoMingTan regime (600+ of which were executed on these grounds) as the party wanted to keep public voices quiet and government control permanent. A horrid existence was had by all who were confined within these walls. The prison is now a human rights memorial, and some of the rooms have been turned into art exhibits criticizing the Chinese role in the suffocation of humans rights. This represents chaos - you cant walk anywhere in your cell without walking through clattering bamboo stems. You may try to find inner peace during confinement but no matter what you do the reality plagues you constantly.

Left: I love my country. Right: I love my flag. A highly political shot at Chinese rule (and the China of today) as bookends to a flag representing the people and the bright power of the land (the sun), the clear blue sky and potential for the future (the blue) all set upon a history built of blood (the red). The country of Taiwan is still picking itself up from a history of red...

Walking the tide pools...looking for critters.

Claude helping me down to the beach (what a friend) and the Green Island lighthouse.

Taitung Half-Marathon

2011-12-06T16:24:00.000-08:00

We ventured south again to Taitung for another go at the venerable (well, its two years old now!) Taitung Marathon. This time, being our third half marathon, we were a little more prepared and adjusted to the formality of the Taiwanese "get ready-wait-get ready-wait-GO!" mentality and ready mentally for what was to come in the race ahead.

We did well (Crystal got third place!) and had a great time overall. Weather was cool and cloudy - perfect Taiwan weather for running.

Ill post some pics when I get a chance.....

Nanfang'ao and fish...

2011-11-12T07:21:00.000-08:00

This saturday we took a train from Hualien to Nanfang'ao, a fishing harbour about an hour north of us, to see some sights, watch the catch come in (and check out the buckets of illegally caught reef fish and sharks) and have some fresh seafood.

We got to the harbour in time to see four or five boats come in, unload and to watch the hordes of buyers sometimes scramble and bustle, sometimes stare, at the fish. Interesting to see what the ocean hides beneath its glistening surface....

The south harbour, boats serenely waiting; the ocean not so serenely waiting for the boats.

Fresh eyeballs.... ;Crystal peering down at the shark waiting to be brought in.

Gonads (apparently really good on a bed of raw cabbage...) and buyers fighting for their fish at the market.

Yue Mei Trail

2011-11-05T04:45:00.000-07:00

First, a test. Try to wink with both eyes. Crystal cant. I can. I think she is weird.....you be the judge...come on.....who cant wink? I picked a ripe one.....

Anyway, back to the basics. Us, hiking boots, ground, sweat, glory.

A walk we have walked before...that never fails us. It starts with the beauty of bananas and ends with a rising moon...enjoy.

...followed by an experimental but delicious homemade tortilla dinner. More like pancakes with salsa....apparently.

Wuliaojian Hike

2011-11-04T19:16:00.001-07:00

It has taken us two years....two full years of failed attempts to make it to this place. A wandering mind could not imagine such grotesque beauty of Wu Liao Jian, a trail that urges the climber quickly uphill to poke out on a naked ridgeline, following fixed ropes, through bamboo forests to the openness of sandstone peaking out from the jungle.

We assumed that it would be a three day jaunt for us humble Hualien folk...but when a perfect weekend came upon us - perfect time and perfect weather - we hit the train and made our way to the trailhead. Two years of waiting....accomplished. And we were left astounded.

One of the many ropes that lead up technical oddities and cliffs. On the right an early dip into the bamboo forest of the lower section.

Crystal managing her way up two sections...the picture on the left is the first exit from lush brush to open air. Then....a tramp along a linear peak.

Peak ridge, with the accompanying (and often necessary...) roped section. Left, Crystal makes her way along the ridge while I, on the right, make my way through (yet another) roped section.

The map....I think, by the information on this map, that we walked at least 8 or 9 kilograms that day. Some maps had scratched out "g"'s and a nicely etched "m" in their place. Kind hikers, we are.

....Hawkmoth in action. So bloody cool.

As we exited the trail, as the sun was dipping low and the hike was setting into our legs, we came upon this nice, perfectly Asian, scene. There is beauty in them thar hills.....

The trailhead...often weird and not-obvious trailheads mark the Taiwanese landscape. Unless, of course, you can read the Chinese in which case you are set and it is obvious. After a full two minutes of passing this place, utter solitude in the bush. The little shop was though, at the end of the day, a perfect place for a nice conversation and a beer as we waited for the (we hoped there was one at least...) bus that would take us back to town.

After the hike, and a sleep, we made our way back to the train station, then home. The government's train exhibition - marking the historical journey that Taiwan's trains have made - caught our attention. A nice exhibit, full of interest......and horrid, weird, English. See below.

Back in Taiwan...

2011-10-02T17:23:00.000-07:00

We are back, currently sitting at home after work/school (and the entire public sector of two counties on the east coast) was cancelled due to heavy rains.

Nothing of note to drone on about, I just thought I would keep active on the blog after a two month hiatus (BC, Ontario trip).

I will post Crystals birthday extravaganza soon enough, the 15 call house fire at 3am may follow, and perhaps something about the days ahead...but for now the hectic pulse of our life here is keeping us focused on work/school.

For now.

Lishan Road Trip

2011-07-09T02:12:00.000-07:00

This weekend we took a drive into the mountains to Lishan, a veritable cabbage patch tucked away in the misty crags of the central mountains. So many birds, endangered salmon, epic views, endless meals of cabbage and cabbage, fields of tea...a wonderful time in a wonderful place.

No time to write, just a picture show:

Illegal Hikes of Taiwan: Part n

2011-06-26T22:30:00.000-07:00

Another jaunt into the wild woods of Taroko National Park; a new trail, a gorgeous day....fully illegal.

Whatever. Illegal means nothing.

Crystal along the path early in the day, fending off pesky Canadian photographers; Trevor poking around the bamboo for snakes.

Trail map along the way which...after much consideration and analysis...told us nothing.

We started the day out wet - rain and fog and that dreary feel down to the bone. We ended the day with sunlight, lots of heat, beautiful breezes and only one (or three) leeches and one vine to the face (me), both leaving a slightly bleeding memory of a wonderful hike.

The trailhead starts at two points - one along the Shakadang Trail (the Shakadang trail ends and merges into the Dali trail) and one right behind the park headquarters. We took the headquarters trailhead allowing us safe scooter parking and, as the first hour or so is up stairs at this section, it got the boring yet necessary stairs out of the way. The rest of the day was sloppy muddy fun!

New caterpillar for us, during a rare (?) cannibalistic rage (left). Bottom dude is munching through the innards of the upper dude. We saw this behaviour twice this day with the same species.

Mating or murder, on the left? On the right another fabulously ornate caterpillar that is new to our eyes.

We spent almost 10 hours in the woods...reaching two villages (where people still live, if only infrequently, in a manner that is much unchanged for hundreds of years save for the technology of basic engines and cigarettes and the like. We met two elderly men who helped us find our way when we were lost, found cannibalistic caterpillars, new caterpillars a new spider species (for us...). We then spent the early evening swimming alone in the desolately clear aquamarine-blue Shakadang River, to the views of limestone cliffs adorned with green vegetation and to the sounds of chirping bulbuls as the dimly lit sky turned to black.

Caterpillars...the biodiversity on this trail was astounding; not just many species, but many new species, that we have never seen before even on trails close by. This trail is much higher than most we hit in this part of the park, so perhaps it is an elevation thing. Perhaps it is a seasonal effect.

The villages in the mountains often have a rig like this to help transport heavy and necessary items like fuel, canned goods, etc. Most people will make the trek down to the river and hike out to catch a bus to town, but many things cannot be brought back up on ones back. These are also survival links during typhoons when trails and roads are cut off or completely washed away. Lifelines in the mountains.

Biking, Squid Fishing and a Wedding

2011-06-23T18:47:00.001-07:00

This previous weekend was a bit of a mashing of events. We got around to a nice 70km bike ride south along hwy 9 to a little village (with a horrid story to tell...which I will tell in brief fashion down below) where we got to swim, meet some people and go critter searching; we went squid fishing which involved more vomit and less squid; we went to a wedding ... a "traditional" Buddhist wedding.

Us at the watermelon competition holding part of an obvious loser (i'm sure we could not be able to eat the winner!)

Saturday was a gorgeous day, clear blue skies and nothing but heat, heat, heat. We picked out a place we had never visited before, a little village named DaXing that is about 70k south of our city. We had heard of a nice waterfall there, but it is certainly off the beaten path and not well known so details were scarce. We took our chances, had an excellent ride and were rewarded with a beautiful swimming hole, a neat waterfall and some crazy new critters (see first picture for a taste...but, um, I wouldn't actually eat it).

Along the way we came to a little town called FongLin, which is apparently the location of the rift valleys annual watermelon contest, where the farmers vie for the Biggest Watermelon Award. It is all in good fun, as it should be, and we got to be celebrities for a while (being foreigners, living in the east of Taiwan, biking "so far", speaking Chinese all together... to them it was strange and quite a photo op). We got a lot of free watermelon and had a few nice chats...then hit the road again.

Betel Nut Palms....an endless vista, and some monkey poop!

Once in DaXing, we were drenched with sweat and drained of energy (mostly from the heat) and when we saw a nice little swimming hole in the river, were delighted. Clothes off, in the water. Relief!

It was only after returning home and chatting with my co-workers that I heard of the reality behind this village. It was, one year ago, a larger and well developed area. Then a typhoon came, the landslides came and this village was nearly entirely wiped off the map. Literally. Essentially the village was gone - the structures turned into fragments and the bodies buried. We were, again literally, swimming on top of dead people. After searches, endless searches, only a minor percentage of bodies were found, so we know they have to be under there somewhere. The village has picked itself up and tried to move on...life does go on...but the memory, the history of nature, is in their minds. Landslides and typhoons are normal here, part of life. But to be sitting on top is what is essentially a natural mass grave is a testament to this raw power of nature, and humbling.

Our swimming hole in the evening dusk, and stopping for gas at an illegal place that stores extra gas in water bottles in case of emergencies. This - an empty tank and two hours of driving ahead - was an emergency worthy of illegal actions.

...intense immaturity of their beliefs stunts my appreciation for the human mind.

Moving on....

Crystal and I taking the trip out to sea, with visions of squid dancing in our minds...

Monday night we took to the high seas and went squid fishing. Patching together a rag-tag group of expert (not!) squidders, we suited up and ventured about 15 minutes out to sea... stopped .... and did our best at catching some oceanic oddities. And vomiting. The ocean rolled, we rolled, we cast out....we caught nothing. Nothing!!

But that is ok, because the joy of fishing (I really do hate regular fishing ....I feel sorry for people who go fishing for fun......!) is the camaraderie and the connection to the water. Half of us were fine, half of us spent most of the time starring into the ocean waiting for our dinners to become fertilizer. We did get to see some flying fish in a non-flying state, swimming around curiously in the water.

Green Island and the Sea Turtle

2011-06-12T17:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, ill get this off my chest right away - we both saw our first live, in the wild, sea turtle this weekend!

We ... were ... totally ... amazed!

It was a shock, totally unexpected and, while we only got a minute of its time, it was an exceptionally well spent minute.

There were other weird critters that crossed out path this weekend on Green Island - we spent a large portion of our time in or by the ocean, so a lot of the surprises were oceanic. Wet and plushy and slimy.

Ill get to those in time but first the weekend itself - Green Island! Yes, the same island we have ventured to (by our count) seven times now during our time in Taiwan, and each time seems to spring something different on us. Nothing comes to you, lie needs to be searched out, fought for, discovered. Tour buses and programmed itineraries only lick the surface of a glorious lollipop, leaving the inner peanut taffy surprise for those willing to bite down and find it. I'm sure that peanut taffy lollipops exist somewhere....I'm sure of it.

The main flying fish species is a mainstay of the islanders diet - from their head muscle ("sea mushrooms") to the bones for fertilizer. Here the catch from the recent flying fish festival dry in the morning sun.

Friday night we whipped down to Taitung, grabbed a cheap hotel and scuttled over to Taitung's cultural park/concert stage and listened to a cool band (who was apparently VERY popular...by the reaction of the crowd) while eating magi sipping a malty pop. Taiwan, for all its glory and all its ecological amazement and outdoor adventures, lacks culture. It has the old culture - the tea shops, the brush calligraphy, the "Chinese" of old, but lacks a place to hang out and listen to music, check out art, etc. Many townships are doing a lot to try to remedy this - turning old train stations into art galleries, old breweries into concert halls, etc. But, overall, there is a lack of this sort of this still. So, we know that a trip to Taitung will allows us to be a part of the growing art-culture movement for a night, and we try not to miss it when we are in town.

Taiwan moves off into the distance as our ferry...um...ferries us to the island. Once there, we poke around the tide pools and take a little morning swim.

Saturday we woke later than we planned, despite three alarms, and realized that our ferry was leaving in 30 minutes, and we were a good 15min drive from the terminal, plus the morning teeth brishing, breakfast, coffee, waiting for a taxi, etc. We skipped everything except waiting for the taxi....and made it there in time. We boarded, settled on the back railing and took the ~45 minute ferry ride from Taiwan proper to the little volcanic gem of Green Island.

While the island can be super touristy at times, there are places that people simply don't go (because their pre-planned tour bus itineraries don't allow them to). So, while the "tourist" spots are crammed with people, the real highlights of the island are vacant. Which is why we come back.

Goats. Everywhere. This little dude was a pet for a tea shop, and aside from befriending us it gave eating my clothes a hearty go, too.

