I’m standing on my feet after being hit by the mack truck that is a fast paced life. After a month off, getting back into a busy schedule took a while. I’ve been sick for the past week but I’m feeling relaxed. The beginning of this month was crazy. I’m trying to take it easy. I’m working 18 16 hours a week, which for most English teachers in Taiwan is very few. I have Chinese class 6 hours a week. I’m handling the material no problem but it’s finding time to write the characters and the homework. There’s so much of it and I write so slow. (Now I’m giving a progress report of myself, I’m supposed to be writing reports for my students. They’re due tomorrow!)

I’ve set up a way to practice writing every day. It’s a little exhausting. It’s an extra lock on my door. I put a white board on my door and before I can go in I have to write something, like a journal entry or some vocabulary words. I put one in the teacher’s room at my school too. Whenever I take a break or get water I can write something. I still need more practice.

Hmm, I have eSPRs to write. I wanted to preview lesson 16, make flashcards of the vocabulary and what else? Sleep early because I’m still sick. eSPRs must be finished. The flashcards will take two hours or more, not time for that. A short preview of the lesson will have to do. My mom told me I’ve been on Day 3 for too long. I know, I’m still playing catch up.

在天祥我看過了這兩只蝴蝶. I saw these two butterflies in Tianxiang. They had some other friends they were playing with. They would chase each other around for a minute and then land on a blade of grass. Then do it again. It looked fun. Then they flew far away.

I had a good conversation with a friend yesterday about our lives, what brought us far away from home, love and happiness. I asked her if she believes in love. She’s pessimistic from experience. But that night after our conversation, she told me she believes again. That’s deep. —> When in love, we should be just as happy as these butterflies…and it should last. That’s happiness.

I had breakfast from the reserves, black soy milk and black sesame crackers (黑豆將和黑芝麻餅乾). I found the butterflies off the beaten path of Baiyang Trail (白楊步道). This trial takes you to Baiyang Waterfall (白楊瀑布) and the Water Curtain Tunnel (水簾洞). Along the way you have to pass through quite a few tunnels. It’s good to have a flashnight but it’s not necessary, they’re no potholes. Follow your the dim light and use your senses. Maybe for the ones with turns you can use the light.

At the entrance to one of the tunnels there was a bird that I’m not sure what he was up to. The little guy swooped passed me several times. He was perched up on light with his buddy. I think he was saying get off my turf. Really, he’s got a sharp beak and was flying fast. At the same entrance I was following the path of this ant. He was busy. Running up and down, back and forth. I tried to get a shot of him hanging upside down with the gorge in the background. I moved on to the waterfall. The suspension bridges are fun to cross. They are really stable. Near the waterfall, I met a family who was camping in Tianxiang for a few days. I told them I brought a tent too and they told me if I was still in Tianxiang that night to camp with them. After I left, I looked for where they were parked but couldn’t find it. I wanted to camp but I also wanted to move on.

Taroko Gorge is awesome. Once again there are tunnels with turns, water dripping from the ceiling and no lights. It’s crazy when you see huge tour buses driving through the smaller tunnels, with like inches of space left overhead. I heard of a traffic jam happening once because two buses couldn’t pass each other. Luckily, I didn’t come across that. I did wonder about how much work it took to build the road. It’s hard to fathom.

I visited Changuang Temple (禪光寺). It was quiet. The first monk I spoke with was very friendly. I entered the temple and said a prayer. One of the ladies that was volunteering there asked me if I had eaten. I hadn’t. I was treated to dinner. Sometimes foreigners stay at the temple and volunteer. I think that would be interesting. Before I left she told me where I could swim. On the way up the road to the temple there was a fenced off path that led to a small spring. The water was clear. I wish I had a friend to swim with then.

The sun was setting. I headed for Hualien. I made it Carp Lake (鯉魚潭), west of Hualien (花蓮). It was almost 9pm. A flat space to camp was 500nt ($15). Luckily, I met Norman (高清玄) and his wife. He was a pastor in Bloomington, Illinois for 25 years. He has 3 sons in the States. We chatted for a while. He was going to close up soon and he said there was a cabin still available. He let me sleep there for the price it costs for an empty lot (usually costs 1000nt). The cabin had power, I could recharge my battery. That was important. I unloaded my things and went down the street to the lake. There was a lightshow happening.

