A Tribute to Taiwan: Everything she has to give

A gorgeous morning view....everyday.

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

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

Crisp flowers...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Life, eh.

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

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

Stuff to do in Yuli, Taiwan, at night.

Ask and thee shall....

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

But, there are clues:

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



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



Packed grade 6 class.



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

Me and one of my grade 4 classes.

Grade 6 again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Teaching the teachers.

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

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

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

Grade 3's, again.

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

Illegal Hikes of Taiwan: Part II

...good idea

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

Lets start with a calendar.

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

Both are a hikers dream, both are exceptional.

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

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

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

So it goes...

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

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

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

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

Us on the trail.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Immediate danger is ignored. Potential danger is abhored.

More trail shot along the way...

Me and the wonderous Elephant Ear plant.

Trail and bridge...

Bridge ...

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

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

Illegal Hikes of Taiwan Pt 1

This tale is far too long, and too dependent upon experience with Taiwanese regulations to explain perfectly, but here goes the .zip version.

It must first be known that:

1) Taiwanese are afraid of nature
2) Taiwanese are not accustomed to rigorous exercise
3) Taiwan is an over-regulation=safety culture for all things outdoors
4) The trail types are very different than in Canada; "Walking Trail" is actually a road, "Hiking Trail" is actually a path in the woods, "Mountain Trail" is a well used path that has elevation gains along the way, "Epic Mountaineering Backcountry Climbing" is actually a regular fund, adventurous hiking trail.
5) Taiwanese are afraid of nature (yes, it is worth repeating).

Taiwan, for the record, has epic mountains and epic trails and astounding opportunities for adventure and excitement.It is just that those things that a Canadian hiker would submit as a day hike - anything relating to those trails found in Jasper or Banff, Kootenays, Smithers and the like - are regarded as life-risking and so regulated that people actually must not use them.

Here is what you need to have/do to hike an actual trail, in summary:
1) Own and carry a cell phone. On.
2) Hire a guide who is fluent in Chinese. If you are foreign and fluent, it doesn't matter. In case the Mountain Search and Rescue (two guys chewing betel nuts, possibly inebriated and smoking as they walk through the woods with a bandaid and some rubbing alcohol) come to save your life, they need to be able to speak perfectly clearly to you to see where it hurts, what is wrong. The open gash in your leg with the protruding bone isn't good enough. You need to articulate this in perfect Chinese.
3) Write down your daily plans, where you will stop for break, time leaving and returning, passport #, etc, etc. And they want to know his/her nickname, sex, birthdate, passport#, home #, cell #, ...

And to top it all off, the specifics of getting the appropriate permits are all different based on who you talk to or what you read. The National Park website, park rangers, park office, police (who do a lot of the permit granting), application form...all tell you different things. Different instructions. Different rules, same place.

It is absolutely arcane. It is understandable to want some basic info for a protected area, or highly dangerous area, but that is just the point - these trails are not dangerous. They are hiking trails. A hiking trial that will break a sweat and go uphill is a death sentence to Taiwanese. So they regulate it to the brim. And they fear it. Here is a quote from the park office in regards to a trail we asked about earlier:

I have asked some my colleagues but none of them have done this Mt. Sha
route. I hope you think twice before you make this trip. You might not listen to
my advice. This subtropical climate Taiwan is similar to Vietnam. If you have
seen the Vietnam War, the areas are like that. The forest here is similar to the
film scene. Some dot showed on the map this indicates that used to be the old
Forest Bureau logging road. Some route has disappeared.

And how do you get around all these asinine regulations?

You simply walk by the gate, ignore the sign and go about your lovely day in the backwoods of
Taiwan.

So it goes...

Through the forest, up the slopes, across the cliffs, down the valley, up the valley (where we saw a Crab-Eating Mongoose! It was, to be clear, not eating a crab as its name would suggest, but rather violently defending its pygmy deer carcass...well....skull....so, rocks in hand we trodded lightly as we passed and went about our day with thoughts of "those things dont attack, do they?" dancing about in our minds) across another cliff and up to a lookout platform. This platform was a special moment.