Saturday we split our time between hiking along the coast and checking out tide pools, and taking a glass bottom boat (with no actual glass bottom, just windows) out to the deeper reefs - eels, crabs, fish, fish, fish, crabs, eels, amazing rock coral and some pretty neat land plants that face the worst of the islands wind, salt water intrusion and desiccation and come out on top - the flourish. Life...amazing stuff. It was on the boat that we saw a slow, majestic sea turtle going about its business with no concern to the world above. Along with the turtle were the regular reef compadres, the reef itself, and a giant blue vista of ocean. Stunning stuff. We capped the day off with a nice hike partway across the island - hearing barking deer and finding three new bird species (for us, not new to science....I can only presume!) and then a nice night walk along the coastal forest and down to the empty beach. 3/4 moon, empty beach, pounding waves, sweet breeze, warm sand below....a giant volcanic massif behind us....all in the darkness of night. This is what Green Island is all about. Then, on the way home, we came upon the worlds weirdest creature - or close enough thereto.

The goat won the seat in the end!

Japanese white eye (left) and a cool green beetle on the right.

Sunday we decided to get a nice sunburn, and it took us a while to figure out how to do it properly - Green Island style. Some ideas were to slather ourselves with cooking oil and sit on the ferry dock,or lay on the roof and point mirrors on us...and many others that included poached flesh as the key goal. In the end, we decided to rent snorkel gear and head out on our own to the low tide reef and check out fishy critters. That did the job nicely. We now have certified "Green Island Sunburns" on all parts of our bodies that we forgot to slather with sun goo. We look so cool.

However, said snorkel time was amazing - sea cucumbers, some sort of sea anemone, fish up the wazoo (not literally, ill remind you) ...so many cool things. I even found some guys scooter key that he had lost. Totally worth it!

Above and below: lizards, birds and sea slugs

On the road, catching a glimpse of one of the many endangered species roadkill that plagues this island. Too much traffic, little awareness of the ecological fragility of such a small habitat.

Like all things, time flows by and days grow short....we packed up our stuff and headed back to the ferry and took a wavy, windy, undulating ferry ride some, sans vomit. I'm getting good at that compared to my first year in Taiwan. Crystal ever seems to have a problem....

And that is that. Home, back to work, sorting through pictures of things unknown from the oceans shores. Complexity reigns supreme in the worlds oceans, and Green Island is our little window into the world we never knew growing up.

We may never be here again, and if so....goodbye, Green Island!

Jiaming Lake

2011-06-06T23:02:00.000-07:00

This story started out two years ago when we learned that there was a lake in the central mountains that was formed by a meteor strike some few thousand years ago. A blue gem tucked within the emerald green folded mountains of Taiwan. Two loves - astronomy and hiking - combined into one adventure.

Dreams were created...plans were made....someday. Time passed, weekends flew by, other priorities took their toll. The hike was never done. Part of the problem in reaching this sumptuous lake was the time - a five hour drive to the trailhead, a three day hike and a five hour drive home. It could be done in three days, but they would be three tight days, and it took the arrival of a "real" long weekend (Taiwanese still think that having Saturday off every weekend is a 'long' weekend as the 6 day work-week ended only recently) to actually make these plans. We looked ahead in the calendar, saw that the Dragon Boat Festival was a quaint little three day break that would work perfectly for us. So, plans in mind and all the paper work filled out we went to the police station to get our mountain permit and that was that.

We were legally going to hike in Taiwan.

I know. I know. It was a shock to us too. It felt weird...but what was even weirder was to learn in the days preceding our hike that this was not in fact a meteor impact crater. That was but some heresay that turned into established fact....only, it lacked facts. Religion-esque, in that regard; everybody "knew" it was a meteor impact and nobody questioned it. After researchers actually did take time to question it, it was actually shown to be a cirque, a testament to an ice age past. This did not deter us in the least...imagine the equal amazement of standing on a chunk of island that heats us to the boiling point and to be able to look out over a vista of landforms carved out by glaciers. Equally moving, and the beauty undeterred.

Day 1:

This was actually a night only...a rapid exit from Hualien Friday night after work. We packed the rental car and zoomed southward to ChiShang and then across Highway 20 (Southern Cross-Island Highway). Dinner on the run, coffee...tea...coffee....and up and up along the winding mountain hugging road. Somewhere around 10:30pm we got to Xiang Yang Park, where the trail starts. Tent up by a helicopter landing platform....warm stuff layered on (it was fracking freezing up there in the mountains) and got to spend an hour gazing at possibly the greatest star-filled sky I have ever seen. Without a doubt the best viewing in all my experiences in Taiwan.

Oh yeah, we saw a Formosan Gem Faced Civet along the way! No pictures, we were driving no less, but we got to see another rare Taiwanese wildlife treat in the mountains.

Setting up the tent Friday night in the bleak darkness of the mountain road, and waking up Saturday morning to a gorgeous view.

Day 2:

Awake at sunrise...packed....go! Police permit handed in, names checked, gates opened....the hike begins!

This was a full 13 km day up to the alpine, then across a ridge line to the lake. There are two cabins along the way, but many people tend to use these are the crowded atmosphere is somewhat debilitating to the vibe of the mountains. So, we pounded on past the first cabin (XiangYang Cabin) and past the second cabin (Jiaming Lake Cabin) and all the way to the lake itself. We started at the trailhead around 9 and got to the lake around 6:30om, and with the elevation, hills, weight on our backs and the fact that the last 4 km were spent within a cloud that was as windy as a wind storm factory (whatever that would be like...windy, I am sure), we were spent. We plodded on at a good pace the whole time, got some epic views of Taiwanese alpine and got to be alone in the mountains for a significant chunk of the day. It was a hard, but lovely, hike.

After setting up the tent and pounding back some noodles, we were ready for sleep. We were embarrassingly too tired to care about the Samba Deer that were walking about around the hills surrounding the lake. We stayed up as long as we could, looking now and then, but the reality was that we both needed to put heads to pillows....fast!

Alpine flowers and ...um...somebody should fix that sign.

Start of the trail, wide and steep, that quickly took us to a lovely look out over the mountains. Landslides and glistening shale.

Taking a moment at the lookout, naming the peaks as we go. Then moving upwards again...

Here the trail had already turned into a 'real' hiking trail, and meandered its way through a mixed hemlock forest. Monsters of the ice age that still remain...

Hiking, views, trails cut into cliffs, fixed with ropes and hope. The trail took us through some amazing scenery and some amazing feats of engineering to defend against the ever present landslides. Or, perhaps not defend...try to keep up with...the landslides.

First cabin lunch stop....cool clouds and a blue sky.

Trail breaks into the alpine and gives us a whole new hiking experience.

Saturday was mostly up, in the blazing alpine sun. Hot, hard, hot and hard. And hot. Unlike the Taiwanese hikers we were without umbrellas (and knee pads, and hiking poles, and hiking gloves, and ... and ... ) which they take everywhere. I think we were better off for our lack of gadgetry.

Taiwanese fellow hikers along the way, and a stranger helping me pose for a picture that is apparently famous and funny....but I cant seem to get it. He said it was perfect...I'm still trying to figure it out.

Late afternoon brought clouds - or, rather, we got high enough that we were in the clouds - and strong wind. We opted not to camp at the second cabin as tents were already being set up in the most curious of places due to lack of room. In blustering winds these people set up their tents and then left them there to save a space....but the wind decided that the tents should blow away. So, while we walked by we were also tasked with catching other peoples (not weighted down or pegged in some cases) tents and pile rocks on them to protect them from being blown down the cliff side!

Finally at the lake, we found a secluded spot and set up our tent and brewed some coffee and tea. The last hour or so of the hike was windy, cloudy and cold, and when we arrived here the slight reprieve from the wind was delightful but the evening chill was still there. We tucked in for a chilly night.

Even instant noodles taste amazing after a full day of hiking...

Day 3:

Windy night, but no matter. The tent survived and we were able to get most of a nights sleep. We spent this day hiking around the lake, along a river valley and to the next ridge. Making our own trail (like that is a challenge in the alpine, I know!) across parts of Taiwan utterly unknown to us was an delight. We had waited so long for this...

We got to see some new bird species, hang out with massive alpine hemlocks (think lowland boreal rain forest but in the alpine...weird) and found four Samba Deer in the meadows. Us, alone in the middle of Taiwan's alpine wonderland, watching brand new birds flutter around and Samba Deer cheekily wander around the hillsides in front of us, eating peanuts and warm carrot sticks while the blue sky poured stinging sunlight down on us. What else is there....

We got back and ended an almost cloudless day with another noodle dinner by the lake as the evening wisps of clouds parked themselves over top....momentarily...then left. This night we had ample energy left to stay up and stargaze and search for more night wandering deer.

Jiaming Lake in the morning, and a yet unidentified bird.

Hiking, birdwatching, searching for deer...

Crystal along the trail on Sunday, while a lone early blooming rhododendron poses nicely in front of a mountain vista.

Sambar Deer! We got to see about 8 by the lake, and 4 in the forest.

Day 4:

Our last day on the mountain. We woke up at 4:30 to catch the 5-ish a.m. sunrise and had a slow breakfast to wash down the memories of the last few days and prepare for the return journey.

Once packed and ready, we walked. The day was a long and wonderful hike back along the trail through the best scenery that Taiwan has to offer. I wont go into details, but the hiking strategy of Canadians versus Taiwanese is remarkable. Ill leave it at that, and only mention that we passed a lot of friendly, yet oddly dressed and "technically inclined" hikers. Still, ultimately kind and generous people all around. The mountains brings out the best of people...

A 5 hour hike brought us back to the trailhead, where we made some lunch, tea and hit the road for home. 5 hours later we pulled up in front of our apartment...the weekend was over. An utterly wonderful weekend. Jiaming did not let us down, and the weather was the icing on the cake....a long awaited cake.

Monday morning sunrise...then our battery died!

Taitung to Wulu Bike Trip

2011-05-29T19:33:00.001-07:00

Wulu Gorge called us to us once again - we, and our bikes, once again obliged.

We have done this trip multiple times now, once biking from Yuli (north of the gorge), once walking from Haiduan (mouth of the gorge) and scootering (from Hualien).

This time we took our bikes further south to Taitung, and pedaled along a half-finished road through the Coastal Mountains and popped out just in time to pop into the Central Mountains and head up the gorge. When we arrived in Wulu Village, after 83km and 8 hours on our seats, we were tuckered enough to immensely enjoy some coffee and the hot springs. We earned our pleasures!

Starting out in Taitung at the (what we have come to call) Orchid Hotel. We got in late on a train from Hualien (you are only allowed to take your bikes on the slow trains, so what would normally be a 2 hour trip turns into a 3.5 hour trip if you want to bring a bike...but its all worth it in the end!) and crashed.

In the morning as the warm Taitung air lapped against us (and the sky cleared!) we went straight to the bikes and hit the trail. We knew about a road called #197, saw it on the map, and it all looked good. We just had no clue how to get from the hotel to this road. So, we took a shot at what we thought would be the right route, crossing over a creek, a bike path and then linking up with a main(er) road. Main for Taiwan mountain roads....but this quickly turned into a curvy, up and down, rough and landslide filled route. Totally Taiwanese. Totally amazing. The road was secluded and quiet and in parts broken by landslides and rockfalls. We saw some cool birds and I got to see my second mongoose!

We followed this road through the mountains until it took us to the city of Guanshan. Here we were able to grab some lunch and regroup, and confide in our leg muscles to keep them going - what we expected to be the easy part of the trip turned out to significantly harder and longer, and we knew that the second leg ahead of us that would take us up the gorge was definitely a gargantuan task. So, already tuckered out and cursing the approaching uphills, we ate some noodles, guzzled some water and hit the road. Just a bit further, legs, don't fail me now!

And then, almost immediately, were hit by a big humble pie. Wagon. Jet. Jumbo jet. A humble jet.

You see...we had just finished a tough bike ride at this point, and we did have a tougher second half of the day ahead of us. We knew that we were going to be tired when we arrived in Wulu, and we let a few complaints trickle our now and then. We thought that we deserved a pat on the back for what we had accomplished already, and what we were to accomplish. We thought we were the bomb, and that the road engineers put in those approaching hills just to make out life tough. Irrational thoughts poke through when you get low...

It was then, right at the moment we were feeling the most knackered, we came upon a race of some sort. A marathon. No. Not a marathon. An Ultramarathon. We biked the next 35km along side a stream of people that that were in the midst of a voluntary 100km non-stop running race.

Our complaints stopped immediately. The road ahead looked easy...enticing. As we made our way up the gorge we passed people who were 5 or 6 hours into a race that had no end in sight. We passed people who cheered for us, while they had the real task ahead of them. It was a non-stop ride of us giving them a thumbs-up and a "jia-you" (go, go, go!!) with them giving us a thumbs up and a "jia-you" in return. Some looked haggard, some looked spry. Kudos to all.

Once we arrived in Wulu village and settled into a room (camping is pretty much out of the question as the road is cut into the mountain side and if you want to pitch a tent you are probably going to require bivy gear and a little bit of trust....) and downed coffee while soaking in a hot spring. Epic end to an epic ride, legs buzzed, bodies tired and sore and minds wobbling a bit from exertion. Thoughts of the ultramarathoners made us feel better, and impressed.

Then, once the evening hit, the highlight came. A chance to poke around in the mountain forests for critters of the night. Night hikes have become our "thing" while in the mountains and this night we were out to find more cool insects, but this area is known for owls, and we have heard tales recently of flying squirrels...so our real sights were set to the higher canopy and trunks looking for these. So off to the forest we went, across a suspension bridge in the darkness of the night, up the mountain trail looking for eyes looking at us.

No luck. Crazy critters all over the place, but no squirrels or owls. But a fun attempt as always.

The next morning was fairly routine...wake....eat....saddle up...say goodbye to Wulu and head down the gorge. This is the easy part....almost 95% downhill. Just sit, fingers readied on the brakes, and go.......

Train, home, pizza, sleep.

