Taidong

We just got back from a lovely little weekend excursion to Taidong. The original plan was to visit Green Island (famous for great snorkeling and hot springs), a one hour plane ride east of Taidong. Sadly, our plans fells through when we discovered that the sole daily flight was completely booked for Thursday through Monday. While there is also a boat which runs regularly out to the tiny island, horror stories abound as to the terrors of seasickness. Apparently, no matter how strong your stomach is, it is impossible to ride this boat without succumbing. Considering that a number of us are already susceptible to seasickness (remember Phuket?), we decided that the boat ride was out of the question. Therefore, we are postponing our Green Island trip until some later date.

Taidong was not a bad substitution. Located on the east coast, south of Hualien, it is literally minutes from both the mountains and the ocean (everyone from Illinois should know my passion for both).

From Kaohsiung, one must take a 3-4 hour train ride across the central mountains. Our biggest problem in setting up the travel arrangements was securing train tickets ahead of time. Because of the weekend being a national holiday (Tomb Sweeping Day - Monday, April 5), everyone in Taiwan had decided to take advantage of the long weekend and travel (thus the plane tickets to Green Island were all booked over a month in advance). At the last minute, Fonda worked her magic and somehow managed to secure us reserved seats. The train was packed, with people standing in the aisles and crammed into every nook and cranny.


Left: Awesome bedazzled scooter I found in Taidong. In case you cannot tell, the whole thing was covered in rhinestones.







Our adventure started off with a bit of a mishap. About five minutes after leaving the station, we (Katherine, Caroline, Kristin, Kaitlyn, Fonda and myself) were all chatting away happily - perhaps being noisy, obnoxious Americans? But I think not so much. We were using our in-door voices, merely telling entertaining stories and laughing a lot... The train had "just" left, so people were still settling in and getting arranged. Well, mid-laughter, we suddenly hear this guy yell at us from the back of the train car: "Bull shit! Please be quiet!" He was using his angry voice. And let me tell you, he looked quite angry too. The entire car went deafeningly quiet, as all of the Taiwanese people tried not to stare at us. We all sank down into our seats as far as we could, not sure whether we were more horrified, embarrassed or entertained. It was really quite hard to suppress the giggles. First of all, by Taiwanese culture, what he did was quite rude. Taiwanese people are all gentility and and subtlety, usually avoiding conflict, particularly with foreigners. You could tell that everyone else on the train was very embarrassed by what he had done. Second of all, the matter of the "bull shit." It has come to our notice over the course of the year, that swear words do not translate well. People with poor English do not know how or when such words are appropriate. Now, I honestly feel that no time is the appropriate time, but recognizing that there are extreme situations which certain people feel require extreme expletives, I can grant a person the occasional swear word. But here in Taiwan, I hear them all the time: from my children, from co-workers, from the random person on the street... I blame Hollywood. Taiwanese people think that Americans use these words all the time, and that the words are just a natural part of our speech. The other day, I had a child write "Oh my God" on his homework. Appalled, I showed my co-teacher and questioned the student. He had just meant, "OMG - this homework is so fun" (yes, I do give "fun" homework assignments - they were supposed to draw pictures). I tried to explain that this phrase is offensive to me, but it did not seem to translate well. At any rate, tangent aside, it was obvious the man had poor English and did not understand the full implications of his rebuke. The "bull shit" and the "please" seemed at odds with each other in our minds... It was clear he was annoyed, but I do not think he was that enraged. I believe the "bull shit" was just his way of trying to get our attention - which it certainly did.


Once in Taidong, we met up with Kim and bused over to our hotel. Fulbright Alex's family lives in Taidong and runs a hotel there. It was a very Taiwanese hotel, rather old and endearing, with everything in miniature. For example, the mirror reflected my stomach - nowhere close to my face, and the towels were the size of wash clothes (and also left bits of yellow tuft all over one's body when rubbing down...). Alex's family was adorable, though. So tiny! His mother must have been the size I was in second grade. Actually no - I have no memory of ever being that size haha. He and his brother had all of the same mannerisms and expressions. It was like talking to Alex, except not. Very crazy.


