At the end of May me and Beatrice took a couple of weeks off to travel a bit in Taiwan.

High Speed Rail

To get to Kaohsiung we look High Speed Rail from Taoyuan station (a bit of a bus ride away from Taoyuan city) to Zuoying station (a bit outside of central Kaohsiung). The HSR took about an hour and a half between the stations, versus four to six hours on the regular express trains. If I remember correctly, Taoyuan to Hsinchu (the first stop) was about five minutes.

Along the way we noticed a large number of old looking houses, with single story buildings in three sections surrounding a courtyard. We have seen a few of these in Taoyuan as well, but there seemed to be a lot more in the countryside along the HSR line. I'm not sure why I didn't see any last summer; possibly I just didn't know what to look for, or maybe it is hard to see them from the conventional train.

Kaohsiung and Pingdong

We only had two afternoons in Kaohsiung, so we didn't go too far. It was sunny and quite hot while we were there.

We explored a bit around Cijin island and the mouth of the Love River. We also went up Shoushan, on the west side of the city, to see the monkeys. There are apparently wild monkeys in the nature reserve who will come and steal your food if you walk there. There is also a zoo and at least one temple. We got sidetracked by the zoo and didn't get into the nature reserve. The zoo was interesting, but also kind of sad with all the caged animals, especially some who didn't seem up to the heat.

After we finished a circuit of the zoo we sat down to eat, and as I was finishing a monkey strolled up on the sidewalk outside and climbed into one of the cages. It turned out to be going around to eat the zoo animals' food. It spent a while in the cage of some civets, and had a standoff with them wherein it would hit branches dramatically and they would try to stare it down. A group of older people came to watch and clap (for the monkey, I think). A few girls from one of the many graduation groups at the zoo also showed up, and when the monkey left the cage and continued down the road Beatrice and two of them followed it closely with cameras. It picked up a larger crowd (mostly from the school groups) as it went, and paused to investigate a garbage can and then pose for photos on top of it. After that it left the zoo, presumably into the nature reserve.

After Kaohsiung we went to Pingdong for the night to visit a family friend of Beatrice's.

Kenting

After that we went on to Kenting, the major resortish area at the far southern end of the island. Kenting is mostly known for water sports, but unfortunately it started raining as we got there and we didn't feel much like being in the water.

We stayed the night at Kenting Youth Activity Center, which is built in the style of a traditional Min village. This was a nice place to stay apart from an incident where a giant wasp showed up in our room at night.

While in Kenting we rented electric bikes. These turned out not to be hugely useful due to the traffic in the villages, but were interesting to try. If the weather had been nicer we would have put them to more use in going farther in the park.

On a road going inland where we tried out our bikes, we noticed some crabs which were trying to cross the road and were frequently getting run over by cars. We also saw some tiny hermit crabs and some tiny frogs in the small garden outside our room at the Youth Activity Center.

At a pizza restaurant in Kenting Town we noticed an unusual offering table outside. Besides the usual fruit and other food, it included a cup of tea, a cup of gin, and possibly two flats of coke. Either the spirits really liked coke or the coke wasn't actually part of the offering. The table was also left in its place at the side of the door, whereas usually this is done on a special table in front of the door and closer to the street. The unusual placement may just have been due to rain.

We had planned to stay at least one more night, but with the rain we decided to move on the east coast where accommodation is cheaper.

Taitung and Jhihben National Forest Recreation Area

We stayed a total of four nights in Taitung, first in a hotel after arriving from Kenting, then twice between Lyudao and Lanyu (see below) and once more after Lanyu before starting home. The later three nights we stayed in La Pace hostel, which I had used last summer (when it was under a different name). It is cheap and interestingly decorated and has a friendly owner.

While in the city we tried out Kasa, a restaurant the hostel owner had told me about last summer but which I hadn't tried. It turned out to be really good, with easily the best western food we have had in Taiwan, albeit only snackish things like casadias and bagels and cake. They seemed to make everything as we waited, so it took a while but was very fresh. One of their specialities is bagel pizzas, for which they made the bagels while we watched. They also have a bar and friendly staff (who speak pretty good English). The restaurant is in the framework of an old house which has been extended with newer but similarly styled construction at the back, so that the whole thing is largely open air and also looks like it could fall down any time. We enquired as to how it survived typhoons, and apparently it does so mostly because the adjacent buildings shelter it, although they do have a tarp cover as well.

