Saturday September 24, 2011

Lisa, the woman who owned the room and restaurant in Bow Ang, actually lived in Taichung and just came back to this village on the weekends. She has been to the US five times on business trips. She has been to Italy and France and Greece on business trips. She owns a car and a farm and this house and a place in Taichung. She runs a bunch of side businesses. She sells clothes in this village as well as her own soap and a bunch of other stuff. She was very friendly. She spoke English to an extent. She gave me some barbecued meat and a moon cake for Moon Festival. I enjoyed staying at her place, though I did miss the privacy of a bigger hotel. The room was essentially a bedroom in her house. I had to go out of the room to use the main bathroom, and my door opened up onto the small coffee shop that she ran. Not very private to say the least, and I felt a bit constrained. I was tired and just wanted to go to bed, but I felt I had to stay up because it was weird to go to bed that early. She also kept trying to cook for me when I just wanted to be left alone. I got up early the next morning to hit the road as soon as possible while the weather was good. She got up at the same time and without asking me she started to make me some noodles. I just wanted to get a coffee and hit the road as soon as possible. So I turned down her noodles and left.

The 7-11 in Chingging Farm was really hopping. It was on of those big tourist ones with a bathroom and lots of tables. The night before, people had even set up barbecues on the tables and had their own meals. Takes nerve to do that, but Taiwanese don’t lack nerve. It got pretty disgusting with the amount of garbage and flies around. It wasn’t that great in the morning either and I didn’t stick around.

The drive up to Huehanshan was very beautiful. The skies were clear and bright. Unfortunately, there was some mist and fog or smog in the air, so the long distances weren’t that clear. I got some nice pictures first thing in the morning of the village. The light was very nice. After that, I didn’t take that many pictures since it was too foggy. On my way down the day before, I realized I was driving along the spine of a mountain spur with a deep mountain valley on each side. However, I couldn’t see much. In the morning, I could see how deep and beautiful the valleys were.

Hehuanshan was very beautiful that morning and I took some more pictures. Luckily, there was a bathroom there at the rest stop. I really needed one at that point. I rode back to the intersection at Dayuling and from there I turned into a narrow tunnel (with a traffic light) and then began the stretch of highway to Lishan. I had been looking forward to this stretch, because I had memories of it being amazing. However, it was by far the least dramatic of the sections of highway that I had been on. Everything else had been more beautiful and more dramatic. On that first trip, I remember nearly going flying on the scooter once. There was a section of pavement that had simply dropped by a couple feet. It wasn’t repaired or marked in any way and I took it almost at full speed. I was surprised and amused to see that this dangerous bit of road was still there and still not repaired and not marked. That first trip was like four or five years ago, and they still haven’t fixed it.

I had left early and I had driven fast, so I arrived in Lishan pretty early in the day – much earlier than I needed to. Looking back, I would have been better off doing something else. However, I had memories of Lishan as being in a beautiful area. It was beautiful, but it wasn’t any better than the previous areas. Despite having been there only once and for one night before, I remembered it perfectly. Every street, every shop, every hotel. It was all perfectly familiar. I drove around for a minute or two to get my bearings. I dropped by the tourist information office. There wasn’t much to learn there. Then I followed the sign up the steep road to the area where the hotels are. I didn’t want to stay at the place I stayed in before. I didn’t like it much. I went, instead, to the far end of the road and pulled into a simpler looking place. It was also intensely familiar. I have a feeling that I went in there to look around the last time, but I don’t remember that. There was a big black dog in the entrance. He looked fierce, but he didn’t react to my presence at all. The woman at the hotel showed me a wonderful room with a beautiful view of the valley. The hotel seemed completely empty. I was surprised. I thought the place would be jammed for the holiday weekend. On my first trip, I remember being told that the town was empty because of a typhoon report or something and bad weather meant bus tours were cancelled. However, now I’m thinking that these places are always empty. The room only cost NT$1,000 and the woman gave me a bowl of cut-up pear. It was delicious.

After I checked out my room, I went out on my scooter again. I went to the grocery shop that I went to on my first trip. There were some puppies there on my first trip. To my amazement, there were some brand new puppies there – just like last time. It was like someone was playing a joke on me. There still didn’t seem to be anywhere much to eat in Lishan – same as last time. I got some snacks and some instant noodles for dinner. From there, I drove down to a nearby reservoir. The drive was much longer than I expected. I think I was a bit tired of driving by then, and I didn’t enjoy it that much. Still, it was a beautiful area. On my return, I got some gas and then I went in search of the Lishan Culture Museum. I found it after a long time. The signs weren’t that clear. The museum was not that interesting, but it was worth visiting anyway. The women there were very friendly. I was the only person there and they had to turn on all the lights and videos for me. Half of the exhibits were about building the highway. The other half were about the local aboriginal people. I also went up to Fushoushan Farm. I didn’t know what to expect there. There are a number of farms like this around Taiwan founded by ex KMT soldiers. It was a very large farm, and I enjoyed driving past huge fields of different crops. Not huge by Canadian standards, but it looked for a change like a real farm instead of the hobby farms that I see all over Taiwan. One can stay at this farm, but the rooms were all resort-style expensive. I didn’t realize it at the time, but there was an old villa of Chiang Kai Shek’s there. Had I known, I would have checked it out.

I drove around the countryside a bit and saw some interesting mechanisms for carrying fruit and farming equipment up and down the steep mountainsides. Then it was time to return to my hotel room and settle in for the night. It’s a quiet sort of place, Lishan, and not much goes on at night. I watched some Jersey Shore (which I was hooked on at the time) and then went to bed.

I woke up early again and hit the road. I had on all my clothes at this point and even put on my gloves to fight the mountain cold. It was still uncomfortably cold, and my feet in their sandals were not happy. I looked forward to the long descent and the growing warmth. It was a fun ride. The best area was around Wuling Farm. I wished I had kept driving after Lishan the day before and stayed at Wuling Farm instead. It looked to be a beautiful area, and it would have been new.

I thought I was going to take the route through Yilan and then through Pingling toTaipei. That seemed the easiest and shortest. Yet, when I passed the intersection with the northern cross-island highway, I couldn’t resist it, and I turned. I enjoyed that ride very much and I stopped in Fushing for lunch and gas. I was in a very good mood at that point and the ride passed happily all the way back to Taipei. I was back in Taipei in mid-afternoon and had more than enough time to unpack and relax and sort my pictures before it was time to go to be and get ready for work.

 

Tags: Bow Ang, France, Greece, Lishan Culture Museum, Moon Festival Trip, Taiwan, Wuling Farm