Author: Eugene Glover

Last night when we left Danshui, we split up when we got back to the subway station near the house. I went to the drug store to pick up more Panadol, which doesn’t work well, but it is all they’ve got and Irene took James home by bus. I went overboard and bought a couple boxes (they come only in boxes with enough for 2 days), some cough drops and a soda. They don’t give out plastic bags in Taiwan and I didn’t want to buy one, so I stuffed my pockets, rearranging my usual pocket contents into unusual places for the walk home.

We slept with the windows closed last night. Irene doesn’t like it but it seems to help my cough. I’m completely convinced that I cannot clear off the last vestiges of this cold because of the filthy air.

Today we headed into the mountains again for a few days and my hope was that some good clear air would help. I couldn’t imagine that air could be any worse than Taipei’s the last few days. Before we left, I went down the street to get some Cong You Bing for breakfast. The typical practice is that you order the food, they cook it, they give you the food, you pay and leave.

Things went normally this morning until I reached for my wallet, which was missing, and I didn’t have enough change to cover the $45 bill (remember that’s only $1.35 US). My Chinese is good enough to order breakfast, but it isn’t anywhere near as expansive as to be able to say, “I’m sorry, my wallet is missing and I cannot pay you.” I could only try to look really embarrassed and mortified (not hard), mime a wallet falling out of my pocket (In fact, I suspected I just hadn’t put it in my pants when I got up) and saying “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry” over and over. I tried to convey that I’d return soon with the rest of the money.

After a confab between Mr. and Mrs. Cong You Bing, they agreed to accept the $35 that I had.

I got about halfway home when I discovered my wallet in a pocket on the wrong side of my pants. I had shifted it last night at the drugstore. (See? That earlier story was going somewhere. It was foreshadowing.)

I rushed back, paid them the rest of the money, along with another chorus of “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry” and went upon my way, complete with my full load of stress for the day before 8:00AM.

When we left around 9:30 we travelled by car, with Mr. Huang coming along for the trip. Our first destination, Chingjing – It’s a sheep farm. No, I’m not kidding, the Taiwanese can turn a sheep farm into a tourist attraction. (See previous travelogues for entries on “cows”.)

To get there, we travelled south on the newest North-South Freeway, one I haven’t been on before, towards Taichung. As we approached Taichung it became apparent that Taipei is in the pollution minor leagues compared to Taichung. The air was positively toxic. Too thick to be smog, I dubbed it “smuck.”

Just outside of Taichung, we stopped at a rest area. I’m told this is the most beautiful rest area on the entire freeway. It’s so wonderful that citizens of Taichung arrange meetings there and just go socialize and look at the stars. Of course, the really nice part about it is that no toll gates lie between Taichung and it so they can get there for free.

When we arrived, the air was still thick and nasty. As far as I could immediately see it wasn’t much different than any other Taiwanese rest area, consisting of a large parking lot, bathrooms, gas station and restaurant area. Of course, I almost couldn’t see Taichung, or the sea beyond it – which, considering the direction is is facing could no doubt be a nice place to see a sunset from.

The truly impressive part is the bathroom. The men’s room had 77 urinals (yes, they’re numbered) and 4 to 8 stalls. There were urinals for as far as the eye could see. They had installed urinals on every conceivable bit of wall space. I was half expecting them to be installed on the doors of the stalls, or at least have a second level for even more. I never could get a picture. As you can imagine, a busy rest stop doesn’t have many times when the restrooms are empty enough to snap photos.

Once out of Taichung I hoped the air would clear up, but it never did, even high into the mountains the smuck pushed its way up the valleys, rendering all the good scenic photo spots nearly worthless.

Typical of inland mountain roads, the road we were on was narrow, steep and winding, but not nearly so bad as some I’ve been on. What we did notice was that no one paid the slightest head to the double yellow lines; cars were passing cars on the narrowest of mountain curves, repeatedly missing certain death by inches.

When we did arrive at our hotel near Chingjing Farm, it was really quite nice, but like all the other hotels in the area, it occupied a small terrace hacked out of the mountains. Each with a commanding view of the valley below – or it would have if the air weren’t still solid haze. As the sun began to set, the clouds slowly moved in and displaced the haze, but by then it was dark.

