Typhoon and Moon Festival

Saturday 18/09/10

As we were expecting a storm at the end of the day. I went for a cycle up the mountain (this time on my bike not pascal's) in the morning. A huge rain cloud came over as I was on the way up. The start of the typhoon? It poured heavily for 30 minutes. When I got to the top I didn't want to take the usual route down - wet ground meant death very likely - so I tried to find another route that I used to use. I saw a line of palm trees. That like looked familiar. I made my way through a village on the top of the mountain, and before long found the road I was looking for. As I turned onto it, another cyclist came out of nowhere down the same path. I followed him. I was glad he was there. He knew the route, so I could brake when he did. After a 5 U bends; we reached the huge dual carriageway that never had anything on it. We were flying down. Far below was Yuanlin the high speed rail and a sports village on my left. I overtook a few scooters on the way down. I must have been doing at least 40mph. And no-one in the way or behind!
I flew under the railway track and started looking for the turn off. If I missed it, then it would be a long trek back up the hill. There it was! I just missed a scooter coming out on the wrong side of the road. And then ploughed on and down through the houses and parks of Baigoshan. I was still raining when I got back to the house.The plan that evening was to go to High Relax with the other teachers. I left the scooter in the safety of Pascal's garage and cycled into town. There was already a slight wind but nothing more than Yorkshire. We went to the 7/11 to stock up on drinks and nibbles for the evening. There was a TV in the shop which showed the huge circle the size of Taiwan just to the east of the island. It was to hit the east coast at 2am.
At 9pm we found out that High Relax was closed: this made sense. We figured that most places would be closed and so Mere and Mike invited people back to their flat on the 11th Floor. A great place to see the coming storm. Pascal, Andrew and Angela all turned up soon after and we shared Taiwan tales. At 2am as forecasted, the wind did indeed pick up and we had to closed the windows and doors.
I didn't get much sleep that night. The wind kept screaming outside and felt like it was going to rip the panes right out. 3 hours it raged.

Sunday 19/09/10
The town was chilled when we got up. There was still a persistent drizzle outside. And the town was littered with dirt and small debris from the storm. We went out in search of breakfast and there was an eerie quiet everywhere. Our usual cafe was closed but the breakfast burger place down the road was still open. There was little to do post Typhoon, everywhere was closed and everywhere was wet. I for a walk up to the nearest Tao Temple with Mere that had a huge founder guy stood on top of it with one foot on a snake and the other on a turtle. You could climb into his head. It was amazing. The art work inside the temple was equally impressive. On the way home I managed to find a DVD shop that had Kung Fu Panda and forced Mere and Mike to watch it.

Monday 20/09/10
The Taipei Times revealed that although a lot of places in the south and west of the country had been flooded and transport had been damaged; no one had died in the weekend's typhoon.

Tuesday 21/09/10
I went for another cycle up the mountain today. I felt better on this one; like I was finally getting back into my rhythm. I got to Hemei too early again! So I went to find food again. I had some lovely papaw, some sushi snack and to finish I had what looked like a granary roll. I took a bite it was sweet. A bun! I thought OK that'll be nice. I took another bite and a bit of fluff came away. Fluffy pork! AHHH What a horrible waste of perfectly good bread! I had to buy some Cheetos to take the taste away. And then some chocolate to take away the taste of the Cheetos. By the time they opened the school, I'd eaten a lot.
The classes were a lot better behaved today. I got a free drink from the school for my help! They asked what I wanted 'Honey tea?' I asked. They rolled up their noses: very sweet teacher! They suggested fruit tea. So I agreed. When it arrived I took a slurp, it may not have been honey, but inside floated little soft sweets! Just what I needed.

Wednesday 22/09/10
Today was Moon Festival Day, so all normal schools were shut as were most bushibans and cram-schools. This was a day for people to spend with their families. During the day there were various ceremonies happening by the temples, including singing and dancing traditional music.
In the evening Yuanlin's sky was lit up by fireworks. Our neighbours had the karaoke out and were strangling cats for most of the day. I will have to record it next time. I can't begin to count the number of inharmonious noises that drown out the street.

Thursday 23/09/10

Today it felt weird to be back at school after a day off. I was back at Hemei again.