Tropical Storm: Songda

2011-05-24T00:34:00.001-07:00

Maybe a miss, maybe a hit...the next few days will tell the tale.

Liyu Lake Triathlon and Butterfly Valley

2011-05-22T20:16:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a double whammy: The Liyu Lake Triathlon (above) and a field trip with Crystals students to Butterfly Valley (below).

We took part in the triathlon as a trio, and it was an absolute (painfully wonderful) blast. Crystal did the run, I took on the bike and a friend did the swim. A hot, sunny day, friends and a crowd more than 2000 strong of Taiwan's elite and amateurs. A really cool vibe, a really good time and I think when the results come in it will be happy news. Regardless of how we placed, it was worth every moment.

Me switching off the time-chip after my bike ride as Crystal prepares for the run (left) and Crystal at the end of said run as she crosses the finish line.

To the finisher go the spoils! A towel, a hat and a medal. On the right is the poster that greeted us at Butterfly Valley, a look at some of the common birds that could be found in the area.

On Sunday we loaded up a school bus and took Crystals class to Butterfly Valley, a pristine (most of it) conservation area and one of Taiwans butterfly migratory stopovers for myriad species. There are three main places in Taiwan that are key butterfly habitats - the whole forest of the island is important, but these are the vital links to their survival - and are trying to be preserved. This one, one in the south (Purple Butterfly Valley) and a region in the north are all delicate ecosystems that the butterflies rely on for their survival while in Taiwan, and their energy requirements for the journey throughout Asia. This place has unfortunately turned itself into an upperclass resort, but beyond the expensive hotel, the overpriced coffee and the rather inhospitable workers, the forest beyond the parking lot is exquisite. Not just for butterflies, but birds, insects and monkeys...and everything else. Its wild, and easy to access if your willing to walk the walk!

Um..... (left) and a nice view of part of the valley that is the Butterfly Valley.

Group photo along the way - we took the hike out in bright sun, then as soon as lunch was starting to digest the rain started....not simply rain, but rainy rain...wet, heavy and drenching. We ended the day drenched, but happy. On the right the students are looking around the butterfly enclosure where all the key local species can be found.

Overall an excellent weekend - a race and a free dinner, then a free trip to a wonderful conservation area to see some rare and endangered butterflies in the wild. To too bad, I say!

9-21 Earthquake Museum

2011-05-15T16:59:00.000-07:00

September 21, 1999, a 7.3 earthquake struck Taiwan and left a path of devastation behind. It was an unusually strong earthquake in usually earthquake free region of the Country. In the end, after more than 12 000 aftershocks within the next month, there were 2,415 dead, 11,305 severely wounded, with 51,711 buildings completely destroyed and there are still 29 bodies unaccounted for. More than a decade later, this earthquake that maimed the landscape and the people still shows its scar. A line of disjointed land runs from north to south along the fault, and not only can you see a line of destruction along its path, but the path of the physically displaced tectonic plate is plainly visible, too. You can actually stand beside a 3m high wall of broken rock, shot up from the innards of our planet. How...freaking....crazy.

The people and the government decided to establish a permanent memorial for the people lost and to recognize the power of nature. One school that was hit particularly hard was chosen to be the site of the museum - a destroyed edifice to learning left as a permanent teaching tool.

This weekend we did took the trek to the west coast (yuck!) and visited TaiZhong City (yuck!) to see this memorial. Along trip to the west coast is always a little depressing as it reminds us of the garbage, the consumerism and the pollution that is the western side of this half-gorgeous country. But, if we want to see all that there is to see in Taiwan we must go everywhere....

The museum is totally worth a visit - half of it outdoor, where you can walk along the old track that was displaced, walk through old classrooms and see the damage. The indoor sections are well done also, with pictures, exhibits explaining earthquakes, simulations and explanations of tectonics and geology. Really well done.

To look at pictures and hear stories is well and good, but to actually touch the place, to see what used to be a school with kids, teachers, books, computers all turned into compacted rubble is astoundingly moving. The government has done a really good job of both preserving this for us to see, but also using it as a learning tool so that we don't forget and so that we are prepared. Building codes changed in Taiwan because of this.

After a long trek to get here, a healthy chunk of time spent poking around the earthquake memorial/museum, we headed back for TaiZhong City, remembered how utterly sickening it is in the west coast cities and got a cheap hotel and crashed. The Museum rocked - literally I suppose - but the city, the place, the west.....well, it sucks.

A few days earlier I went with my school to Taroko National Park - scratch that - my school, true to Taiwanese tourist style, went to the visitor centre at Taroko National Park and we sat in the snack bar for 5 hours. That is their escape to nature - sitting in a f***ing snack bar at the foot of the most beautiful place in Taiwan. I still don't get the Taiwanese after all these years..... .

Regardless, during this time I poked around outside and found this curious critter. It is actually a pure yellow insect (this is the nymph stage) but it camouflages itself with....with....with....poop! Yup, it poops on its back and keeps it there to hide its gloriously bright yellow colour. When they turn into flying insets, they drop the poop-game, but while they are slow, leaf eating sluggies they slather their bodies in wet, sticky poop. Nature.....what else have you got up your sleeve?

Illegal Hikes of Taiwan: Part n (and a bike trip to get there...)

2011-05-08T16:21:00.000-07:00

To our home away from home, Taroko National Park, once again.

We combined a nice bike trip, two hikes and some epic swimming this weekend, all under clear blue skies. The bike trip was our regular jaunt through Hualien, up the gorge and to TienXiang village...and once there we de-saddled, rested, ate some fruit, drank epic amounts of water and hit the trails.

The illegal trails, of course!

We started out early Sturday...primed with some porridgey goodness and some high octane coffee we hit the streets. Usually the Taroko trip takes two stages - the city stage and the park stage. The park stage is always epic and wonderful, and the city stage is somewhat boring. However, this time we found a new trail that meanders about a little following the river - not too much though - and makes almost half of the city stage a pleasant and car-free ride. Perfect! The fewer cars, the fewer green-monster trucks the better.

Once in Taroko (the ride, while awsome, has been documented many times before so ill leave it to those posts to explain the joy of biking through this park) made our way to the Chimu Bridge trail - sans permits, of course - and started trek. This dry river bed is riddled with massive boulders of pure marble, some the size of trucks. Being here illegally made it all that more fun and exciting.

After a long ride, a nice hike and a good dinner...we crashed. Waking up the next morning to yet another clear blue sky, and having time on our hands, we took to the trails again. This time it was not a river bed of massive marble, but a ridge crossing. Up and up into bamboo forests, along some cliff faces and then down again to a (now, thanks to a landslide that blocked the main access trail!) secluded swimming spot. We bathed, sunned, bathed. The frigid water calmed the shuddering heat of the morning nicely. Then some more walking...flat, totally flat, through a few tunnels, across a few cliffs and to a really cool tunnel with a waterfall inside. Inside. A curtain of water permeating through the bedrock and cascading down on you while you are inside a mountain. So freaking cool!

Alas, time was growing short and we still had the hike back to the hostel and the ride home ahead of us so we turned around, and started back up the ridge.

Lunch, and a ratehr blissful (mostly) downhill ride through Taroko Gorge took us home. A stunning place that fails, always, to let us down. Always something new to see, always a new illegal hike to find!

L: Skink R: fresh cooked corn as a mid-morning snack on the way to Taroko

The entrance of Taroko National Park...who stole my helmet?

L: Crystal taking nap, post bike trip and pre Chimu hike R: Crystal during the hike testing the waters

L/R: The view along the Chimu hike

L/R: More Chimu scenery...all marble!

L/R: More and more Chimu scenery, and a new frog (to us!)

L: Cool rock, with iron deposits leaching out along the bedding plane R: The cats came back....friends we met at our hostel

L/R: More cats that found our hostel room to be much more interesting than the outside world.

L: Us at night, letting the cool evening soothe our muscles. R: Taiwan/Chinese Bulbul (not sure which one...)

R/L: The next morngin the hike took us through a neat bamboo forest, over a ridge and down the otehr side to a river valley. Here we are perusing the bamboo...

L: The sunday morning trail. L: The river at the other side of the ridge.

L: Swimming R: Relaxing

L: tadpoles in various stages of development R: One of the many tunnels along the trail.

L: Scenery R: More tunnel time.

We were ready to leave....and then....we stopped again to say goodbye. Perhaps ou last time here so we had to make it a good one....so tought to leave. So tough.

Jiao-Xi Hike

2011-04-25T21:07:00.000-07:00

The northern tip of the central mountain range, as seen from the ridge line in Jaoxi.

A long overdue visit to Yilan County this weekend started with ultimate frustration and ended in absolute wonder. We have avoided - and that is the correct word - Yilan County because it is known for rain, wet weather, wet air and rain. Although it is only an hour or so north of us, it is a chunk of the island that gets sea winds meeting mountains and the resulting onslaught of precipitation. If it is sunny in Hualien, sunny in Taipei, sunny everywhere....it will still be raining in Yilan. It always rains in Yilan.

However, we got a break. A sunny stretch lasted long enough to give us two beautiful days in the mountains that had until this point been unexplored by our boots.

A fractal of gullied valleys...a carpet of green covers a geologic story.

What we found was an amazing place - so glad that we didn't leave this off the list completely.

Birds (yellow tit...I think, vireo, streak breasted babbler, black drongo, whistling thrush...) were plentiful, some cool critters and a barking deer (that seemed to be not all that afraid of us at first, then took to scampering away silently as they often do when we meet one in the woods). All in all, it was a biological bounty with nothing but sunshine....and an awesome hike.

On top of the Catholic platform of faith...peak of prayer.....whatever the hell they called it. We called it "top" and it was an excellent place to gander at the valley below on both sides. One led into the interior of Taiwan, the other to the ocean.

But, it didn't start out that way. I will skip the long winded and exhaustive account and get to the juicy bits.

There is a forest park in the central mountains, in Yilan, that boasts some cool bird nesting grounds, some cool forests (old and rare) and a 20 km network of trails. We aimed to visit here but, found out as we were just about to get on the train, that you have to book in advance. One day? Nope. Two? Nope. Eight? Nope... . A month. A full 30 days in advance or you cannot enter. It is one of Taiwan's freakishly stupid attempts at park maintenance. Probably would need a Chinese guide, too. Not sure. They (Taiwan government and park officials) think that making it almost impossible to do anything but prescribed guided tours will 'solve' their failing attempt at environmental control. They are actually making it worse. However, this is the short version so I will stop this ramble with the facts only - we could not go to our forest reserve.

Plan B - forest park, close by.

In many parts of Taiwan you can't rent a scooter. In many parts of Taiwan you can rent a scooter. Without a scooter you are - unless you hook up with a tour bus and end up sitting with a bunch of yelling, smoking and uninterested Chinese tourists the whole weekend as you make photo stops at boring exhibits - you are lost. Without a way. So, a scooter was needed to get to our trailhead and forest park. Yilan....no scooters without a license. International license..still no good. Nothing. We walked around for what felt like ages until we got some info from the visitors centre, got a train to another little town (Jiaoxi) and were able to rent scooters there.

The first scooter had no brakes. Literally none. The absolutely ridiculous statement by the scooter man of "its ok....really" almost blew my mind. Um, no, its not, actually. We drove about 20m, turned around and told him we want another. Then he started to tighten the brakes (on scooters this is fairly easy). This would have been awesome except...the brakes still didn't work. A slightly disgruntled scooter man gave us a second scooter.

This one was much newer and nicer. I checked the brakes, they worked fine. We drive away, down the road to get some gas....then the engine stopped (after filling up). We drove a bit more....stall. We were averaging about 10seconds between stalls on a major-ish road. Weaving through traffic trying to manage one of Taiwan's infamous 5 way intersections, stalling, starting, stalling, starting, stalling....we made it back to the scooter shop. Angry, venomous at times, we demanded a real scooter. We got it, forced the dude to syphon the gas we just bought out of the old scooter and into the new one, and then we were off. With no problems. This scooter worked fine.

So, late, frustrated and at the breaking point....we puttered our way up the mountains and away from the city. We found the trail, packed our things and hit the dirt.

Part way up the hill before the proper trailhead, we get a nice view of the valley below and the ocean. On the right Crystal pokes around looking at critters and seeds.

Dragonfly catching Crystals attention, while I take a break on the way to the ridge top. The heat and the wind played games with each other, one moment dead heat and the next chilled!

Along the way we took a little side trail, which took us to some cool spots and let us see some cool birds, then back on the main trail....then to the ridge.

The trail was quite nice. We would totally do it again in a heartbeat, and there is a nice little cabin at the top stored with sleeping bags, cooking gear and water. Free. It would be the perfect place to watch a sunrise and a sunset, and for free you cant imagine a better price.

The only downside is that this place is here only because a devout christian years back thought that he saw god while hiking here, so he had a cabin built and a typical gawd awful crucifix made. The crucifix was fun to climb, and the cabin would be fun to stay at, but the godly overtones make it all that much more creepy. A couple of atheists in a Catholic hotspot does, though, make me giggle.

I can be jesus, too! So can you...

Sunset moments....actually these are pre-sunset moments. Shortly afterwards we realized the downclimb needed our attention, so we packed up and headed home.

We stayed at the top long enough to attempt to watch the sunset, then to realize that the clouds were coming in and that we still had the whole downclimb ahead of us, so we bid farewell and hiked down.

We found a cheap-ish hotel, grabbed some dinner and some local micro-brew and crashed.

The next morning we returned to the same park area, but checked out the more traditional (paved, popular) trails to two waterfalls and a nice lookout. They were stunning still, despite the touristy feel, and we got to see some more cool birds and critters.

Chasing the thrush...

One of the cool birds - the laughing thrush - decided that a good strategy to get the pesky human who is chasing it through the woods off its tail would be to poop on it. Projectile, on command, poop defence. It worked.