I took a walk up the “road” (really, more of cemented goat track) to the 7-11. They must not get many foreigners in these parts because everyone I passed on the road had to say, “Hello” and “How do you do?” and then laugh when I answered back in English. Perhaps I have a funny accent?

I scouted out the area, and discovered that there was not only a 7-11 and a Starbucks, there was also a mini-mall complete with every form of sheep paraphernalia you can imagine – lotions, potions, shirts, hats, shoes, sheep ice cream and every type of stuffed sheep (cute and cuddly, not real and macabre) – and, most importantly a food court which had at least one place selling fried chicken.

We returned later as a family and had dinner, before turning in for the night.

I don’t know what the heck it is about this place, but I just get the darndest colds here and can’t shake them. Today I woke up and felt like I’d been setback to my worst day of the cold last week.

I can only imagine this isn’t so much a cold as a nasty allergy to Taipei. The air here really is foul, and we have to sleep with the windows open at night.

My plans for eating dinner got harpooned last night and I was starving when I awoke, that certainly didn’t help. Yet it was still 2 hours before we headed out to eat. First we tried Ding Tai Fung but as it was 11, the line was already enormous.

Then we headed for what was, I believe, the last Round Table Pizza in Taipei last time we were here, and no surprises, it’s now gone also. So much for “The Last Honest Pizza.”

Right over the top of Round Table Pizza is Ali Baba’s Indian Restaurant and on weekends at lunchtime they have all-you-can-eat for $399. The opened at 11:30 and we arrived at 11:35, perfect timing, so we thought.

First we had to get the stroller upstairs. It should have been easy as they provide a convenient elevator to whisk you to the second floor.

The problem is, the elevator is located half a floor up, and the only way to get to it is by stairs. What were they thinking?

We were the first to be seated and then promptly ignored. Others came in, in fact, the restaurant filled up, and they were all ignored. It turns out that the restaurant opens at 11:30, but doesn’t serve food until 12:00. At least we got to experience the authentic Indian ambience in the meantime – Indian music videos of Saturday Night Fever.

When the food was served, it was great. I had some really good chicken and mutton and something else I couldn’t identify but was really tasty. The meal also came with naan, which is Indian bread used to hold the sauce from the stewed dishes. That arrived 25 minutes after food was served. Also, the meal came with a drink, that was served about 45 minutes after the meal started.

Not much on service, but no complaints about the food at all!

By the time we got back to the house, I crashed. I had nothing left to keep me going. Meanwhile, Irene had arranged for us to go with the kids to her friend Phoebe’s place and meet up with several old friends. I slept right through that.

After she returned, and after I awoke, we headed out to Danshui, near the coast to look around. It’s rather like a night market and state fair combined. There was even an Indian (Native American type) band playing music on the waterfront. They weren’t bad, either.

Tomorrow, we head into the country again.

Not much of a day to write about.

In the morning, we went to the photographer to have an album made for Michelle and James. This is the same studio that did the album for Michelle when she was 6 months old, too. We liked their work then and they gave us a good deal this time, too.

Michelle was a lot less accommodating this time than last. Back then she, like James now, was just sort of propped up and photographed. Now Michelle needed to have her motivation and that made it more difficult.

Of course, they do makeup and hairstyles on her, which takes time and tries her patience – mine too. We spent the entire morning there and I hope the pictures of her will turn out well. She was so darned cute all made up, but she’s got that 3 year-old smile – the big fake grin that looks more like a dental exam than a smile.

From that point on, the day went downhill. I needn’t go into details, suffice to say that by the end of the day everything was a fiasco.

Sometime during the night there was a small earthquake, but I slept through it.

I’ve been generally disappointed with the Sony Cybershot lately. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good point and shoot digital camera and has served me well, but, I want to have more control of the picture process and this trip to Alishan has really driven it home for me.

Today I went and bought a new camera.

I won’t go into the details or merits, but it’s a pretty nice prosumer level camera. At this exact moment in time, for the money, it’s difficult to find a better digital camera. It’s a Canon 350D (Rebel XT in the US) and takes enormous 8 megapixel pictures, up considerably from the 3 megapixels that the Sony took. It has a complete automatic mode, but also has full manual control. It’s going to take me a while to figure out how to use the manual controls again.