Friday 24/09/10

I had wanted to go out with the Changhua teachers tonight, but I forgot to organise it during the week. Planning things last minute without a phone is a bit tricky.

Saturday 25/09/10

Today I went for another epic cycle, I was hoping that Mere would be able to join me tomorrow on the same route and wanted to see how long it would take. It was a beautiful day but we had no water left in the house... so I bought an energy drink at a shop at the top of the mountain. "Poco Sweat" it was called (mmm delicious!) This drink did give me energy but it failed to quench my thirst at all, in fact I felt drier after drinking it. After an hour, I went into autopilot and became really aware of all the smells around me. Tropical vegetation, that green smell, freshly picked tea, pineapples growing on the ground.

I stopped again and bought some orange juice... still didn't really get rid of the thirst.

When I got back home, I scootered to the local store and bought apples, bananas, oranges, plums and a yellow watermelon. I took them home and chopped them all up into a fruit salad. After eating this and drinking 2 litres of lemon and tea sprite (yeah, not lime as you'd expect the green oval to represent!) the thirst was gone.

Sunday 26/09/10

This morning I finally got Mere to cycle up Baigoshan Mountain. She'd always been keen, but we'd never found a time cool enough. So at 7am we made our way from Yuanlin towards the mountain. The road to the mt base took 15 minutes. I laughed at Mere's expression when the hill started to climb. ("int physics brilliant!") There was a man and his teenage lad cycling ahead of us. The kid was veering across the road (like I do when a path is too steep) and unintentionally blocking our way so we stopped to let them get ahead of us. I offered Mere my bike, as hers was a regular road bike with 7 gears and a lovely basket on the front (yes I was jealous) and mine had gears a plenty. It was a very strange sensation riding a women's bike up a hill. My legs were moving in directions that they'd never gone before. We both found that if we didn't stop it was OK... And less than an hour later, we had reached the top of Baigoshan. Triumphant! Victorious! and not alone! ? The little village at the top was heaving with cyclists. A couple hundred at least. There were stalls selling bike accessories It was always so dead when I'd been through: obviously Sunday is Taiwan Cycle Day between the hours of 6 and 9!

Monday 27/09/10

This morning Mere took me to the Yuanlin Swimming Pool. I was quite impressed 2 things: how fast Mere could swim and how many hot pools, sauna and water massages there were in the place. In half an hour I had swum about 6 widths to Mere's 60 odd. I was delighted when she suggested stopping and trying out the 'relax' area.

The water jets turned my skin red they were so powerful, but I was assured it was all for the greater good. There were 4 different hot baths each with a different quality.

Mountain hikes and thieving monkeys!

Saturday 11/09/10
I met Mere's friend, Laura this morning and let the two of them catch up on stuff. I went back and took pretty much all the clothes I own to the laundrette (now that I had cash once more).
I was going to meet up with them later to go for a hike. But there was an almighty storm brewing. So we all stayed in instead.

Sunday 12/09/10
This morning we (Laura her friend Claudia and Mere) went for the hike that we were going to do yesterday. It was right behind Pascal's. It was there the whole year, and I never knew.
The tropical trees sheltered the walk so it was nice and cool. The path went literally right through a KTV place and 2 open restaurants. At the top there was a huge pagoda thing which you could climb to the top of and see pretty much every thing in the plain below.
In the afternoon a repeat storm of yesterday; except this one had more thunder. Thunder that would rattle on for 10 seconds. The lightening was a right mixture.
In the evening we went to the kind of restaurant that doesn't stop bringing food until you stop eating. Raw fish, squid, oysters, mussels, chicken, white fish, peanut octopus dish, deep fried mini-fish, shrimp... it was a hearty feed. plus the Taiwanese family kept our small beer glasses filled high. I'm not sure how I got through so much.
The bill was 2700 between 8 of us. Expensive for a Tai meal, but still less than a tenner. unbelievable!

