Our immediate neighborhood is made up of ordinary working people. The type Australian politicians like to call “battlers”. They are also a wonderful mix of young and old. They are mostly native Taiwanese but a few KMT immigrants, Indonesian and Philippine maids and Vietnamese brides as well.

Taiwanese is the language of the streets. The community loudspeaker only broadcasts in Taiwanese, the young and middle-age communicate in Mandarin between themselves but the old and intergenerational language is Taiwanese. Most houses contain three generations, some four. Of the six houses surrounding us there are 4-2, 4-3, 6-2, 8-3, 6-3, 5-3 (people-generations) and us at 5-2.

The house next door sells vegetarian meals on a very low key basis.

Not far away the local breakfast store provides a variety of tasty and filling meals.

Every day a dozen or so vendors drive by selling fruit and vegetables, household items and sweet tofu snacks. There is even one that occasionally comes by collecting old scooters.

The temple at the end of the street is a key social point and the place for many local activities.

The street is a very social place. After school and in the evening there are always kids out riding bikes, people out chatting, playing badminton and generally whiling the time away.

There are a few Vietnamese wives and a lot of Indonesian maids. An Indonesian maid is now the primary form of elderly care.

Overall, the very noticeable thing is the good healthy mix of young and old

There are plenty more photos from around the neighborhood in The neighborhood album section.

We started the day early with our first stop the police station at Lili (力里) to get our mountain permit. Mountain permits are a hangover from Japanese occupation and KMT military era when tight control over access to the mountains was maintained. They seem hardly relevant these days and if we were to walk the trail from the Eastern side they are not required.

Thanks to a military radar post at the top of the mountain it is possible to drive a 20 km track to the trail-head at 1420 metres. This means you do the 16km trail on an almost continuous downward slope.

The trail is well marked and well maintained. In fact it is a popular mountain biking trail and with so many cyclists in Taiwan even remote trails like this manage to get a few adventures. This party of 5 was well equipped and had arranged a lift to the top so they could cycle over three hours to the Eastern side. They even had a helmet mounted video camera to record their thrillful ride.

We had a hiking perfect day with blue sky, no wind and no rain. Not even a misty afternoon cloud to dampen the day.

The recommended hiking time is 6 hours. At 3 hours out and 5 kilometers down we realised hiking with small ones would mean we could be finishing in the dark. Not a wonderful prospect but we pushed on.

The kids were fantastic. We tried to slow them down at the start as they were prone to running ahead then running back before running ahead again. Of course this exuberance withered and we had to do a little carrying and encouraging by trail end.

Perhaps thanks to the traveling noise-crowd that we were, we saw little bird or wildlife. Not even many butterflies,  though we did find this ungainly spider.

There are a number of old police stations along the route though little remains other than piles of rocks to remind you of the time when Japanese police and their families lived in this remote place. The sign at one settlement says 30 Japanese police and their families were killed during an incident in 1924.

We reached the Gu-alun suspension bridge at the trail end just after dusk. 8 hours after our start. This could have been an ugly end as there was still 4 kms of river bed to walk and wade before the village where we could arrange a lift to the Dawu (大武) train station. We were very fortunate when a motorcyclists arrived and said he would send someone to come and pick us up. So we all waited by the river, watched for stars and chased fireflies. A superb ending to a glorious walk.

The fellow who picked us up was a real character. He drove us past his house so we could meet his family, then past some friends place all while his minivan stereo played loud New York rap. He dropped us at the Dawu train station in good time to catch the 8:05 train back to Kaohsiung. We were all so exhausted we slumped on the floor of the train while Catherine enthralled a curious group of travelers with our day’s story.

Practicalities

This is an easy hike but you need to arrange transport at least to the Western trail-head. Lili is about an hour’s drive from Kaohsiung. Drive East along Expressway 88 then South on Freeway 3 to the Nanzhou exit. Head South on highway 1 towards Kenting then turn left at Pingtung county road 132 toward Lili.

From Lili follow the road past the police station for about an hour to reach the trail-head.

The 6 hours recommended time would be ideal for average hikers. If you have small children, add a couple more hours.

Though we had perfect hiking weather, the mountain pass section receives over 5200 mm of rain a year so odds are you may encounter some showers.

