Saturday September 10, 2011

6:30 a.m. Nanfangao

As I suspected, I ended up in a small fishing port on the east coast. It’s a small but bustling place called Nanfangao. I don’t know that it is unique, but it is certainly a type of town that isn’t very common anymore. It feels quite traditional and the people make their living from fishing still. It would be difficult to describe and actually convey what it is like. The pictures will give a much clearer idea. I was here once before and I liked it so much that I always planned to come back. I don’t think I’d want to spend several days here. It might get a bit claustrophobic after a while. However, it is a wonderful place to spend a day or a day and a half.

I got here relatively early in the day – around 2:30 in the afternoon. I could have continued on down the coast to Hualien, but I am in no hurry. The traffic had been building throughout the day on the coast road as well, and I didn’t want to deal with it when I was tired. It had taken around four and a half hours of driving to get to Nanfangao and that seemed like long enough.

I was very pleased to find a brand new observation deck built high on the nearby coastal cliffs. From there, I got a wonderful view of the port. I had never seen it laid out like that before. Technically, there are three ports. There is a very large port to the north that is reserved for large shipping and for the navy. Then there are two long and narrow fishing ports – each shaped like a perfect rectangle. They are connected by land and water and have rocky outcroppings here and there to set them off. There is a large (and fairly pointless) bridge going from the land out to these outcroppings so you can drive around the entire place in a circle. From the observation deck, I saw that there was also a very long and beautiful beach on the south side of town running exactly opposite one side of one of the ports. That makes no sense, I know. It’s difficult to describe the physical layout of a place. Even when I am down inside Nanfangao, I am confused. It is a bit of a maze. On the ground, it is impossible to get a sense of its layout.

The most interesting part of the port is the boats. They are crazy, crazy fishing boats and there are hundreds of them of all shapes, sizes, and colors. They are stacked against the sides of the ports four and five deep. Those closest to the shore have probably been floating there for years and have never gone out to sea in that time. It’s hard to say. They are all seaworthy. And those that do go out to sea don’t look to be in any better shape. When I stop to think about it, I realize that saying these boats are traditional is a bit misleading. They look traditional in that they are not giant fishing trawlers that one sees on TV. They are smaller boats owned and run by one man with a small crew. However, they do have technology. They have radar and lights and radios. I can’t imagine what it takes to keep one of these boats in running shape. I can’t imagine either the life that these people lead. Most of the men on the ships are young and very rough and tough looking. Many (or all of them) live on the boats themselves. As I walked around taking pictures, I had to be careful to notice the men that were hidden in the chaos of the boats sleeping in hammocks, washing over basins, or peeing into the ocean. I didn’t want to accidentally point my camera at one of them and upset them. Most probably wouldn’t have minded. They generally shouted English words at me and waved and smiled at me. Towards the end of the day and into the evening, the drinking began and they became more friendly and boisterous. I learned to spot the groups of drunk men from far away and walk a route that avoided them. Drunk men always have a lot of fun themselves, but a sober person hanging out with them is guaranteed to be bored out of his mind.

When I was in Nanfangao last time, I stayed in a small hotel right on the main drag at the entrance to the port I remember being very surprised and very pleased to see it. Most interesting small towns in Taiwan don’t have obvious places to stay. At least I can never find them. The hotel room was extremely small and cramped, but it had all the things one would get in a bigger place – air conditioning, a TV, a bathroom with hot water, and a comfortable bed. The price years ago was NT$800 and it remains NT$800 today. It’s possible that is an inflated price for the foreigner, but I doubt it. That works out to about $27 Canadian.

Being a holiday weekend, I was worried that even this small hotel would be full, but I didn’t see anyone else staying there. The Taiwanese tend to go out to places and then go home again on their trips. Why pay for a room when you have a room at home? Plus, when they do stay in a hotel, they gravitate toward expensive resorts. At least, that is my impression. The hotels tend to be clustered in larger cities. The nearby city of Yilan is jammed with hotels and the smaller city of Suao also has a hotel. Nanfangao is one of the rare smaller and very interesting places with a hotel. It remains, along with Lanyu (Orchid Island) and Fenqihu, among my favorite discoveries in Taiwan.