I wanted to get it today because we’re going on another trip Monday and I need a bit of time to practice.

The bad news was, the camera shop was missing one of the pieces, so when we went out to buy it I came back with a firm price, a committment to buy and no camera. They had the part brought in from elsewhere and promised to call before the day was over so we could come pick it up.

We took a ride to the RT Mart, which Irene and I had never been to before. It’s more than a bit like Walmart Supercenters; a decidedly American-style combination of everything and a grocery store. I don’t know why, but I was really glad to see how crowded the store was. I could never figure out why American retailing practices hadn’t caught on here.

I wish we’d been to this place a long time ago, it’s just up the road from a nearby subway station, we could go there practically anytime we want.

Of course, while we were there, the camera place called to say everything was ready, but we had cold items that needed to be taken home first, and then James needed feeding and putting to bed.

Finally, a couple hours later we managed to go get the camera, just in time for a trip to the night market! We brought the camera home to put it on the charger for a bit and get ready to go and when the time came to leave, it started raining.

I wasn’t about to take the camera out in the rain, so… no pictures, except for this picture of Michelle, the first I took with the camera.

We slept in this morning, but since had to check out by 11:00 AM we still got up early enough to do something. While Irene and James packed, I took Michelle out for another hike.

I like Alishan a lot, but quickly realized that there are only a few trails you can go on and you simply cannot tramp out across country. The last viable trail we hadn’t hiked yet was the Giant Trees Trail #2. I essentially begins and ends in the same place as Trail #1, making a completely loop when combined. I didn’t know about the trail yesterday because it isn’t on the map signs around the park, but it was listed on a paper map we had in the room.

Once again we started at the top and went down and down the steps. This time we kept catching up, passing and then falling behind a tour group. Each time we passed, they all tried to talk to Michelle, who, for whatever reason, completely refused to acknowledge them speaking to her in Chinese.

This time I brought the GPS along and measured our progress. It’s so difficult to guesstimate how far you’re walking on stairs and feet sometimes feel like miles when you’re trying to pace a 3 year-old.

It turns out the hike was 1.15 miles and we averaged 1.3 miles per hour, although at one point we reached a blistering 5.5 mph.

When we got back to the room, Irene was watching the news. Today’s big story: 5 cm leech removed from man’s sinus cavity. The news story showed the leech wiggling around, being removed from a specimen jar and being placed on a chart of the mans sinuses to demonstrate where it was.

My question was: Why the hell wasn’t that leech dead? What kind of doctor humanely removes a leech from a man’s sinuses and preserves the leech’s life? And what was that man doing? Sleeping in a mud puddle?

Being checkout day, there’s not much to do except check out, store your luggage behind the front desk and sit around the grounds until the bus comes to take you to the train station.

We finally stopped at the coffee shop and had our “free” drink which was included in our package deal. It’s a good thing they were free because a single cup of black tea was $100NT, or $3US. I was glad that, during the breakfast buffet both days I managed to drink about 8 cups of tea or $24US worth of tea! If I’d have known, I’d have had more.

The coffee shop is outdoors and very nice and relaxing, but those prices were highway robbery. Other than that, the hotel still gets very high marks from me.

We caught the train without difficulty, and, in an effort to spread out and make room for everyone on the less-than-crowded train, we took seats all over the car. I was essentially by myself for the entire ride down the mountain and had room to pop open the iBook and play some computer games and try to work on this entry.

One thing can be said about the Alishan Forest Railway: The Japanese didn’t build it for comfort. The narrow gauge train rocks back and forth about 20 degrees making reading and writing somewhat difficult.

Although I’m not generally prone to motion-sickness, trying to read the computer screen was having a real go at making me sick so I gave up, stared out the window and listened to my iPod.

Inhospitable and remote as it was, as we’d pass through the wilderness, suddenly there would appear a small path with a person or children on it, caught in a single moment of their lives, usually staring at the train and seeing the object and not the people behind the windows, but sometimes (usually the children) waving.

It made me think about their lives and how completely clueless they and I are about each other. What were they doing the moment the train came along? What course in their life and brought them there at that moment, and where do they go once they’ve left my sight? Are they real or just phantoms of the mind?

