World by Noelle

Traveling through Taiwan

Posted on April 6th, 2006 by tallgirl.
Categories: travel, taiwan.

On Monday, after our meeting with the Ping Tung Presbytery’s Executive Committee, we had lunch and then left for our journey that would culminate in Taipei. Our journey began in the early afternoon, perhaps around 2pm and would end that evening in an aboriginal village outside Tai Tung, on the East Coast of Taiwan.

Before I get to that, though, I need to tell you about the fun we had making spring rolls with a church in the Presbytery! They invited us to their fellowship hall to make spring rolls with them. These are soft ones, not fried, and apparently are mainly made around this time of the year, as it is “grave sweeping/cleaning time.” The main day to do this occurred on Wednesday, when the entire country seemed almost closed for the holiday. I guess they make them and then go clean off the graves and have lunch there too. It was great fun. Each person has their own preference with things they like to have in their spring roll and each person has their likes and dislikes. It was fun to see what each person, the children included, put in! I also experienced “pearl milk tea.” This is what we call “boba” in this country. Which they would never call it! That would be calling it “boob tea.” And that would never happen!

We were driven to Kiaoshiung to the Love River by an Elder at Stone’s church and his wife and daughter after the spring-roll-making party. They have a promenade along the river that is filled with all the locals walking, along with lovebirds walking. A man, his girlfiend and his sister approached me to take a picture of the sister, because they had forgotten the picture. So, I obliged, and thought that the sister and the girlfriend should both be in it. And then they wanted a picture with ME in it too! I obliged them, while someone in my group laughed at me! I still need to email them the picture! Strange…

While on our way to the East Coast, with our final stop being in a town where there was a Presbyterian Seminary for aboriginals, we had a guy from the General Assembly office in Taipei with us for a few days, and that was great fun. His name was Steven and we all became friends with him. He told us some colloquial phrases, or maybe it was just me, but it was fun to learn! All y’all know me - I like to learn colloquialisms. We drove on a road that had been pretty well washed out after a typhoon several years ago and was still being repaired, up and up and up. And then down the other side. The drive along the coast was phenomenal - the water was so beautiful! And just past there was our Presbytery… well, within reason. A few days’ swim, I would hazard a guess. It made me yearn to get back into the water, sooner than later, I tell ya!

Along the way we kept trying to stop and get some Sek kiah. Which are (I think) what we call cheremoya. Delicious with giant, black seeds. I accidentally spit a seed onto Jane - oops. She knew it was an accident, thank goodness, but I could not get enough of them! You can’t bring them back to the States (as you can’t really transfer much into the US now), so I was unable to fetch some and bring them back with me for y’all to try. This makes me very sad, and I hope you shed a tear with me!

As it got dark, we apparently took a wrong turn someplace and found ourselves lost on the road closest to the water. Which was NOT where we were supposed to be. Nothing really wrong with it, we weren’t in any danger, just that we were not going to end up where we needed to be. Eventually our way was found, as rain set in, and we found the Bunun Cultural Foundation Lodge.

The rooms were very nice and cozy, but not too much time was to be spent there before we were shuttled off to the HOT SPRINGS! This lodge and hot springs were built as a venture by a Presbyterian pastor and member of the Bunun tribe to keep the youth in the area and to create jobs for the tribe. The venture has created many jobs, and will be expanded in the not-too-distant future, and enables the people in the community to not have to go to the city to work dangerous jobs. The cultural center is great and the hotel rooms are very nice. The hot springs were wonderful - ranging from 38 degrees C to 41 or 42 degrees C. I wanted to crawl into bed afterwards, but instead had to settle for sitting at a dinner table (when there was no way I needed to eat ANYTHING) and have my legs eaten to death. Such is life (the bug-bitten legs) for Noelle when I travel, I suppose.

The next morning, we woke up to a beautiful view that we had been unable to see the night before, due to the whole pitch-black thing, and the rain. It reminded me so much of being on Molokai when I was in HS, it was so beautiful. We talked with Reverend Bai about his ministry there and then had to leave to head up to the Aboriginal Seminary. The road was nice, in a long valley, which had many fields and very broad rivers in it. Many fields were rice paddies and there were other crops as well. At one point, we passed a bunch of tea fields - that was interesting and neat to see. I’d only ever seen pictures before.

It is amazing how tired you can become, just from sitting in the car all day long. Our sleeping area for the night at the seminary was a JUST finished apartment - at the end of the earth. It was very high up the hill and closer to heaven. Hee hee hee. It was great.

The final day of travel started out with roasted potatoes for breakfast (I) and then rice soup for breakfast (II). It was followed by a journey through the most beautiful gorge - the Taroko Gorge. I saw more white people in this gorge than I had so far on the trip! The road was one lane, if not a half lane, in places and went through rock. It is an amazing road that was initially started, I think, during the Japanese occupation, and then finished by Chiang Kai Shek’s forces. CKS had complete disregard for safety, it seems, and many people died while trying to finish the road. We continued along the road (called the East-West Highway) and gathered elevation rapidly. We stopped for a minute at a beautiful little stop and enjoyed the view and some peach honey. We were so far up and the mountains in the distance were gorgeous! We continued the climb UP, UP, UP and eventually stopped at 10,000 feet, where we were above the treeline, and shrouded in clouds.

At that point, our journey started down and we went to Puli, where we visited a Christian Hospital that was a base of operations for the rescue and medical efforts for an earthquake of 6.8 magnitude several years ago. The epicenter for the quake was only about 12 miles away, and it was extraordinarily shallow! So, it made for much damage. The hospital had just opened a new building, and was able to recover fairly quickly, in order to help out with the wounded people in the area. We saw a warning sign about avian flu, not that I can read it, but it’s there! I know it talks about what precautions to take to avoid it (cooking poultry to a certain degree, etc), but that’s about all I remember from Jane’s discussion of it.
This was followed by a separation from Stone and from Ed & Jane. It made me sad, but what’s a girl to do? I know I’ll see them all again, Ed & Jane sooner than Stone, but I’ll see all of them again. Thus began our journey to Taipei.

Along the way, our driver stopped at a beetle-nut girl’s stand - very odd stuff. And he played a DVD - that none of us watched! We got to Taipei around midnight and the driver (who told Stone he knew exactly where he was going) had to ask several different cabbies where the YMCA of Taipei was. But we eventually found it, checked in and went to sleep!

I’m sorry this entry is so long, it’s just that so much happened between my times of email/internet connection. Enjoy!

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