Taiwan Trip 2010 (Day 4)

Taichung -> Cingjing Farm

   Since I could not sleep well and I did not feel like reading my book, I have decided to continue on what I have left off years ago. That is, to write about my trip to Taiwan. Anyway, I should get this started.

   The fourth day was spent in the mountain near the Hehuanshan Range. Cingjing Farm is a ranch that is also opened to tourists. It is surrounded by the beautiful mountains in central Taiwan. It is also located in Nantou County, the only landlocked county in Taiwan.

   Soon after we got up, we took a morning bus in the Central Bus Terminal in Taichung. The bus took about 2 hours from Taichung to Cingjing Farm. The bus went south toward Puli, a small town in Nantou County that is known for its rice wine brewery, artistic paper, rice, and clean water running from the mountains. After departing Puli, the bus started to go up across the Central Mountains, broke down for about half an hour, and we finally arrived Cingjing Farm safely.

   What is unique about Cingjing Farm is that it is very tourisy. It does have Alps-like scenery, and many European styles guesthouses were built to accommodate the tourists' dream of being in the Alps. It is also a theme park with things such as sheep farm, horse riding, souvenir stores, Yunnan style restaurants, and plenty of hikes. It is probably more suitable for romantic trips than backpacking adventurers but we were only coming for the scenery and the fresh mountain air. Oh well...

   We checked into the guesthouse and finally we got to stay in a spacious room, after the three previous nights in the compact rooms in the chaotic, but exciting city.

Our guesthouse. It is very well-kept and clean

    After we dropped off our stuff in our guesthouse, we ventured out and first started the mountain touring in a place called Green Green Grassland (青青草原). The morning rain has stopped by the time we reached there, but the paths were still very wet. Green Green Grassland is actually a touring farm that has rolling grass for sheep grazing, hikes to look at the Hehuanshan range, and souvenir stores that sell sheep milk candies from the milk of the local farms. From here, pictures would tell better stories so I am posting a few photos here.

Inside Green Green Grassland, overlooking Hehuanshan

 

More pictures

More pictures

Castle-themed guesthouse

The view is just magical

Breathtaking image.

Sheep grazing but it was inaccessible for close looks

I wished I had attempted to paint this

Still inside Green Green Farm

Sorry, no sheep exhibition today.

Bee on lavender

Depress-looking pony that made me feel sad, perhaps her back hurts or she is too tired?

Ice cream made of sheep milk

    We snacked ourselves with ice cream made with sheep milk, then found walked up to a staircase that leads to a bronze statue of the ex-President (aka dictator Chiang Kai-Shek). I heard there were used to be his statues everywhere in Taiwan. Many Taiwanese disliked him for his implementation of martial laws between the 50's and 80's and the sanction of the mainland. But politics isn't that point of this blog so I'll hush.

Statue of thet ever-controversial Chiang Kai-Shek on the top of the ladder. Perhaps he is over looking Taiwan from above?

Part of the 355-steps inside the clouds (literally)

    We continued to walk down slope toward our guesthouse through a system of staircase and wooden path. The path was very foggy and cool but I felt very comfortable. There was a 355-step staircase that made me think about the most-played song from the band Led Zeppelin. Fortunately we were walking down so it was a Staircase to Hell (pun intended). We stopped by the souvenir stores but there was not much to see or to shop for.

    Originally, we planned to grab a dinner in a Yunnan style that the guesthouse

keeper recommended, but we lingered for too long and the restaurant was already closed down. Instead we went to a shopping arcade in the dark through

Biohazard/Resident Evil like pathway but it was built for visitors' safety from automobiles

the pathway (above) and had some mediocre meal. It was a lost cause but at least we filled up our stomach. We bought couple cans of Taiwan Beer to drink inside our room, along with peanuts to snack with. And this time, I was able to drank about half a can of beer before I felt tipsy and fell asleep (for those who know me, I have a low enough tolerance toward alcohol that people would not believe).

Another set dinner.