I had too much time to think idle thoughts on the 3.5 hour train ride.

We also had extra room on the ride back to Taipei, but not as much. The kids were also being more demanding of Irene and she was pretty much maintaining order for the whole ride until we got back to Taipei around 9:30.

Even back at home, James was being demanding, so I went out and got some medicine for myself to try to kick the lingering cough from my cold. While I was out, I also picked up some mango ice for Irene. Mango ice is one of those bizarre concoctions that they have here, sliced mangoes, served over crushed ice with condensed milk on it. How anyone could even attempt to con people into buying a plate of mostly ice shavings is beyond me, but she likes it and that’s all that matters to me.

Well, one other thing matters: How to order it. I had to order by number and that should be easy enough but it just happens that mango ice is #4 on the menu. The numbers 4 and 10 in Chinese sound somewhat similar. 10 is easy, it sounds like the English word “She”, spoken with a rising tone. 4 is more like… shu or shr or shi or si, spoken with a down tone. it doesn’t quite have a proper phonetic equivalent in English, but, even to my ear they are easily differentiated.

Apparently that was not the case for my pronunciation when I tried to order. I kept saying “Shu” and she kept saying “She?” Luckily the assistance of another patron who could understand me and the judicious use of fingers resolved the issue satisfactorily, but I came away rather disappointed. I really felt that, at the very least, my counting to 10 in Chinese was intelligible. Apparently not.

Today was a long day!

It started at 4:20 AM when we got our wake up call from the hotel. At precisely 4:50 the hotel bus leaves for the train station taking most of the guests up to a vantage point on Chushan where you can witness the spectacular sunrises.

I’ve mentioned this before, this seems to be a particular Chinese thing, but, I could hardly miss the opportunity. The particularly special thing about sunrises in this part is the potential for the clouds to already be settled in the valleys below, producing the desired effect of the sunrise coming over the mountains and clouds below you.

The photos I’ve seen of it are spectacular. Last time we had a perfectly clear day. A fine sunrise, but no “sea of clouds.”

This time our day didn’t get started off too well. We got the 4:20 wake up call, but we didn’t walk out of room until 4:51. When we got downstairs, the bus was long gone. Not quite willing to give up, we started walking for the train station, about a half kilometer away, up and down steep, unfamiliar roads, in the dark, lugging two sleepy kids.

Amazingly enough, we made it to the train in time, and from there it was a relatively easy task to get to the viewing point at Chushan.

Then things started to go wrong. I was getting the camcorder ready and the battery indicator was good, 99 minutes of battery power left and as I looked at it, it dropped to 0 minutes and started flashing the dead battery warning. I didn’t have a backup with me. Hoping it was a logic error in the battery, I let it run and it did manage to last past sunrise, but at that point, I wasn’t going for anything fancy and figured all the video was a write-off.

I switched to the digital camera, which had fresh batteries in it. I turned it on, and suddenly it died. I can only assume an alien spacecraft was in the area and sucking the power from my batteries. At least I had spare batteries for that camera.

There was a slight layer of clouds filling the valleys as the sun came up, but I must say, the sunrise was a burst of fire coming directly over the peak on the mountains across the valley. They could not have positioned us in a more dramatic spot. Sadly my photographs cannot possibly do it justice. The crowd actually applauded the sun as it came up as if it were performing some clever trick for them.

At 6:50 the train goes back down the mountain and if you miss it, you have a 1.5 hour hike back to “town.” We weren’t about to miss it and didn’t.

Back in the hotel, breakfast (provided) was a western and chinese style buffet, whcih had plenty to eat. They even had “Chicken Nuts” (nuggets) but I didn’t have my camera with me to take a picture of the sign.

Rather than doing the sane thing and going back to sleep, we went for a walk instead, traveling around the same trail Irene and I hiked 7 years ago. It’s changed quite a bit, parts have been shifted and all the signs are different. Even the local legends have changed. The story of the 2 Sisters’ Ponds is now a completely different tale than it was when we were here before. That must have been one strong earthquake!

