Month April 2012
The bus is far less crowded than expected, only one or two people are standing up, despite this being one of the smaller busses on this line. Outside the air is crisp, bordering on chilly with a cold sun illuminating the world – what most would consider fresh spring weather. In the bus though, it’s hot and stuffy. There is a definite stale note to the air, an almost tangible, sickly sweet smell, and a feeling of second-hand body heat and recycled oxygen that engulfs you as you step inside. Strangely, almost everyone is sitting there calmly clad in jackets, … Read the rest
Doors and windows are slightly rounded, as if seen through a fish eye lens. Straight lines are scewed and the whole world sort of wobbles as I walk, a wave traversing through asphalt, concrete, glass and steel with every movement of my head. It is somewhat like being drunk but not that warm fuzzy state that gets you talking and dancing. No, its more like that cold, nauseous stage of drunkenness when you just want to get home and sleep. Yet I haven’t touched an intoxicating substance for two weeks. Instead it is my glasses that affect me thusly. I … Read the rest
Camera in hand I’m trying to portray this bizarre place but I keep failing. I either stand too far away which makes the statues look small and insignificant, or get too close so you cannot see the big picture. Then it strikes me, I have an excellent way of portraying something that can’t be captured on camera: these very words. So what is it that I find so hard to take a good photo of? The memorial sculpture park in Cihu is a rather stretched out park in a remote township in northern Taiwan. The green lawns are criss crossed … Read the rest
I’ve compiled a couple of notes I made on my map to summarize the trip. Anyone interested can check out the pictures below:
From Hualien to our goal in Yilan it was only a day of driving. We could easily have gone to Taroko gorge, arguably one of the most beautiful parts of the entire island with its rivers sheer cliff faces. However, both me and Yini have been there fairly recently so we opted against it.
Instead we kept driving along the coastal road which turns out to be one of the most beautiful stretches of tarmac in the country with sheer cliff faces rivaling those of Taroko, sloping down into turquoise water.
While riding, storm strength winds suddenly descended upon us … Read the rest
We’ve done so many things today it’s hard to summarize it all without missing anything. From Taidong we drove to Hualien, a distance of some 160 kilometers which should take no more than three hours or so. However, it took us all day thanks to lots of random tourism. There was the beach side park full of installations; there was the detour up a mountain for a birds eye view; there was the old bridge over a river right next to the new one; there was the cave made into a temple and many other short stops at more or … Read the rest
Today started with a short visit to a nearby lagoon that was said to be worth while. Since many of the attractions were closed down for repair there was not as much to see as I hoped. We did however take a short boat tour which turned out to be very cool. Out in the middle of the lagoon is a small island, entirely made of oyster shells. Apparently fishermen have been dumping them there for thirty years which has formed a small island. It’s barely worth calling an island, it’s more like a sand bank I guess, but amazingly … Read the rest
For a while now, me and my girlfriend have been planning a small adventure and today, having landed in Taiwan just yesterday, we finally got on the way. The plan is simple: drive my scooter from the south of the island, north along the east coast and stop along the way at interesting places; a kind of random sightseeing.
My girlfriend sent the scooter south by train a few days ago so we wouldn’t have to ride all the way and today we picked it up and started riding. Unfortunately we couldn’t send it as far as we wanted so … Read the rest