I awoke this morning by stepping in a cold puddle of water in our bathroom. No surprise that the toilet wasn’t really “fixed”.
Breakfast was provided as part of our room, a Chinese and western breakfast buffet. “Western” in this case apparently means they have toast and lettuce salad.
A note on toast. It’s a curious property of toasters here that they seem to be able to dry out the bread without changing its original color. “Toast” comes out just as white as when it went in. On top of that, butter isn’t always available, and often when it is, it’s some sort on non-refrigerated, canned butter that leaves a coating in your mouth that would not be considered dissimilar to petroleum jelly.
My opinion is that dried out white bread without butter is not toast but is instead “stale bread”.
There were two other items that might be “western” on the buffet: A tub full of water with slices of luncheon ham floating in it and another tub of water with scrambled eggs floating in it.
I could eat a Chinese breakfast of pork lint, pickled eggs and greens, or just stick with a salad. Vegetarians only eat rabbit food, so I figured I could survive one morning’s breakfast that way.
I was deeply disappointed with the breakfast but I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. People around here look at me like I just dropped in from another planet. My guess is they don’t get too many foreigners around here. It’s possible I’m the only opportunity that the clerk at Family Mart gets to practice his English.
I went to Family Mart and found one loaf of the special milk bread. I wonder if they put both oaves out at once, or hold one in reserve for later? What time of day do they arrive?
We’re here for two nights, so rather than go to the Shitou Forest today, we travelled by road to Sanlinshi. The characters mean “Pine Forest Stream” but they’ve been phonetically (and rather weirdly) translated into English as “Sun Link Sea”.
My father-in-law has a habit of stopping the car and pointing out things I ought to take a picture of, and, as it is digital and not wasting any film, I’ll usually snap the shot whether I think it is interesting or not. The only exception is when I think that stopping the car and getting out is endangering someone’s life or feel I can convincingly say, “I’ve already got a picture of that.”
Along the road up the mountains, he pulled over next to an overlook and suggested I take a picture, but instead of indicating the viewing platform, he pointed to a trailhead and suggested I “go up to the top” and take a picture.
Thinking that it was a short trail to an even more dramatic photo opportunity, I took the cameras and headed up the trail.
This trail was brutal! It’s one of the very, very few trails I’ve seen in Taiwan that isn’t paved. It headed straight up the hill and about 60˚, with nothing but roots and rocks as stepping stones. All along the way, every few feet, red and yellow banners were tied to branches, sometimes with something printed on them, but usually with just something handwritten.
Being tall has it’s advantage on the way up, I can cover more ground in one step and my height leverages in my favor while leaning forward. Going down would be the reverse.
The trail continued up and up and, although I was only feet away from a ridge, I might as well have been a mile away. I never came to a view, and the trail seemed never-ending. Eventually I found a small break where other people had cut across to go see the precipitous drop that was the ridge and I stopped. I’d been walking 15 minutes and knew Mr. Huang couldn’t possibly have meant for me to leave them there so long. Just then my phone rang. You’ve gotta love it. I was in the middle nowhere and had full cell phone signal. Fat lot of good that would have done, though. I’ve I’d gotten off that trail, there’s no way I could have made it back to the car, or probably anything else for that matter. At one point I could see the car, far below, but without ropes I could have never gotten to it if the trail hadn’t been there.
The call was Irene calling to tell me I wasn’t supposed to go to the top and so I headed back.
When I got back, Mr. Huang explained that the ribbons at the head of the trail were people marking/celebrating their successful traversal of the trail, and the ones along the way were placed there to find their way back and to help rescuers if case they didn’t return.
Sanlishi is a small place, situated around a small lake formed by damming up a mountain stream. It’s a pleasant place in the mountains, and we went on a mild “trail” to a couple waterfalls in the area.
Recently, Michelle has developed a fascination with bridges. She likes all kinds of bridges, especially “wobbly” ones. She and I took several trips back and forth over a cable suspension bridge in the area, bouncing up and down on the bridge for maximum effect.
At one point we waited at one end of the bridge while a guy and his girlfriend/wife took pictures at the other end. When there were done, they started across, the girl looking a little nervous.
As we headed across I said to Michelle, “Want to make the bridge wobble?” which she enthusiastically did. So, as we and they got closer to the middle, I whispered to her, “Go ahead and jump up and down.” I was expecting the girl to freak out, I was really surprised when the guy immediately turned green, looked at Michelle and said, “Don’t jump, don’t jump! Please, for goodness’ sake, please don’t jump up and down!”
Along the trail, we came across a toilet that had been damaged during the earthquake. it had been positioned behind a giant bolder. During the quake, the bolder split into pieces, a large chunk of it fell on the toilet, pushing the building down the hill and leaving it tilted. It doesn’t work anymore, but they’ve left the building intact so you can go inside. Standing in the crooked building is an odd feeling.
We ate in the park and I had another variation of Kung Pao Chicken. I heard Irene order it “very spicy” and it was on fire! Nonetheless, it was good.
The “town” outside the gates has evolved into an carnival, with a fun-house, arcades, a snow ride and carnival games. We tried the “921 Earthquake Experience” which simulated a 7.0 earthquake (not actually quite as big as the 921 Earthquake.) I don’t really want to experience such a thing, but, assuming the simulation is reasonably accurate, it’s just not I’d expect from years of watching TV and movies. It’s more like a train, rocking back and forth.
When we returned back to the cabin, the cleaning people had turned on the upstairs dehumidifier, so the water started coming through the ceiling again. We called the front desk and they moved us to a new cabin.
This one, designed for three families instead of two was more modern and less damp. The floor wasn’t perpetually icy, either.
Dinner was again at family mart, this time I had the chicken parmesan – sans parmesan. I avoided the hot dog chaser because yesterday’s was disgusting. Family Mart’s hot dogs come in two types “Original flavor” and “Chicken”. Original flavor was novel, but not what I’d associate with a hot dog, more of a cooked vienna sausage flavor.
Tonight, Michelle had the chicken flavor and it tasted identical to the original. At least she ate it.