Thanksgiving Trip to Kenting

The end of November.  Living in the Pacific Northwest makes this time of year difficult to be outside.  Cold, yet not cold enough to freeze the constant drizzle of rain, and breezy is the norm.  Our first Thanksgiving in Taiwan had us packing up the Freeca and heading south along Highway 3.  This is a toll road, so the traffic was light though every 20 to 30 minutes we had to stop and pay 40 NT (approximately $1.30) for the right to continue driving south.  After three hours of driving, the freeway stopped and we hit small roads that eventually swung us along the western coastline.  The wind had whipped whitecaps in the Taiwanese straight and sunlight was glinting off the blue waters.  Aah, what a difference from the past years.

Our destination was Kenting, the end of the road in Taiwan.  Kenting is comprised of a small town on the southern strip that is surrounded by national park and ecological reserves.  It's like a tropical paradise.  We arrived just after noon on Thursday and walked the strip eating lunch and peeking into shops that were slowly coming to life in preparation for the night's market.

 Our Thanksgiving meal took place in this fine eatery.  Given that our school had provided us with a traditional turkey meal on Wednesday, we settled upon a light Mexican fare in honor of arriving in the land of sunshine.  After lunch, the sun had heated the day up and we were ready for a swim.  Little Bay was just around the corner and offered white sand and warm waters.

Until now, Taiwan has been a bit frustrating in that the time to go anywhere has taken double what would normally be expected.  Kenting restored some travelers' faith.  This part of the island is easy to get around and we soon found ourselves on the eastern side, looking into the Pacific Ocean.  At the end of the road is a surf camp like town and we parked along the palm trees and headed out to the beach.

 The afternoon was great!  We swam in the waters.  Audrey took quite a beating as she charged the largest surf of her puppy dog life.  The shore had a steep drop off and when waves sucked back out to sea, a decent undertow was created just as the next wave would come barreling in.  In one instance her high flying leap over an incoming wave was miscalculated and her hind legs were suddenly above her head as she was flipped into the surf.  Shortly after, the undertow sucked her beneath the incoming whitewater and she was held down for several moments to resurface and slowly pull herself back onto the beach.

Finding a smoldering piece of wood from someone's old fire, we quickly stoked it up until we had a nice beach fire.  Piles of nearby driftwood provided an endless supply of fuel but we were off to the southern tip in the hope of catching the night's sunset.

Unfortunately, we arrived a few moments too late to see the final rays of the sun but the hike to the southern tip was a nice and quiet one.  The other tourists had departed and the trail to the point was empty.  We emerged from the jungle to find this monument at the end of the line.

When the sun sets, the streets of Kenting come alive.  Vendors sell all sorts of things.  Lots of items can be put on a stick such as sausage, squid (looks a bit scary with all of the tentacles dangling about), cheese, fruit and chicken butt.  Yep, I got fooled into buying le brochette de chicken arse one night.  Contrary to what students in our class have told us, it is awful!

That night, we found a secluded grove on the eastern side to camp.  The night was gorgeous with a large, orange moon peeking out from the clouds.  Then, the wind started.  It howled.  Wind demons grabbed fistfuls of sand and threw it at us.  Our tent began to fill with sand.  The wind battered down the top of the tent.  Finally, we made a quick retreat to the back of the Freeca for a cramped refuge.

The next day was beautiful.  We explored a bit of the inland portions and stopped at Hengchun to visit the old city wall.

and market.  This lady is selling shrimp - pick the ones you want!

Not wanting another night with the sand demons, we returned to the calmer, western shores and the beautiful Baishe Beach.  It's a small cove nestled into the jungle.  This became our home for the rest of the trip.  Clear blue waters that were warm enough for long swims kept us busy. The sunsets were quite nice...

 It was great to just relax

 though Audrey became a bit obsessive with her desire to swim and fetch the ball out of the water.  Here she digs one of her holes before returning the ball for the next round.

Side trips to the aquarium and little towns kept us going for the next several days.

All-in-all, this was a great trip.  There are a few more photos tucked away if you're interested.

Taiwan National Museum of Marine Biology

Whale sharks, penguins, rays and more!  While in Kenting, Krista and I spent part of the day visiting this aquarium.  There were few others there so it felt as if we had the run of the place.

The whale shark at feeding time

More food 

Jelly fish 

Penguins

As usual, the camera just would not stop taking photos so there are many more at our photo site.

Thanksgiving Celebration

For the past few years, Thanksgiving week has been parent conference time.  This year at AST, the day  before Thanksgiving was set out to be a celebration and feast.  The middle school Chinese language class got us started with a laugh-out-loud rendition of Snow White and the 7 dwarfs.  It was well done and hilarious.

Then, the middle school hand bell group beautifully performed "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".

