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.