Sun Moon Lake: temple quest

Saturday 16th

I was invited two weeks ago to go to a theme park or waterworld sometime today... However, the girls organising it decided that it would be better to go to Sun Moon Lake instead.

I was told to be at the train station at 1pm. This gave me time to go for a quick cycle before hand... I got half way up the mountain, and I thought: I'm not gonna make it to the top!', so headed back down.
As I was scootering into town, I realised I hadn't taken any money from the wad of cash on my desk. I pulled into 7/11 quickly got some out from my UK account.... I really should check how much is left in there! ... and jumped back into the scooter and zoomed to the station... I say zoomed: traffic lights are red from between 50 and 100 seconds in Yuanlin, so walking through town is quicker than 4 red lights.

I got there at 1:10. The other TAs were already there waiting. No David though. 'Oh, he's sick' I was told later. So just me and 7 girls... I'm sure I'll cope.
The journey involved catching a train from Yuanlin to a High Speed Rail outside Taichung... and then getting a shuttle bus from there to the lake.
On the way I talked with Cathy and Michelle about the difference between England and Taiwan in terms of transport, food, schools, pretty much anything that came to mind.
It was a 2 hour journey.
The High Speed rail terminal was like an airport... posh coffee bars and cafes and of course; MacDonalds. We grabbed some lunch there, the girls MacD's I got a riceseaweep wrap from 7/11.
Culture exchange going on there!

The bus arrived and we headed out towards the hills around Sun Moon Lake. We arrived just before pm. It was still a glorious day. Michelle went into the visitor centre and came out with some blue info booklets about the area. On the back page was a section with six spaces. A space for a stamp from each temple around the lake. Once completed, we would get... a groovy little magnet to go on the fridge with a picture of sun moon lake animals on.
We wasted no time at all. We walked down the high street in the direction of the nearest temple (I should point out that this is a big deal, as Taiwanese never go more than 20 meters down a road without their scooter). We were soon there.
I asked the TAs what people came to this temple for. They said it is where people seeking love pray. "You should try!" They insisted. There were a couple of wise men next to the statue of the god. They were there to translate. 5 girls left and went into the main temple and only 2 remained. I watched waiting to see what advise the wise man would share. However it was not these two that were looking for love. The other 5 returned with incense sticks and a wad of paper money to sacrifice. They were all looking for love! They placed the sticks in front of the god and prayed; then took the prayer beans and through them to the ground 3x one up and down means that god has granted their wish. All but one managed this. So they took a fortune message from the box and handed it to the wise man. Everyone looked on intently.
It was in Chinese, obviously, but Angel told me that he had told her that she would get a boyfriend very soon. It was all fascinating.
After this temple we headed back to the visitor centre to get a day ticket for the bus going round the lake. We found out that we didn't need a ticket, it was free.
We boarded one before long and were on our way to my favourite of Taiwan's temples. The gate alone is mind blowing. Here we could get two stamps from the two gods of study. Half way there on the stamp trail. It was a big old temple and there were photos inside of the damage to it back in 2000 from an earthquake... people had donated enough money to have everything fixed.
There was a shop inside selling traditional Taiwanese Outfits. I've left mine in England.

The girls were getting a bit peckish so we walked back to the road lined with food vendors selling every kind of snack including spicy sausage on a stick.


We waited for a bus to carry us on round the lake but nothing came. After half an hour it was getting dark so we decided to call off the temple quest and head back to the main village to grab some dinner. The whole area was pretty crowded with it being a holiday and a festival. After a little wait we managed to get a seat in a nice restaurant: proper traditional food. $300NT but a lot of food. We couldn't fit the plate on the table. Stewed wild chicken with peas and chili. Rice, cabbage, soup with a chunk of pork at the bottom, ginger and bamboo, shrimps with beansprouts and chili, and mushrooms. After dinner we had a wonder down past the shops. Angel bought a make it yourself dragon. I bought an imitation ice cream. We walked round to the lakeside and there was an orchestra playing Somewhere over the rainbow. Quite a big crowd down there. Then they played a well known Korean song and everyone cheered and started singing along... Why haven't I heard this song? Then some local celebrity took the microphone and started counting down to the fireworks. They were amazing. only like new year 2007; they didn't last that long.
As soon as they stopped, everyone behind us started running towards the bus ques, eager not to get stuck here the night.
We were OK for a few minutes.
Whilst waiting for the bus, we did what any sane Taiwanese person would do: took loads of pictures of each other in different places.
The bus came on time. We boarded and had a comfortable ride back to the station. As we entered the station we could hear an announcement for the Yuanlin train. I've never seen Taiwanese girls run before, they were making a variety of progress. It was a long was down to the platform.
But the guard heard the screams coming down the stairs and waited. Very amusing.
Before we knew it, we were in Yuanlin again. Scooter bound home.