Monday 13/09/10

This morning, Mere and I got up nice and early to go for a walk through some monkey woods 30 mins scooter drive away. We grabbed some water and took Mere's scooter. The drive looked familiar because it was where I used to cycle with Pascal last time I was here. We turned left up towards the mountain at a sign shaped like a monkey.
I had been down this road 100 times before, but I'd never seen a monkey here. Saying that, I didn't realise there were any monkeys to look out for.
We pulled up in the car park. We were the only ones here. This is always a good sign when nature spotting: nobody has scared the monkeys away yet. We headed toward the set of stairs. As like many nature trails in Taiwan, most of it was tarmac, concrete or metal/wooden steps cutting through the forest vegetation. We had been walking about 10 minutes when we noticed a couple ahead of us staring into the trees. As we got closer, we could see the grey monkey sitting on a branch in the distance, possibly with a friend sitting next to him.
I was impressed: I didn't expect to see any monkeys and here were two. The day was going perfectly. We continued through the forest and passed a sign asking people not to feed the monkeys as they have hepatitis, or was it rabies? The walk concluded with 2 dizzyingly steep stairs up out of the jungle towards the temple at the top. We stopped inside the temple to cool down and watched on a monk performed a ritual on someone who had asked for a blessing. The monk took what looked like a fat incense stick and wafted the curls of smoke around the person's body. There were also a couple asking the Gods for something and to find their answer they had to throw 2 wooden segments in the air. If they landed one face up and one face down three times in a row, the Gods had granted their wish.
After the walk I was pretty hungry, so we walked up to the main road - passed the dozen tea shops - and soon found a breakfast bar. Mere had a chicken burger (which was delicious) and I had my usual egg and bacon pancake. On the way back through the temple there was a lady selling pineapples, as I remembered. She had expanded her business though. No longer from a tray on a table. She had a whole pineapplevan at her disposal. Her son told us that it was 50 each or 3 for 100. Never one to turn down food, I went for the 3. One she chopped into slices with amazing skill and the other two she put in a bag. This morning was going great.
On the way back down the mountain, we were amazed to see even more monkeys and this time they were right by the road. Over 20 I counted. There were cute baby monkeys hanging from their mothers as they scampered up the trees. Big lazy monkeys sat around watching the world go by. It was eventually time to start heading back. So I turned and started heading down the path. One larger monkey crossed the path in front of me... but then stopped in the middle and looked at me. Before I knew what was happening, he had walked over to me and pulled a pineapple from the bag. The bag with the other pineapple was just to the side. I made a move to retrieve it and suddenly every monkey was rushing running towards me and my pineapple. Remembering the sign, we legged it all the way back to the carpark.... where we were relieved to see that they weren't behind us.
I couldn't understand why they hadn't gone for the chopped up pineapple in Mere's bag.
Later, at school I found out that one of the teachers in Hemei had left unexpectedly to work in Singapore. This was good news as it meant that I would be covering his lessons on Tuesday and Thursday. I also got the results of my medical today: fine except that I need a rubella booster. No worries, I can always do it tomorrow on the way to Hemei, pointed out Rita

Tuesday 14/09/10
Mere - inspiration behind getting up early and doing hikes before breakfast - had work this morning. So I thought I would go for a hike or cycle myself. I got home and saw that Pascal was in and probably going to use his bike. Mine was still down in Yuanlin so I put my lightest clothes on started to walk up to the steps. I discovered that road between Pascals and the steps is probably the steepest in all Taiwan. The steps themselves were a breeze by comparison. If only there was a breeze! Very hot. Got back to the house in a sweaty heap.
I spent the rest of the morning trying to learn some Chinese characters.
I was to be in Changhua hospital at 2pm. I had everything ready to go when I noticed a big cloud coming over the mountain... I quickly through my nice shoes in the boot and grabbed Pascal's old poncho from the garage; then rode like the wind hoping to outrun the big storm. I did so.
You can't really miss the Christian hospital; 16 floors high with a big red cross on top... still I did manage to end up in the wrong building. A kind receptionist guided me to the right one.
The staff knew I was coming and so I was soon in front of a nurse who checked my b.p. and my hearing. Hang on! I'm not here for the full test! Am I?
The doctor down the corridor cleared it up; made sure I was fit for a jab.
The nurse and jab were pain free and within an hour I was out back on the scooter towards Changhua school. There I gave Gina my medical certificate and Sophie (Hemei TA) let me follow her back to Hemei. "How long?" I asked "fifty minutes" she said
"1 5 or 5 0?" I was a little shocked "5 0 " she confirmed.
Well 15 minutes and 4 km later we pulled up at the school. The school was different to Yuanlin in terms of resources and kids behaviour. Despite getting there 2 hours before the lesson was to start: I still couldn't find half of the things that I should have taken into the lesson.
The kids weren't completely evil, but the idea of sitting down when told was obviously a foreign one. This was going to take some time!