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To make up for having to attend on Saturday, school is out for Monday. I’m not sure what the working parents will do tomorrow.

The weather at this time of year is absolutely gorgeous. It is really the time of year to be enjoying the outdoors and yesterday was a perfect day for it. There was a band, miniature cauldron and flame and lots of parading.

They had running, relays, tug-of-war, 3 legged races and even an egg-and-spoon race.

There were lots of proud parents watching on.

An event like this can not go by without a fair full of food, game and trinket vendors.

Here is the paper fishing net fair game. A very flimsy sheet of paper is stretched across a plastic paddle. 1 paddle for 10 yuan, 6 for 50 yuan. You get to keep all the goldfish you can catch before the paper fails.

We are now a household of 8 new goldfish and two small turtles.

The kids still had their usual school provided meal so they returned to the classrooms during lunch time. They look pretty much like the classrooms I attended so many years ago on a very different continent.

Here is my daughter’s classroom.

And here is my son’s.

The rapid drop in birthrate is having a real impact on schools all over Taiwan. Elementary school covers years 1 to 6. Shan Ding has 6 year 6 classes by only 4 year 1 classes. Pretty much the demographics of Taiwan proper.

As so often happens, a few nervous young people shyly asked to take a photo of me and my daughter. Something I always oblige as I’m never without my own camera ready to reciprocate. Here are the shy English speakers of yesterday.

Though very different from the sports days I once attended, the essence of festivities and activities were still there.

Why they even had long standing at assembly listening to lofty speeches by the headmaster.

Currently based in the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea he didn’t hesitate to up-anchor and sail the 5500 odd kms to visit us. After 8 weeks of sailing and stopping off at small islands through PNG, Indonesia, Micronesia and the Philippines he finally arrived in Kaohsiung. Thanks to a good mobile phone reception just beyond sight of land north west of Luzon I quickly alerted him of Typhoon Nuri that was looking like crossing his path in the Bashih Channel between the Philippines and Taiwan. An extra three day anchored down in the shelter of Santiago Island, Luzon, meant he arrived in Kaohsiung Harbour on the 25th of August. Just 3 days before we departed to Japan for 2 weeks.

Though the timing was bad for us, it fitted in nicely with the Kaohsiung International Regatta held on the 6th and 7th of September, a practice run for the World Games here in Kaohsiung next year.

Keen to enhance the race’s “International” standing, Leprena II was enthusiastically encouraged to participate as the Australian entrant. Two TV stations and a newspaper interview helped promote the event and catapulted this solo-sailor into a minor local celebrity.

Wearing a fisherman’s hat and white beard this old man is Peter.

Although approaching his 70’s he is still as fit as a young man. It took him a month to sail to Taiwan for the upcoming event.

He sailed alone with his yacht from Australia and on the way he was robbed by pirates in Indonesian waters.

 

He tried to combat the pirate with a shotgun but couldn’t and was later tied up and beaten. There are scars left from knife wounds both on his arms and legs but such an ordeal does not dent his courage. Instead it adds more life experiences.

There is a deeper reason for his drive to come to this beautiful island of Taiwan. His son has found his roots in Taiwan.

 

..which has also made him a “Taiwanese” grandfather. Taiwan is just like a second home to him. You may catch a glimpse of Peter at the yacht display area of Glory Harbor this Saturday between 2 and 4 pm for public viewing. For those who are interested please come along and discover the charm and beauty of yachting.

FTV reporter Liao Jing-Hsiong, Kaohsiung.

 

Correction: The pirating occured 3 years ago in PNG waters

The regatta and race by all accounts were very successful. Though suitably built for distance racing, solar panels, wind generator, a hull full of belongings along with a quickly convened crew of locals meant Leprena II came in 5 minutes outside the race time limit to score a DNF (Did Not Finish). Though he was very impressed with the pre and post dinners, hospitality, crystal participant’s trophy as well as a substantial participation reimbursement.

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It is fair to say that very few yachties make it to Taiwan. It took half a day to clear customs and immigration on arrival. A simple sail outside the harbour requires lengthy crew and itinerary registration. Motoring inside the harbour is apparently not permitted as we discovered during a leisurely Saturday cruise.