Part of the mediocre dinner

Taiwan Trip 2010 (Day 3)

Taichung

   Day 3 was planned as an adventure in Taichung, the third largest city in Taiwan. Taichung is a sprawling city that was first developed around the main train station. It has been developed rapidly in recent years, due to its relatively cheaper real estate prices and its pleasant climate. It has a reputation of many gangster fights although I did not encounter any. There are some large malls on the outskirt of the city. Traffic in Taichung is often clogged perhaps because of the reliance of automobiles, lack of main roads from the national grade highway to the city, and the lack of metro system.

Yum yum breakfast

   After grabbing some quick breakfast in a vegetarian (credit to Ben and Calvin for putting up with my shit practice of not eating meat :-)) place ( the nice things about breakfast in Taiwan is there are tons of breakfast canteens literally everywhere, with countless varieties), we ventured into the Old Taichung Brewery for some pictures. Taichung Brewery was an abandoned-brewery-turned-into-cultural-park site. The rooms can be rented out for special events, and there were not much to see, other than take the pictures of the buildings and decorations. It is a nice park to stop by on a sunny day though.

So flooded that we had to walk on the plank

Temples are everywhere in Taiwan

Conservatory in Science Museum

    After that, we took a bus to the Science Museum to dodge the rain but we forgot that is closed every Monday. The rain became harder and some parts of the streets were flooded. We stumbled our way in Wu Wei Teahouse (the closest translation of wu wei in English is 'let it be', it is an ancient philosophy from Zhuangzi where things should be kept natural), a quiet pagoda-style restaurant/teahouse. It is a very nice building with a pond full of koi, and was built into the ancient Chinese garden style. It was an excellent spot to escape the urban chaos temporarily. We had a lunch and sat over there until the rain has finally stopped.

The retro decoration of Wu Wei

The serene pond with koi

Fried pumpkin slices and rice balls at Wu Wei

The main hall? at Wu Wei

Menxin Park

    We stumbled our way through the city and we walked into the Wenxim Forest Park. I was surprised that it actually does not have many trees, it did have a


amphitheatre and a stage for performance. Perhaps it is a good summer concert site. We then took a crowded free bus full of students to Feng-chia Night Market, got lost in the process and found a very kind middle aged woman. She walked us to the direction of Feng-Chia Market (Many Taiwanese seemed to be so nice to foreigner travellers in general, they may go out of their way to help).

The plateau of Menxin Park, overlooking the skyline

    Feng-chia Night Market is located near a private university with the same name. It is a popular hangout place for the university students and it had

Fresh *literally* fruit juice

became a tourist spot over the years. I was beginning to get tired of night markets and we walked through the alley like a zombie. We originally planned to go back to Nan Bei Hotel by bus but we realized the bus had never came. We asked the a storekeeper nearby and he explained the bus service shuts down prematurely if there were not enough passengers.

The fashion district of Feng-Chia Night Market

Busy night street near Feng-Chia Market

     We decided to flag down a taxi. It became one of the most memorable experiences in the trip. The posted speed limit of the road he took was 50 km/h. Not only was he driving 80 km/h per hour, he was also Idaho stopping the traffic and cars seem to let him go cut his way through. I was amazed that Crazy Taxi actually exists. We had to catch bus to Cingjing Farm in the Central Mountain on following day, so we slept early to get plenty of rest for the real mountain.

Taiwan Trip 2010 (Day 2)

Fengyuan -> Dongshi -> Taichung  

   We got up and had breakfast early in the morning because we had to catch an early bus. The rain was wonderfully heavy and our feet were soaked by the time we finished walking from the hotel to the breakfast canteen. After that, we packed up and took the bus to Dongshi Forest (東勢林場).

Ben's breakfast sandwich. Actually tasted much better than it looked.

   The bus took about half an hour from Fengyuan Main Bus Station to Dongshi Forest. Due to the heavy tropical rain (luckily there was less rain in the afternoon), we were the only tourist-passengers in the bus. The bus driver was middle-aged man that looked like in his 50's. He was nice and I had some nice chat with him about Taichung and he showed us around the raining scenery around the route.

Tea trees in rainy day. Can't imagine how pretty the site could be if it were sunny.

   Dongshi Forest is a forest-themed garden which is located in the mid-slope of a mountain. Needless to say, it is full of different kinds of trees. it was originally set up during the colonial days of Taiwan, as a site to harvest timber and it became an orchard. Later, it was redeveloped into a theme park with tea trees and flowers.