The first night there, we bummed around a bit - finding food, indulging in shaved ice and renting scooters. The shaved ice place was also home to a very minuscule dog, much to the delight of Kristin and Kaitlyn. I must say, for me, small does not equal cute. Give me a golden retriever or a labrador any day. We also visited Starbucks for late-night coffee. Odd things happen with caffeine late at night as evidenced by the video and pictures below...











Pictures Above: First night there - can we blame sleep deprivation?

The next day, we set off adventuring on our scooters to see the ocean cliffs by morning and to soak in hot springs by afternoon. The week before we left for
Taidong, I developed an eye infection in my cornea. For a while, I was uncertain whether I would even be able to go, especially since the group had been depending on me as one of the scooter drivers (only half of the people going had scooter licenses). By Friday afternoon, though, I could see clearly and with relatively little pain. The tearing had, for the most part, ceased, and as long as I wore my sunglasses and avoided direct sunlight, I was ok. Still, Kaitlyn had an enormous amount of faith to trust me driving her around town and up and down country roads.


We started by driving up north along the coastline, stopping periodically to scramble down to the ocean and take photo-shoots. One of the most interesting spots had rock formations named for their similar appearance to tofu. It would have been more beautiful if I could have seen clearly, but after a while, the sunlight got to me, and I had to go hide under a tree with my eyes closed.










Pictures Above: tofu rock formations
Pictures Below: Caroline and I enjoying the ocean; Kim, Kait, Katherine, Kristin, Fonda and Me










In the late afternoon, we went to the Zhiben Hot Springs. To all future hot springs goers, make sure you bring your own towel and swim cap. You cannot get into the water without a swim cap. Surprisingly, though, the place had plenty of hair dryers to use after coming out of the showers. The hot springs were amazing - soaking in bubbly hot water while staring up at the hills and forests surrounding us. We stayed till the sun went down and the lights came on, and even then, had to tear ourselves away. The Zhiben hot springs are quite large, with six large pools and lots of smaller tubs. Some had boiling hot water, others freezing cold, some with jacuzzi bubblers, and some with scented/colored water (lavender and rose).


For dinner, Fonda took us to a lovely little barbecue place. You could pick out different meat and vegetable shish kabobs, and then the guy would barbecue them for you with a certain sauce. It was amazing! I wish we had one of those places in Kaohsiung.











Before heading home the next day, Fonda said we had to get the famous Taidong sweet potatoes. Taidong is known around the island for its candied sweet potatoes and sweet potato chips. The tiny hole-in-the-wall shop did not open till 9am, but when we pulled up at a quarter till, there was a line halfway down the street already. However, now speaking from experience, the sweet potatoes were fairly amazing, though perhaps not worth the half an hour wait in the sun?

The great thing about traveling with Fonda is that we get a glimpse into how the locals travel and go on vacation. Taiwanese people travel for the food. Every town in Taiwan is famous for some special delicacy, and Taiwanese people will travel halfway across the island for the sole purpose of eating the food in some small local shop and then buy extras to take home to all of their friends. Traveling in Taiwan is all about the food and the photo-shoots, and not so much about the actual sight-seeing or "doing." For example, when I travel with my host family, we always need a picture in front of everything, but we will rarely "do" the activity. And our whole schedule is planned around meals and famous snacks. In Taidong, that would be sweet potatoes. :)


After indulging in sweet potatoes for breakfast, we set off for one last adventure. We had heard that there was paragliding about an hour up the mountain. The drive up was quite scenic, but sadly, when we reached the top, weather conditions prevented us from jumping. It was too windy, and the trainers said that they were not letting anyone go off. While we chilled at the top for over an hour, we only saw one guy jump, and he was only in the air for about ten minutes before he went down. Happily, though, we did find lots of amazing fresh pineapple and ice cream to amuse ourselves with while waiting. In the end, we decided to give up and drive back. Since I had gotten to go while my family was here the week before, I was not too crushed. Hopefully, there will be another time for other people to try it.