Weekend Go!

Teapot Mountain

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

That's the name of the hiking club that took me up Chahu Shan (Tea Pot Mountain) the weekend before last. My prediction of 2 liters of water turned out to be right! What I wasn't prepared for is how much you need sugars and salts when you sweat so much. I though I was dying till someone shared some sweet hibiscus tea with me and brought me back to life (for Mom: the thing about dying was just a figure of speech). Other essential hiking food: Tea Eggs! That is hard boiled eggs that are cracked then soaked in salty tea. Wierd and good, full of protein, and easily purchased last minute at the 7-11. And finally, don't forget a towel. Yes, just as the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy advises, towels come in handy in all sorts of situations. When hiking in Taiwan, a small hand towel is useful for mopping sweat off the brow, and for soaking in a cool stream and draping over the neck.

For obscure movie buffs: Chahu mountain is just a few miles from the town of Jiufen where they filmed City of Sadness (dir: Hou Hsiao Hsian). The teashop known as Little Shanghai in the film still exists. Though the narrow paths that make up the old town are still there, they are so festooned with snack stalls and the requisite flashy signage that the effect is spoiled. The snacks, however, are of deservedly high repute, and the views of the mountains and ocean that can be had from the tea shops is spectacular. Those willing to hike, however, will see better outside of town.

Just one of the spectacular views that reward hikers outside of Jiufen.

Last weekend I visited central Taiwan and visited two old friends, Larry in Taichung and Amber at Sun Moon Lake. Don't let the names fool you, they are both 100% Tawainese; they just take English names in the fashion of many young folks around here. Larry's family put me up and fed me and then we checked out another old town with snakey lanes: the infamous Lugang (Deer Harbour). They say you should be wary of ghosts when visiting but I think that has more to do with the way the crooked lanes channel the winds and block the sun to create odd little cool spots here and there. This place deserves its reputation, and has done a good job restricting the whirling neon signage to areas outside of the historic district.

Temple in Lugang's historic district.

Larry plays Vanna White at another old temple in Lugang.

Sun Moon Lake has seen some development since I saw it last. This is the place that I hung out most weekends during the year that I lived in Central Taiwan. I didn't do much touristy stuff this time, as I had done most of it already. Instead I dined on excellent Lasagna and lattes courtesy of Amber, my close friend and proprietress of February Cafe. We did a lot of catching up, exclusively in Chinese, and I was just as pleased with the success of February Coffee as with the fact that my Chinese was enough me to keep me abreast of the all the good news. Taiwan and China are still debating how to operated direct flights between the two, but when it is all worked out, Sun Moon Lake will be the major destination for tourists from the mainland, and Amber and her family will do even better business than they have now. Congrats to them!

This is the same picture I take every time I come to Sun Moon Lake!

Amber demonstrating her expertise with caffeinated beverages.

Back in Taipei now for more Chinese classes. I am loving learning tons everyday, and happy to be finally living my little dream of being a full-time language student in Taiwan!

The good photos are courtesy of WeekendGo hikers. The bad ones are courtesy of me and my disposable camera. Amber photo courtesy of Amber.