Wednesday 15/09/10
Mere and I started the day with a bike ride down the same track as last time. On the way back we stopped for breakfast at a different breakfast shop, with even nicer Danbin than the other place!
I was fairly sure that I was covering one of Paul's lessons today, so I got in fairly early. However on the sheet that I had been given on Monday with all the cover lessons marked on, there was nothing extra today. So you can imagine my surprise when straight after my 2 hour class I get asked why I am not upstairs with CE18!

Thursday 16/09/10
Today I barely had time to answer my emails before I realised I needed to be going to Hemei for my 6.5 hours of teaching in a row. I got there in record time 45 mins! However, there was no-one in the school and the shutters were down. It was times like this when it would be great to have a Taiwan phone. I went for a walk to track down some food for lunch. It was only 30minutes before they opened up. I met Ollie: teacher from Bolton; nice guy but he was asking me questions in the 2 hours I had to plan 4 lessons. Mental note: next week plan Thursday's lessons on Tuesday.
The drive back was long but happily, I had remembered to bring my Ipod.

From sandy beaches to the tropical mountains!

Sunday 5/09/10
On Sunday, everyone had planned to go to a beach somewhere beyond Changhua on the West Coast. However, after ringing around everybody, it was just going to be me Andrew and Mere.
Then at the last minute Andrew got bad asthma and didn't feel up to it. So it looked like it was just the two of us.
We started the day at a breakfast place for some danbin (ham pancake Chinese style) stocked up on water and snacks for the trip. Mere offered to take her scooter.
Despite warnings of a typhoons across the west, it was a glorious day: a bit windy, but I've never seen such uninterrupted blue sky. I could feel my arms getting warm and was glad I'd packed the sunscreen.
We followed the main roads most of the way and after almost 2 hours and with only slight cramp in my legs from sitting on the back, we could see the sea. The road headed west towards a dozen massive wind turbines. A great sea wall followed the road. We pulled up alongside one of the turbines. It was a strange place. There were some rice fields around and in the distance you could see the outskirts of a small town. Yet there was no-one around.
We climbed over the sea wall, there was quite a bit of rubbish blown against the other side. The strangest thing though was the size of the beach. It just went on and on. We'd could barely see the sea. We walked for a good ten minutes across it before we were close enough dump our things. Bearing in mind how hot it was, I quickly got myself suncreamed up. I stripped down to my shorts and made for the water. It was amazing: it could have been Thailand or Zanzibar. Mere was a bit slow to come into the water, because she is allergic to seaweed.
So there was me; who couldn't swim but eager to get into the water out of the sun's glare and there was Mere; great swimmer who didn't trust what was lurking in the water.
We had a really nice relaxing afternoon, watching the crabs come out from their sand holes scurry about and then crawl back in. And we were the only people in sight... apart from 2 old men who were walking round with a brush or rake; every now and then they'd give the beach a sweep. Just before we left a family of 4 came down to the sea for a bit and then walked back.
It was incredible. Before we knew it, it was 4pm, time to get going if were to make it back in the light. I rode home. It was an interesting experience. Mere's scooter had no speedometer nor petrol gauge! On top of that the left mirror was loose, so I spent most of the time with one hand keeping that in place. Still; Fun and Games!
We were both starving when we got home. Luckily Mere lives next to the food road. Every shop: cheap delicious food. We went to a noodle bar
That night, Mike tried to introduce me to weird US humour with that cellophane guy from Chicago. I thought was quite funny but then I like the League of Gentleman. I thought it was only fair I introduced him to Father Ted in return.
Monday 6/09/10
Ouch! A little sunburn today. Despite putting it on twice while I was there my back and arms were pretty pink this morning.
I got to work especially early to figure out what to do for this reader class. But after half an hour thinking, a TA came in and said the reader lesson would be Friday instead. That solved that. Go back to the course guide for the day.
Tuesday 7/09/10
Had the day off and was determined to buy a bike today. I went to the Megabank this morning, but again, 'transaction cancelled- error' This was day five of Barclays six day registry time. Maybe tomorrow. When I mentioned it to Mere she offered to pay for the bike today, and I could pay her back tomorrow. Sounded like a plan!
We walked down to the Giant shop. I wanted something like I had last time. Front suspension, lots of gears, quick release tyres, bell, that kind of thing!
The bike guy I recognised from last time. He pointed out his mountain bikes. I chose one, the boulder and he let me take it down the main road through Yuanlin and back to get a feel for it.
"Do you have anything faster?" I asked him. He pulled a road bike. I gave that a whirl.
"Do you have anything with suspension?" I asked. He pulled out a Talon; a hybrid. It had a mountain bike frame with road tyres. I took it for a spin "I like it. Any discount?"
"10%" he said
"I'll have this one thanks."
While he was fixing a bottle holder to the bike, he pointed us in the direction of his off-road/BMX track at the back, part of which came up almost vertical. He persuaded me to have a go. I survived it; which I think surprised everybody there, including me.
As it was light, I fancied giving her a proper trial ride. Mere knew this actual cycle path that started in the centre of Yuan lin, followed an old railway track through the rice fields, vineyards and tropical fruit farms. It was nice to have a bump free ride... but then it came to a halt in the middle of no-where, so it was back to town.
Mere had a lesson that evening, so spent the time catching up on news around the world. I had no idea that an earthquake had stuck Christchurch.
Wednesday 8/09/10
[text missing]