Cleaning poop....thrush poop.

Awesome, pretty, cool, curious. And striking the perfect pose.

In case you ever wanted to know what a hanging dried stomach looks like, peer to the left. On the right Crystal lounges with her coffee after our morning with the birds.

After a nice morning on the trials and our camera full of birdies and bugs, we settled down for a coffee, then hit town for lunch.

Flipping a coin - a mental coin - we decided to venture to the beach. The sun was blazing, the beach (as always) empty and we spent the next o hours poking around, looking at pufferfish, seashells, stuff, things, and the like.

Pufferfish.... everywhere! And on the right I amble along the beach looking for shells and oddities (and more pufferfish).

Ocean scene, and Crystal looking around for birdies.

Making our way back to the train station afterwards, we came upon another little forested area by the deserted ocean, so we poked around. Saw some more birds, more garbage (Taiwanese....) and more birds. And then some more birds.

Then home. A hot, sweaty perfect weekend in a beautiful chunk of Taiwan. The weekend was well worth the strife at the start.

Ahh....Taiwan.

Drink shop for post ocean walk re-hydration, while a man across the street waters his pavement. Yes - watering the pavement.

Bike Trip: Hualien to Shitiping to RuiSui to Hualien

2011-04-17T18:24:00.001-07:00

A road drenched in sunlight, bathed in heat, and two empty days on our side allowed us to take a bike trip that we had been pondering for a while. We are working our way towards biking the entire eastern coast - not so much a mean feat, its just nearly impossible to do in a mere weekend, so we are piecing together the east coast weekend by weekend. This weekend we took the arduous, at points, 75km from Hualien City to Shitiping, a gorgeous fishing harbour and geological oddity south of us. We have been here before, but never by bike from Hualien. So, it was a must-do. Saturday we ventured south, camped on the coast, and then crossed the coastal mountain range and ended our trip Sunday in Ruisui. An amazing trip, gorgeous weather (Saturday, especially) and legs left asking us, politely, why the hell we do this to them. The hills....the freaking hills....

The trip started in the city, but soon left the confines of urbanization and entered the glory of the East coast and its natural beauty. Along the way we were able to hug the coast and watch the turquoise ocean lap at Taiwan's shores the whole day while we plodded our way south. The best part of the trip was an old section of the highway, now closed because of its perpetual damage. Closed to cars, open to anything else. That meant us! A long stretch of road, just to us this day.

Outside our house, bikes ready to take us away. A stop by the start of the ocean trail that would take us to the main coastal highway to check our gear.

Biking along the trail that connects to Highway 11, and along Highway 11 later in the day.

This is part of the section that is closed to traffic, so we had it all to ourselves - epic views, cliff faces and absurd road damage!

The east coast of Taiwan has two main arterial roads heading south; Highway 193, which goes inland between the two mountain ranges, and Highway 11, which follows the coast. Hwy 11 is much less developed, not near the train line, and gets battered by typhoons and coastal erosion. So, the road here at points is precarious, but stunning. Along the way there is constant repairs, damage and utter chaos at points (see above!) But, it is without doubt the best way to get from north to south if you are not in a rush.

Finally at Jici! A coffee break and lunch were exactly what was needed at this point of the trip.

After 4 hours of riding, along a part of the road that held more uphill than our heavily burdened bikes wanted to tackle, but did, we arrived in a nice little coffee shop in the middle of, almost, nowhere. Off our bikes, ringing out the sweat drenched clothing (ok, that was just me....) and sitting down to some juice (Crystal) and coffee (me) with a view. Below us was Jici Beach, our lunch destination. Only 5 km more, gloriously downhill, and we were sitting at a little shop chomping on some rice and cabbage.

Biking along the roadway some more...action shot styles. Crystal on the right sipping away at the local, cavewater coffee.

Back on the road for part two, re-sunscreened and re-energized and re-riced and re-cabbaged and re-tea'd. this stretch was a more pleasant, flatter (mostly!) ride that allowed us to enjoy the scenery more. Along the way it was all ocean, all the time....

Arriving in the village of Shitiping, basically a fishing harbour and a smattering of houses and stores to fill basic needs, we were beat. Its not so much the length as the hills and the heat. Not a complaint, merely an excuse to make our sore legs feel better!!

Shitiping, along with the houses and harbour has one other splendid attraction - a coffee shop. Coffee beans from the mountains in Taiwan, groundwater (sourced from a cave on the owners property) as the key ingredient and an epic view of the ocean. A perfect way to end a seven hour push south.

Biology and geology are the key ingredients to Shitiping - these are but a few tastes of the place.

Shitiping, along with the houses and harbour and coffee shop...., also has a perfectly quaint campsite. We grabbed a site (to the absolute incalculable confusion of the park staff who, in utter astonishment, couldn't understand why we would be ok with a campsite without electricity and lights...you have to experience Taiwan outdoors life to understand this...they repeatedly asked us "do you understand Chinese? This campsite has no electricity!" To which we responded, again and again "yes, I know. Why do we need electricity?".

To which they responded... "Do you understand Chinese? This ..." And on and on...

Until I blurted out "Canadian people don't like electricity!".

Then we left them and went to our campsite. They still didn't believe us...

The birds were crazy here, singing and prancing about, the sun setting over the mountains and the salty air humid and thick. Shitiping at its finest.

As beautiful as Shitiping, Hualien...Taiwan...is, there is always the garbage issue. Environmental education is earning its place in e school ethos slowly, and most adults not only don't understand what is right/wrong, but they don't teach their kids. So, schools and the science/environmental community have a hefty battle ahead, but a vital one.

Morning views - you cant see it in the picture on the left but there is a sea of birds there calling and chirping away in beautiful song, while we tend to our breakfast duties.

After a solid nights sleep we got up, ate, played on the rocks a bit, poked around for critters in the tide pools, then hit the road again, much to the chagrin of our legs. To we were going to head across the mountains to Ruisui, then take the train back to Hualien. A slight drizzle accompanied us, but other than that it was a pleasant ride. This mountain road is, while lacking in ocean views (obviously!) simply peaceful. Monkeys, birds, butterflies....nature abounds and it was just us and the empty road for the day.

A magi snack-stop along the way home...

Biking up the hill that accounts for the entire (almost) second half of the trip from the ocean to Ruisui...steady, but not too steep. On the right, the view of the SiouGuLuan River that empties the water from the rift valley into the ocean.

Snake, which we found already killed, was enough to call our attention and give us a short, slight scare. Still looking into this specific species....poisonous or not, it was cool to see!

This ride was much shorter, a shade over 3 hours, and we arrived in Ruisui in time for lunch. Hotpot, coffee, then to the train...and home. Wonderful ride, wonderful sights and a wonderful weekend. (then we whipped up some pizza!)

PingXi Hike and The Never-Ending Walk...

2011-04-10T16:59:00.000-07:00

Leading off into the mist of the forest....

PingXi, a surreal sub-tropical wilderness nestled in the mountains outside of Taipei, is home to a wonderful network of trails. We had previously explored some of them...less than half apparently...and this weekend we returned to try to stomp our feet along more km's of this gloriously muddy, sloppy and beautiful chunk of the island.

Friday we hurried to Ruifang, returned to the hotel we stayed in last time, walked about in the town then hit the sack early. Waking up for a morning train to Pingxi, we guzzled coffee, chomped on porridge - the usual morning fare for the weekends - and walked over to the train station. Arriving early, quite a change for us as we are usually the ones running full throttle through a crowded station with bags hanging off our backs towards a train wanting to leave. Today it was nice and calm...we were able to wait!

Ticket to travel... packed and ready to go!

Ruifang night market with 'small food' (snack) stalls and some pretty lanterns. It was drizzly, but nothing that kept us or others off the street.

Temple, along the early stages of the trail. Actually a shrine. Yes, a shrine. Not a temple at all.

Pingxi rail line on the left, early section of the trail on the right.

More trail...

The Pingxi train took us to the Pingxi village, where I got to play with not one but two cats (one was not so happy to have me trying to play with it, but I consider chasing a cat around old traintracks playing, regardless...). We got some snacks - sweet gelatinous rice with dried beans inside...mmmm - and hit the trail.

Along the trail we saw a number of new critters, a few birds that eluded both our binoculars and our camera, but a few that were captured. Its such a rewarding experience to continue to see new things in the woods. Each time we go out, each place we explore, we find new birds, frogs, insects, everything. Always something to discover....ah, Taiwan!

Streak-Breasted Scimitar Babbler; __?__ frog.

Trail signs along the way, this one telling us that our day was over....and time to head down. At the same point I am taking a peanut break...and water...and more peanuts....and a few peanuts to wash down the peanuts. Then a few peanuts for the road...

After a hearty 7 hours on the trail, feet sloppy and muddy and our energy at a low, we came to the end of the section we wanted to explore. Actually, after a strong 7 hours moving through the woods we only covered less than a third (about?) of the possible trails. There are at least two more weekends of hiking - on new trails - in this area. Do we have the weekends left before we leave, that is the question!

We hiked down and eventually made it to a Buddhist temple, where a nice lady chatted with us for a while then gave us bus info. 5 Minutes. Go. Go! She gestured to us that we should run - we clarified that we could make it in time and when she said we could, we began down the hill further and scampered to an eventual bus station. Wait. Wait. Bus. Taipei.

...

Once in Taipei, a destination we did not really plan on (we intended to go back to Ilan or Fulong for the night...), we set out to find a hostel. Remember the 7hour hike....well in this trek to find a hotel we halved that again - 3 hours walking through Taipei looking for a place to stay. No rooms, anywhere. Except one place. A business hotel. I wont tell you the cost. Just know that a regular hotel we stay in anywhere in Taiwan runs us about $20CND for the whole night. This cost a tough more, but we stayed in luxury....after 7 hours in the forest, 3 hours on the streets and no food in 9 hours, we capitulated and took the business hotel room. Discounted, but still not our regular place!

Crystal in the wonderful morning sun on the left, the grounds of the memorial monument on the right. People come here to play Chinese violins, practice tai-qi, dance, sing, run, ..., do anything. An excellent public space that is both useful, and beautiful.

In the morning we set out to buy new hiking boots (this is why we came to Taipei) to cure our slippery existence while hiking as our boots now have less-than-no tread and are slowly dying. A gorgeous day, we made it to the large memorial for Chiang-Kai shek (the dude who tried to fight Mao in China, lost a bit, retreated to Taiwan and started his own country...basically...while planning a second war with China to retake the mainland. This battle continues today, but in the politics of the China/Taiwan issue, not with tanks and planes. Although, Taiwan's army is always at the ready for the inevitable...). Then to buy boots - I got some, Crystal couldn't find her size - and then home.

Falun Gong, doing their creepy child indoctrinating, in the space that is otherwise nice and blissful. The right to practice any religion in Taiwan gives everyone the right to believe and be open. This particular flavour of creepy religion is persecuted in China, so they always try to force on people in Taiwan hw bad they have it in China. In the chamber of weird religions - a chamber that holds all religions - Falun Gong ranks among the eerie, not creepy scientology style, not horrid catholic style, but a creepy style of their own. Note the kids...as if they know anything about religion or understand...or chose...to be a yellow-shirt-wearing falun freak. Not that this is different from other religions, but when they are colour coded and an invention of the last few decades, it makes it creepy and fake. A creepy fake sandwich. And creepy fake sandwiches give me heartburn.

A "slack" trip to Taroko

2011-04-05T00:08:00.000-07:00

Tomb sweeping holiday - where families travel to their hometowns and tend to the graves of their lost family members - combined with the national "childrens day" holiday gave us a hearty four day weekend. The weather is starting to turn warmer, with intermittent heat permeating a blackened background of dark clouds and cool drizzle...the summer heat is approaching... and we took our friends slacklining on the beach and to Taroko Gorge. The slacklining was of course awsome, good times, good audiences and a few passerby's (some young, some old) gave it a try with excellent results - at least they all left laughing and happy. After some slack action and a night on the town we drove up to Taroko. Nothing of surreal nature to note, just an excellent drive up and a cool and rainy drive back (the hostel was full....should have reserved a room!). After a nce day in the gorge and a long day on a scooter, we scampered off to eat some hot pot and sit our arses down at a pub and chat the night away.

Claude starting the line, Calire watching; Claude again on the right once he had become Master of the Line...

Crystal and I showing our skilz...

Even the birds were watching in amazement (or flying away....), and this kid came to hang out once, twice, three times....and by the end of his time with us he was doing quite well!

After our short hike in Taroko we walked the road back to our scooters, stopping for a pic along the way. And, a pose of beauty by the Eternal Shrine.

Hot pot...getting our game faces on to eat at the buffet!

To Sue's pub afterwards for some good times and good music and a rather curious dancing scene!

HeHuan Mountain: Temporary Sympathy for Canadian Weather

2011-03-28T00:11:00.001-07:00

After a four year hiatus from the HeHuan Mountain region (three of them because we were in BC, though!) we finally returned to the backbone of Taiwan, the road-accessible alpine region with rhododendrons, endless birds, epic sunrises and trees older than most languages (yet smaller than most 5 year old trees from Canada). And, of course, snow.

This is one of the only places you can drive to in Taiwan to see snow, and despite being a tropical paradise for a large chunk of the year, its a frigid wet place for the other chunk which makes perfect company at high elevations for snow. We ventured up and up and up this weekend, four hours through Taroko gorge and past, on the side of the mountains all the way to the green top of Taiwan. Green when we got there, white when we left. Foggy all the time.

5:30 am, with the greatest of attempts to see a sunrise....

The only way home...towed up hills, lowered down hills. Lives in the hands of a stranger, gravity and one chain.

An early morning birding find...