Leprena II has been moored at the Shaochuantou yacht pier at Sizihwan opposite the ferry point to Chijin Island. It is a great location in the hustle and bustle of Kaohsiung harbour. A popular destination for outdoor wedding photo shoots and now very crowded on weekends as the port-side destination station of the newly opened orange line of the KMRT.

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Both Grandpapa and the boat are a huge hit with the kids. If the success of a sleep-over is measured by how little sleep is achieved I think Leprena II ranks most successful.

He is currently in Hong Kong where his partner Frances will join him. They will return here for another month by which time this very busy typhoon season will have hopefully subsided. They intend returning to PNG via Philippines and perhaps Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Now my wife and I are travelers of old and have always been ready to pack a bag and venture off. But this trip was a little different. We started out as a party of 8, my in-laws, nephew, 3 kids, wife and myself. Backpacks not being appropriate, we decided to start with a 5 days Tokyo tour group.

The tour was great. It was well organised, well filled with activities and even managed to arrange the bus trips so all the Taiwanese participants could get their mid-afternoon snooze. As it had a Disneyland day included there were a few young families which gave the whole group an extra casual feel.

We farewelled the in-laws and returning tour group to spend an extra day at Disneyland and a couple of days in greater Tokyo.

We then activated our 7 day Japan Rail pass and hit the precision rail system for as much value as we could squeeze from it with 12 Shinkansen rides and a handful of regional and local trains in the week. I have never used the second hand on my watch for catching trains before but sitting on trains in in Japan I discovered it was 35 seconds fast. What an incredible system Japan Rail run!

Though traveling at 285 km/h the kids still managed to build card houses on the seats. Though they never completed a full second story!

The last few days we spent near Himeji in Western Honshu with friends. A relaxing end to busy holiday.

Japan is a fantastic place to travel with kids. There is so much for them to see and enjoy. Though our Australian/Taiwanese free-range kids in a Japanese battery kids world can be a little stressful at times!

There were comic books with naughty pictures in them and free magazines with enticing pictures for kids.

And so many buttons and levers to push and pull.

Despite the crowds and concrete jungles we still managed to find plenty of wildlife and enjoy some of the natural parts of Japan.

Japan is a fascinating place; so organised, so polite, so efficient. But for me, Taiwan beats it on so many accounts.

It was something about the toutured trees and domesticated stones.

I always had a feeling we were breaking some unwritten rule. Give me the free-flowing pragmatic chaos of Taiwan anyday.

It should not be surprising that Taiwan would have a great aquarium, for everyone here absolutely loves seafood. It is only natural that a small live sample of all the yummy marine dishes should be available for viewing.

There are seemingly endless displays of really impressive tanks with huge glass fronts containing all manner of interesting sea creatures. The people who conceived and designed this aquarium have done a fantastic job and have made Taiwan proud.

A circling school of fish in a cylindrical glass display

The open water display with rays, tuna and a whale shark. Absolutely breathtaking.

A 10 metre open water profile of kelp beds

Or the underwater walkways that take you past corals, fish and through a ship-wreck no less.

Another really impressive exhibit was a coral reef profile in a curved glass display with a declining walkway.

Even the outdoor squid sculptures are impressive.

But we were most impressed by the penguin exhibit. The large “people” side, for ambience no doubt, is cooled to 17C. While behind the floor-to-roof glass on the “penguin” side it is chilled to a balmy Antarctic -2C. With near on 40 birds from 6 species the open display gives surperb viewing of these torpedo swimmers.

Though we did feel a little sorry for their lonely North Pole puffin cousins in the adjacent display. Though the puffins could not see their Southern avian upstarts, they must surely wonder why the crowds just walk on by.

The National Museum website has a live penguin cam. Though nothing will beat stopping by the museum yourself, you could switch your air-conditioner to “coldest” and watch them from here.

Back in Perth a family island holiday for us usually involves a week on lazy Rottnest Island.  I have wished to visit Lanyu for many years so with the kids on summer holidays we packed our bags and ventured off to see what it is like.

Firstly the island is volcanic in origin so the geology and geography are quite different from the mostly metamorphosed and alluvial Taiwan.  At 13 km long and 32 km around it has a steep hilly centre surrounded by thin strips and scallops of flat land. There are plenty of places where the hills plunge almost directly into the ocean.