Hiking is grueling here, and the hills are insanely steep. They are nothing more than a series of stairs going either up or down. Irene, being saddled with James in the baby carrier was at a bigger disadvantage than me, dragging Michelle along. At least Michelle had bursts of energy, but James was always just extra weight on Irene.

The weather was great, and scenery fantastic so it made the burden easier, but we were glad to be back at the hotel for lunch.

Lunch was not included, so we got our choice from the menu. I chose something called “Chicken in Paprika” which turned out to be Kung Pao Chicken, but much, much better than any Kung Pao Chicken I’ve had before. It was really good, and a classic example of how food sometimes gets translated when taken to a different country. I’m going to have it again tomorrow for lunch, to be sure.

The restaurant, like most of the hotel, has picture windows all around to enjoy the view. While we ate lunch, the clouds slowly rolled in, enveloping us and the town in the characteristic afternoon blanket of white.

After lunch, Irene and James took a nap, and I hauled Michelle out for another hike. As you can imagine, hiking with a 3 year-old isn’t the most efficient means of transportation, but she was a real trooper. It helped that I offered to give her Oreos when we got back to the hotel.

I took her down the “Giant Tree Trail” which I’d not been on. The guide said it was an elevated plank-walk the whole way. That means it was an elevated series of stairs leading down and down and down. We lost altitude at about 1 foot vertical for every 1 for horizontal. I was dreading the walk back, and almost gave up several times, but Michelle wouldn’t quit. We were walking among the old forest growth, trees 800 to 2,000 years old, standing up towards 50 meters high with trunks 6 to 8 meters across. She had to walk to every sign and read the age of the tree and wouldn’t quit till there were no more.

At the bottom, we reached the Sacred Tree of Alishan, which was one of the old growth trees. It had been killed by lightening many years ago, but kept standing with little potted plants in its branches to give the appearance of life by the locals. The earthquake put paid to that little charade and the tree is now completely dead, but still resting there for tourists to see.

Luckily, the walk back was much easier going a different path. Nonetheless Michelle was exhausted when we returned. Come to think of it, so was I.

I had business to prepare for, a teleconference at 10:00PM (I told you it was a long day) and had to go over several documents and make notes. By the time I was done, it was dinnertime.

This time dinner wasn’t so good, at least for me, a Tofu dish, a pork dish which had a sauce even Irene wasn’t too crazy about and pork that might have been covering for a football and a plate of cabbage, cooked. There’s always breakfast tomorrow.

The conference didn’t go right. The call blipped my phone once and then wasn’t there. I never got a second call and sat in the lobby area waiting till 10:30 and finally gave up.

4:20 AM to 10:30 PM, that’s a long day when you’re hiking around. I’m not getting up for the sunrise tomorrow!

As I mentioned earlier, the Alishan House Hotel has gone through an amazing transformation since last we were here. In fact, this hotel is wonderful, even more amazing in comparison to the sparse, utilitarian place it was last time.

It’s so amazingly improved, I would go so far as to say I simply couldn’t believe it was the same hotel. That’s not so far-fetched. The 9/11 earthquake that devastated central Taiwan did a lot of damage in this area. Famous landmarks were destroyed, railroad tracks and trails disappeared down the mountain and there was much destruction.

The only way I could credit this being the same hotel is if and only if it had been leveled and rebuilt from scratch. The only thing that remained the same were the wooden beds.

To describe this hotel, 5-star is pretty close. We’ve got every conceivable hotel amenity (minus a refrigerator, which, considering the only thing people consume cold in this country are foods best served hot, is no surprise). It’s clean, the staff are efficient, they’ve even provided in-room internet, which isn’t that unusual in this day and age, but I wasn’t expecting it way out here in the middle of nowhere.

It isn’t wireless internet and I didn’t bring a cable, but a call to the front desk got us one in minutes.

Each room has a glorious balcony, looking out over the valley, aimed in the direction of sunset. Clever really, since everyone gets up at 4:20 AM to go to a special vantage point to see sunrise anyway. Even the soaking tub has a picture window looking out across the valley.

The only negative I have about this hotel is that at 4:20 when we got up this morning there was a smell in the bathroom like all the porta-potties in hell were loosed in the room. I’m assuming it must have come up the floor drain somehow, but was gone when we got back after our sunrise excursion.