Shane Trip to Kenting

Friday 1st Ocober
Last week, I had hoped to meet up with the rest of the Changhua teachers prior to our trip to Kenting. Today that wish was granted but in the worst kind of circumstances. At 11pm on Wedneday night, Rita had rang me to ask if I could cover in Changhua on Thursday and Friday as one of the teacher's relative had died. And so on a day when the staff should have been excited about the coming trip, there was a sad, dumbstruck, silence in the staffroom.

Saturday 2nd October
Kenting is a 4 hour coach drive so after picking up the Changhua teachers and TAs the bus was to pick us up at 7:30. That was the plan! However Ollie (Bolton lad) hadn't turned up and they spent half an hour trying to find him. After no joy, they set off anyway.
No one had had much sleep the night before and we all planned to use the journey to catch up.
Nobody except the TAs that is... About 20 minutes into the ride, the 10 little TVs around the bus flickered on and to my horror; somebody was selecting the KTV on the menu.

Emma was the first to volunteer (Changhua manager) and she wasn't that bad. Nice tunes, sung in key. Sadly they didn't have anything in English. The other performances varied from off key to off radar. And the worst was when 2 started sining: one in key and one just slightly not.
We stopped as predicted every hour or so for toilet snack break.
I was expecting to go straight to the hotel, dump our things and then do activities, so I was a little surprised when the bus pulled up in what loooked like a diving centre.
We walked over to the person in charge and Emma translated that to do jet ski, snorkelling and banana boat was $350: bargain! The entire staff were desperate for the toilet for some reason... there were ques outside the 3 ladies cabins, so Dave went over to the mens. Anna warned him that the sign said out of order. It looked fine though, he stepped in ... and his foot went right through the floor. Very amusing!
Once changed into our swimming things, one of the instructors, pointed to a pool full of wet suits, we put these on and then he pointed to some wet-shoes for us to wear (not fins but shoes). Then we had to put on a life vest and finally, the snorkel. We looked ridiculous.
We then crammed into a tiny van with some seats in the back. We drove down to the pebble shore, where we had a detailed intrduction on how to use a snorkel. After 15 minutes, some of the teachers got bored and swam off into the sea on their own. The instructor didn't realise this until we were finally ready to enter the water ourselves. He wanted me to shout to them to bring them back. So I took off my snorkel and shouted; they couldn't hear me. Just then, a huge wave broke and I got salt water in my eyes: possibly the saltiest water I had ever tasted.
I couldnt rub my eyes for obvious reasons, so I thought 'grin and bare it' put my snorkel on, and it was like having pepper spray. This was silly, I took it off and made my way back to dry land.
I watched the rest of them in two lines holding the person in front being pulled across the patch of coral. I felt better after a few minutes, so I donned the mask again, and swam out after them.
This was surprisingly easy! We swam until we reached a mooring post; we heaved ourselves onto it and boarded a speedboat. i assumed we were going further out to do some more snorkelling when the driver switched my snorkel for a hard hat. Well a soft hard hat. Alongside the speed boat was a banana boat. 6 of us srambled over the side onto a seat on the banana boat.
For those of you who didn't know: the purpose of a banana boat is to crash over turn and throw its riders into the water. The first time wasn't so bad. We went fast but we fell out rather than being thrown out. The second time, we were in deeper water or something, it was an effort not to fall off before the boat capsized. Then when it did happen, I landed on top of one of the TA's I could feel their life jacket underneath me... but couldn't free it. She was fine however. By the time we had snorkelled back to the shore. It was 4 o'clock and everyone was feeling pretty knackered. We got changed out of our heavy, wet, salted swimming gear and made our way to the hotel.
I was very impressed with the hotel. The room was huge (admittedly there were supposed to be 4 men in here, but still it was huge). It looked like 2 huge double beds, but thankfully, they pulled apart. There was a huge TV, a fridge, a proper Chinese teapot, a bathroom with a round bath, shower cubicle and a small TV. The toilet didn't flush, but hey! TV in the toilet!
There was only 3 teachers in my room: me Todd and Richard as Ollie had not showed up.
Thinking we had ages before dinner, we grabbed a towel and went to check out the hotel pool that stretched away from the driveway. However we ran into Emma who said we only had 30 minutes before we were leaving for dinner. A quick shower then would suffice.
The hotel was on the outskirts of Kenting, so we boarded the bus to the restaurant. It was a hot evening and the restaurant was outdoors. There was no fan but this was OK, I could cope, until the food arrived, half of which had chilli as the main ingredient.
May was walking round with her jug of beer Gam bei to anyone brave enough to drink with her.
Linda (big chief) and her family turned up and made sure we were all having a good time.
After dinner and a number of photos posing in front of various buildings and plants. We went shopping down the Kenting High Street. Clothes, jewellery and food shops blockaded by a endless row of clothes, jewellery and food stalls. Everything a tourist could want. Frogspawn tea. Tiny chunks of jelly floating in sweet milk tea. gorgeous. Green tea icecream. Teapot shops. The Taiwanese really do love their tea.
The highlight for me was watching some of the TAs having a massage by three men with chairs. Not like any massage I'd ever seen. They were pulling their arms round their backs then popping them out... despite the screams of pain, they all urged me to have one. I declined.
The Changhua crowd were pretty tired from a really busy week, so I joined them on the coach home at 10. The Yuanlin boys stayed out dancing til 2.
Once back at the hotel, I went for a dip in the pool. Right next to it was a hot bath... a perfect way to end a hot and hectic day. Breakfast in the morning was at 7am. but I was told nicely that if I woke any other teachers up for breakfast they would kill me.

