Sun Moon Lake Rain

crazy kids do the Sun Moon Lake

The rainy season is well and truly upon us here in the East; I have never seen so much of the stuff. And to get out of the drizzly city feeling, 3 of my friends (the same that invited me to the dragon boat festival in the rain); decided that we should go to Sun Moon Lake. Eager to learn from past mistakes, i popped into a local shop to buy a giant poncho to keep me dry on my scooter-bright orange was the only colour they had; atleast it wasnt pink!

the crazy travellers prepare for the journey
So as the people of Changhua watched in awe of the 4 brave travellers venturing out in the torrents of rain; we set out up the winding roads across the vocanic mountains that divide Taiwan. The rain gave way on the tops, but only to what seemed to be pre-typhoon winds depositing an assault course of debris and rivers across our path. One hardy old local women was sat by the road with her pineapple harvest;she must have lashed herself to the roadside.. not wanting to miss out on potential customers!
After over 2 hours drive the lake came into view; a clear bright blue despite the fading sun and total cloud cover: must have a sulphur contamination. I was pleased to find I was still dry knee up and neck down; until I lifted my arm an sent a pool of water that had collected in my sleeve down my sides.
The lakeside village with ample scooter room Sun Moon Lake by moonlight
We stopped in an attractive little collection of giftshops, small hotels and eateries on the lakeshore. The first hotel we tried said they charged T$12,000 a night (that's 240 pounds a room); we thought they were joking; they weren't. The next place was 3,500; we said we only had 2,000 and started driving away in our soaking gear, when the lady chased after us and agreed to our offer.

View from the cheap hotel window
That night; cleaned and in dry pants, we went to a classy restuarant and spent.... 10 pounds! I'm not proud; but I justify it in 3 things; pate, authentic pasta and 'all-you-can-eat':

Classy hotel: too expensve to stay in, but the food! Probably the most expensive meal I'll eat this year!
The next morning; my crazy friends thought that we would go to a theme park in the mountains near by; Aboriginee Cultural Village:


well; having been to Hull Fair, I didn't share their enthusiasm initially; but it turned out to be a top theme park; it had a rolloercoaster that rivalled Nemisis, 90 meter shere drop, water rapids, log flumes: the strange thing was that expecting rain in their summer season, the Taiwanese have put all but the biggest rides in giant barns.

stupidly fast 3G roller coaster I posiively wet myself: Jurassic Cuise

Warning: balloon rides are not slow
The upper part of the park was dedicated to Taiwan's Aboriginee heritage; there were real mock villages, real Aborinigee performers who sang and danced the day away until 6pm, when they were ferried by minibus back to their apartments.

Aboriginals performing to throngs of tourists
The park was spanned by a cable car; far more terrifying than any of the rides; some 100 meters up, it provided beautiful views of the park and the valleys down below.

The drive back from the Sun Moon Lake was less terrifying.
Since then, (2 weekends ago) it's been business as usual... Sam (my flatmate) has bought a cute little dog which likes to leave mess wherever it goes... we've named her Hollie; Sam was pleased yesterday, because she weed on the newspaper (the dog not Sam); but when the floor is more than half covered.... we've been taking her round the shops in a waterproof cosmetics bag... I dont think she'll get much bigger.
At the weekend, I thought I'd buy some trimmers to save money on barbers; well, the settings over here must be different: gave myslef what i thought was a modest no.3, but no- 3 means 3mm of hair left...so I look like a Buddhist monk... the students find this very amusing- still it keeps my head cool when i'm cycling around.
For those who were wondering what I was doing for the world cup: well it's televised over here; On Saturday I went to a pub to experience it in the traditional way... however, there were only 4 English people in the place, you couldn't here the crowds at the stadium, there were no close ups, the commentary was Chinese and there were two commercial breaks in each half! Outrageous!
My Scooter has not killed me yet, but everyday has a close shave of some sort.
My next plan is to learn some Chinese; increase my independence!

My first blog

Hello everyone
I've decided to stop sending mass emails; in future everything will be noted down in one of these blogs;
so if you wanna know what ive been up to; just check out this space.
Yours hot and sweaty in taiwan
Dunx

Dragon Boat Festival!!

Martin, Kate and Katie



A dragon

Yesterday was a national holiday in Taiwan (4 day working week-yeah!) called the festival of dragon boats... being here for cultural development; i thought it my duty to experience the celebrations... but after a late night/early morning party on Tuesday, few of my colleagues shared my enthusiasm.... so knowing that a couple of buddies were already in Lugang (the venue for the dragon boat races), i set out on a bus hoping that the symbol on my ticket meant "Lugang";
Luckily when i got to Lugang a minesota graduate Tai lady was quick to hook me up with some people (who spoke no english) who were going to the event... armed with my phrasebook and a please-dont-abandon-me smile i followed them.
As the event is huge, there was a shuttle bus service running from Lugang to the river... excellent i thought... oh no!
The bus crammed to busting cirlced the city a few times picking up everyone who might want to go... and then after 30mins dumped us at another bus stop with a huge queue...for another bus... which eventually came, drove onto the expressway and stopped in a 2 mile tailback -obviously everyone was going the same place... 3 rows of cars in 2 lanes... when the scooters stopped weaving through... we knew it would be a while. So i suggested 'Why not walk the rest?' - walking in taiwan is a no-no; the look i got was a mixed disgust and sympathy for my clear insanity.... but after half an hour pleading i mangaged to start a mass exodus along the freeway towards our river...
we made it...

Dragon boats


I found Martin, Kate and Katie; i got a few photos of the dragon boats; it was kinda like Hull fair but without the rides, lots of music, food, stalls and tents.



It hadnt been long when it started to rain... so we decided to head to the scooters; Katie is quite tall, and she thought it better me drive and she sit on the back; otherwise her legs would get crushed... this was my first passenger scooter drive, so it was a bit scary, plus the rain soon turned torrential and everything down of my short jacket was drenched... then everything under my jacket was also drenched...



we stopped in Lugang looking like drowned rats; there's some cool temples and gift shops which we went dripping round, also ate some traditional steamed rice cakes with peanut sauce; very interesting!









There was a artist in one of the shops in Lugang painting fans. We were tired so sat to rest in his shop while he painted an image of the temple on a fan; it looked great so Kate bought it. By 6 pm we were knackered and are clothes were almost back to just damp... so we drove home (bad thing about driving without a visor in the dark-moths! huge ones flying into your face... ill have nightmares for weeks)
A thai curry back in Yuan Lin gave the day a happy ending though.