After I dropped off my backpack and took a quick shower in my room, I went out with my camera. Nanfangao is spread out, so I still took my scooter. I drove first to the big bridge and parked in the middle. I took a bunch of pictures from there. Then I drove to one of the harbors and parked there. I walked all the way around the harbor and back again taking pictures as I went. The sun was hot but not as hot as it can be in the middle of summer. It was just right. Towns like this never run out of interesting things for the visitor. I found lots of new things to check out including a large temple. I climbed up to the temple and got a nice view of the harbor.

Earlier, I’d noticed a local on a scooter pointing out a small alley branching off to the south to a couple in a car. The couple looked like tourists, so I figured the woman was pointing out something interesting. I turned my scooter down that same alley and found that large beach I mentioned earlier. I had had no idea that beach was there on my previous trip. It was a beautiful beach, but according to the signs was not safe for swimming. Many beaches in Taiwan are marked as unsafe for swimming. I wonder sometimes if that if just a reflection on the poor swimming skills of the Taiwanese. But I have heard enough stories of drownings to think that perhaps the beaches really are dangerous. I know that on the east coast of Taiwan there is no continental shelf to moderate the ocean. The deep ocean starts right there at the edge of the island, and that can mean strong currents. On this beach there was even a sign in English and with diagrams showing why the beach was dangerous. It indicated there was a deep trough right off the shore and the waves create a circular current and undertow that will suck you down. The sign gave instructions to people on the beach saying that you should never attempt to rescue someone who is in trouble in the water. Just call for help. The sign also said that you should never turn your back on the waves. I began to understand what they meant by that as I walked along. It was a very calm day, and the ocean was almost completely flat. Yet, two or three times I was completely surprised by a very large wave that came out of nowhere. The water surged up past my knees in a second and then nearly pulled me off my feet and sucked me out into the ocean. On a windier day, I can imagine much, much larger waves doing this same thing. The tricky thing was how flat the water was. You couldn’t see the waves at all as they moved in. Then at the last second they would suddenly rise up and crash onto the sand. Not turning your back on those waves was good advice.

To my surprise, there was a large and fancy middle school directly opposite the beach. The beach and school were so close together, it almost gave the impression the beach was just an extension of the school grounds. It seemed an ideal sort of situation for the students. Such a location for a school in Canada would be unheard of. Prime land like that would be far too valuable to be wasted on a bunch of students. But this happens in Taiwan all the time. I have seen many schools in the most incredible locations. I always wonder how they ended up there. But at the same time, there is a certain isolation to these schools. When I first saw the school, I imagined that the students would be hanging out on the beach all the time. They certainly would in Canada. But things are different in Taiwan. I watched as school finished for the day, and none of the students went to the beach. Not one. I looked around, and I realized that there was nothing in the neighborhood – no shops, no convenience stores, no cafes, no restaurants. That is another common feature to many places in Taiwan. I’ve seen many places that seem ideal locations for shops or cafes (and hotels), but there are rarely any there. Life follows a unique rhythm in Taiwan.

After my time walking up and down the beach, I drove to my scooter over to the second fishing harbor. This one has the fish market, and I hung out there for a while watching the action and taking pictures. I never take pictures of people in Taiwan for some reason. I focused on the fish and the fishing boats. The market struck me as very small for a place with so many fishing boats. Perhaps that is why so many of the boats seem to be just permanently at the docks. Maybe the fish are mostly gone. It could also be that the larger catches of fish go directly to large markets in Taipei and other places.

