taiwan tales: part 2

(refer to previous post for part 1.)


day 5
august 2nd
saturday

i got up just in time to miss the first (8:40) bus to taroko gorge, and instead took the next one at 10:50. at the bus stop i made friends with lyla from arizona, and later in the two hour ride with the kids (andy from oregon city and adam from illinois) sitting behind us. upon arrival at the gorge we were shocked to see that the water was gray -- it was incredibly unnatural looking, like a river of wet concrete. (i later heard this was just sediment and mud dredged up by the recent typhoon, and that the water should clear after about a week.) lyla and i spent the afternoon hiking around the gorgeous gorge, though the trails were much easier than we expected. we talked a lot; it's funny how easy it is sometimes to be open with a stranger you'll never see again. while we were waiting for the last bus the boys reappeared: we chatted the entire two hour ride as the bus driver took turns at breakneck speeds, presumably trying to make up for getting behind schedule by arguing with the ladies at the gorge about produce deliveries. back in hualien, the four of us went to a night market where we ate the famous local xiao lung bao (a kind of pot sticker) and had a feast of shaved ice desserts with beans, taro, tapioca, mango. we browsed the street vendors' wares for awhile and noted that the local sidewalks, benches, and even signposts were made of marble supplied from the gorge. adam was coming down with a cold so the boys headed back to their hotel and lyla came back to my hostel with me for a quick "margarita" from the bar there (really more like a tequila martini, if such a thing exists) before saying goodbye. after she left i talked with the other kids at the hostel for a little while before bed. you meet a lot of interesting people in hostels.


day 6
august 3rd
sunday

following the advice of the hostel owner, i took a train to fangliao---rather than going to kaohsiung, which is what the guidebooks say to do---to transfer to a bus bound for the southern coastal town of kending (also spelled kenting). there were some kids (american english teachers in seoul) i'd seen at the taipei hostel in the same train car with the same plan, and it worked out to be almost as cheap to take a taxi, so we did. none of us had hostel/hotel reservations; we clumsily asked the driver--whose teeth were stained brown from chewing betel nut-- to drop us off in a central place. i didn't have enough money to pay for a room with cash, so i walked down the street price shopping and asking hotels if they took credit cards. soon they were passing word down the street that the white girl needed a place that took cards and within a few minutes a man came out of a shop and offered me a room for NT$700 per night -- about twice the cost of a stay in a hostel, but still only about US$20. i was excited to find that the room was almost as big my apartment in japan (around 200 square feet), but with less furniture. after settling into my spacious new digs i headed over to one of the many seven elevens in town for some food. and here we enter the worst night of the trip: not having used it in seven months, i'd forgotten the PIN number for my american ATM/debit card, and convenience stores do not take credit cards in taiwan. when i asked the clerk about this, she suggested i talk to the girl selling shirts from a stand out front because she spoke a little english. that girl then called her sister, who spoke better english, and she suggested i buy an international phone card and call my bank. i didn't have enough money for the phone card, but the super awesome shirt-selling girl loaned me NT$100. i called the bank and they told me they couldn't release my PIN number to me unless it was the same as the PIN number for my previous card, which it was, but their system was down so they told me to call back in an hour. i was very hungry and a little hysterical at this point, and the girls outside could see this. i told them i had some japanese money, but kending is a small town -- i didn't know if there was a bank and even if i found one it wouldn't be open until morning. the girls made a couple phone calls, apparently to find out what the current exchange rate was, and exchanged 4000 yen (about $40) for me -- at a better rate than i got at the airport! (i later realized i probably could have tried exchanging my money at one of the big fancy hotels.) i thanked them repeatedly, got some more food, and went back to my room. when i called the bank back later they told me all they could confirm was that my PIN number was the same as the old one, but they couldn't actually see the number. i tried guessing my PIN at the ATM again, and it ate the card. there was a phone attached to the ATM and the clerk put me on the phone with the taiwanese bank affiliated with the ATM, who, after about fifteen minutes finally told me there was nothing they could do. i went back to my room feeling defeated, watched the discovery channel, and went to sleep early.


day 7
august 4th
monday

i set my alarm for sunrise but it was pouring out so i waited for the rain to lighten up up before going out. i wandered around town trailing a threesome of scavenging stray dogs and then went walking along the highway looking for a nice beach. an hour down the road i found myself in the middle of a torrential downpour, glad i'd brought my rain jacket. after a couple hours of being completely drenched i finally went back to my room for a nap. a little later i went for another walk in the drizzle and then watched some bad TV--a novel experience. eventually the rain finally stopped enough to consider swimming, so i went down to caesar cove beach, where i ran into the kids from the taxi (stacey and matt). the waves were great, and i was glad for a couple hours of free entertainment and conversation. after a shower i got dinner from one of the street vendors -- fried tofu, green beans, mushrooms, and chewy rice pig's blood pudding i also tried fresh coconut juice, which was surprisingly bland. stacey and matt invited me out but having realized i had to make $130 last for the rest of the trip--including lodging and trainfare back around the island--i declined. being suddenly really worried about money was a good experience, though. i don't regret it at all, though i do feel pretty dumb about having forgotten my PIN number.