A break along the 4 hour drive up to snag some scenery on our cameras and stretch our legs. On the right, a common lunch/dinner place that we stopped at for lunch. Typical of Taiwanese eateries. Egg, tofu, bamboo, cabbage, chinese cabbage, carrot, mushrooms, seaweed, ... .

Me with a harvest worth of field mushrooms on the left; eating lunch on the right.

The fog encrusted mountain - cloud cover that was to be the bearer of snow later that night. On the right I am forced to cross the border of illegal again (if only for a photo op!).

Crystal and her Dad trying to force each other off the mountain...nobody won (and, luckily, nobody lost!) and an evening card game in the 3000masl drought of oxygen.

Morning comes...cold and snow. Lots of snow. Our first for Taiwan!!

Posing in the snow on the left; a view of the roadway from our room on the right.

Morning comes, and we need to figure out a way down the mountain. Bald summer tires on a rental car...along steep cliff faces roadways with intermittent barriers..hmmm.... . While we play and think, three epic travelers make their way down the mountain on their scooters (after we helped them push the two-wheeled death traps up the hill...)

Getting towed in the snow and fog...trying to concentrate.

Taroko: "Legal" hikes of Taiwan

2011-03-20T17:26:00.000-07:00

Back to the glorious geologic wonder of Taiwan - Taroko Gorge. Mountains of marble, shale and schist, rivers of blue . A green film of biology - saturated with barking deer, macaques, endless avian critters, enough beetles to keep anybody struggling to keep up the count, snakes both venomous and not, spiders of all colours and sizes, pangolins (somewhere out there), mongoose and the elusive and possibly-behind-the-next-ridge-but-maybe-not Asian sun bear. And a whole whack of other stuff. And then some more.

Beautiful geology, blanketed by wondrous biology, and this weekend visited by four other mammals - us wee humans.

Friday was a Hualien night, as we opted for a Italian-esque dinner and night on the town. Early Saturday we rented a car and hit the road. After coffee, that is. Gas, coffee, then through rice fields, banana fields, taro fields, corn fields, a few more rice fields, some more rice and then to the towering majesty of Taroko (no place for fields of any kind here!).

Eternal Shrine on the left, an unthinkable sight in Taiwan on the right - a trail that is *gasp* open!

Meandering through the gorge, stopping for pictures of some sights and a few landslide remnants, we made it to TienXiang just a shade after lunch. Dropped out gear at the Catholic hostel - what I dub our 'heathen in a hostel' moments in Taiwan. Tea, break, digest...go. Splitting up, Crystal and I headed for a trial that we had previously tried but not finished, and her parents headed for another trail behind our hostel and the Buddhist Pagoda across the river.

Birds and cats....these cats were snoozing on our rental as it offered a nice warm napping place!

The roadway through Taroko Gorge.

Of their trip I heard tales of scaling craggy trail sides with the established ropes and chains (when Taiwan trails get slippery, these become your only salvation!), being served tea by the head Buddhist master while teaching the congregation the finer points of text messaging (I made that one up) and poking around TienXiang and it's curiosities.

Our part of the day started rather normally as we made it to the trailhead, suited up and started the trail. We were expecting a hearty trek but not one of Taiwan's most leg-killing kind. After 1km of straight uphill....I made the decision to consider this trail one of Taiwan's most leg-killing kind. Stunning, but tough! The trail from the ridge we got to was thereafter the regular up and down that one might expect from a mountain trail, and along the way we caught a glimpse of three barking deer (and heard a few off in the distance...so eerie!) a whack of birds and macaques. No snakes this time, which is probably a good thing... . We got a later start to this one and about 3.5 hours later we got to the other end of the trail...and were faced with the long walk back to the trailhead to get the car. This we dreaded but, after a few moments on the road, remembered the emptiness of Taroko at this time of day (during the mid-day times there can be a lot of people doing the tourist thing). Empty, just us on the road...monkeys, birds...awesome. We got to the car an hour later, drank a few hundred thousand litres of water and made our way back to TienXiang for dinner.

Crystal along the hiking trail...not long after this we discovered our first leeches of Taroko - trying to get at our flesh. Three only, so it was nowhere near the level of Borneo, thankfully!

Dinner was another extremely "Taroko" event - bamboo steamed rice, veggies and the regular dinner fare. And Taiwan beer. Then we retired to the hostel and played the night away with cards.

Sunday was a slower start but that is the point of staying at the hostel. The mornings are so epic - no noise, no people, just you, a glorious view of the mountains and the river, comforted by the morning sounds of birds and the heat of the morning sun. Totally worth spending a while with a few cups of tea and a camera. Mornings in TienXiang is the best time and the most spellbinding moment for me that Taiwan has to offer....if I could only experience one part of Taiwan, this would be it. So experience it we did.

Cards at night, with new found friends (both of which were trying to get the best spot on my lap....but I always have room for more kitties).

Crystal organzing some breakfast delights (porridge and tea) and me munching away on a starfruit with TienXiang and Taroko in the distance.

After eating and downing enough tea on the roof of the hostel, we packed and hit up the Lotus Pond trail. This, for some strange reason, was open. So was the extension that goes all the way through another valley to a village. In the years we have been in Taiwan, the Lotus Pond has been occasionally open, and the extension trail has never been open.. Something is going on in Taroko...they are opening trails! The danger! The DANGER!! This is one of the trails that the Japanese built in their battle to try to rid the mountains of aboriginal tribes - the took to hurculean efforts and lost numerous Japanese soldiers to try to build trails into the mountains so that they could do battle - eventually winning mostly - and so now we are left with a sordid historical reason for the trials, but absolutely grand trails.

And the grand trails gave us a really nice hike, during which we saw some stunning scenery, landslide damage and enjoyed the tremendous warmth of the sun peering at us through the clear blue sky. Its been rainy in Taiwan for the winter season, so this was a delight. The trail goes along a mountain side, a walkway that is basically carved into the side of the cliff, nothing below you but the effects of gravity (until you hit the river below, that is) and nothing above but a sheer wall of schist. Stunning, scary at points, but safe. I think.

The trail along the mountainside, along which we crossed two suspension bridges. A third suspension bridge that had fallen prey to a massive landslide was the reason that we had to turn around a little further ahead.

More bridge fun and discovering an old village just off the trail. Taroko people lived along here for quite some time until the Japanese incursions fought them out of the mountains - almost. There still exists villages in the mountains but nothing on the historical, pre-Japanese, scale.

More birds and scenery.

We kept walking at this point - trail closures be damned - but not long after this the trail got sketchy and jiggly legs kicked in. A little further up the trail another bridge was washed away, so we basically got turned around at the farthest point possible. A trail that was closed for a decent reason - another Taiwanese mystical moment!

Hike finished, back to the car...home. Our goodbye to Taroko said, we paddled our little rental car back to the city.

Illegal Sunrises of Taiwan - Alishan Edition

2011-03-13T05:54:00.001-07:00

Pine tree, cherry blossom, and train route in the distant mountain face.

Alishan - Mount Ali - is a protected chunk of forest in the central mountains, accessible only via the west coast city of Chiayi (the only way that does not involve 5 days trekking over the main central mountain pass at about 3800masl) is famous for its high-altitude forest ecosystem, multiple species of cherry which, when in blossom, provide a bounty of red, pink, purple and white against the green background of the forest, and an old small-gauge train that meanders through the mountains, along cliff faces un-walkable by goats (ok, ok -hyperbole ... im sure a goat could handle it!) and finally a perfect place to watch a sunrise over the spine of Taiwan.

This is where we ventured this weekend, to walk amongst the giants of red cypress (the ones still left, more on this later), to see the blossoms, to ride the train and to watch the sun peak above the tallest mountains of Taiwan and welcome a new day.

All of this was our plan. It was a fun filled weekend, lots of travel and lots of time spent on our arses: train (2.5 hours) - highspeed train (1.5 hours) - bus (3 hours). But, once there, the frigid mountain air welcomed us and we took to the boardwalks, saw the sights, got to be in the midst of a historically important place and a hugely biologically important place.

If you into biology - and who isn't - this is one of the few places in Taiwan, and Asia, that salamanders still live. One is endemic to Taiwan, and all are protected because, you guessed it, they are going extinct.

Sunset through the high mountain pine forest.

One of the remaining old Red cypress trees.

A bird in the bush is worth two....nah, two birds in the bush would have been better, but I'm glad we got to see this little guy!

Hualein train station, packed.

The trip took an unexpected turn right at the beginning - Japan, earthquake and the tsunami. Being geographically close, and living on the east coast, Hualien City was on alert, schools were closed early and all trains were cancelled for a few hours. We rushed to make it through the throngs of others trying to exit the city (we live, actually, right on the ocean so any impact would have been bad news for us; however, no impact on Taiwan at all. All were safe) and made it to the train station - the same time that the rest of Hualien's citizens also made it there (or so it seemed! - to find out that all trains were canceled. Understandably, of course. No problem.

Off to an early dinner, back to the train station some time later to find that we had missed the first train that was back on the go (the one we should have taken) but made it to the second, lucky enough to find seats (or we would have had to stand for the 2.5 hours north!).

Crashed in Taipei, booked highspeed train for the morning.

Regular train that we finally made it on to, and a Taipei break along the way.

Hisghspeed ticket and us waiting to ride.

The highspeed train is, well, fast. What would be a 4 or more hour journey on a regular train took us a simple 1.5 hours. Nice. We stayed up late, and also booked the 6:00am train. Do the math...we were zonked. But once in Chaiyi we were awake, alive and found the bus that would take us into the mountains.

Three hours later, after a winding, perilous cliff trip we arrived at the gate of Alishan. The train that would normally take us here was not in service. Remaining damage from typhoon Marokot two years ago was still playing a role in Taiwan, especially in the high mountains where landslides and washed out villages, tracks, roads were the norm. So, with no train running we had to opt for the bus.

Cherry blossom and a second generation tree growing out of the carcass of the old one. Probably the same individual actually, so both visually appealing and genetically amazing!

Walking up to the forest trails while a Yuhina chirps away at us.

The forest now and the big reminders off a forest past.

The forest, the warning.

We spent the bulk of the day wandering through the forest, eyeing up remaining red cypress trees that ranged in age from 900 to 2000 years old, embedded in a forest of much younger age. During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan they found this forest to be perfect - cool, easily accessible (after the built the aforementioned railway up to it) and filled with trees that they could cut down and send to Japan. So, the logged its brains out. Anything worth cutting was cut, save for the few remained trees. Possibly it was only because of the result of world war II and the independence of Taiwan from Japan rule that the forest was left alone. So, now, there is a gorgeous forest, a biodiverse ecosystem and an important one at that. There just is not the gorgeous forest and biodiverse ecosystem that once was there. That forest is now houses and buddings in Japan. Still, its a stunning forest and the biology and history is amazing.

Crystal hiking along the forest trail that we kinda made as we went along, and the sunsetting on but still above the clouds.

Wasabi on the left, waiting for the 4:30 train to take us up the mountain on the right. I, for one, was freezing!

One other notable aspect of this area is that it is the one place (apparently) in Taiwan where they grow wasabi. And everything is wasabi themed - the main village monument is a big wasabi edifice, wasabi peanuts, wasabi tofu on the menu, wasabi for sale, wasabi to try, even wasabi magi. That means nothing to you, I know. But it does to me. Wasabi magi....mmmmm.

After a day on the trails, we slept (obviously). Next morning the alarms went off at 4am - these are hotel wide alarms that go off whether you want them to or not - to wake everybody so they can catch the morning train (4:30) to take you to the peak of the Alishan range to watch the sunrise over the main central ridge line. Totally cold, totally wonderful! A neat train ride packed with people all wanting to see the days first light.

Waiting at the upper platform, while others down below eat a quick breakfast of deep fried bread. And eggs. Boiled tea eggs (which are remarkably good, I should add!).

Early in the morning, people wait and wait and wait...you can see the corral area where people were herded because the other areas were dangerous. Sorry....'dangerous' as in not dangerous at all.

This is where a simple trip turns illegal. And in a fun way.

You see, in Taiwan everything is considered dangerous. Been there, written about that. Trails -deadly. Ocean - will kill you even for looking at it. Sunshine - don't even say its name for christ-on-a-stick sake! And, therefore, everything is either closed, off limits, closed or cosed. They build something Monday, deem it unsafe tuesday and close it Wednesday. Whatever is left open is regulated by so much paper work and permits and passes and bullshit that you simply just dont bother trying usually. Thus, we hike illegally all the time. Its the only way. We are yet to be caught, yet to be deported.

But sunrises, that's a whole new ballgame of curiosity for us. Once we made it through the darkness to the lookout, set ourselves up in a nice place where we could see both the spot where the sun would peak out above the clouds and Taiwan's tallest mountain - Yu Shan, or Jade Mountain - we were confronted by a park official. I will let you guess what he told us.

Yes...to watch the sunrise from our location was dangerous..we had to move back into a corral, where trees blocked our view and where there were 50 odd other people cramped in already. Standing near the cliff was simply impossible, we would die. This viewpoint was set back about 3m from the actual cliff face itself, and there was a sturdy log fence that would hold a horse in.

I said "no".

He pleaded his case: we were unsafe, nature is bad, we are unsafe, please move back to where the rest of the sheep *cough cough* I mean Taiwanese people were.

I said"no".

He repeated, louder and with more emphasis on the word 'danger'.

I said "no". But I also added at this time that Taiwanese always find something to fear, they close everything and that to be afraid is a waste of a life, yadda yadda...and that they have cried wolf too many times to us, we know this is safe and without physical carrying, we were not moving.

The argument ensued, all while I was standing and snapping pictures and half laughing at him each time he said 'dangerous'. Finally we made a deal - we didn't, but close enough. We moved back a few meters, and he got sidetracked by people down in the corral standing on the fence (because they couldn't see otherwise...). He left, we waited, then made our way back to the fence and the viewing platform area where we started. The next 20 minutes were sunrise glory, and we survived. And he never came back.