Sunday 3rd October
The alarm went off at 7am. I silently rose, dressed and made my way to the dining room for breakfast. A lady on the door said it wasn't open until 7:30! What! Someone had lied to me...
I walked around trying to kill time when I met a TA, she had hired a bike. I should do the same she advised. "To go out" I asked. "No, just around the hotel grounds."
The hotel couldn't be that big. 'You can get a key from reception' the TA persisted. So I went to the hotel desk, just to get some peace, I was given a key to the last bike. I walked back to the bike shed. The key didn't look like any key I'd ever seen. I wiggled it in the hole. No joy. I tried twisted it; nothing. I looked at my watch: 7:25. I'll go and have breakfast. I get back to the lady and am happy to see people eating beyond. "Ticket?" the lady asks.. Ticket? Odd I thought breakfast was included! I go back to reception. Do you need to buy a ticket for breakfast? It's in your room pack! Oh. Back the bedroom, sneaky sneaky, find the pass and at last, treated myself to breakfast. Vegetables, rice, egg, fruit and some toast. Only 6 TAs had woken up for breakfast and no teachers except me.
As I was awake now, I took the coach trip with May, Gina, Linda's nephew and sister, Mignon to a wildlife reserve to check out the birds and look out for Japanese buzzards. Then we moved on to a viewpoint where you can see the Taiwan Straight meet the Pacific Ocean. Quite stunning.
We got back just in time to pick up the others from the hotel to start the journey home.
Not 15 minutes in, and the coach pulled over next to a hill a huge fence at the bottom. As we looked up we could see a giant ball rolling down towards us. I rolled up the fence above the coach and then back down, stopped, and 2 lads crawled out. Cool!

At the top of the hill we all qued up for a go. On closer inspection. The plastic ball was about 7 foot high. There was a layer of insulation about a foot deep and then there were 2 sets of straps.
Great fun! I dived inside and tried to put my hands and feet in the straps there. And was told 'dress the straps more' by a TA translating the lady in charge. She meant, move the strap so that it is round your leg not your foot. Richard was sitting opposite me.

Once we set off it was completely not what I expected. You couldn't see anything outside like the road or hill itself. That was a blur. All you knew was that you were moving fast and this dizzy feeling was not normal. There was a microphone inside the ball so that people at the top could hear you screaming. We were told that we were very quiet, so on the second time down. We stayed absolutely silent; which isn't an easy thing to do.
We got back on the bus and were dripping from the heat of the plastic ball, i stripped off my T-shirt and pulled out a fresh one.
The coach stopped again soon after. Outside I could see a go-cart track. Not more! I thought. Luckily it we were having dinner next door to the track. It was another chilli topped Taiwanese speacial. Most of the lads had a light lunch and spent the time in front of the air conditioning unit.
On the way back they put an English DVD : Taken; such a happy change after KTV.
We got half way through Surrogates (another good movie) before the Chinese speakers had a vote (talk about a conspiracy) and put KTV back on.