Finally, we all sat down together outside for an amazing meal.  AST parents brought an assortment of food that included traditional Thanksgiving fare and Taiwanese food.  It was nice to sit outside with the school and enjoy this food.  Going back into the classroom after lunch was a bit difficult...

Parents getting the buffet line ready

The food was great!

An enjoyable Thanksgiving

A good shaving

Does anyone know how long it takes a dog to acclimate and stop shedding?  We're going crazy trying to keep Audrey's black hairs out of our apartment.  Our vacuum cleaner runs overtime slurping the stuff up by the pile.  Dust bunny?  No, we've got full on monsters.  As we approach the "four months in Taiwan" mark, it seems like she should have either lost her coat completely or stabilized.

If she continues, we may have to resort to extreme measures such as a complete shaving for her.  We have a few models to choose from but unfortunately have few photos at the moment.  I really wished that a camera was available the day that a grey poodle walked by with "le" shaved into her - everything was shaved except these two letters.

A dog with a mane...

From Random Taichung

Krista plays with Sasa (aka Squeakers)
 - unfortunately her tail moves too fast for the camera.  Squeaker's body is completely shaven except for the black tuft of her tail

From Random Taichung

Earthquake!

On Sunday night the apartment began shaking.  Krista, quickly falling asleep in bed, thought I was moving the bed.  "Stop messing with me," she mumbled in her drifting off to sleep mode.  When the shaking didn't stop and there was no giggle or other response from me, she realized what was happening.

The photo frames on the wall rattled.  The glass door between our entry and living room vibrated for a long time.  It's a bit unnerving to be stuck on the 8th floor of a building when it begins swaying.  Fortunately, this one was centered in Hualien, which is on the east coast.  Earthquakes hit Hualien almost daily but this had the largest magnitude of the latest ones.  It registered a 6.1 out there and we reportedly felt the equivalent of a 3 shake (Taichung City).

Beach Time

Last weekend, we headed north to Zhunan Beach. It was a windy day and a bit cool but we enjoyed the ocean air while Audrey charged the waves. Zhunan is a bit farther than our normal beach but is nicer with long stretches of golden sand. Wind mills stand like rotating giants and the only other people on the beach are those also enjoying the wind.

From Zhunan Beach

Loving the wind

From Zhunan Beach

Playing Chuck-it

From Zhunan Beach

A rest in a pool

An Aborted Hike

We consider ourselves fortunate to live on the edge of town. The downside is that we do not have a wealth of variety in small restaurants and other stores outside of our door. But, it is quieter and I like to believe less polluted. One of my favorite aspects is that in a town full of concrete, we see a lot of green from our windows.

This weekend, we decided to go for a hike in the Dakeng Scenic Area that is located in the hills near our apartment. Long weekend bike rides have taken me through this area but we had not yet ventured onto the trails. Thinking of restaurants, we made an amazing find out on our way to the trail head. Tonton Philou is located just down the road from us. I am not sure what would bring an amazing French chef to a small restaurant on the edge of Taichung but we wandered in hoping for a treat. We were not let down. Quiche and a rosemary chicken risotto were whipped up in front of us and we left quite content.

Several minutes later we were at the trail's parking lot and began heading up a paved path too small for a car but not a hindrance for the ever present scooters. The path quickly gained elevation and we soon arrived at the official trailhead, a suspension bridge crossing a trickle of a river. Audrey did not like the crossing and hunkered down as low as possible with her toes spread wide. She shuffled across the bridge to find the trail.

From Dakeng

Up it went. The trail consisted of small logs formed into a ladder arrangement. Audrey is an athletic dog and charged up. Great! we thought. She can do it and we followed. The path got steeper and she began to have more and more difficulty. She would occasionally slip between two logs and take a hard hit. After several tumbles, we decided the risks of serious injury to our smiling pooch were increasing and turned around with little complaint from Audrey.

On the way down, we saw this monkey up in a tree and he came down to lay claim on an orange another hiker left out.

From Dakeng

Just one egg

"Ni hao," the ladies at our daily breakfast stopped called out as I walked up.

"Ni hao. Liang ge tsai bao," I reply ordering one of our regular breakfast items (liang = 2 and ge is a measure word used for indicating a number of something). This one is a steamed bun with some meat, veggies and bamboo inside. The tsai bao is already prepared and quickly put into multiple bags for us. No matter how much we try to ask for less plastic, each item gets crammed into a small plastic bag.

Please don't be fooled by the rudimentary Chinese above. I know little. Very little Chinese. For my class' science lesson I needed a hard-boiled egg - yep, we're starting plate tectonics. Eggs feature prominently on our breakfast rotation and I knew how to ask for one. "Wo yao yi ge dan." (I would like one egg.)