day 8
august 5th
tuesday

i was pretty eager to get out of rainy kending and into historic tainan. having scouted out the bus stop on one of my many, many walks around kending i headed confidently over there in the morning. i was soon approached by several different people wanting to take me in taxis or privately owned buses, but i waited for the regular, cheaper one. the driver was really friendly and we had a clumsy chat involving lots of gestures and laughs. after arriving in kaohsiung a couple hours later i tried exchanging my last 10,000 yen at the post office bank and was redirected to a proper bank, where the staff spoke perfect english. as i was waiting for the two o'clock train to tainan a nice australian girl sat down next to me and struck up a conversation. at the age of twenty-four, sally has traveled to every continent but africa--she met her english boyfriend whilst backpacking through siberia. i asked her if she knew of any hostels in the area and she suggested i just stay with her and joël. after the train arrived in tainan sally put my backpack on her scooter and gave me directions to her apartment. (she only had one helmet so i couldn't ride with her.) as i was walking toward her place i realized a stranger had just taken off with most of my belongings and it hadn't occurred to me to be worried. of course it hadn't; sally is awesome! she lugged my pack up five flights of stairs in the august heat, dropped it off, and came back to find me, searching the street for me from a parking meridian. i bought us some mango ice and we went to her place, where sally supplied me with some important maps and information. then i headed out and called my host sister's husband to find out about meeting him for dinner. i killed some time walking through tainan park, which was full of chatting old men, and then ian picked me up at tainan station at 5:30. we went to their house to get yukie and their son elvin (baby ethan stayed home with grandma) and then to an outdoor food market for dinner. i watched a man skin a live snake and then ate it in soup with ginger. it was actually pretty flavorless, like overcooked chicken. the restaurant had apparently just recently stopped serving snake's blood, but i tried some snake liquor (the variety that was not distilled with a snake's penis in it), which tasted like chinese medicine. we hit up another place for some more food, including "coffin bread" -- a strange mix of savory and sweet flavors on toast. we then headed to the big night market where i ran into sally and joël, and i went home with them. we talked over taiwan beer and then joël tested out a demo english lesson on sally and me.


day 9
august 6th
wednesday

on her way to work sally gave me a ride on her scooter to the train station, where i checked my bag, and then dropped me off at the eternal golden castle. i walked from there along the canal, through lin mo-niang park to anping fort and the old tait & co. merchant house. tainan is an old port city with a lot of history, and the house had models of aboriginal, chinese, and dutch homes with detailed signs in english describing the lifestyles that took place in those homes. next door was the "tree house"--an old house that's been overrun by banyan trees. the light and shadows were gorgeous, and i lingered for a long time, taking way too many pictures. after that i went looking for the bus. in my wandering i found an old cemetery, witnessed some old men belting out mid afternoon karaoke, and got a sunburn. i finally caught the #14 just as it was about to pull away and watched the street signs from the window, following along with my map. i got off near the confucius temple and spent about an hour there. next: window shopping on jhongshan road, noodles from a street stall, and pearl milk tea while waiting for the 5:32 train to taipei. i checked into my hostel just after ten and then went out to my last night market, on huaxi street. i found a place with a written menu, and ordered one of the few things i could read on it--fried rice with sheep's meat. satisfied, i spent a couple of my few remaining dollars on some souvenirs and went back to the hostel. some people i'd met in my previous stay there came home and we stayed up late talking. dan gave me some good tips on free education; he's studying chinese in taipei and gets a stipend for living expenses. i'm considering doing the same in a couple of years if i haven't found anything better to do with myself. languages are fun.


day 10
august 7th
thursday

i got up at 9, packed, finished the book i'd borrowed from the hostel so i could leave it there, caught the bus from the nearby sheraton hotel to the airport, bought some pineapple cakes for a friend, and flew back to narita. despite my not speaking any chinese, despite the debit card fiasco, and despite the rainy beaches, the trip was a great success. i tried new and strange foods, traveled all the way around the island, saw a huge variety of scenery (big cities and small towns, mountains, ocean, temples, really old buildings, the tallest building in the world, a street lined with bird shops...) and met all kinds of interesting, helpful, and kind people. and the whole trip, including $500 airfare, was less than a thousand dollars.