I learned very quickly that just as much as you don’t turn your back on the waves in Nanfangao, you don’t turn on your back on the fish market. It was a very organic place with fish guts, tubs of dirty water, fish heads, and lots of other interesting things slopping and splashing about. It was not a place for the squeamish or the easily startled. I turned once to have a huge fishing boat suddenly appear right beside me. The boats arrive right at that dock and unload. I was standing on the cement edge and it seemed that a part of the fishing boat came close to smacking me in the head as it docked. The captain has important things to do and he can’t be worried about a silly tourist just standing there and getting in the way. Apparently, many of the market women felt the same way, and I was muscled aside and slammed into several times. That tubs of fish guts did not end up all over my feet was also not because of any care taken on the part of the market people. It was only my constantly looking around and being careful that avoided that.

I’m not that interested in food and cooking, and I’ve never liked seafood, so most of what was going on around me felt very alien. I’ve often had that urge to go to the fish market, but it was always just to check it out and take pictures and absorb the atmosphere. I can’t imagine wanting to go to the market to pick up a giant fish or a dozen squid or one of the other dozens of slimy and scary looking creatures I saw all around me. Yet, many people have that urge. All around me, people were snapping up all these sea creatures with the greatest energy and excitement. Not just any fish would do. They examined them all and poked and prodded and discussed them with the seller. I was amused to see the conclusion of one such transaction. A couple was considering two quite large fish out of a selection of a half dozen similar fish. The market man picked them up and put them on a big scale behind them. The weight noted and the price settled, the market man picked up the fish and threw them onto the disgusting and dirty pavement behind him for the next person to package them for sale. Were I the person buying the fish, I wouldn’t have wanted them tossed around like that. Wouldn’t they get bruised? They certainly got dirty. No one seemed to mind, though.

It surprised me that I was included in the sales pitches by the market women. They didn’t distinguish between me and the other people there, as if I was also there to buy something and then eagerly trot off home with it to fry it up and eat it (or whatever one does with a large slimy something). I thought it would be pretty obvious that I wasn’t there to buy. However, it wasn’t obvious and as I walked around and checked out the tubs of sea creatures, the women talked a blue streak at me and picked up the various items for sale and waved them at me. One woman held up a squid and pulled out the various tentacles and told me something about them that apparently made this a very desirable squid. It looked to be the same as all the other squid. And not being in the market for squid, I could only smile and move on.

My tour of Nanfangao left me with many more questions and answers. I knew that these people fish and that these were fishing boats. But beyond that, I knew nothing. Do they fish at night or during the day? How far away do they go to catch their fish? Do they know what kind of fish they want? Do they have specialties? Or do they just throw out a big net and get what they get and sort it out later? How much do the fishing boats cost? How much money do they make? Who are all the young men that crew these boats? Are they local Taiwanese? They looked different to me, not Taiwanese. Do they sleep on the boats? Do they have days off? Is the fishing licensed and controlled?

I was tired after such a long day in the hot sun, and I retired to my tiny room pretty early. Right across the street was a betel nut shop. Like most betel nut shops, it had a bright pinwheel neon light for advertisement. This flashing and spinning light lit up the wall of my room with multi-colored splashes and lines, turning it into a disco but without any music. I adjusted the curtains all night to try to block it out, but I never could. I just had to try to ignore it.

Nanfangao gets up early, and by five thirty, there was already enough noise outside my window to make it impossible to sleep even with earplugs. All the fruit stalls and other things were already open and there were customers already there. It is a Saturday, so I imagine it will be a busy day. I think today will be another fantastic day. I’ll be driving down one of the most beautiful stretches of road in Taiwan, and the skies are clear and blue.

4:33 p.m.

