Day 2

Monday February 11th, 2013

7:20 a.m.

Well, where in the world to start? I’ve only been on the road for one day and a night and it feels like I’ve been gone for weeks. It always feels that way, which is one of the reasons I enjoy travel so much – time dilates and it feels like there is so much more to life. A day at work goes by in a flash with nothing new happening. A day on the road stretches and stretches forever. Most people have that feeling when they have adventures and you see it in books all the time. Whenever a main character has a particularly intense experience of some kind, they always think at some point about how “it was only four hours ago that I was asleep in my bed without a care in the world” or “can it only have been six hours?” In my case, it’s hard to believe that it was only yesterday morning that I set off on my scooter from Taipei.

Lashing all the gear onto my scooter was not as difficult as I anticipated. My backpack with all the camping gear was much heavier than I’d have liked, but there is nothing I can do about that. At least on the scooter, I don’t have to provide the energy to move it, other than paying for the gas.

Even as I was driving down the main street near my apartment, I didn’t know which direction I was going to take. Then when I reached a key intersection, I made an instant decision and turned right heading for a particular bridge out of Taipei that will lead me onto route 3 heading to the southwest part of Taiwan.

It’s a crazy bridge and shows exactly what I was talking about yesterday about crossing scooters on bridges. I remember that I was so confused the first time I attempted it. Even now after crossing it many times, I get confused and have to be very careful not to make a mistake. It can be very complicated to turn around and take another run at these things. Taipei is riddled with one-way streets and bewildering areas. In this case, you approach the bridge down a very large and busy street called Heping Road. The lanes begin to rise gradually and lead you onto the bridge. However, if you follow those lanes, you will be in trouble. Those are only for cars. Going against all instincts, if you are on a scooter, you have to dive down this narrow little alley on the right of the main lanes. It doesn’t look like anything at all. In fact, driving down it, you feel like you have left the bridge completely behind. It seems impossible that you will get back onto it. The trick is that you drive down this narrow alley as far as it will take you. It ends at a set of freeways running alongside the river. There, you turn right away from the bridge. But you DON’T get on the freeway. That would be a disaster. Instead, you dive down another small alley beside this huge green bush. Again, it feels like you are simply driving through some lanes and alleys of a regular Taipei neighborhood and going nowhere. But you keep going and going and then suddenly you are brought to a split in the alley. You must quickly go left to a stoplight. At this stoplight you wait for a green light and then you do a fast and dangerous U-turn so that you are suddenly heading back in the direction you just came from but on the other side of the freeway. The road starts to narrow until it is only a slender path that barely allows space for a scooter. It begins to rise and, miraculously, it brings you in a long and sweeping curve back to the bridge you had been aiming for all along and you can race across on your dedicated scooter lane separated from the rest of the bridge by a waist-high cement barrier. The first time I crossed this bridge, I did it on a bicycle. I ended up in the car lanes by accident and then I had to pick up my bike and carry it across this cement barrier to get over to the sidewalk running beside the scooter lane. It’s a complicated business, but great fun once you know. I guess it’s like life in any big city. I remember how much I enjoyed driving around the highways of Toronto once I figured them all out and they became familiar to me. For someone from Sarnia, driving to Toronto is a stressful experience, but once you’ve lived there for a while, it can be fun navigating all the exits and on-ramps and whipping along the QEW and such things. Taipei is like that but amped up by a factor of ten.

I had thought about following a mountain route out of Taipei. That is the more scenic route and the one I usually take. For that reason, however, it is very familiar to me and I felt in the mood for something new. Following Route 3 took me through a seemingly endless urban environment. That can be somewhat boring and frustrating if you are worried about going fast. I was in no hurry, however, and I enjoyed the slow pace and the chance to look around and see new things in neighborhoods I hadn’t passed through in a long time. I never could have done it except that there are just enough signs in English in Taiwan. Most signs are in Chinese, of course, but there are a few in English and if you are on your toes, you can spot them and use them to find your way. They are rarely logically or usefully placed, but they are there and they make it possible for me to navigate on my own. I made only a few mistakes this time and I was careful to note where I went wrong and then slowly work my way back to pick up the route again. The problem is that though Route 3 looks very clear and plain on a map, it isn’t a separate road at all. It isn’t like driving down a Canadian highway. In reality, Route 3 is just a construct made by stitching together a whole bunch of other roads. It would be like stitching together a bunch of residential streets and calling it Route 6. You can draw that line on a map, and it looks great, but it’s not really a separate road at all. That can lead to a lot of confusion, but as I said, I’d done this a few times and I found my way without too much trouble. It just took a long, long time.

