taiwan tour 2005
yeah, yeah, yeah, i know it's been forever. no comments like, "it's about damn time," or "what's the point of a blog (noun) if you never blog (verb)." if you look forward to this blog enough to be disappointed by its infrequency, you should get cable.
anywho, todd and staci came to visit this week, so i've got things to say. we went to taipei, alishan and kenting, and survived an earthquake, a typhoon, a troop of wild monkeys and a horde of small taiwanese children. my personal favorite was kenting, but watching todd commune with a large baboon-like animal was also quite the highlight. particularly amusing was the monkey's inevitable turn towards violence, which thankfully, was more bark than bite.
said monkey attack occured just after sunrise near alishan, a mountain in the middle of taiwan. you can take a single gauge train up the mountain, built back in the day by the japanese. it's an attractice ride, weaving around in the trees and passing through three zones: tropical, subtropical and temperate. each zone has it's own type of flora and fauna, so it's pretty interesting to watch the trees change on the way up. at one point, the train passes through a "sea of clouds" (or so they call it). though you can't see anything while you're within it, it's a gorgeous sight from above. the thing to do in and around alishan is to watch the sun rise over the mountains. while the mountain sunrise is a bit unremarkable, seeing the clouds change color is definitely worth the ridiculous hour at which you have to wake up (as is watching your brother talk to a monkey).
really, todd talked to just about every wild animal he could find in taiwan. he got along swimmingly, for instance, with the stray dogs in kenting. kenting is a beach town in southern taiwan that has sort of a laidback-surfer atmosphere. it's very, very warm usually, and the sun is particularly scorching to one's skin (mine can now painfully confirm that fact). we rented scooters and drove around for a few hours, stopping at some incredibly idyllic beaches, windy promontories and 7-11 slurpie machines. todd pet lots of flea-ridden yet admittedly cute animals along the way. scootering on the open road was great. i highly recommend that anyone living in taiwan go down there on a weekday and enjoy the absense of other people and space to jack the scooter up to full speed without fear of law inforcement or death.
luckily, the weather was great in kenting and alishan. in taipei, however, we were forced to endure an earthquake AND a typhoon. the earthquake was so strong that i think some hairs on my head moved, and the typhoon so forceful that we were compeled to go to danshui, a suburb of taipei that braves the roaring waves of the angry ocean. all and all, we were (are) rockstars. the best and most rockstar-worthy part of our time in taipei (and pehaps the entire trip), was our "coincidental" (read "fated") discovery of gay pride taiwan 2005. while sitting in sun yat-sen's statuary lap, some lively techno music reached our ears from the distance. staci, being the inquisitive person she is, used her detective skills and cardiovascular abilities to track down the source: the only openly gay people i've ever seen in taiwan. it really was amazing. we just happened to be at the exact spot in taipei, at the precise time gay pride passed by, on the only day of the year the event occurs. the chances are impossibly small. it's a sign.
anyway, we had a great time. todd and staci saw some of the best sites in taiwan, as well as some of the most unsavory little beings (children). it's a week that will go down in history for it's numerous omens, animals and natural distasters. if i don't blog again for a while, it's simply because life's going to seem boring again compared to it. so no complaining.
anywho, todd and staci came to visit this week, so i've got things to say. we went to taipei, alishan and kenting, and survived an earthquake, a typhoon, a troop of wild monkeys and a horde of small taiwanese children. my personal favorite was kenting, but watching todd commune with a large baboon-like animal was also quite the highlight. particularly amusing was the monkey's inevitable turn towards violence, which thankfully, was more bark than bite.
said monkey attack occured just after sunrise near alishan, a mountain in the middle of taiwan. you can take a single gauge train up the mountain, built back in the day by the japanese. it's an attractice ride, weaving around in the trees and passing through three zones: tropical, subtropical and temperate. each zone has it's own type of flora and fauna, so it's pretty interesting to watch the trees change on the way up. at one point, the train passes through a "sea of clouds" (or so they call it). though you can't see anything while you're within it, it's a gorgeous sight from above. the thing to do in and around alishan is to watch the sun rise over the mountains. while the mountain sunrise is a bit unremarkable, seeing the clouds change color is definitely worth the ridiculous hour at which you have to wake up (as is watching your brother talk to a monkey).
really, todd talked to just about every wild animal he could find in taiwan. he got along swimmingly, for instance, with the stray dogs in kenting. kenting is a beach town in southern taiwan that has sort of a laidback-surfer atmosphere. it's very, very warm usually, and the sun is particularly scorching to one's skin (mine can now painfully confirm that fact). we rented scooters and drove around for a few hours, stopping at some incredibly idyllic beaches, windy promontories and 7-11 slurpie machines. todd pet lots of flea-ridden yet admittedly cute animals along the way. scootering on the open road was great. i highly recommend that anyone living in taiwan go down there on a weekday and enjoy the absense of other people and space to jack the scooter up to full speed without fear of law inforcement or death.
luckily, the weather was great in kenting and alishan. in taipei, however, we were forced to endure an earthquake AND a typhoon. the earthquake was so strong that i think some hairs on my head moved, and the typhoon so forceful that we were compeled to go to danshui, a suburb of taipei that braves the roaring waves of the angry ocean. all and all, we were (are) rockstars. the best and most rockstar-worthy part of our time in taipei (and pehaps the entire trip), was our "coincidental" (read "fated") discovery of gay pride taiwan 2005. while sitting in sun yat-sen's statuary lap, some lively techno music reached our ears from the distance. staci, being the inquisitive person she is, used her detective skills and cardiovascular abilities to track down the source: the only openly gay people i've ever seen in taiwan. it really was amazing. we just happened to be at the exact spot in taipei, at the precise time gay pride passed by, on the only day of the year the event occurs. the chances are impossibly small. it's a sign.
anyway, we had a great time. todd and staci saw some of the best sites in taiwan, as well as some of the most unsavory little beings (children). it's a week that will go down in history for it's numerous omens, animals and natural distasters. if i don't blog again for a while, it's simply because life's going to seem boring again compared to it. so no complaining.
posted by bethany at 09:24
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