Farewell Martin and Kate

As Martin and Kate are leaving Taiwan next week, the staff at Yuan Lin decided to treat him to a meal at a fish restaurant on Friday night as their little farewell effort. Now, after our last fish experience following the opening of a new Shane school in the Changhua area – in which we were served lobster topped with sweet mayonnaise and hundreds and thousands; and crab shells with little to no meat on them with no telling what kinds of other fish parts – I was a little skeptical to say the least… but it turned out to be a fine fishy feast; all nicely presented and requiring no effort by the eater.
I had my first experience of sushi; raw salmon and tuna; which I have to say was gorgeous: not at all chewy like I expected. We were expecting Martin’s replacement, Tim, to join us, but sadly he’d been put on the wrong train in Taipei (the same one I almost came on) and was now on the other side of the island awaiting a 12 hour night train to bring him back to Yuan Lin.

After the meal the staff (did I mention they were all female?) said they were going to a karaoke to sing the night away … now I’d heard some dodgy things about Taiwanese karaoke, but it was Friday night and Linda (the big chief) was insisting, so me, Pascal, Andre, Tanya, Kate and Martin all tagged along to this big karaoke center.



You think karaoke; you think big room, loads of people and one or two people singing at the front! Not in Taiwan; here singing with your mates is like buying a round in England… no tension, no stress and no brilliant singers for that matter… instead of taking your family out for a meal on special occasions; go to the local KTV; or better still buy a portable KTV set: fun for all the family!



We were escorted into a small room with a TV, computer, 3 mikes and long sofa that ran the length of the room. As soon as we got in, a couple of girls started singing along to some Chinese chart topper… Linda demanded that we sing something; I said I needed a drink before hand; the next thing I knew there was a barrel of Heineken on the table.



There was a very limited selection of English songs: but before long, we were all crooning along to Robbie Williams, Aerosmith and Beatles numbers (all with beautiful Chinese videos and erroneous subtitles)
We were there til the early hours of the morning; a good night had buy all.



The plan was to get up early; get to the lake early; and go for a hike before everyone else arrived at lunchtime.
However that plan did not account for Tim getting the wrong train… so 8:30 Saturday morning I wake up after 5 hours sleep wondering where Pascal was… he turned up after 9 with Tim (top bloke by all accounts) and Sharne; by the time Tim had got ready it was close to 10am. It was then that I realized my keys were back at school; so Pascal drove me into town to get them; we got back nearly 11 o clock… thought we might as well wait for the others now; so it’s was looking unlikely that we would be hiking before lunch.





Tim and Sharne jumped in the back of the Pascal wagon with our push bikes, and I followed Martin on my Scooter over the mountains on the - this time significantly less - wet road to Sun Moon Lake. A couple of weeks back I tried to pull off the visor from my tin hat helmet; not realizing that the press-studs were one way, and broke it. So this week I bought a sturdier helmet for longer journeys… imagine Space Balls is it: Darth Vader’s stupidly big hat …anyway my new helmet is like another world; it’s got its own climate; I had the ipod providing beautiful acoustics and my new shades to keep out the sun. I was in the zone!



We stopped off on route to buy some supplies for a BBQ; then it was back on the road.
When we got to the campsite; I’d been on empty for a while, so I followed kate’s advice to follow the road round the lake; there’d be loads of petrols stations on both sides of the road. Well after 20 minutes driving I stopped to check my bearings; I looked across the road and what did I see; Rachel and Andy sat eating lychees in the sun. they gave me directions to a gas station and in return I guided them, Ross and Rea back to the campsite.





The BBQ that evening was delicious; there was much merriment; so much that some people ended up having a midnight bathe in the lake. I was still knackered from the night before so had a relatively early night.











The next morning nature called at 5am; which was annoying, coz its really difficult to get back to sleep over here; the sun was just beginning to peep over the mountain;



I was tempted to go back to sleep; but the Chinese families that had also been camping here were now all awake and some where going cycling; I gave Pascal a shout but didn’t get a positive response.. so I decided to haul my bike out the van and go it alone.
The feeling of exercise without blood, sweat or tears was fantastic, the roads were not too steep and there was a generous cover of foliage: cycle heaven! Every few seconds, I stopped to take a picture of the mist lifting off the hillsides.







Before long I’d reached an impressive temple; looking out over the lake. The dawn light rising in the background beckoned me to capture the moment.



I walked through the temple and there were pictures of the kitchen god, the god of learning and of Confucius. Strangely, on what seemed to be an alter there were carefully arranged: 3 packets of crisps.







On the way back to the campsite I heard – using my Ugandan jungle sense – the sound of monkeys in the trees; I stopped to grab my camera like a proper tourist abroad; and almost got the perfect shot; when a car came round the corner and scared them off; I did manage to get some convincing grey fuzziness on film.

When I got back to the site, it was almost 7am; by which time most were awake and Pascal was ready for his cycle; so I did the whole route again; except where I had managed to avoid any hills; Pascal found a hill to cycle up which nearly killed us; the sun was up now and my arms were starting to burn.



We got back, showered and made breakfast before heading in convoy to the same theme park as last time. This time I was all psyched up for going on the UFO ; but to my genuine disappointment it was closed for repairs… ah well.






For some reason as it started to rain, nobody wanted to join me on the cable car; seconds later there was lightning; and I could see why.

It was a good day all in all, until the heavens opened just as we were about to leave.

The drive back was less pleasant; it seemed that everyone in Western Taiwan had been to the lake that weekend; we had to squeeze through the traffic, inhaling who knows what from the vehicles we past. We thought we had left the worst of the weather behind us, but as we approached Yuan Lin, a huge dark cloud past over and blanketed us in water; not the fine stuff that soaks you right through, but semi-hail; the thin waterproof did little to help my sun burnt arms against the barrage of hail. Within seconds; the mountain road was covered in streams and we were weaving through the debris…. Then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped and the rock around us was blasted pink by the setting sun on the far horizon… we turned a corner and there was Yuan Lin below us basked in yellow light in stark contrast to everything else. We all had the same thought: stop and take a picture.




We got back to my place and had a nice cup of revival tea. To relax that evening we went to Martin and Kate’s got some pizza and a DVD, before heading to Neil’s bar to catch the end of the Ecuador match. Good end to a great weekend.