The weather was quite a bit worse than I had hoped for and driving was not that much fun. It was cold and wet with a light drizzle falling almost the entire time. I love driving my scooter but even my spirits can fall a bit when faced with that kind of weather. It’s hard to hold onto that sense of adventure when you’re cold and wet and you can’t really see anything. On these trips, I generally stop at every sight of interest and move slowly. But in weather like that, my instinct isn’t to stop but to just keep going. I want to get somewhere. But I have no particular destination so that urge to get somewhere doesn’t make any sense. Then you start to wonder why you’re driving at all. I kept myself going on this occasion by the idea that my goal was to get out of the urban area and into some nice countryside before I would even think about stopping for the day.

There are hundreds if not thousands of 7-11 convenience stores in Taiwan now and they are extremely handy for me. They’re exceedingly well-stocked with everything you could want. Plus they generally have tables and chairs and counter seating and even bathrooms. They have saved my neck numerous times and they did so again on this trip. When I was at the end of my endurance for cold and wet, I came across a 7-11 and pulled in for a break. I jumped into the bathroom for a much-needed bathroom-session and then got a hot cup of coffee and sat at a table to look over my maps and see where I’d come from and where I was going to go. I also took advantage of the stop to open up my backpack and pull out a heavy sweatshirt and my gloves. I needed some more warmth and layers to deal with the cold. I hadn’t put on my gloves before because they interfere a bit with my handling of the throttle and the brakes on my scooter. In the craziness of the city, I don’t like to use the gloves. Now that I was more in the countryside, it was okay and I put them on.

I felt much better after I left the 7-11 and had more layers of clothing on and my fingers weren’t quite so numb. I could count myself lucky, in fact, that it wasn’t actually raining. The drizzle was bad enough, but I could handle it. If it were raining hard, I don’t know that I could have kept on going. I wasn’t really prepared for that kind of weather in that I hadn’t fully waterproofed my backpack and other gear. Having my tent along started to seem pretty silly. In weather like this, the thought of spending a night in my tent was not pleasant. It would be economical to sleep in my tent, but I was sure that if push came to shove I’d fork over the cash for a hotel room no matter what the cost.

To make a very long and difficult drive short, I finally pulled off Route 3 onto a tiny mountain road that promised to take me to the Lion’s Head Mountain National Scenic Area. This is an area in Miaoli County – a very beautiful and interesting county just south of Taipei. I’d explored some of this area in the past, but there was lots I hadn’t seen. Before I turned off the main road, I made sure to fill my gas tank. I still had plenty of gas, but you never know when you’ll see another gas station and it is always wise to top up the tank before heading into the mountains.

In a very short time, I was climbing up a narrow and winding road. As I climbed, the temperature dropped and a thick mist appeared. There was little traffic, however, and it was great fun to scooter along slowly and enjoy the scenery. Now that I was outside of Taipei and in the mountains, it felt like the heart of the trip had started and I was more willing to stop and explore. Therefore, when I saw a sign for the Shueilian Cave, I pulled over to check it out.

Lion’s Head Mountain is famous for the number of caves found on its slopes. Over the centuries, people had built shrines in these caves and they had grown into large temples. Today, there are at least 16 major temples on Lion’s Head Mountain alone with many more dotted around the scenic area. They can be very old and in very beautiful settings. Not surprisingly, one of these temples was built at the Shueilian Cave. It was built into a very large rock overhang. During heavy rains, a curtain of water falls in front of the temple. The temple used to have a large library, but the humidity had destroyed the books as quickly as they could be replaced, and the effort was soon given up.

I parked my scooter and then carefully made my way down a long and slippery set of stone steps. I got out my camera and took some pictures of the temple and the temple grounds from a distance. The temple and the cave were right beside a river, and a short trail went alongside the river. I spent perhaps an hour there exploring and taking pictures. I recently bought a new camera – an Olympus OM-D E-M5 – and I’m still trying to figure it out. I went a bit “lens happy” and I bought six lenses. That may not have been wise. Six lenses are fine when you are living in one place. But when you are traveling that is a lot of lenses to carry, and it isn’t that easy to be changing lenses all the time. I’ve been thinking about selling some of the lenses and getting my collection down to just two or three. However, I find I have a use for all the lenses and end up wanting them all. In this case, I changed lenses. I took off the 50mm and put on a 120mm macro lens. There were lots of caterpillars and things like that around, and I find I enjoy taking pictures of small things lately. I don’t understand how to use the macro lens very well, but I occasionally get a good shot.

Just across from this temple and cave and river was the main Lion’s Head Mountain Visitor Center. It was fairly busy there as people were taking advantage of the holidays to take a road trip just like me. There was a lot of information there about the region and I picked up a good map. Taiwan is a very interesting place in how dense it is. It’s a very small place. I think all of Taiwan could fit in between Sarnia and Toronto. Yet, it is so compact and dense that there is no comparison at all. There are a phenomenal number of different places and different geographies within this small area. And you could spend days and days just exploring this Lion’s Head Mountain area.

I knew I wanted to explore this area more, but I wasn’t really sure how to go about it. The weather was so terrible that hiking one of the trails wasn’t an attractive prospect. Beyond that, all I could really do was drive around and see what there was to see. So I got back on my scooter and drove along the small road and kept my eyes open. At one point, I saw a sign pointing to the right towards Cyuanhua Temple. I almost gave it a miss. There are so many temples it hardly seems worth it to drive up a road to see one. But I had the time and I turned up that road to see what was up there. And I ended up very glad I did.

This has, in fact, been something of a theme of my time and travels in Taiwan – this idea that you should just take that little step to the left or to the right to see what is there. You never know what you are going to find and you usually stumble across some amazing things. In Canada, you sort of know what the big attractions are. There aren’t a lot of surprises. So you can grab a map or a guidebook and then make a list of the things to see. Taiwan doesn’t work that way. I suppose Asia in general doesn’t. There is simply so much to see and experience that it’s impossible to know what is there in advance, and a little detour down a side road can give huge rewards.

In this case, Cyuanhua Temple was not just a temple. It was a large group of temples with the most extraordinary setting. In fact, they call it the Cyuanhua Temple Group. It’s also very central and from this group of temples it’s possible to go on hiking trails into the rest of the area. I was extremely happy when I realized what I had stumbled across.

Chinese New Year is an important time of the year for the Taiwanese to visit temples and get the year off to a good start. These temples are very famous ones and a lot of people had made the trip. There was a large parking lot jammed with vehicles and even police down there directing traffic and keeping things moving. I drove down a steep road on my scooter and a police officer directed me to a spot to park. Around the large parking area were many food stalls selling all kinds of snacks and meals. It had the atmosphere of a festival. I left my backpack on my scooter and just took my knapsack and went hiking up the first set of stairs I saw. I had no idea where they went, but a lot of people were going up and down them so I thought they had to go somewhere special. The steps led to more steps and then more steps and then more steps leading to temple after temple after temple, each with its own dramatic setting and unique style. Taiwan is off the traveller’s circuit as I mentioned before and I was the only foreigner around. Everyone was very surprised to see me and I was greeted with “Happy New Year” in both Chinese and English. I couldn’t believe how many gorgeous temples there were and how beautiful they were. With all the people around, it was a very special atmosphere and I started to think in terms of spending the night there if possible. I had never done it, but I had heard of people staying at temples overnight. I started asking people about this. I’d pick someone who looked university-educated and probably spoke English. Or I’d wait until someone greeted me in English and then I’d ask them about the possibility of staying in this area. It turns out that no one spoke English and I soon gave up on that approach. I then went inside an office at one of the larger temples to ask them. There was a lot of activity there with several people at desks. I was quickly pointed in the direction of the one person in the office who spoke English. There is usually an unofficial designated English speaker in any office. While I waited, I was presented with New Year treats and cookies and even a beautiful New Year lantern. My being there was a pretty big event for everyone.

To my delight, my question about a place to stay was met with an instant “yes”. A man was called into the room and he was given the task of showing me where this room was. I had no idea what was going on, but I went with him willingly. To my surprise, he didn’t bring me into the temple but down through several temples to another smallish-looking building. It small size was deceptive, though. This was just the top part of a huge and ornate building that spread down the mountainside for several stories. I had thought it was another temple or a monastery, but it was in fact a huge building of rooms where pilgrims to the temples can stay. It functions just like a hotel, but it is more casual than that in some ways.

My guide brought me to the front desk. At every step, I was expecting the head shake and the negative answer. Things usually work out but they are never very easy. In this case, I had found the perfect place to stay, but I was sure it would be full. At Chinese New Year, to find an available room is almost impossible. There was some discussion back and forth between my guide and the man behind the desk. Then, to my amazement, I was handed the ledger and asked to sign in. I got a room! And not just for one night. I took the room for two nights so that I could spend another day exploring the area. All this had been done with no discussion of the price and I wondered if it was free. I asked about the price, and they said it was NT$1,000/night, which is about $33. That’s as cheap as you’re going to find in Taiwan and I was happy to pay it. I absolutely could not believe my luck.

Getting my backpack and gear to the room didn’t look like it was going to be easy. My pack was heavy and hard to carry and it was sitting on my scooter far below this mountain hotel. Then, by chance, I noticed a road running nearby. I walked down to my scooter and drove out of the temple complex and back toward the main road. On the way, I kept my eyes open for any kind of hidden side road. I found one that had a sign saying that cars were not allowed. I decided to take a chance on my scooter and I drove down this road and to my surprise, it brought me right to the bottom floors of this hotel in the temple complex. I don’t think I was allowed to drive there let alone park there, but I did anyway. And then I just had to find a way up the mountainside to the main entrance. My room was on the 1st floor of this building. So was my scooter. But there was no entrance there. The only way in or out was way up to the sixth floor high up on the mountain cliff. So I had to climb up there with my back and then go down the stairs in the building itself. Complicated and tiring, but I got it down and I was the proud and happy owner of a very nice room.

The room was actually much nicer and bigger than anything I needed. It had its own bathroom with hot and cold running water, two beds, and a nice balcony overlooking the misty valley far below. I would have been happier with just a tiny room with no comforts for $10/night, but such rooms don’t really exist in Taiwan. The Taiwanese economize by packing rooms with as many people as possible. I travel by myself so I end up paying a premium for a lot of space and comfort that I don’t really need.

I got some dinner at one of the stalls around the parking lot. Despite the number of food stalls, there wasn’t a lot on offer. I ended up with a large plate of noodles with an oyster omelet. The oyster omelet is a specialty in Taiwan and until yesterday I had never even had one. Seafood is not appealing to me at all and despite this being a local delicacy, I had never bothered to order one. Now I can cross it off my list. Actually, I didn’t even know that it was an oyster omelet. I saw some omelets being made and they looked good from a distance so I tossed one into my order. Then when it arrived at my table I saw that it was jammed with raw oysters. Oh, well. Another adventure for the day. I was really hungry by this point anyway, and I wolfed it down along with my noodles.

Once I was settled in my wonderful room, I grabbed my camera and went out for another walk around the main group of temples. It was a wonderful experience to walk around in the mist and stumble across interesting sights at every corner. I was very happy to find a sign indicating a 3.5 kilometer trail leading over the top of Lion’s Head Mountain and all the way back to the Visitor Center I had been at the day before. I decided that that would be my main activity for the next day (today). The Visitor Center has a wonderful tea room and restaurant, and I can time things to hike over the mountain and arrive there just in time for a good lunch before hiking back.

I love staying in places like this overnight. The usual pattern for people in Taiwan is day trips. However, I always try to stay overnight. Then you see the place in all its aspects. You see it during the day when the hordes of visitors come during the day. Then you are there at night when it is empty and quiet and you have all of the beauty to yourself. Finally, you see it in the morning as it wakes up and the people who live and work here set things in order as they prepare for the new day. Places in Taiwan can be quite crowded and uncomfortable and a daytrip can be a jarring experience. The secret to enjoying these places is to drive your own scooter there and spend the night.

I woke up this morning to more mist and rain. That doesn’t bode well for my hike. However, it’s almost 9 in the morning now, and the rain has stopped. The mist is still there but it has receded a bit, and I’m now being treated to a gorgeous view of the valley below me and the mountains around. Some traditional music is floating up from somewhere. People are moving about and getting ready for the new visitors. It promises to be a wonderful day.

Tags: CNY Scooter Trip Taiwan 2013, Cyuanhua Temple Group, scooter, Taipei, Taiwan, temple