There are 5 small settlements on the island. The people here are more similar to the northern Philippines than Taiwan and indeed very different from Chinese. The local language is apparently understood by those from the northern Philippine islands. Unfortunately many of the younger generation are no longer fluent in this language.

We visited in the middle of summer which is peak tourist time, though it didn’t have a tourist trap feel to it. Visitors we met were mostly extended family groups, student groups and young couples. We also met a group of mostly English teachers from Chiayi camping on a remote eastern beach making a real getaway from Taiwan living.

The easiest way to get around is by scooter. It takes a couple of hours to circumvent the island, an excellent way to spend the day. The next day, for a change, you can turn around a scooter the other way.

One place that I was eager to see was the low-level nuclear waste facility on the southern tip of the island. Spare a small rocky island a few kilometers further south, this is the furthest most point it is possible to get away from Taipei within Taiwan. The perfect place for nuclear waste dump! Except that it is in the path of typhoons, only just above the high tide waterline and on a geologically unstable land-mass. Someone told me the locals were duped in to believing they were getting a fish cannery.  There is a moratorium on new disposal and it is due for complete de-commissioning by 2010.

Lanyu just has an incredibly lazy feel to it. Which was just perfect for the type of break we were after. We collected hermit crabs and ran crab races, swam, tried catching some fish and generally just enjoyed discovering the island.

Lanyu reminded me more of the South-east asian islands than our favorite Rottnest. But for a relaxing and enjoyable island get-away we can all highly recommend it.

It is that time of year when the house starts to leak, leather boots and food stains go mouldy and everyone starts looking for any cool relief available.

The first rain also brought the recently harvested rice field adjacent to us to life with the sound of frogs. This evening there were hundreds of them all singing in the new wet season. The kids were very excited to put on gum-boots and headlamps and do a bit of frog spotting between rain showers.

Here is one frog going through the croaking motions.

The sound of all those frogs was really wonderful. Here you can see the vibrations in the surrounding water as he croaks away.

And of course there were other slimmies and crawlies to discover as well.

As you can see a fire is built in a hole and the heat is stored in the soil and a chimney of clay boulders. Once everything is hot enough the fire is removed, the food placed in and the whole lot is covered in earth. It is left to cook for an hour or so and then unearthed. The food is delicious.

We cooked eggs, corn, chicken and sweet potatoes. The eggs were packed in the centre of mud balls, then placed like bricks into the hole, the corn and sweet potatoes were in aluminium foil and the chicken well wrapped and packed with some type of leaves that gave the meat a lovely flavour. The style is very similar to the Maori Hangi but clay boulders are used instead of rocks.

There was lots of other food as well as the obligatory oolong tea ceremony.

There was a game of baseball, lots of running in the dirt and then wheel borrow races.

For young and not-so-young.

It was a wonderful day and fondly reminded me of the big family picnics we used to go to out in the country of Western Australia. Lots of kids, lots of food, lots of fun.

See more photos from the family day out here

If you click on any picture you should see a slide show of all the pictures in full resolution.

Because it was Chinese New Year, so did a lot of other families. In fact, it seemed like all the families in Taiwan were there!

Other than the smothering crowds, the day out was a wonderful people watching event. The weather was quite cool over the Chinese new year. This allowed everyone to put on all their new clothes and dress their kids to the nines. And whole families were out. It is great to watch three generations enjoying a day out together.

Yoyo TV is the Taiwan cable TV kids channel. It contains lots of local content as well as a pile of international programs. One of the more popular at the moment is Sponge Bob Square Pants. It also runs Thomas the Tank engine. Rev W. V. Awdry would be thrilled to see that Taiwanese kids have taken up his creation as enthusiastically as any.

There was plenty of food including these small whole roasted birds. (Not chickens)

And it was a photo taking day. It is true that the advent of digital cameras has resulted in 10 times more photos in people’s collections. It also means that an events such as these there is a pretty high camera to people ratio. And everyone loves photos of the family.

These battery powered bikes with off centre front wheels were popular. Located just in front of the mens!

It is now possible to get really good fresh coffee everywhere. Many years ago that was nigh on impossible. Thank goodness for the coffee stand!

If you click on any picture you should see a slide show of all the pictures in full resolution.