Catholic Church Hostel

Tsiangan, Taroko Gorge

Well, it was certainly an interesting day. I’m not sure that I got the full impact of the beautiful stretch of highway on the coast, though. For one thing, I was going in the wrong direction. This is something that I know, but I keep forgetting. When it comes to coast roads, you should always try to go in the direction so that you are on lane right beside the water. In this case, I should have been going north. That would have put me on the water side, and I’d have had much better views as well as the ability to stop and take in the views whenever I wanted. I was, however, going south, which meant I was in the lane opposite the water. That put the entire highway between me and the coast. That cut down on the views considerably, and with heavy holiday traffic, it was nearly impossible to cross over to the other side and stop. I ended up driving most of the time and simply taking in as much of the view as I could. That I couldn’t stop and take pictures easily wasn’t a huge problem because there was just enough haze in the air to make taking pictures unattractive. The skies were completely blue and clear, but there was a mist in the air or something. Most of the time, I didn’t bother to take a picture because I knew they wouldn’t turn out. Oh, well.

The traffic was relatively heavy, but not terrible. The problem came more from construction. Several times, the road was reduced to one lane, and that caused traffic to back up for miles. Literally for miles. The first time I hit a spot like this, I thought it was simply holiday traffic and would stretch all the way to Hualien. Luckily, on a scooter, it doesn’t matter that much. Cars are stuck and have to simply wait. But on a scooter, it is common practice here to zoom up beside the stopped cars on the right hand side next to the shoulder. You have to be on your toes, but it generally isn’t a problem. You simply zoom along beside the cars until you get to the front of the line and then off you go. I remember doing that on my first bike ride here many years ago. I felt very smug as I passed all the cars.

Another challenge on that highway is the tunnels. There are many, many tunnels and they can be scary. The longest ones are about 1.5 kilometers long, and with the roar of gravel trucks in the darkness, you get a bit nervous. I always hit the throttle and go as fast as I dare so that I get to the other side quickly.

The best part of the day came when I reached the highway that runs through the Taroko Gorge. The Taroko Gorge is easily the most famous tourist attraction in Taiwan. It’s very beautiful, and the road running through it is great fun. It twists and turns and goes through all kinds of long and short tunnels. The marble cliffs rise up high on both sides and practically block out the sky. The Taroko National Park stretches for a long ways on both sides, and there are dozens of trails of various lengths going all over the place. I’ve only gone on short trails on my visits here. There never seems to be much point to hiking up and down a difficult and hot trail when there are such fantastic views to be had right on the road. I came here on my first trip to Taiwan long before I ever came here to work. It was on a visa run from Korea. I remember that I took the train to Hualien and then I somehow made my way up into the gorge. I believe I stayed in this very same place back then, though in a bungalow and now in a room in a building. After that, I hitchhiked up the gorge highway to Sun Moon Lake. On my next trip, I came on my scooter and drove all the way through, as I plan to do this time as well.

Being a holiday weekend, I thought Taroko Gorge would be jammed with people, but it wasn’t at all. I also thought I would have trouble finding a place to stay the night, but that also wasn’t true. I stopped at the Taroko Gorge Visitor’s Center at the entrance to the park and a young volunteer there phoned ahead and made a reservation for me. This hostel at the Catholic Church has dorm rooms for about $10 a night and private rooms for about $30 a night. Since I’m still employed, I sprang for the private room. In another country, I might have opted for the dorm to save money and to meet people. In Taiwan, however, the dorms are not a good idea. The Taiwanese are lovely people, but they believe in having a very good time when they are on holiday with their friends. There is a word for it in Chinese – something like renao. It means making a lot of noise and laughing. In my experience, it also means slamming a lot of doors, and I can’t stand that. So I booked a private room.

The town of Tsiangshan is not much of a town at all. It is more of a bus stop with a bunch of hotels. There is a 5-star hotel here plus a youth activity center and some other places. Luckily there are some small restaurants at the bus station. After I settled into my room, I went down there and had a delicious lunch of rice and chicken and vegetables plus an egg drop and vegetable soup. I hadn’t had much to eat all day, and it was wonderful.

Tags: Moon Festival Trip, NT, scooter, Taiwan, Taroko Gorge, Taroko Gorge Visitor