You see, hiking without a permit in Taiwan can get you into all sorts of trouble, ranging from "you have to go back to the trailhead" to "give me a tissue sample and your passport, you are banned from hiking in Taiwan and any other country that starts with a 'T'". And all the way in the middle of those two. So, we - being unsure of the reprimand we would receive and really wanting to keep hiking - decided that we would be stealthy at the appropriate moments. And the main appropriate moment was, at the 1/2 way point of the trail, an 'Outpost'. We assumed a couple of park rangers, a police officer and a hunger for validating park permits.

So, when we started getting close, we entered stealth mode. Walking softly, peering around each corner, not walking on loose rocks, not a word between us...slink and scurry... . Corner - stop, slowly peer around....nothing....keep going. And on and on. The tension was rising when we came to a battered sign that told us the Outpost was 0.1km ahead.

Super stealth. Breathing subdued. Holding on to the zipper on our bags to not mak a jingle that would give away our position.....tense moments....tense....and then.......then......then......a sign that read:

"this is the place where, in the late '40s, a police outpost once stood to
regulate the aboringines and protect travellers as they passed along the
trail..."

An empty plateau, the size of three school buses. Nothing. No park rangers, no angry police, no permit check. Nothing.

We were safe, and broke out in laughter and relief. The excitement and tension built up to such a feverish peak and when we realized that we could relax and not hide in the woods trying to avoid detection, we felt the rush. It was good!

Snack, then returned down the trail, across the cliffs, etc, all the way back to the trailhead. Hopped on our scooter quickly and zoomed away from the trailhead, never once being questioned by the park rangers or police. Excellent.

All the way back to the ocean, along the massive coastline highway to our evening destination, Ci Xing Tan Beach (Chee-Shing-Tan; Seven-Star-Lake). We pitched our tent, walked into the town for dinner, grabbed some bevvies and hiked back out to the beach towards our tent. Spent the night watching the stars (beautiful sky!!), chasing away approaching - and growling and grunting - dogs, swimming...sort of, playing along the beach and chatting away into the early morning. Sleep....perfect weather for camping.

Woke up to a gorgeous beach morning, nobody around. Hung out and watched the waves for a while, then packed up, grabbed a coffee in town (at a Giant bike rental stand which, as a picture tells the tale of, is where massive bus groups go to go 'Mountain Biking' around the beach. People, no joke, in high-heels, dress clothes and with purses rent bike en mass and go on 2-3 km circuits with a leader and a megaphone telling the group "how exciting this is". Then they stop for lunch, stretch and whine like they just climbed Everest, and feel rejuvenated by their yearly exercises now being complete....this is the level of outdoors ethic in Taiwan).

So we jammed along on our scooter back into Hualien City, checked out a cool Recreation/Nature area (the mantis and the fish ladder pictures) and then called it a weekend. Grabbed a train, got home and had some Hot Pot in RueiSuei, took a taxi home and slept.

Cixingtan Taroko

So the lesson learned was:

Hike illegally, it is just easier. The permits are free, the park get nothing from it, but it takes you a week of paperwork and so many hurdles that it is just, simply, not worth it.

These boots will keep on trekking.....anywhere!!!

Cracked Chrysalis, Beautiful Butterfly...

A while ago a friend and collegue gave us a very interesting and delightful gift - a chrysalis of a special Taiwanese butterfly species. He told us to dunk it in water every three or four days, and to wait. Once it warmed up, got more humid and sunny it would emerge and we would be able to watch the metamorphosis process in action, Taiwan Style. So, we waited. Dutifully watering our little fella/fellette, we waited. Then, one day, another chrysalis appeared on Crystals water bottle. Out of nowhere, a different species becmae a part of our life. So, we took it upstairs (to be with the other one, so they would not be too lonely) and waited and watered. We assumed that it would be March-ish before any emergence, so no hoes were raised. Until last night. It started to wiggle. I thought "cool, its getting comfy inside its little home" and took a few pictures and some videos of the squiggling chrysalis. But then, as Crystal was working upstairs, it started to emerge! And she caught it in the act! We raced to get the camera and spent the next half hour watching it try dry its wings and do what a brand new butterfly does. It was awsome! And here are some moments, fresh off the press: