Taiwan Travels Take Two - Kending, Taiwan
Kending, Taiwan
Ohhh Taiwan...how I thought I would never be back to your friendly country...and here I am, sitting in bed in Seoul South Korea reminiscing on the past week I spent galavanting through your hazy mountains, calm beaches and bustling cities. When I traveled to Taiwan 2 and a half years ago during Semester at Sea, I specifically remember boarding the MV Explorer for the last time before returning to the US of A and thinking to myself, "Well, Adios Taiwan, I'll probably never see you again, and I think I am okay with that"-hah little did I know what my exciting future would bring. I have arrived back to Seoul, after just missing the Typhoon heading for Taiwan, and I have to say my small 400 square foot apartment tucked in the 3rd floor of a fishy smelling complex located down a dark side street, feels more like home than I would have ever expected. Now don't get me wrong...I am not walking into a house smelling of baked goods as Buca runs circles around me, embraced by people who love me....BUT, my quirky Seoul apartment has a sense of home to it and I was happy to curl up in my bed, light some candles, and watch some of my favorite shows when I arrived home last night. Although my home in daechi-dong may not feel exactly like my home back in Rockford, Illinois or Boulder, Colorado I do not feel discomfort by this feeling. I once read a quote that truly has stuck with me: "Never make your home in a place. Make a home for yourself inside your own heart. You'll find what you need to furnish it-memories, friends you can trust, love of learning and other such things. That way, it will go with you wherever you journey." I am reassured by the fact that MY home is OVERFLOWING with furniture that I can carry in my heart WHEREVER I go...
My travels began on Saturday September 14th, as Jeff, Anna, Ricki and I headed to Taiwan leaving behind any school talk or worries! Our group of 4 created a perfect dynamic, lots of laughs, adventures, and intellectual conversations...needless to say, many memories were made this past week.
Highlights from the trip:
-Walk, Bus, Plane, Bus, Train, Walk.....BED BUGS!!! After a long day of travel we finally arrived at our first hostel. Feeling proud after navigating our group to the Formosa's Backpacker's Hostel, we tossed our bags on our beds, pulled out a map of Hualien (a small mountain town on Taiwan's East coast) to find a place to grab a much needed dinner and a drink. We were only in our room for five minutes after I noticed the first "tick-like" bug crawling on my bed. I squealed after seeing the bug and was hushed by my friends who were convinced that I was over-reacting. Within the next minute I saw another...and another. By this time we were all on our smart phones researching bed bugs, comparing the killed bugs to the photos on our phones. It didn't take us long to identify this creature, these little black bugs were bed bugs and we to get out of that room FAST before they took over our large backpacks and dominated our trip. After wandering around the dead, dark town of Hualien we found a cozy place, just as cheep as the last place, but with NO bed bugs, what a deal! We searched our belongings, bagged our clothing, and washed ourselves about 3 times each in hope of escaping these naughty buggers....and we were successful (I think). The bed bugs thing became a running joke throughout the trip, but to be honest, I do not think I will ever sleep in a bed before checking it for bed bugs ever again...
-Zhuilu Old Trail in Taroko Gorge-what a hike! Jeff and I decided to embark on a little adventure. After reading up on this trail, it had been named to be the best hike in all of Taroko National Park so of course we had to take on this hike. The only issue was that a permit is required for this hike because certain points of the hike can be dangerous, however we had no way of obtaining a permit in such a short amount of time. Jeff and I both felt pretty confident with our hiking abilities so we decided to take a risk and go for it without the permit (I know you don't want to hear that mom and dad, but sometimes ya gotta live life on the edge). After scoping out the situation we decided to take an off-trail route in order to avoid the park workers checking permits at the trail entrance, we found our way onto the Zhuliu Old trail. We began to book it up the steep mountain in order to make the hike in its predicted time, 7 hours, so we could meet Anna and Ricki and catch the bus back down to Hualien by 5 pm. The weather could not have been more perfect for a strenuous hike, the views were absolutely beautiful: mountains on mountains on mountains. My favorite part of the hike was a narrow walk way (about 2 feet wide), mountain on one side and a complete drop off of about 60 meters on the other side; each step I took was purposeful. As we came to the end of the unreal hike we realized it had taken us only 4 hours. I don't know if it was our long legs or our lungs, but I have to say I was pretty damn impressed with myself. As we could see the end of the trail up ahead we noticed park workers checking permits on the way out....and these guys were unavoidable. We devised a plan, which went something like this: walk sternly and quickly, we don't speak English we speak Spanish, the permit blew away in the wind. I know it sounds a bit unreliable, but it was flawless and we were home free! Such a great hike and a great adventure that will never be forgoten.
-Dinner up in Taroko- We spent one night in Taroko Gorge, smack dab in the middle of the mountains. There were 2 places to stay-a youth hostel for $16 a night per person and the Silk Hotel for $60 a night per person. After checking into the youth hostel we decided to walk down the hill to check out the small restaurant looking things we had noticed when we first arrived in the daylight. Two of the "hole in the wall" restaurants were closed so that made our decision easy. As we sat down at 1 of 3 tables in the open air garage like restaurant we realized none of the workers spoke English...conveniently a group of Australian men arrived at that time, one of them fluent in Mandarin, oh how the world works itself out sometimes. The restaurant conveyed to us through the Australian man that they don't have much food left so they will make a couple things with any scraps they have left...uhhhh ohhhhh we thought. Of course, it was one of the best meals we had during our whole vacation. Sitting in our ponchos, rain coming down outside the "garage," eating absolutely delicious, authentic Chinese food in the middle of Taiwanese mountains what more could you ask for?
-Beach time in Kenting-After spending a day in the ocean, floating in the calm water, and watching the sun set we stepped outside our hotel doors into a street night market. The streets were filled with vendors selling anything under the sun: strawberry beer, fried oreos, smelly tofu, the largest corndogs I have ever seen, fried squid, freshly made fruit smoothies, gelato...oh how I could go on. We walked up and down the beach town street filling our mouths with many different tastes, some I loved and some were questionable...music radiated from the streets, fair games and homemade bracelet vendors were scattered within the many food booths. We revisited this street each night we stayed in Kenting, the last night being the "Full Moon Festival," a celebration similar to 4th of July in the states. I enjoyed watching families wander the streets; reminding me that we all have different traditions, however they are very similar when it comes down to it: enjoying good food, good weather, laughter, and feeling thankful to be with your family.
Oh how familiar you are Taipei-After exploring the mountains and southern coast of Taiwan we made our way back up to the capital city, Taipei, where I booked us a room in the same hostel I stayed in 2 and a half years ago. I decided to share the wonderful experience I had a Din Tai Fung on my last visit to Taiwan with my new buddies. As I look back in the blog I wrote on April 4th, 2011 I see this statement describing Din Tai Fung, "The restaurant was hustling and bustling and people were seated, finished and moved out at a rapid pace. The kitchen was blocked only by glass so we could watch the chefs work diligently making the delicious dumplings. Each one was packed with just the right amount of meet and twisted so perfectly to make a precise swirl." Yup, thats about right! We danced the night away taking advantage of our precious last moments of freedom, of vacation, of stress-free life...
I found this quote in my entry posted 2 long years ago as well and thought I would share my ideas about it at this point in my life: "After walking around Taiwan, I would have to say it seemed like it was the most westernized city that we have been to on SAS, other than Singapore. The city was covered with malls, expensive European stores, and good restaurants. A lot of other cities had all these things, but they would be in very dirty areas or they would be intermingled with run down holes in the walls and beggars on the sides of the street." As I reflect on my perspective of Taiwan 2 years ago I begin to realize how much my ability to fully grasp and understand a foreign country has grown. As I walked throughout Taipei this time around I though to myself, "Wow, Korea is much more developed, is Taiwan even a first world country?..." Oh how things are all relative...
Food for Thought:
"Be Soft.
Do not let the world
make you hard.
Do not let pain make you hate.
Do not let the bitterness
steel your sweetness.
Take pride that even though
the rest of the world
may disagree,
you still believe it to be a
beautiful place."
I feel lucky each day to have this opportunity...to travel, to experience the world in a whole different light, to learn to appreciate the comforts of what ever YOU may consider "home," to challenge myself each day, and to learn and grow in each step I take throughout this journey.