Jasmine flower

    Due to the rain and low expectations in tourists, only some of the vendors were opened. We were offered some Tieguanyin Tea in Gung Fu tea utensils, along with some delicious bake mushrooms as snacks. We were persuaded to buy some bake mushrooms and after some hike under the rainstorm, we headed to the main building of Dongzhi Forest, after mosquitoes had sucked enough blood from my legs.

Gung Fu Cha. VERY concentrated tea in small cup. Kind of like espresso version of tea.

     We took the bus to Fengyuan Main Bus Station at around 16:00, and we decided to take the train from Fengyuan to Taichung Main Station. Our hotel of choice, in Taichung, Nan Pei Hotel, was conveniently located next to the Taichung Main Station, and its location was its only merit. The room was infested with mosquitoes and the wall was moldy. I thought it would be okay for just three nights, as long as there was a place to sleep. Ben swore he would never take these kinds of hotels again, no matter how cheap it was.

Don't mess with the stream in tropical rain.

     After checking in, we decided to take a walk and headed north to Taichung Park. We stumbled and found the Taichung First High School Night Market and the Eslite Book Store (the biggest chain bookstore in Taiwan with all kinds of collection). We hung out for awhile and walked back to Nam Pei Hotel at around midnight. And that was the end of our second day of the trip. I would like to visit Dongshi Forest another time, but in the right season.

   

   

In Bloom

   In Bloom is a Georgian film co-directed by Nina Ekvtimishvili (from Tbilisi) and Simon Groß (from Berlin). It was a tale of a two fourteen years old schoolgirls Eka and Natia (played by two teenager Georgian actresses Lika Babluani & Mariam Bokeria respectively) from Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. The story was set in 1992, the year after Georgia gained independent from Soviet Union. At that time, Georgia faced a civil war, as the northwestern region of Abkhazia was declaring independence from Georgia.

   The two protagonists of the film, Eka and Natia were the best of friends. Not much of their past was mentioned in the film, but they went to the same school together and sat next to each other in school. They always walked together from school to home after school ended. Both had family issues and they always talked to each other about issues in their lives. Frequently, they dealt with school and street bullies together, and they stood for each other’s well being.

   Both Eka and Natia seemed to be very mature for their age. This might be due to the civil war in Georgia in 1992 and political tormoils that happened to the country between the late 80's and early 90's. Georgian children did not have a nurturing western-style childhood and were forced to grow up prematurely. Eka was a bit shy, had a calm, nurturing personality, and would rather solve problems by peaceful approaches. Her best friend Natia, however, was more outgoing, hot-headed, and confrontational. She was very protective toward the people she cared about, such as her little brother and Eka.

    Because of Natia was physically attractive, there were two boys (Kote and Lado) in the films that showed affection on her, though she only returned affection on one of them. According to the depiction of the film, Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, was far from a peaceful, orderly, and quiet city. People were short-temper, brash, and rude. They are not be reluctant to yell at eacher. Murders and homicides were not uncommon, as it was portrayed by the imprisonment of Eka's father. He was suspected to kill Kopla's father, and was put into a prison as a result.

   The audience was never told if Eka's father was guilty in killing Kopla's father, butKopla wanted to take his own revenge by harrassing and giving threats to Eka. In most parts of the world, children tend to learn from adults and treat their parents as role models. This is not the case for Eka and Natia, or their peers as well. Because of the ways most adults behaved in Georgia, kids did not seemed to have respect on the adults. For examples, no one in the class care about their hot-headed class teacher that screamed and yelled at her students all time. They seemed to be worn out by many different issues and they did not seemed to care about anyone else. After the teacher sent Natia home for throwing her bookpack, all of the class decided to run out of the classroom, and went to an amusement park instead.

    The Georgians had to face many difficulties in a newly independent society such as poverty and employment. I would recommend this film for anyone who is interested in the lives of post-1991 Georgia. It might be a depressing film, but it showed a realistic way of lives of how Georgians lived at that time. The film also gave audience some hope by showing the maturity and sensual ways of the main protagonists.