Thursday 9/09/10
Yep: another day off. It had been raining most of the night and the roads were wet. Today was day 6 of Barclay register time, so I should be able to get some cash out. There is a 7/11 with a cash machine on the road that runs along the bottom of the mountain. I cycle round for a good hour, but no sign of the shop anywhere. It seems to be Highlife terrioty. Getting desperate I head back to the Yuanlin Banks and as usual not a sausage can I withdraw.
Mere mentioned going on a hike this afternoon, weather permitting. So I head back to the house to get some stuff to take with me. One thing I forgot to order for my bike: mudguards. I am completely splattered with the muddy water below.
The only problem with buying a bicycle from the middle of town is that at any one time the other mode of transport will be in town until I can find someone to drive my scooter back.
So as I have to cycle back to Yuanlin through the drizzle and mud, I might as well not get changed until I get there.
As soon as I get to Mere's; she looks at the state of me and says "I take it the hikes off?"
I point out that I really can't get much wetter than I already am... so we might as well go for it.
She has a trail in mind and so I scooter through the wet to a place that is near where I used to cycle a lot. The path winds up and is soon a set of very steep steps shooting up through the wild forest. Every now and then we see a massive spider sitting on a web body 3inch legs about 6. well i was the old man of the party.
I realise I haven't done any serious climbing in a while and soon sound relatively out of breath...
I felt fine though.
[text missing]
Friday 10/09/10
This was day 7 of Barclays register time so I surely will be able to get money out today!
I have a pile of laundry bigger than my suitcase. Down to 7/11 I went, no money. Down to the Megabank: no money there either. This is getting silly. When I got to work I tried looking on the website... Barclays only list 2 banks in the area that will give cash and they're both in Changhua.
Today was the reader lesson, so I got there 30 mins early to prepare. When I got to my desk and see a pile of posticks my heart sinks a little. Paul's gone on holiday so I have 2 of his classes straight after mine. I decide as they are easier to plan to those first. 45m before the reader lesson and my plan is still blank! Then I have a brain wave: colours, sizes, animals. There is a very big black dog. That will be their target language. Genius! In the nick of time, it all just flowed onto the page.
It was a long day though: stood up from 2pm until 8:45 gives you stiff legs.
As soon as I'd finished I printed off a map of Changhua and scootered my way to this super-cashpoint. I found it easily enough, but it would only give me 10,000. I needed another 10 to pay back debts and deposits. I headed out to the other cash-machine passing the Shane school, that still had lights on. So I backed up and knocked on the door. It was 10:45pm. I've no idea why they were still here. They guided me in the right direction and I found bank no.2, but this wouldn't give me any either. There must be a limit on daily withdrawals. Tired and hungry I headed back to Yuanlin. The nice thing about pulling up in a Taiwanese town in the middle of the night is that the shops and food places are all still open and lively. It was midnight when I had an omlette with veggies with a bowl of rice (60p). Revived, I drove back to Hi Relax to meet up with the other the other teachers.