While in Taitung we also also noticed a line of breakfast store cup seals that feature zoo animals, including the Robbit.

While we were in Taitung between Lyudao and Lanyu we went to the Jhihben National Forest Recreation Area, not too far away. This was again mostly in hope of seeing monkeys. We did see a few monkeys, but these ones didn't seem too interested in looking for food to steal and therefore we didn't get to see them for very long. There was also an area where there were supposed to be barking deer. We didn't see any, but heard noises that could have been them. Along the trail there were quite a few trees with very large root systems, which I assume were banyans since the name of the trail had something to do with banyans.

On the way back from Jhihben, we were offered a ride by a fellow Malaysian Chinese person who Beatrice met on a steep part of the trail, where he was leading an aboriginal work crew in replacing the steps. Additionally, on our way back from Lyudao a helpful passenger with a fancy car gave us a ride from Fukang harbour (where the ferries to the islands dock) to Taitung after he saw us walking along looking for a bus stop.

Lyudao

We took the ferry to Lyudao from Fukang harbour just outside of Taitung. The ferry took about 50 minutes. Lyudao is a small island which these days seems to be primarily a tourist destination. There is one main village with a lot of food and souvenir shops, and a couple of smaller villages. Despite being obviously polished for tourism, the island still feels relatively peaceful, or at least did when we were there. The weather was not great, but it refrained from raining long enough that we could see things.

There is one major road, which is an eighteen kilometre loop around the outside of the island, with a couple side roads and one going up into the interior mountains. We rented a golf cart (actually a series of golf carts, because the rental place just switches carts instead of recharging them on the spot (since recharging is an overnight process)).

Lyudao has Jhaorih Hot Springs, apparently one of two natural salt water hot springs in the world.

Another attraction is Guanyin cave, which is said to have been discovered in the Qing dynasty when a fisherman was led safely back to shore by an unknown light from the cliffs in the area of the cave. A particular rock is said to resemble Guanyin, so now there is a little shrine (and a not so little gate, snack stand, and souvenir shop). At the snack stand there we tried a drink made from a fruit which grows in the Taitung area (including Lyudao). I don't know what it is called, but it is made up of squarish pod things that come off easily.

Lyudao has a lot crabs and frogs (or maybe toads). These need to cross the road to get inland, so they are often seen squished on the road. There are quite a few signs tying to get people to avoid them. Lyudao is also known for Sika deer. These used to be a big industry (for the horn, I think), but there don't seem to be so many now. We saw a few in pens and one on a leash by a store so visitors could see it and take pictures with it (I think most of the penned dear we saw are kept for that purpose, but most were not brought out because of the rain). One of our hosts also took us on a tour to see deer and other wildlife at night. There were quite a few wild deer in the fields alongside the road, which could be seen with a high-power flashlight. On the last day we went for a walk on the Across Mountain Ancient Trail in the interior of the island. The sunnier parts had a lot of lizards that would hang out on the trail and run off when we got too close. We also saw one larger snake, and there were some louder (in comparison to lizard noises) rustling noises ahead of us that suggested there were more around. At the entrance to the trail an ant highway was visible on either side, with an underpass to cross the trail. There were also some creatures in the coral tidal pools on the beach, including starfish, small fish, sea cucumbers, and what I assume were sea anemones.

Another thing Lyudao is known for is political prisons (I'm not sure if they were exclusively political, but they are known mostly for housing political prisoners under the KMT). One side of the island has a sequence of prison complexes and a more recent human rights memorial. The major old prison seems to be Oasis Villa, also known as Lyudao Lodge and less catchily as The Ministry of National Defence Green Island Reform and Reeducation Prison. The old prisons are all closed now, although there is a separate modern prison which as far as I know is less notorious. Now that the island is mostly for tourism, some stores use the prison theme to their advantage. There is a shaved ice store called Ice Jail, complete with heavy bars and assorted guns, and at least one souvenir shop with primarily prisoned themed merchandise.