As my friend Wangmi (王咪) would say, “Huashuai!(花帥!) ” or really cool! But you have to say it with a Taiwanese accent. I think it’s his own word.

I wanted to see the sunrise at Hehuan mountain (合歡山). Woke up at 4am. Jerry got up too though I didn’t want him to. He waited till I left. He let me borrow a warm coat of his and long socks. Without these I would’ve been very, very uncomfortable. I rushed to Hehuan mountain. It was dark and the road was bad. The sun came up before I got there but it was okay. Because the Central Cross-Island Highway is so high up, the paths to most of the peaks in the Hehuan area take less than 5 minutes. I walked to the top of Shimen mountain (石門山), 3,236 meters high or 10,616 feet. (I wish I was used to meters and the rest of the units of measurements that are different from in the States. I’m in favor of using what the rest of the world uses.)

I rode to back to Lishan to return Jerry’s clothes. He was at work when I got to his place and his father was out too. The door was unlocked and I left his things inside and left. I was preparing to leave and a girl in her twenties was driving by in a car with some young kids inside. She saw me and slowed down. She was surprised to see me and said hello. I was about to leave when I saw her running down the street towards me. Turns out, she was teaching English at at small buxiban (補習班) right down the street. We had a short chat and then she wanted to give me a business card. She didn’t have any on her, they were at the school. She said wait here and started running back to the school. I waited a minute and walked to the school. Then, I taught class for about 5 minutes. They were young and their English was very basic. —> What I thought about after meeting the girl, when you see an opportunity, grab it. Run if you have to. Be a little foolish.

It was 9am and I had a breakfast of peaches and pears at the local market. The fruits were good. Lishan is known locally as “Pear Mountain.” I started for Taroko Gorge (太魯閣). Before I left Lishan though I spotted this. I had to know what this was about. I was thinking it was tea leaves but never seen them being produced before. I pulled over and asked what it was. They were very friendly. They gave me a tour. I learned about the process of making oolong tea. I knew a little about it before hand. How it’s a more of a specialized process than making green or red teas. Lishan’s oolong tea is sold worldwide and is pretty expensive. I held a batch of the fresh leaves in my hand and took in its fragrance. It smelled nice. I drank tea with the owner. His daughter showed me the farm out back. They treated me to lunch and then we drank some more tea. It was great. I said thanks and gave them something before I left. One of my photos laminated. On the back was a tag with my name and the title of the photo. Something like this. I gave Jerry a photo too.

On the way to Taroko I stopped at the 3,000 year old fir tree. Some older fellows from Maolin (茂林) were there shooting photographs. It’s like they were surfers waiting for a good set of waves to come in. They got very excited when the fog started moving. That was it. That was what they wanted to catch. I tried in vain to do the same. One guy was shooting in black and white. I looked through his lens. It looked cool. He was professional.

It was late afternoon when I made it to Wenshan hot spring (文山溫泉). Last year a typhoon hit the hot spring now there is only one small part of it left. The stairs at the bottom of it were damaged and entrance to it is closed off. The descent is still manageable. When I was crossing the suspension bridge and saw people down there, I wanted to go too. I met three people from Hualien who said they often come to the hot spring. It must be one of the best in Taiwan. The spring is right there shooting out of the rock. So, there is this little pool big enough for three or four. And right next to you is the river. (The river was gushing because there had been a typhoon just the week before.) This was one of the highlights of the trip. Too bad my camera battery had died and I left my backpack on my bike.

That night I stayed at the Tianxiang Youth Activity Center (YAC) (天祥青年活動中心). I stayed in a dormitory style room for 450nt ($13). The room sleeps eight but I was the only one there. It was nice. That night I slept with the window open and I could hear the sound of the Liwu (立霧溪) and Dasha (大沙溪) rivers.