I guess it wasn't so dangerous after all, was it?

Taiwan is a treasure, but people here have to get on with lie and stop being afraid of nature. Its too beautiful to be afraid of.

Back down the mountain, packed, hopped on the bus in the warm morning sun and we went our separate way. I went north to Taipei and then back south to Hualein 9the only way to Hualien) while they went south to Kaoxiong. Now back to work!

Us, walking down from the sunrise viewing area...

Karaoke and HotSprings (and a landslide drive)...

2011-03-06T15:26:00.000-08:00

The weatehr is still chilly - sweaters and toques and, at times, down jackets. However, this is apparently all subjective as Crystals parents chose to be perfectly comfortable all weekend in mere t-shirts and shorts. Hmm.....

One of the three main vents for the water; you can see where the minerals have come out of solution (white) and where the moss has taken over despite the high temperatures (green...obviously)

Close up of the picture above. Nature is simply beautiful.

Wulu Gorge, as seen from the top of the hiking trail. This view is looking east.

The weekend started innocently enough with a rented car and a drive down to RuiSui, our old stomping grounds from last year. Checking into the hotel and priming ourselves for some dinner, we ventured down to yet another old haunt, the Karaoke bar. However....although this is a well known place, it was - for us - a place of mere drinks, dinner and that is it. Never before had we actually taken to singing. Until this Friday. No need to go into details...but the night ended with a climb over a 3 meter fence, breaking back into our hotel and an almost endless supply of plates of cabbage. And Karaoke. Lots and lots of Canadian voices singing, if that is what you call it, tunes from our past. Horrid to watch to the videos, but truly fun at the time!

Above and below: Hooligans at the Karaoke bar, attempting to sing....

Saturday we saddled up in the car and headed south, south, south...then west into the mountains towards Wulu. Gorgeous gorge...heh heh...and hotsprings. It is a lovely drive however you do it, and this was our first time in a car. Previous times by scooter, by bike and by foot. By car none of the beauty was lost, and we arrived ready to explore. Popped our things into our overly nice rooms, strapped on hiking boots and headed for the forest. Crossed the suspension bridge and entered the woods...

Up and up, to the road...along the road...stopped at a natural hotspring by the roadside and soaked our feet....on and on along the weaving road that offered us monkeys, birds and epic views. Once back at the hotel, we had time for a soak in the hotsprings before dinner. Then....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ....

Walking along the BeiNan River at the enterance to Wulu Gorge; looking deep into the forest for those impossible to find birds.

A newly recognized species of pine on the left, discovered in the last decade only; walking the road back to the hotel on the right after finishing the trail.

The view, and the view! Note the terraces and tea farms on the right piture.

A night visitor on the left, and peering up at the road hiked yesterday on the right. You might need to biggify the picter to pot the road, but its there!

Sunday we decided to walk to another natural hotspring that is spouting from the side of the mountain itself. Aside from being a curiosity of nature (most hotsprings are seepage springs, forcing water upwards via pressure gradient, whereas these are pouring out waterfall-style from the side of the mountain) these are quite beautiful as the thermophilic moss and algae coats the mineral coated rock...odd shades of white and green mixed together against a steaming shale background. Totally beautiful. We poked around, soaked our feet - I found a pair of socks that somebody had left behind...yay! - we made it back to the hotel, our car and said our goodbye to Wulu.

Looking down at the river below from the Wulu Gorge road. Just past the bend ahead is the (one of the) source of the hotsprings.

The river, the view and attempting to soak in the water (which was, ultimtely, too hot to touch at this point!).

The main hotspring vent on the left; finally found a place cool eough to submerse our feet...sort of cool enough!

Upstream of the vent - biology. Here you can see tadpoles thriving, yet at the vent itself and some distance downstream there is nothing to be found (macro) except moss.

Walking by the smaller vent, and meeting friendly people along the way.

Nature as artist and poet...

Instead of going straight back home, we continued up the gorge through the landslides, tea fields, cabbage fields, landslides, tea fields, landslides, and ended up at a stunning lookout with a view straight down the valley.

Our hotel with a memorial to the god Di-Gong (grandfather of the earth) in the front.

We returned to the trail on Sunday to check out an old foundation and stumbled upon yet another trail...

Life, eh...anywhere; Lidao terrace where some of the finest tea and, yes, cabbage, comes from...high up in the mountains of Wulu gorge.

Clouds above and a few below, mountains in the distance and the memories of a massive landslide under our feet...a nice way to end the trip. Sort of..cause we still had to make it home!

New tea fields in the making...

5 hours or so later, after coffee and ice cream, home. Long drive, epic scenery and geologic conundrums. Landslides. Tea. Taiwan.

Above, below, and below that...pictures of landslides and the views as we drive through the mountains.

Chinese puppet show....no way to describe...

Mommy and baby...!

Illegal Hikes of Taiwan: Part ....

2011-02-28T01:47:00.000-08:00

Trail closed. Or is it? No permits, no problem!

"Bu ke neng"...you can't. Taiwan, for all its glory and beauty, is a land of "No". Everything is dangerous, and closed. Its not actually dangerous, but almost everything is actually closed.

If you want to have fun, you have to break the law. Fortunately, aside from screaming park officials, wayward bystanders telling you of immediate doom and death...there is little in the way of stopping you from breaking the law. We need perspective on this. The law is not being broken in a malicious way, intending harm on others. It is not broken in attempt to gain, or to make others lose. It is broken because if you basically want to do anything other than watch TV and go shopping in Taiwan, you have to break the law. So, declining both TV and shopping, we decide to break a few laws and hit the epic and wonderful trails around the island.

A beautifully named, yet harmless, Stink Rat Snake.

Now, my use of hyperbole is somewhat off, as there are a whack of legit trails within Taiwan that are open and easily accessed. However, there are so many more - mostly within parks - that are closed. This tail actually killed a Chinese hiker some years ago, so they left it as is and closed it. Obviously it is an angry trail and one dead man is an omen of more death to come. I call bullshit. We hiked the trail and, other than the possibility of an asteroid hitting us, death was not our companion at all.

A Sunday romp along the limestone slip on the southern coast.

The mountain, the goal...the illegality of trying to find adventure in the National Parks of Taiwan.

Ok, enough of the back story. We went south this weekend (it was a long weekend as we celebrated - took a moments pause - the Taiwanese remembrance day) and strayed into Kenting National Park. The oldest National Park in Taiwan, and one of the most unique as its forests are arid, open and dry. Very tropical vegetation but a very arid landscape. Very, very beautiful. Very.

We took a 4 hour train Friday night, a 1 hour bus Saturday morning, then rented a scooter and drove the remaining half-hour to the actual Kenting city (the kind of place that has 100 people on a Wednesday and 10000 on a Saturday...many flock here for its beaches). We spent two days hiking in the woods, checking out some sights and coming upon a really weird and rare geologic phenomenon (more on that later).

Hotel/motel in Fangliao, the place we stayed in Friday night waiting for the morning bus. Friendly owner, clean inside....all that you can ask for in Taiwan!

Hiking through the forest; note the roots as they branch and ooze along and through the undulations of the coral bedrock. This stuff was so sharp...no falling allowed!

Saturday we did the regular and popular trail circuit, during which we almost immediately left the main trail and poked around sans-permit in the forest for the better part of the day. The bedrock here is all old coral, and the trees and other vegetation grows out of the most curious divots, cracks and pits within it. The coral would be impossible with bare feet, totally rough and sharp, making it a perfect place to accumulate soil and catch seeds over time. As the sea lowered, the land uplifted and soil began to form...the forest started to grow. Today, large trees grow in seemingly impossible places, roots streaming down the sides of rock like they were tentacles on an octopus. Completely beautiful.

A large coral bedrock exposure that turned out to be a grand photo op (had I chosen the right setting, it may have been better...); Birds, bees and trees of the National Park.

Crystal checking out a bird-wing butterfly...one of the many species we found in one little patch of flowers.

Butterfly on the left, forest on the right. The ocean can be seen in the distance, and this section of the forest was closed for sitka deer habitat. The deer were over hunted and lost vital habitat in the years past, so now there is a large push to help them re-introduce themselves to lost areas and to give them a safe place to live.

A view along a coral ridge. Imagine what this would have looked like when it was a living topographical anomaly under a pre-historic sea!

Forest closeup and a - I think - Taiwan Forest Pie (bird). I will have to confirm this...name sounds strange to me but this is how it was explained to me!

After the hike, some own time and some tea we got our night time gear ready, and hit the forest again to do a night walk. We spent an hour or so in the woods in complete darkness searching for nightlife - a few toads, cool moths, no snakes and no owls (which were our main goal) but overall it was really cool to be in the middle of the forest, alone, in the dark.

Night walk friend (toad) and a pic of us, decked out in flashlights and hopes of night crawly creatures.

Ok, so it was also a birthday and, not one for cakes, Crystal made me a peanut and magi ...platter. They were all gone in minutes...mmm....magi......

Sunday we returned to the park and, after asking a couple of people where a certain more rugged trailhead was (who all told us that it was closed, impossible and deadly) and passing assign warning of huge fines for anybody who stepped past the fence, we ...now don't tell anybody....we drove to a non-descript part of the road, packed our things and headed out, blindly, into the woods. We knew the general direction of the mountain (it was the tall thing sticking up in the foreground!) and we assumed the general place where a , if any still existed as we didn't get a feeling of when this trail was closed, trail might be. To cut the story short - we buschwacked through vines and thorns for a long while until we came to ....bleeding and hot....a trail. A perfectly pefect, perfect trail. Rugged, overgrown in parts and overall...perfect. We slinked into the forest, found the winding trail and cooked up a story in case anybody saw us (we were bird watching and got lost...) and trekked on and on. The views were great, the trail amazing...countless birds (for real!), a monkey or two and a lot of Sitka Deer scat. No snakes.

Morning meal in our room, with the birds and the mountain (to be scaled, we hoped) in the background.

Stopping along the way to the makeshift (ok, invented...) trailhead. One of the few flowering plants at this time (which is freaking huge!) invites many birds, making it a perfect birdwatching spot, especially in the early-ish a.m.

One of Taiwan's special birds, the 5-Coloured Bird in all its beauty!

We made it to the mountain, started to ascend and then near the point where the trail turned to a rock climbing adventure, we decided that we should call it a day. A lot of trails in Taiwan are over weird and crazy terrain, requiring bridges, ropes and such, but sometimes we just don't trust our lives to a rope that somebody - sometime - tied to a tree we cant see up ahead. This was oe of the times. I tried to climb for a bit, then hit a section that I just could not convince myself it was worth continue climbing. A fall here....not good. Saying our pleasantries to the mountains, downing some water and raisins, we headed back.

Once we were able to actually find the trail, crossed a little trickling river and got going with a good pace...it turned into a healthy thorn fest. Gorgeous hike, but deadly on the arms!

Crystal roping up to the first little lookout where we, after trying to go higher but realizing the ropes did not give u any sense of trust, called it a hike. On the right is the southern most point in Taiwan, with Crystal decorating the coral below.

Overall the trail back was good - there were a lot of thorns and we are pretty scratched up at this point still, but overall it was a grand trail. A good find in the face of "no" from the regular Taiwanese folk. Once we got back near the trailhead, we went into stealth mode. This is where we would be caught if we were ever to be caught. Sleek movements through the woods, then the grassland and then towards the fence....stopping with bino's to check the scene ahead...and we were safe. A few cars passing, a few scooters but nothing of the "your in trouble" variety (aka park vehicles or police). Nobody knew we were in there, and nobody will ever know (until now).

Again, the southern most point on the island...you can't get any more tropical than this on the island of Taiwan.

Later in the day we did some sigtseeing to the most southern point of Taiwan and a cool limstone collapse landscape. Lost of sun, lots of fun, legs burned with walking and the pleasure of, yet another, illegal adventure in Taiwan!

The picture on the left is added for comic relief...for us, at least. Yes, its ol' Trevor at the southern tip of TW. But, that is not the reason for the picture being up here. Notice (if you click for a larger version) the dude on the right...a guy who has no doubt traveled for a healthy amount of time to get here, is standing at the tip of a geologic playground and he chooses to take a picture of a foreigner. People here love...and I mean love... to take our pictures. Not because we are suave, cute, amazingly fit or perhaps ugly and fat. No, its because they can show people at home "the foreigner" they saw. Quite bizzare.

Along the southern coast is a chunk of land that has slumped over time, creating a really neat limstone landscape. Caves and the like here, though we didnt find them. Or look, really.

As we were getting ready to grab a coffee and watch the sun call it a day, we spotted two amazing things. A _______ bird and somebody selling fresh coconuts.

The sun (the bright dot in the middle) setting.

Monday - the holiday - we separated. Crystal got the first chance at taking the highspeed train fro Kaoshiung to Taipei, while I poked around the south for a bit more, checking out natural flares (ChuHuo) and a little birdwatching in the sticks.

Chu (go) Huo (fire). These are natural gas vents that, during the dry season when no rain and mud gets into the vents themselves, flame all day and night.

What better place for an afternoon nap...

Along the way home...the truck on the left is actually quite regular and the shirts on the right are...actualy quite regular. The weirdest phrases and idoms mashed together, though this one stands above the rest as it is seemingly grammatically correct.

Borneo: Round Two

2011-02-11T20:52:00.000-08:00

A land of a million mysteries and a million more yet discovered...

The rest of the photos are here...I hope you enjoy!

Wing seat on AirAisa...passing by our home. The flat area with the noticeable city is Hualien City, to the south you can see the coastal mountains starting, and all east of the city (we are flying due south here) are the central mountains. Three hours south of this moment we would touch down on the Kota Kinabalu runway (Sabah, Malaysia) and wait another two hours for our flight to Miri (Sarawak, Malaysia).