Taiwan trip 2010 (Day 1)

   So I went to Taiwan with two of my high school friends between June 12th to 19th, in a total of 8 days. It was part of the personal 'celebration' of getting my Bachelor of Science in chemistry, or rather, a long break between schools. I travelled with Ben and Calvin. None of us had ever been to Taiwan so we had to plan ahead and we would try hard not to kill each other in those eight days (we were rather peaceful so no damage was done). We tried to avoid the popular  tourist destinations such as Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Kenting in order to see the local impression of Taiwan. I have read a lot about Taiwan in books and news. It is culturally similar to Hong Kong, as we both use the traditional Chinese scripts. I always think of Taiwan as one of the last refugees of the classical Chinese culture so I would like to experience something unique about Taiwan, its history, scenery and cultures a little bit. I felt Taipei and Kaohsiung are big metropolis so it would be similar to Hong Kong, and Kenting would be full of tourists in the summer time. Our destinations included Taichung, Nantou County, and Tainan. I originally included Chaiyi as well, but realised that it would be a much better idea to spend more time and have a deeper experiemence. I want to give my gratitude to Ben and Calvin for their time, permission of using their photographs, and putting up with my shit in those eight days.

Day 1:

Hong Kong -> Taichung -> Fengyuen

Day 2:

Fengyuen -> Dongshih -> Taichung

Day 3:

Taichung

Day 4:

Taichung -> Chinjing Farm

Day 5:

Chinjing Farm -> Puli -> Tainan

Day 6:

Tainan

Day 7:

Tainan -> Taichung

Day 8:
Taichung -> Hong Kong

Taichung Ching Chuang Kang Airport - a former Republic of China Air Force base. Also one of the three airports in Taiwan that serves passenger to fly internationally. Small, compact, but practical.

A view of street in Shalu, right outside of the airport terminal. Gloomy, rainy day but we were optimistic.

We flew into Taichung Airport from Hong Kong International Airport and I was amazed how tiny the airport was, despite it serves as an international airport. The weather was not as good as we hoped, as it was raining for the first three days our trip, which means our trip in Taichung. Our first destination was Taiwan National Museum of Fine Arts. Before we headed to Taiwan National Museum of Fine Arts, we had our lunch in a nicely decorated Mediterranean-themed restaurant called Santorini.

The interior of the Santorini. We ate on the ground floor, but there are three stories altogether with different themes.

This is what I ordered. I forgot the name but the right cheese covered dish was supposed to be pasta.

A seafood dish with shrimp and clams with some spaghetti noodles.

Another dish that I did not remember what it was.

Taiwan National Museum of Fine Arts is a comprehensive art museum that shows different kinds of arts ranging from 16th century to modern arts. Each of their art work is divided into different category. No pictures were taken since photography is not allowed in the museum. One major difference I have noticed between the art in Hong Kong and Art in Taiwan was the amount of support of local artists between two places. Hong Kong Museum of Art does have many Chinese exhibits, but is lack of artworks from modern artists from Hong Kong. Taiwan National Museum of Fine Arts, does however, had a balanced amount of exhibits from western, Chinese, and local Taiwanese artists, they do have promotions on local artists hanging outside of their museums.

The building of the art museum and its promotion for some of its limited time exhibits.

Some sculptures in front of the museum.

A nice walk from the museum to the Taichung station, where we hopped on the train to go to Fengyuen.

Since we were planning to go to Dungshih Forest Park in the early morning of the 2nd day and we had to get up earlier to get the bus, we decided to stay in spend the night in Fungyuen, which has direct bus route to Dungshih. Fengyuen is a medium-size city that is located northeast of Taichung city and was called Toyohara during its colonial period by Japan. It took only 25 minutes for the train to go to Fengyuen to Taichung. In case if you have not seen, a night market in Taiwan is refered as a section of a district that is offered to people to hang out and enjoy themselves at night. We went to Temple East Night Market. It is named so because it is near Tsz Chi Temple. We hung out and enjoyed the food in Temple East Night Market. The night market was quite crowded, despite that fact that there was rain earlier in the day. I ate so much that I was almost unable to walk on that night. Then we stayed in a hotel called "Good Hotel".

Fengyuen's Tsz Chi Temple that the night market is named after.

All kinds of cheap, delicious food stalls on both sides of the alley.