I anticipated her next move of grabbing an egg and cracking it over the hot griddle and the try to understand what I'm saying dance began. "Bu." (my attempt to say no). She looks at me oddly and puts the egg up. I ask for it again. She move to crack it. No. I attempt to gesture that I want the egg given to me but am not getting my point across. I ask again and as she is about to crack it open, I grab it out of her hands. Smiling a lot, I indicate that the uncooked egg is what I want. She looks as if I am truly an alien in her world and asks another lady what I should be charged. The lady just laughs uncontrollably and indicates that I can have the silly egg.

Into the Mountains

Have you ever bought a car without driving it or even seeing it? That's what we did and in many aspects it made life easier. Gone were the thoughts about what kind of car would we buy or how we would be able to find someone to help us translate negotiations. When we arrived at school a few months ago, our car was there waiting for us. It looked sturdy and reliable, if not a touch on the large size. When paperwork was finally processed, we hopped into the car and took off down the hill. Ooops, the brakes don't really work. Tires, well they are quite bald. The battery resisted its single role in life of starting the car. Finally, all these items were replaced and the Freeca (yep, that's the name of our four wheeled companion) drives us around town without issue. We sit high above the pesky scooters and swerving taxis and so far have felt secure in our about-town outings.

This weekend, we packed our bags and headed for the mountains. Getting out of town can easily be a 45 minute excursion but we eventually hit the steady flow of the freeway towards the mountains. After exiting, the Freeca faced its biggest challenge yet. The road climbed an incredibly steep incline. No switch backs here - just straight up. The engine groaned but the car pushed uphill with a gathering line of followers behind us. Thirty minutes of uphill struggles brought us to the Seitou Experimental Forest.

Hmmm, would Audrey be allowed in? We grabbed her and headed for the entrance as if there was no question about her admittance. A raised eyebrow or two was all that greeted us as we paid to enter. The area is quite nice with a variety of walking opportunities.

Bamboo Groves are amazing in the amount of light that enters...

From Seitou Experimental Forest & Sun Link Sea Park

large trumpet like flowers provided color

From Seitou Experimental Forest & Sun Link Sea Park

and monster ferns towered above our heads

From Seitou Experimental Forest & Sun Link Sea Park

After touring this area, we piled back into the Freeca and continued up, towards the end of the road where the Sun Link Sea National Park lies. Less than a kilometer before the park, we entered a long tunnel through the mountain. Midway through the tunnel, a thick band of fog filled the tube. It was eerie. We felt as if entering the unknown. At the end of the tunnel, we arrived at the park. The camping that we hoped for was not available but we had a great hike.

Dragon Falls in the distance

From Seitou Experimental Forest & Sun Link Sea Park

And to top it off, Krista found a four-leaf clover.

From Seitou Experimental Forest & Sun Link Sea Park

Other photos from this trip are on our picasa site...

Big Buddha on Baguashan

Shan. It is one of the first Chinese words that I learned. It could be that we live on Dongshan Road or it's just that I have an affiliation with open spaces and was attracted to the word meaning mountain.

After our disappointing adventure in the Taiwan Folk Village, we quickly thumbed the faithful Lonely Planet to see if we could redeem the drive out on this Saturday (see following post). We were in luck - a town close by has reportedly home to a 22-meter tall Buddha statue perched on top of a hill. We managed to find a few signs pointing in the approximate direction and headed in search of this Buddha.

The guide book mentions that Baguashan was once an important military lookout as the top offers views of the city and far out into the ocean. According to the LP, the end of the Sino-Japanese gave ownership of Taiwan to Japan which resulted in some upset Taiwanese. These locals fought a big battle on Baguashan which ended the military posting. I guess a lot of damage occurred, but there are no signs of violence up there today.

The area exudes a peaceful feeling. Maybe we lucked out and avoided the hordes transported by tour bus that are constantly sneaking up, but the hill was virtually empty. White-washed stone sentinels guarded the pathway up to the Buddha.

From Great Buddha Statue on Baguashan

Some of these "guys" looked a bit odd. Check out this one:

From Great Buddha Statue on Baguashan

Not to be outdone by the stone sentries, the next hurdle to pass was the squid ladies. Think tentacles. Lots of them. But these are no ordinary squid. Nope, these have been dried and flattened. The thought of eating one was scarier than the last sentinel.

From Great Buddha Statue on Baguashan

Eventually we came up the hill, rounded the turn and took in this majestic Buddha as he looked out over the town.

From Great Buddha Statue on Baguashan

The area surrounding up the Buddha was stunning. The grounds were simply immaculate. The statues and white painting gleamed, which is quite a feat here in Taiwan. A combination of pollution (and there is lots of it) and the tropical climate is hard on materials. Buildings that are 10 or less years old can look much older due to discoloration. But here, walls gleamed.

From Great Buddha Statue on Baguashan

Another Buddha with its belly polished due to constant rubbing for good luck (yes, Krista gave it the good 'ole rub), koi ponds, stone elephants and lions, and pagodas were also artfully placed on top of Baguashan.