Oil Palm plantations, Miri.

Miri is a wonderful little town on the Borneo coast; founded on oil and oil alone, it is a place that holds culture and a home for Shell. But, to the south (further inland) lies the obituary writer for Bornean biodiversity - Oil Palm plantations. Our flight from Miri to Mulu National Park was a solid hour, and the majority of that flight was spent flying over a scene like this. Only the park boundaries protect a remaining swathe of primary forest for the likes of large primates all the way down to yet discovered small creatures. These oil palm fields are the sole result of the worlds desire for cheap junk food. Orang Utans, Gibbons, Macaques, Leaf Monkeys, Proboscis Monkeys...all taking a solid step higher and higher up on the endangered list so we can continue to eat pretzels and packaged corn chips.

Assam fruit; I was told that these were tastey, local fruits. I ate one - standing in a crowded market - and found out that this was nothing more than a friendly practical joke and the assam fruit is actually a super sour fruit that nobody...nobody...actually eats. They are for cooking. They got me...

MULU NATIONAL PARK (and UNESCO World Heritage Site - Caves)

Mushroom formations in the cave...

A yet to be identified insect that is crazy on the crazy side. So beautiful...so strange...

At the entrance/exit of Deer cave a lone falcon sits and waits for the not-so-daily mass exodus of the thousands of bats that live inside. They make the most amazing mass exit at random intervals and the predators know this, so they sit and wait for the buffet.

This was our first actual destination on out trip and, after the depressing trudge through the endless hectares of lost forest and oil palms, we landed in perhaps the most beautiful place we have been to. You can only get there (for now...wait for the logging roads) by air, all food, supplies and people must be airfreight for a while to enter the yawning expanse of rugged karst mountains, untouched primary forest and the epic cave systems and the worlds largest cave chamber. This is the place that the Caves episode of Planet Earth visits.

The boatman that helped us through the riffles and tricky spots of the river...

Deer Cave, from the outside looking in. The limestone cliffs are permeated with some of the worlds most dramatic cave systems. The dark spot on the left of the white rock face is the entrance of the cave proper.

Boats lined up, waiting to take us from the cave to the trailhead for camp5.

Getting ready to climb the pinnacles...leech protection and headlamps primed. Within three muntes of the hike I was shirtless from the heat and the sun was poking its head through the clouds.

Crystal taking a water break and doing a leech check along the Headhunter Trail.

So, the park itself is a stunning array of biodiversity, curious geology and home to the equally curious headhunter tribes of the past. Short past, that is. It was circa WW2 that the Dutch convinced the headhunting tribes to halt their practice (although, a special cancellation of that agreement was made during the end of WW2 as Japanese heads were taken).

More than halfway to the top, the ropes and ladders start. A tough go, but exhilarating.

The main goal here was to see birds, see more birds, look at birds and then spend some time birdwatching... Following this, night hikes to find crazy and weird critters and frogs and glowing mushrooms... Following this, a three day hike to see the Pinnacles and then exit the park via the profane and once dangerous Headhunters Trail. No headhunters, just excellently beautiful scenery, sloppy muddy leech filled ground, towering trees and the choral echo of insects and birds unknown. After a few days of birds, caving and waterfalls, we took to the pinnacles trail. It takes a one hour longboat ride upriver to the trailhead and a three hour hike to Camp5 where we stayed for the night (a hike during which the rainforest lived up to its name). In the morning, straight up to make it to the pinnacles.

The evening vista at Camp5, post rainfall. The limestone face across the river is blanketed by clouds that would equally blanket our pinnacles view the next morning.

The hike to the pinnacles is a tough one, up and up and up on the rooty trail to a outcropping of limestone that has persevered through the most amazing erosion history. We hiked and eventually made it to the inevitable ladder section. Up and up some more...then the top. We were lucky enough to arrive there at the same time the worlds total cloud store did, so we got to see little more than what we could only imagine lay beyond the mucky fog. After lunch, a few pics and a quiet time together with fellow hikers (Hey Zach, Tessa, Frank, Daniel!!) the clouds fazed out a bit and we got the best possible shots we could. Ill link here to what they look like on a clear day. Regardless, it was a stunning hike, tough and beautiful, to a very stunning geologic landscape.

Crossing one of the many bridges along the way of the Pinnacles/Headhunter Trail.

Trail sign, reports of conditions....cartoon interpretations of what to expect as you climb the pinnacles.

The pinnacles.

After our time at the top, it was another 3 hours (ish) down. Anybody can tell you that the way down is always the hardest part, and this led to no exceptions. The thick rooty trail gives you very little suitable footholds and as everything is wet and you are inevitably looking at the forest and not your feet most of the time....its slow going.

Crystal during our lunch break at the pinnacles. You can see the weird formations behind her in this picture, but the real oddity and view is the other way...as shown in the above pictuer.

Strangler fig which does not actually strangle. But, it appears as such so the name was given way back in the day...not sure what tree is on the inside but the tentacle-like roots roping around the tree are the fig tree to-be.

Back to Camp5, sleep. Well, swim then cook dinner then sleep. Morning....follow the headhunters trail for a solid 3 hours to the river, then meet a longboat driver and sit and ogle at the forest during a 4 hour boat ride to a downstream community where we could catch a ride to a city with bus service...then move on.

Did I mention leeches....so sneaky, those little sucking beasts. Bleeding for hours on end...at least I didn't get one on my bum (somebody should really ask Crystal about her leech run-ins, though).

Back at camp5 after a successful Pinnacles climb and a swim in the river. Tea...more tea....and some more tea to take the chill off and take us away into the coccophonous sounds of the night.

After 5+ days in the middle of Borneo and making our way to a small coastal city, nestled between the finger-like projections of Brunei, we cleaned, dried our gear and had a nice beer and warm meal in a sidestreet hawker stall. Then moved on....

Mulu National Park is, overall, a spectacular place. However, the one down side is that once they got the UNESCO hat-tip they stared running the natural wonderland like a business. Everything needs a guide, everything needs to be booked and if you want to do anything extra/cool/interesting...you have to pay. Want to go to the bird tower in the early morning or dusk....pay. Want to go in the middle of the day when all sane birds are tightly locked away in their nests and holds...free. The business plan of Mulu is its ruin, and while all the paths within the main park headquarters area is a perfectly well maintained boardwalk, you need to have a guide to do everything. Canopy walk....guide. Pay. Night walk....guide, pay. I'm surprised they allowed us to sleep without a guide.

However, the park is grand, the nature untouched (once you retreat from the main park HQ area and leave the putrid guide-filled and pay-per-use atmosphere). From a biological and geological perspective, this is a place like no other. Astounding is an understatement. But, the business plan, as so often happens, just takes a certain something away from the experience. It really is a last vestige of true primary untouched forest in the Malaysian Borneo area, bordered by logging camps and oil palm plantations. The force of the developed world slowly nicks its way through the forests, but the park is there to stop them....if only for now.

Bako National Park

After some city time, travel time and a 5 hour bus ride through Brunei and a few border crossings we made it to the city of Kuching, the capital of Sarawak. Our next main destination was the celebrated Bako National Park - a chunk of land that is protected for its geology and biology and most importantly its small remaining plot of mangroves which offers the only habitat suitable to proboscis monkeys. These monkeys are going extinct, save for a few small plots pr preserved land and forest that the government has worked to establish (and one private plot in Sabah to the north east). This is their last stand...literally.

Checking the bird book for our morning tally....

Crystal, in front of a forestry camp (now closed, as it is in the park....yet signs of life abound...perhaps they are still logging selectively....#$Q$%#$%#$#@#@#!)

Proboscis monkey in a tree....not that you really needed an explanation of this one....

But also notable are the wild boar, the macaques and the (apparently, thought we didn't see any) leaf monkeys that live on this part of Borneo. Its known as the biodiversity capital of Sarawak, so to it we went exploring....

Pygmy Owl, seen on the night walk. Our guide (this was a real guide, unlike Mulu where they just kinda walk beside/in front of you....the Bako guides - not required but offered, much different than Mulu - just knew the forest so well) spotted this and whispered "you are lucky tonight!".

On our last full day in Bako, we took on the longest loop available to us. 8 hours all told in a rainforest slog through hills, more hills, and a few hills, mud, bogs and wet areas that were quite wet and had a lot of water, through dry, dessicated and sun bleached open areas.....all to make it to the swimming spot. Here, Crystal takes the first dip into the tannin-rich tropical water. We were going to do this loop on the previous day but, you know, snakes, poison, Crystal....plans changed.

Its a great and wonderful park. A 45 minute boat ride in is the only access, and we were able to wrangle four days in the park (we basically arrived with no reservation and were told that we could not enter...full to the limit already. Then, after some asking and pleasantries, we got in!). A lot of hiking...a lot of cool plants (pitcher plants of multiple varieties)...a lot of birds (morning bird walks alone in the forest and on the beach)...cool geology (sandstone and almost pure-sand soils in the forests) and not a day went by without Proboscis and Macaque sightings. And there was some swimming and picture taking and the like. This was a nice change of pace as we were totally free to explore on our own whereas Mulu Nat'l Park was much more regulated (being a UNESCO site they can claim it necessary to make a guide go with you everywhere...).

The same way you would look if you were watching a wild bearded boar ate your still-living friend. A sight of utter awareness and sadness...so tough to watch.

The most startling thing we saw was during an evening walk through the trail by the HQ and hostels...what we thought was a perfect scene of myriad macaques hanging out on the low branches of a tree while a wild boar muddled about below turned out to be much more sinister, yet true to reality in nature. The boar had -somehow- caught a macaque and was tearing the flesh off it as the rest of the troop watched. One monkey, above, seemed the most interested and distraught...must have been closer to it. We watched and were able to see the flesh being torn from bone, the flopping of dead macaque limbs as the boar ate out its inner body...a gory mess of a time for us, let alone the family of the now-dead macaque. To see the reality and the realization in their actions was simply heartbreaking yet amazing at the same time. They knew they lost somebody....they knew. They felt it. They showed it.

Crystal at our second beach in Bako; afterwards we had lunch and watched hermit crabs battle for their control of the riverbank. Cool, so cool, to watch!

The trails at Bako are fairly rugged - lots of up and down, very rooty and muddy in parts and, in some places, barren rock and sandy loam. Quite varied, but all together a gallant effort at trail construction (as opposed to the Mulu method of making boardwalks to all the local sights, Bako just cut a trail and let nature takes its course...and the feet of many hikers. Much more enjoyable).

One of the many species of Pitcher Plant found at Bako (and all around Borneo).

A few hikes take you in circles through the rainforest, and a few take you to secluded little beaches. The beaches were phenomenal and the forest loops...well...phenomenal. Hard to leave. We got in the routine of morning birdwatching walks...breakfast (mmmmm....Borneo coffee.....)...hike all day....dinner...night walks to find crazy stuff. Rinse, lather and repeat. Above the macaque and proboscis monkeys, the wild boar and the fish, crabs, birds, we saw four different snakes (two poisonous....ask Crystal....) a pygmy owl, a flying lemur, poison frogs, scorpions, drongo (yes, a bird...but a totally cool one!), lizards of unending patterns and sizes and in reality very few Homo sapiens. It is a park like no other - crazy biodiversity and you always feel alone in the woods, despite the hostels being full.

Mama and baby...

I have no clue what specific type of frog this is as of yet, but our guide told us it is common in Bako and quite poisonous. He didnt tell us it was cute, but we figured that our for ourselves.

So we spent four days here getting bitten by poisonous snakes (wait, were we not supposed to tell people that part, Crystal?!? About the snake, your leg....me rushing to get a park guide....the "yes its poisonous, you should sit down" speech and the australian hikers that came by? heh- heh...ahhh...memories...) and hiking our hearts out. Sunny, hot, so many birds, plants everything. Bako is a place of places. A biological wonderland. And a workout...those trails, I tell you.....!

Us, the first day at Bako, on the cliff that overlooks the first beach we hiked to. We had just got off the boat and had not yet got news that we could stay for the full four days. So, thinking we might have to leave the next day as we only had the one night booked for sure, we hit the trails immeditely. Worth every heated, sweaty step to get there.

Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre

Ok, not to belabour an already laboured issue, but here we go - Humans want cheap junk food and cheap lumber, humans cut down forest to supply endless lumber and plant oil palms to supply cheap cooking oil. Those plantations last 25 years, the oil palms are cut down, replanted and after a few generations the soil is done, so they move deeper into the forest. Cut down more trees, plant vast oil palm plantations and leave the previous plantations to the rages of time. Slowly, the progress of capitalism pushes the oil palm deeper into the jungles of Borneo.

Another Mother and baby approaching the feeding platform.

Fine, if you are in the oil palm industry. Horrid if you are a large mammal that needs space to live. Orang Utans and Proboscis monkeys are among many of the most hard hit. A few places around Borneo offer respite, in the way of preserves and feeding centres and rehab opportunities.

Further, the animal trade is huge - was huge - in Borneo. Sarawak, the western province always had a law against confinement of rare/endangered animals, but it was never upheld. Then, as relayed to us by a park warden, the governmetn decided it was time, that enough was enough, and that the law was to be upheld. So, the authorities searched out all the known places where animals were being held (not always as pets, but as "good luck" animals in a cage rarely bigger than their bodies...) and dug in to find all the remaining places. That wa a while ago and, while the captive animals are still being found, they needed somewhere to go. So, the government opened rehad centres to work with the animals and help re-introduce them to their natural habitat.

There are two places in Sarawak - The Semnoggoh Wildlife Centre and the Matang Wildlife Centre. They work together, quite well apparently.