Speaking of sunrise excursions, I’ll post about that later, but as we caught the train to travel to Chushan (where you see the sunrise) we passed the Alishan Gou Hotel, which is the hotel we stayed in last time.

Mystery Solved.

If anybody ever comes to Taiwan, make sure you come to Alishan and stay at the Alishan House Hotel. If I could figure out how to do it, I would not be going back to Taipei and just stay here for the next few weeeks.

It’s 9:30 in the morning, I’m sitting on the balcony of our room, looking out over the beautiful mountains and valleys.

What could be better than writing about a beautiful day in the mountains? Oh yes, enjoying a beautiful day in the mountains… better get on with it.

I left a request for an early wake-up call, but didn’t get it. (I’m told I did, but said, “ok, ok, I’ll get up.” and then didn’t.

I can’t believe Irene fell for that, the oldest trick in the book – the old sleep-talking to stop someone waking you trick.

Anyway, we didn’t have much time when I got up – no time for breakfast, but I convinced them to let me run down to Mr. Cong You Bing and grab some food while they packed up the kids in the car.

It didn’t quite work to plan and we got started 10 minutes late. Considering that the train wouldn’t wait for us if we missed it, it was critical that we arrive on time.

Mr. Huang drove like a madman. More so than usual, dodging lanes, cutting through back-streets, cutting people off and in one case, ran a red light. Not like red light running back in the States either, in this case he deliberately came to a red light and then just slowly kept pushing his car into the intersection until the other traffic had to stop and let him pass.

No one else even seemed to think it was very abnormal, either.

We made it in plenty of time to catch the 3 hour train-ride to Giahi. (Last time I was here, it was spelled “Chiayi”.) We only had two seats and the train was packed, we spent the entire 3 hours trying to shoehorn four people into those two seats. The trip back will be similarly crowded.

October 1st was supposed to be the opening day of the Taiwan High Speed Railway, a Japanese bullet train that would cut the travel time from Taipei in the north all the way to Khaoshiung in the south to only 90 minutes.

The company building it ran out of money and is now truing to get the government to bail them out. I really wish it was working now!

Last time, we followed the same train schedule, but then we had to catch a taxi from the Giahi main station to the Forest Railway Station. 12:30PM arrival at one station and 1:15PM boarding at the other made for rushed visit to town.

This time, 7 years later, they’ve extended the Forest Railway line into the main station, so we had 40 minutes to look around and grab a bite to eat.

Wishing for a McDonald’s, but rewarded instead with a MOS Burger, we hauled our luggage two blocks around town and had a meal. Based on our last trip, I wasn’t expecting much to eat at Alishan, and this trip is a full day longer.

The run up into the mountains is still just as harrowing and impressive. The jungle, for it is truly a jungle of palms and bamboo, slowly gives way to pine trees, twisted and gnarled with age, covered in moss, sitting high up in the clouds.

The Forest Railway is another 3.5 hours, but this time there were enough extra seats that Michelle could have one on her own.

We arrived in Alishan around 5:00PM, the sun almost ready to go down, the clouds completely settled into the mountains. There was little to do but go to our hotel and see what awaited us.

We are staying at the same hotel we did 7 years ago, the Alishan House. Before it was a sparse hotel with wooden beds (as opposed to mattresses) and hot water only during certain hours of the day. We didn’t spend much time there, so it didn’t matter much.

The hotel has been completely renovated, but I’ll talk about that in another entry.

Michelle and I went out and took some pictures. I let her take her first photographs, with mixed results.

Recently, I read an article in a tourist magazine explaining “real” Taiwanese food and why most westerners have trouble stomaching it. it consists of incredibly fatty (more fat than meat) pork and lots of entrails. I mention that because that’s what the hotel restaurant served for dinner.

If anyone is interested, entrails look and taste like squid, just not as chewy. I pass that on based on Irene’s comments, I wouldn’t touch them.

I had some lawn clippings (bamboo shoots), pork fat (tasty, if you can pock the meat out – very tender) and some chicken soup and fruit. Not exactly my first choice of dinner but good enough.

Tomorrow we get a wake-up call at 4:20AM to see the sunrise. I’d better get good pictures!