Previous Post: Another Update…   Next Post: Safe and sound again…

Many more travels later….

Hello all – Sorry about this taking forever to post… lazy just doesn’t describe it! Anyway, here is the 2nd to last post from my travels to Taiwan back in October 2008 covering the 6th of October to the 11th of October.

6th October 2008
Tzu-Yun and I headed off pretty early to go and catch the Super Fast Train which only takes an hour and a half instead of a slow four hours by normal speed train. This beauty of a train was like sitting in an plane only without the take-off and landing. Speedy isn’t the word for this beast and no images can show you just how quick it is, but I did take some footage of it which I will no doubt edit into a video for the site.
Upon arrival at our destination we had to continue on to Kending (the very South of Taiwan) and we had the choice of a bus that would take four hours or a taxi that would take two hours, pretty easy decision really. Thing with the taxi option was that we had to share it with two other people, this was very lucky for us as the two people with us just happened to own a Water Park business and they offered us a discount if we went to their one… the even offered to drive us there and then drop us off at our hotel later on in the day!!! What a spot of luck.
At the Water Park Tzu-Yun and I did a spot of snorkeling, boat parachute and a ride on a Jet-Ski… Without Tzu-Yun I went on the Banana Boat and a circular boat thingy for 3 people, all pretty hair raising but a lot of fun. Unfortunately, due to the nature of water killing electrical items we could only get photos of the Boat Parachute.
After this we had some Sashimi (cost about 8 pounds for super fresh delicious fish) and then the chaps from the Water Park took us to our Hotel. That night we were staying in a Balinese themed Surf hotel… very nice room and cheap too. Later on in the evening we headed out and checked out the local town, Tzu-Yun rented another scooter to my delight, it was late by now though so we headed back pretty soon as the need for sleep set in.

7th October 2008
Today we hopped back onto our Scooter and headed off around the coast stopping occasionally to view the beautiful surroundings. We arrived at many big cliff-sides that made for some spectacular viewing, I took many more panoramic photos that, once again, I will have to sort out when I get back to the UK.
Whilst heading back towards our Hotel we stopped off at another National Park and walked around what was like a small exhibition of history and culture. Tzu-Yun by this point was getting a bit scared of the dark tunnels and encroaching trees (apparently she was afraid of snakes jumping out) and so we decided to call it a day and head to the beach for a bit of a swim.
The water was lovely, but we left it a bit late to have a good long soak. Still, that didn’t stop Tzu-Yun from renting a body board… was a lot of fun.
Later in the evening we headed back to the local town, this time a bit more awake after catching up on some much needed sleep. There were many shops that sold local produce and some amazing food. I am now officially addicted to Bautzu (pronounced Bout-Zoo kind-of!). We also found  a local seller of Bubble Tea which was quite literally the best we had ever had… at first I hated this strange drink (it has lumps of chewy stuff in it) but now I love it.
After our little jaunt to the town we headed back to the Hotel and dropped off the Scooter… tomorrow we would be heading to Jaa-ee (I will correct these place names later when I can get Tzu-Yun off the telephone!! haha).

8th October 2008
The road to Jaa-ee was once again a taxi share and then onto a train. After the train ride we had to take another taxi that took us into the mountains. The ride up in the taxi was great, winding roads getting higher into the mountains all the while getting closer to the clouds. Along the way the chaos caused by the typhoon I mentioned in earlier posts becomes evident, parts of the road have collapsed and you can clearly see where there have been landslides… it still felt very safe despite this, basically you would have had to be a fool to travel during the typhoon but after it’s passed it’s more than safe.
Upon arriving at our ‘resort’ of sorts we headed out as soon as possible to see another Aboriginal dance performance. This time the dances were of a more aggressive kind, maybe reflecting on how this particular tribe would have been when they were able to hunt the wild animals in the mountains. After the performance we were pretty limited as to what we could do, there were no scooters for rent and walking anywhere would have taken many hours so we decided to relax and get an early night in preperation for the sunrise the next morning.

9th October 2008
After getting many hours of much needed kip Tzu-Yun and I were awoken by our alarm at 3.30am, just enough time to have a quick ‘wake me up’ shower and then meet our driver who would take us to a good spot to see the sunrise. Many people were also taking the trip to see the sunrise, there were about 6 taxis and a bus load of people eager to see something special. Our first stop was to see the stars, very beautiful and made even more so by the knowledge that you are at the top of a mountain. After jumping back in the taxi for a short time we stopped in the road to watch the sun peek over the top of another mountain, it was a shame there were so many other people and to be honest it wasn’t as coulourful as sunrises we get in the UK on a regular basis, we were a little underwhelmed to say the least (luckily that would change the following day). On the way back we made a few stops to look at the scenery, once again the guide spoke only in Mandarin so it was up to Tzu-Yun to translate some of it for me. We passed by some gorgeous waterfalls, ginormous trees and best of all……. some Wild MONKEYS!!! haha, what a surprise that was. There was a small family of them searching for food, I managed to get a few photos and some film of them too, they were not scared of us at all (in fact, Tzu-Yun asked the guide to take a picture close up of one of the Monkeys and it chased him a bit! haha). Highlight of the day for me.
Later on in the day we decided to check out the scenery close to the hotel, the hotel itself was smack bang in the middle of another National Park so finding our way around was easy as there were many maps dotted about with our location. This walk turned out to be one of the best things we had done on the trip, the views were stunning as the tall trees surrounded us and the mountains could be seen through various clearings. Dotted within the trees were also some lovely waterfalls and streams and some old looking villages (even though there were loads of market stalls trying to sell complete tatt to you!).