So, when animals are retrieved they are brought to the Wildlife Centre. There they are ared for, trained to be "wild" as best they can, and then eventually releaed back to their (shrinking) natural habitat. Sun Bears, Pangolins, Bear Cats, Orang's, Hornbills, Crocs, everything...and these two places allow for both the security and training as well as a parcel of land to re-introduce the animals into.

Mother Orang Utan with baby (hidden behind the tree).

Semenggoh was the first, the original, but it eventually became too burdened with animals so they worked with another centre, Matang, to take the load of rehab and care while Semenggoh focused on in-the-wild feeding and maintenance.

the main care that Semenggoh now is in charge of is the feeding program for the Orang Utans. The dwindling forest does not provide enough resources to provide a full balanced diet at all times of they year so they provide daily feeding of fruits and a few veggies. These are open to the public - totally wild animals that are habituated enough to coem back to the feeding platform and feast for a few minutes on bananas, papayas, lettuce and coconuts. This acts as both a public outreach effort (awareness) and as a practical support for the Orang's.

This was an excellent opportunity to see the wild Oran Utans (and a nice place to slip quietly into the woods and hike for a while...being chased by leeches and mosquitoes!). We also had a great chance over lunch to chat for a long time with the park warden/guide about the politics of Sarawak and the forest industry....quite illuminating.

Kubah National Park

Crystal at the first of two waterfalls we hiked to and swam in while plunking around Kubah.

A day trip from Kuching, Kubah (nobody who worked there knew what the word means, although I posit that it relates to 'palm' somehow as that is their main flora hotspot....a few endemics and a few places where the highest density of diversity is found....so, it just makes sense) National Park is a small delight for so many reasons - one, it is a very rugged and natural park in the midst of a growing city; two, it is home to absolutely stunning waterfalls and hiking trails; three - it is home to the three hour trail that connects the park with the above mentioned Matang Wildlife Centre. We spent two full days here, one hiking and carousing with the insects and plants, the other trekking frmo the park to the wildlife centre (and then carousing with the wildlife!).

Curious point - when we first got to Kubah Park we were told that the main trail connecting the park to the wildlife centre was closed. The bridge was not finished (after a long story about the contractor dying mid-job and thus the work was halted and never finished; impassable) and we could not hike all the way. Totally impossible. The second day we got there and asked another warden and they told us that there was no trial really, it was closed (how could "it" both not exist and be closed; being closed imparts the notion that there is an "it"...) and that they are doing maintenance. So, either the bridge was out, there was no trail, the trail was impassable or just a general 'dont go there' warning was given to us whenever we asked. The reality....we actually hiked this trail twice, there and back on the first day and there on the second day. Bridge was perfectly finished, the trail was wide, clear and well marked. No problems....yet the park staff seemed to think that the trail was in disrepair. Curious, and ill leave it at that.

Big butress roots along the trail...

Bintangor tree, a current main candidate for AIDS research. The tree lives in a region of Borneo that is nearing eradication from the logging and oil palm industry.

...and then there are the sights that are not intended to be "sights". For instance, this one below speaks to the power of a single letter. See if you can find where a missing "d" changes the meaning of this, somewhat important, warning:

Sign on the bus going to Kubah.

...Ah, Islam. The bountiful source of freedom, equality, rationality and inclusion. Oh...wait a minute....

Sign on the door to the City Mosque. We, in shorts, t-shirts and no head-dress of any sort, entered and poked around. It was empty save for a class in progress....youth and religion....ahh....thats nice...

As the sun set on the banks of Kuching, the sun set on our trip. All that was left was a 13 hour Taxi-Plane-Bus-Train journey back to our home, our life and the reality of work fast approaching.

Borneo stuns, awes and amazes. Too much to drink in, the biology and geology too epic. Lessons learned and worlds dicovered while we spend time there will not be forgotten, but in reality they act as only catalysts for a return.

Us at the City Mosque; couldnt find a picture of that Mo-Mo guy they keep trying to speak too...I thought I would hep them out and sketch a quickie in the mosque wall for them....kidding, kidding...I would be dead if I had done that, I presume. Such is the peaceful entity of Islam.

There are two great documentaries available that outline the problems and the reality of life in the logging industry of all three countries of Borneo; "Losing Tomorrow" and "Cathedral Forest". They are poetic, horrid and stunning. Help Patrick by checking out his work and, if you are so inclined, purchasing a video. Watch it, then lend it to somebody. Ask them to lend it to somebody else... . Patrick has a new video called "Green", available online for free.

Here is a shorter look at Sarawak and oil palm/logging realities via Al-Jazeera.

We love Borneo, all of it that we have seen, but there is a tortured history and an uncertain future to this island of nations. We go there to hike, explore and to learn. And to share. I guess we can only start somewhere, and right now the somewhere is here. If you took the time to read this down to this point, we would appreciate at least clicking on one of those above links and spending a another cup of tea worth of time reading or watching. Behind the pygmy owls, the creative insects and the monsterously huge trees lies a blade and a plantation and a death sentence.

Back to Borneo...

2011-01-26T00:13:00.000-08:00

see ya in a couple of weeks!

School Dinner, LiJi Village Bike...

2011-01-16T20:40:00.000-08:00

Formosan Macaque that was none to pleased to see us so close to it....it made a loud and vocal exit soon after this picture!

We are winding down things around here...Crystal is already done her classes and I have one more week to go. It is a long overdue break that is approaching, and while we have a lot to do before we hit Borneo soil, our minds are, um, already on vacation (sometimes!).

Friday was a delightful school dinner to celebrate the end of the semester and the Chinese New Year vacation that approaches; dancing, rather excellent food, prizes (we took home 500NT ($30 CDN) in gift certificates for a bread/cake shop...) and overall a nice goodbye atmosphere. Perhaps 100+ people, including teachers, staff, admin, volunteers, local officials, etc all sat down to a goodbye dinner and evening. Afterwards we met other foreigners - a rare occasion for us here - at a pub and chatted about the random things that inhabit conversations at pubs. Life, travel, life, stuff, and..life.

Saturday we - finally - went to Taitung and rented folding bikes. We had wanted to try them out for so long and finally got the chance. After a day and a half of riding through the mountains, along the coast, through the forest....they totally officially rock! If I had the money I would buy one today. But, lacking said funds, I am happy that we found a nice cheap place to rent them in Taitung (about 2 hours train south) and found some really cool places to poke around in the backwoods and coastal areas of the city.

We also came upon a surreal camping area....totally going back there! Nothing of dramatic mention, just a good couple of days on rented bikes checking out a totally new part of this island. Every weekend....something new to see. Crazy.

The view from the mountain road.

Scenery along our bike through the mountains; a palmy day for a ride (get it...palm tree...palmy......)

[UPDATE: Found some stuff here and here!]

"The Taitung Melange" is a geological formation that is, at least as of 2003 and from what I can gather on online journal searches, a rather curious unknown artifact of the past 50 or so million years. It arranges itself between two main mountain belts - the Coastal (~60mya) and the Central (~600 mya) ranges. It is a consolidated/weak massive structure that is both highly impermeable and prone to rill wash turn gullying - it kinda looks like a mini mountain range. The whole river bed in this area has high walls of rilled and gullied walls, sometimes sheer, and then there is the inland section that looks like a foreign pinnacled karst formation. Karst it totally is not, but from a distance, perhaps is seems so. Anyway, its a cool oddity and this was our first chance to see it, touch it, wonder about it.....and sent me on a day long perusal of internet resources trying to figure out how/when it formed. Still work to be done...

At night we found a weekend hotspot; live music of all genres and serviced with a pub and....wonderfully....a fire pit outside. It was so freaking cold....were it not for the fire we may not have made it through the whole show. Bought the CD.....something about a Chinese old white chicken. Homework...homework....

Air force in full practice mode; it was an endless parade of (we presume) take off/landing practice. Cool to see as we wandered along the coast and spied our new camping spot for future jaunts to Taitung.

Of note today (Monday) is that we had snow in the mountains last night. On the way to work I bike directly towards the mountains for the first few minutes and I always occupy myself by searching for new landslides, features and just generally enjoying the view while I pedal. Today, the view was white. Snow! I have never, I don't think at least, seen snow in Taiwan at such a low elevation. In the mountains (alpine) it snows every year and even some of the lower places on extremely cold days. But, to see snow at something like 600masl was a dramatic and totally unexpected morning sight. So weird...so weird.

Catch-Up

2011-01-13T05:11:00.000-08:00

Like a good veggie burger, we need a little catch-up here. Get it? Hmmmm.....um, ok. Moving on.

Camera died....laboured over a new one, finally picked it up in Taipei. So far its splendid - Panasonic Lumix FZ100.

So here is some catch-upy stuff....

Christmas/New Year squid being prepared on the grill...skewered, not diced, please.

New Years spent at home, from our balcony we could see the festivities the city put on right down the street. Bands, folks with speeches, and a whack load of fireworks that shook our house. Pretty neat, overall. Then on the Saturday we biked to Taroko Gorge again, hung out in TienShiang for the night, then biked home Sunday. Camera actually died three pictures into that trip, so we have no proof. Just trust us.

Ok, this needs to be a book-length analysis on its own, but ill spare you the details and sum up the bulk of it with "Taiwan publishers like to make weird, sometimes elaborate, school stuff". Rarely can you buy a regular notebook. Nope. You need to get said regular notebook with a English-Chinese mixed statement on it, something along the lines of "Love - it is the dish of a cat that milk spills. You freedom. Cheer!" or "Can you breath when. Make tomorrow Diamond love." ... I could go on. Perfectly improper and wrong English phrases that always deal with love, bling and money. Its horrendous. So, imagine the glee that my fatigued eyes allowed me to see when I came across these notebooks: quirky, yet absolutely funny. The best thing Tofu has given us in decades is none other than...."Tofu Rock!"

East meets west meets...steamed snails on the left, popcorn on the right! A New Years festive treat for all (except, um, those of us who don't really go for the steamed snails...)

New Years eve as seen from our third floor porch. This area is usually empty save for a few cars and a few people hanging out by the fountain. But this night, it swelled to immense proportions. This is the back of the crowd - to the left of this pic the people get thicker and thicker and there is a huge stage worthy of a mega rock show. Good times - people of all ages, listening to music of all genres, together. Nobody hurt, robbed, anything. People deal with crowds here better, somehow....

The last photo....part way along our January 1 2011 journey to Taroko Gorge National Park our camera died. We buried it under the banana trees, said a goodbye and laid a stone on top of it with the words "thanks for being there all these years" on top of it*. Then we continued up through the astoundingly amazingly unbelievably wonderful Taroko Gorge....slowly and peacefully.

*Um...the truth is I tried to do everything, save CPR, to get it to work again and didn't let up for the next five days. Finally we gave up, and bought a new child....camera...a new camera.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Death to the Camera

2011-01-04T03:19:00.000-08:00

Slowly, over the past week....we lost a good travel partner, good keeper of memories and excellent insect capturing friend.

Now, off to the Camera store to wind our way through the mysterious trials of purchasing a piece of technology in Taipei. No pictures of new years here, no pictures of our school stuff or the exciting campaign to keep us awake via non-stop fireworks outside our balcony for the last few days while the locals celebrate one of their gods birthday/death day/whatever.

Its been a fun few days in the mix of christmas, new years and the celebrations that seem to pop up unannounced around the city for various reasons and people, but I think it is time to settle back down, clean the streets and get back to the regular steps of a regular life, Hualien. Get to it!

The Birth of Sir Newton

2010-12-27T05:28:00.000-08:00

Hualien City; to the west (left) are the foothills to the coastal mountains, and to the east (yup, the right) you can see the Pacific Ocean. Ocean to mountains, 20 minutes by bike.

Christmas eve we took ourselves to a Japanese bbq for dinner, grabbed some street roasted chestnuts and lounged on the couch watching The Polar Express. A frigid night in Taiwan, giving that seasonal touch to the evening.

Christmas morning in our bathroom tiled kitchen and Japanese styled living room.

The protector of the presents - Raffy.

Liyu Lake (Carp Lake) as the sun sets on December 25th. We went for a christmas hike around the trails in this park and were lucky to end the hike at the same time the sun had just dipped behind the mountains, giving us a perfect (almost) setting for a picture.

Japanese bbq on the left, waiting for our chestnuts on the right.

So Friday night was a calm affair, at a familiar restaurant and a nice movie at home. Saturday, christmas day, we ventured to a local park that is about 20 minutes away by scooter. It is one of few lakes in Taiwan, and it has a neat network of trails around it that we had passed up for too many weekends. So, we decided that this was the time to explore. A chill in the air, overcast sky and a revved up scooter.....we took to the mountains, again. The trail took us to one point of note, a place where we could look down on the rift valley from west to east. So often we get to see the east to west panorama (from the highway, other trails, our old house, etc...) so it was a nice treat to see the valley from the other side. A totally different perspective of something so familiar!

Christmas eve on the streets of Hualien (left) and a tree awaiting morning on the right.

Putting Gavins train (he will be an artist, its obvious!) on the tree and Crystal showcasing the expensive gifts I got her. Yes, pickings are slim around these parts for gifts! They will make a wonderful soup and muffins sometime this week.

On the trail, looking down to Liyu Lake on the left, and looking eastward down the valley on the right.

Another cross-valley picture from the trail, the mountains in the distance are the coastal range, and we are standing on the first hummocky foothill of the central range. Just past the mountains in the distance is the Pacific Ocean. Click on the pic and look at the big building complex in the middle - that is DongHua University where Crystal now calls home!

Close up of DongHua U and the valley we have adopted for three years now.

Park entrance. With Style.

Overall a serene weekend, which was perfect for us. Happy Holidays, we are back at work as there is no vacation time here until February. But then....Borneo!