Lanyu

To get to Lanyu we had to go back through Taitung and take another ferry from Fukang harbour; there are some direct ferries between Lyudao and Lanyu, but they didn't run very often. Lanyu is another island, farther out and a bit bigger than Lyudao. The ferry took about two and a half hours this time, and bounced around a lot on the way. Lanyu also has one loop road around the island and one cross-island road though the mountains, and has several villages. The weather while we were there was pretty rainy, a bit more than it was on Lyudao. We rented a car, which Beatrice drove around. Lanyu is not nearly as touristy as Lyudao, seeming rougher but more genuinely out of the way, but it has a number of nice (but slightly expensive) places to eat and a few souvenir shops. The population is primarily Tao, an ethnic group related to Batan islanders, and the feel is very different than mainland Taiwan.

Cats are relatively popular on Lanyu, whereas dogs seem to be the dominant pet at least in Taoyuan. Perhaps relatedly, one of the restaurants we went to was called Mermen and Cat, in Dongqing village. Mermen and Cat had a shelf of books including a comic about a cat called Ni Ni.

Goats are everywhere and wander around on their own including on the roads. There are a few pigs in the towns, which are also allowed to wander free. A couple of pigs liked to hang out in front of the door to the building we were staying in because their food was prepared on the bottom level, so we had to push them out of the way to get in.

One distinctive feature of Tao construction is sitting platforms. These are raised platforms with low roofs (peaked roofs with space under the peak, although I don't know if that is important), sized to sit at least a few people. We tried one of these in the middle of the day one afternoon when it was actually sunny and hot, and it was much cooler than outdoors. Unfortunately I didn't get a photograph of an intact sitting platform. Other traditional Tao buildings are partially underground. Apparently when the KMT took over they destroyed these and replaced them with concrete buildings which then themselves got destroyed by typhoons. There are now a few partially underground buildings visible, in a presumably updated building style which looks to include modern materials. Other than that most of the current buildings are pretty standard for Taiwan, perhaps with additional tendencies toward being set into hillsides and toward featuring raised platforms. Traditional clothing (which includes loincloths and giant silver helmets for men, at least on ceremonial occasions) seems to be mostly gone, but there are a number of very elderly (but often fairly active) people about whose dress doesn't quite fit in.

Another traditional Tao thing is their canoes. The really traditional ones apparently take several months to make, but some of the boats sitting around looked like they might be some sort of simplified version. We got to try a little fishing boat through a guide at the Mermen and Cat. Due to wave conditions we weren't able to go out far enough to see flying fish as we were hoping, but got instructed in how to row the boat.

Christianity seems to be much more popular on Lanyu than it is in mainland Taiwan, probably because of missionaries deciding the Tao were an easier target. I only saw one Chinese style temple. Wukong cave, a place that apparently used to have some significance to do with evil spirits, seems to have at least one church set up in it, with a largish cross and what I assume are stations of the cross.

Lanyu is known for flying fish. We were there at the end of the season for them and there weren't too many around, but we did see a few from the ferry on the way in. We also saw a new (for me) kind of crab and a kind of ant with long legs.

Luye

On the way home we took a bus from Taitung to Luye in the East Rift Valley to see the tea growing area. The East Rift Valley is very beautiful and one of the less populated parts of Taiwan. I hadn't seen it before since on my last trip I took the coastal route from Taitung to Hualien. We ended up at Luye Gaotai (Luye high terrace), with a view down to the river and town and fields.

Near the view point there was a large grassy hill and field, which is possibly sometimes used for paragliding landings (the area is also known for paragliding), but at the time was being used for grass sledding. The grass sleds used a track system which seemed to work efficiently, as the sleds could pick up some speed going down the hill.

The major crops in the area were tea, pineapples, bananas (of some special kind, I think), and at least one other plant which I have forgotten. There were several demonstration tea farms with small fields and stores for sampling and buying tea.

After Luye we got on the train to go back to Taoyuan, via the rest of the East Rift Valley and Hualien.