10th October 2008
For some crazy reason (probably after being let down at the previous sunrise) Tzu-Yun and I decided to travel by train at 4am to go and see another sunrise. The little train was crammed to the seams and reminded me of those little model trains people have, it bumped and squeaked its way to our destination. It wasn’t too long before we got there and we found ourselves at the very top of a mountain awaiting the sunrise again. This time it was a lot more spectacular, red and blue was lining the sky and clouds were settled inside the ravine like gap between our mountain and the opposite one where the sun would pop up from. Many people had awoken at stupid ‘o’ clock in the morning like us just to catch a glimpse of this magnificent sight… and well worth it it was too. 
Today however we had to leave the mountains to head for a big town that was hosting the Fireworks for the 10th of October (10/10) celebrations (Taiwan’s independance celebration). The ride down in the taxi was great as the driver kept stopping off at interesting places and was telling us a lot about the damage that the recent Typhoon had caused… he was having to carefully navigate past holes in the road, thats how severe it had been (and they get roughly 5 of these a year, although the one that hit whilst I was there was said to be the biggest that year!!).
Our jounery in the taxi took us past a tea field where some ladies wearing traditional hats were working in the fields. It looked just how you would imagine with the tiered runs of tea bushes covering the side of the mountain… quite beautiful in it’s order really.
Later on we stopped by a traditional town that has been over-run by tourists! Kinda defeated the point really as it was full of shops and street vendors… the only thing really authentic was probably the archetecutre, but then that even made you wonder! Still, it was very interesting and Tzu-Yun bought me an ice cream thing that was wrapped in something that seemed like a tortilla and then it had some peanut sugar thing grated over it! It was quite odd but very delicious! The sugar peanut gratins were very dry but as soon as some of the ice-cream had melted in your mouth it was awesome… I would certainly have one again. 
That was our final stop in the taxi (I will get the little towns name from Tzu-Yun at some point and update this article) and we then headed for the firework celebrations and to meat Tzu-Yun’s cousin Michael. The company putting on the show are one that Shell Shock Fireworks (the company I work for) buy fireworks from and that we regard as our best supplier: San-Tai Fireworks. The town was busy with hundreds of thousands of people and finding Michael was a pretty hard task. I was hoping to be able to see the site that San-Tai were working on but there was no chance I was even getting close to it as they had about 4 roads closed off to the site… even though I had phoned ahead they were just too busy to see me which was a real shame. Still, the fireworks were amazing if a little long running (the show lasted for 50 minutes!!!!!!!). Tzu-Yun and I had to leave a little before the end as we were due to catch a bus to the Super Fast Train station. This turned into a real nightmare as we got lost and when the fireworks ended it felt like over a million people were trying to get home! It was carnage! I felt pretty useless as all  I could do was candidly film the whole experience whilst Michael and Tzu-Yun talked to police men brandishing rave sticks! lol
We managed to find the correct place to catch the bus just in the nick of time… any later and we would have had to waited for another bus as we were the last two people to fit on it… very lucky as I think we would have missed our scheduled train if we hadn’t gotten on that bus… Still, we made it and the stress was over… after such a long day it was really good to crash out at Tzu-Yun’s place  

11th October 2008
Today was a lazy day as in the afternoon we met up with some more friends of Tzu-Yun in a restaurant of which I forget the name! It was great food as usual, probably a bad thing for me as I need to stop eating so much!!
Later on we went to Tzu-Yun’s Mum’s shop to help her close up and take some photo’s for a website (which still hasn’t started development yet!). After this we went to meet up with some of Tzu-Yun’s and her Mum’s friends in a department store which had an American themed restaurant! All I can say about that was that it was pretty odd to be eating Steak and Chips in this country that has soooo much better cuisine! The mad thing is that they apparently import all the beef from the USA! Now if thats not a complete waste of resources then I don’t know what is! It’s pretty sickening to say the least! After the meal we headed back to Tzu-Yun’s Uncles house for some Tea and snacks and then we headed home….  a lazy day to say the least!