I went out for a short ride to Xibao (西寶), which was in the direction from which I came. One of the Taroko Park groundsmen had told me earlier that day there was a pavilion where I could see Tianxiang at night. I found it, Huoran Pavilion (豁然開朗), but on that night in Tianxiang the power was out. I found that out when I went out to eat dinner but everyone was closed. It didn’t hit me till I got to the pavilion and it was pitch black.

I was sitting there in the dark with my can of Taiwan beer. I turned on my headlamp to make sure there were no buggies around me. I don’t like spiders. To my surprise, I saw these huge ants moving about.
—> You never know what’s happening around you.

我兩個半星期以前回來了. 十九天我騎機車環島了. 我來台灣以前這是我的夢想. 我很開心我可以說我成功了. 可能兩年以前我想過臺灣不大, 所以我可以騎摩托車繞者台灣玩. 我遇到很多好玩的事情. 這是我的故事. About 2½ weeks ago I came back from my trip. I rode around Taiwan for 19 days. Before coming to Taiwan, this was my dream and goal. Maybe two years ago I thought of it. I thought, Taiwan’s not that big (I’ve driven around the States), I could ride a motorcycle around the island (I got nothing to lose and it should be a lot of fun). I came across a lot of fun adventures. Here, I’ll tell about them, day by day.

This is me on day one. It was about 11am when I got to 宗庭’s bike shop. Before I got there I planned on giving back his tent to him. I didn’t know how to set it up. I kind of didn’t want to bring it either, the less the better I thought. In five minutes 宗庭 showed me how to set it up. Ok, I was going to bring it. It really is easy. (I didn’t bring the stakes for securing down the tent.)

Actually, I hung around the shop for a while. I was hesitant to leave. I think I was a little scared or nervous, whatever you want to call it. I met Ziggy, a Hollander (in Taiwan for four years) who told me I where I should camp at 合歡山 (Hehuan Mtn.) I decided that would be my destination for the day. Before I left I was taught another thing. I think of it like using a radar dectector. It’s only illegal in some states. Did you ever throw wet toilet paper at the ceiling in elementary school? That’s how you do it. My trip wouldn’t be as much fun without this trick.

I was off. That afternoon I was glad I left. I took Route 9 through some mountians to get to Ilan (宜蘭). In Ilan, I bought a long sleeve shirt because Iggy told me it was going to be cold. Before leaving I hadn’t planned on staying that high up in the mountains. From Ilan to Siji (四季) the road is fun. No cars, some fun turns over a smooth road that runs along the hillside with vegetation sometimes hanging overhead. Before I made it to Siji, I stopped somwhere and had a dip. At that point, I was glad I had started my trip.

From Siji on the road starts to get worse, especially when getting close to Lishan (梨山). Around Nanshan (南山) it started to get cold. The leisurely swim I had taken earlier probably was the reason I wasn’t going to make it to Hehuanshan. It was late afternoon, the sun was out of sight, the road was bad and it was cold. This portion of riding was not the most fun. I was fortunate to come upon a fellow motorcyclist. He seemed to know the road well. He was a young guy. I asked him where he was going, he was heading to his home in Lishan. He told me to follow him. I was saved. Jerry (少龍) took me to a place to eat. Then, he helped me find a place to camp. We made it to Fushou Mtn. Farm. Night had fallen by this time (it’s always best to set up the tent before this happens). When they said a spot on the camp site was 500nt ($15) he said that was too expensive and told me to stay at his place. I met his father, who grew up in Sichuan province (四川) and was a soldier for the R.O.C. We went out for a night snack (宵夜) and a drink right down the street. He picked up his buddy, Beety from Kaohsiung (高雄), and we hung out for a while.

—> 山上的生活跟城裏的不一樣. 他們的比較純粹的. 你去那邊跟他們一起就知道. Life in the mountains is not the same as it is in the city. There it’s more simple and pure. If you go there and meet the people you’ll understand. This sounds nice, like I wonder if I could live there. But the hard thing is just being satisfied with where you are. If I moved to the countryside, would I be content, or would I miss the city? For many of us, we always want what we don’t have. For those that can just be happy, that’s a great thing.