thecircumnavigation

so finally we get to the circumnavigation of Ilha Formosa. below is a basic map of the country; won't you follow along with me as i outline our journey?


a very simple map of Taiwan.

we started, of course, in Feng Yuan, which is slightly less far north of Taichung than Chang-hua is South of it, and took the train to Taichung. from there we caught the luxury bus to Kaohsiung, a journey of about three hours. the distance is around 200 kilometers, or 120 miles. we had planned to head for Kenting, supposedly the most hip spot in the country, that night, Saturday the 2nd. Kenting lies at the very southern tip of the island, on the west coast. that weekend was a large music festival called Spring Scream, which basically turned out to be Hippie Fest, so even when we did get to Kenting we didn't hang around much. anyway, knowing it would be crowded, we stayed in Kaohsiung instead, which is Taiwan's second largest city, and the largest seaport in Asia. i'm told it's the third or fourth largest port by volume in the world. while there we visited a small island on the far side of their bay, which seemed very nice as we walked along the beach but became just another filthy Taiwanese town when we returned along the street.

when we finally got down to Kenting the next day by bus, another journey that took far longer than its mileage would suggest, i found it was indeed way less than the hype suggested. it's one of those little beach towns that has "quaint" shops with "character" all along one street--such character, in fact, that they have the same souvenirs as every other little shop in the country. and of course the town was filled with all kinds of hippies trying to get their fill of the "authentic" travel experience. only Kenting has become one of those homogenized places that looks just like every other beach town in the world, and largely due to the presence of those people, i suggest.

looking a bit hippie-ish myself (note the long hair and giant backpack) at the entrance to the Kenting National Forest Recreation Area.

so we left. and went to Taitung (say Taidong). or at least we tried to get to Taitung. as you may have gathered, Taiwan's highway system leaves something to be desired, so we had to go about halfway back to Kaohsiung before there was a road or train track to take us eastward. we were supposed to be let off the bus in a place called Fengliao (say Fongliao), but our bus driver had the radio up so loud that even if he had made the stop announcement, we wouldn't have heard him. when i started thinking we had passed our mark, i went up to talk to him, and through a combination of hand waving and head bobbing we came to the conclusion that we were indeed past the mark and we should be let off there. he wanted me to pay him for the extra distance we had traveled, and even had an English-speaking passenger explain that to us, but i argued about it, through this hapless intermediary, for long enough that he was worried about his schedule and just wanted us off the bus.

so that plan worked, but now we were on a deserted road in the middle of nowhere. this part of the story is becoming much longer than i had intended it to be, but the next two events do a good job of explaining a couple of seemingly opposite Taiwanese attitudes. there was a convenience store nearby, so we went in there and tried to make contact with the sales clerk. we asked for Fengliao and pointed, hoping he could tell us in which direction to start walking. he did, but when we asked again just to be sure, he pointed the other way. which was very helpful. now we were confused, so we showed him the Chinese characters for train station in our handy little guidebook, hoping he would point in its direction. he had a hand on the book, and just kept staring at it and smiling. we could tell he didn't know what it was saying, but it was thoroughly bizarre that he wouldn't indicate that, other than with a sheepish grin and to keep holding onto our book. finally we were done with him and just said xie-xie (thank you, say shie-uh shie-uh) and set off along the road the way we had come.

more than once during that hike i thought about raising a thumb, and would have done so if i hadn't given it a last ditch effort at the gas station we came to. we tried the same routine with the three Chinese-only girls working there, and even though they didn't really get what we were trying to do, they decided that this was now their problem too. over the course of about ten minutes, they managed to instruct us to stand on the street under the lights from their signs and thumb any bus that came along and ask for Taitung. thumbing a bus on rural roads in Taiwan at night is rather a terrifying experience. along that stretch they were actually going quite fast, and you pretty much have to walk out in the middle of the road to ensure they see you. when they do of course, they have to lay on the brakes to avoid hitting you, so i was glad that the girl from the gas station volunteered to do most of the flagging for us, motioning for us to sit down all the time. about half an hour after our problem had become theirs, our helpful hosts, who had been running back and forth all that time to pump gas and then wave down buses, they had realized that there were no direct buses to Taitung on that road, and we would have to take one back to Fengliao and catch the train. we did this with no small thanksgiving to our new friends, and we did make it to Taitung without further ado, though the train was painfully slow.

the train station is at the heart of most Taiwanese towns, but Taitung has built a new one quite a way out of town. they have also built a lot of wide new roads to get to it, all of which were used to their greatest advantage by our taxi driver, who seemed to think he was in training for the Taiwanese Grand Prix. it was midnight though, and no cars around, and frankly it was nice to break the snail barrier for once.

not much to say about Taitung. it was nice and seemed the least Taiwanese of all the places i've seen, but was pretty unremarkable. it is apparently known for its fruit, so we got some wax apples and tried the famous custard apple, which i found less than spectacular. at least it was edible though. we tried to rent a scooter to drive up the coast, but all the places were so funny about us not having a Taiwanese license that we gave up and decided to head for Hualien by bus.

though that trip will have to wait for the next post, it is worth relating how we found the right bus station. there was a visitor bureau close to our hotel, and one lady there who spoke fairly good English, so I told her we were trying to get to Hualien, pronouncing it Wa-lien. She gave me this totally blank look like she'd never heard of the place, so i tried again. nothing. finally i caught a brainwave or a slice of inspiration or something, and tried Wha-lien. "Oh, Wha-lien. It's that bus right over there," she said, pointing. seriously nonplussed, we wandered off to buy our tickets, not for Wa-lien, for Wha-lien. i will not make that mistake again.