The Beast-Mobile

It’s been a long time coming, but I finally, finally have a car.  Oh man, that’s sweet just to type.  After a last minute scare regarding a mandatory inspection for cars older than 10 years, I finally went up to Maoli City late Thursday night to pick up my old (very old!) new car.  At 250,000 kilometers, some might say this ‘92 Ford Telstar is way past its prime.  I disagree.  This is one beater that still has some glory days to come.

Anyway, I’m still working seven days a week so we haven’t had much time to venture very far yet.  But we did head into the hills a bit on Saturday afternoon and it was great.  I haven’t had this much freedom in ages.  Even with a motorbike in Bangkok, I never felt safe enough to really venture too far from home.  But with a car, I can go anywhere.  Here are the highlights from our Saturday afternoon drive.

I had envisioned this picture since long before I bought the beast.  This was taken on a quiet country road in the hills just beyond Fengyuan City.

And another one for good measure.  As you can see, the beast is not so bad for 900 bucks.  You can see the head of a little old man zipping by on a scooter in the background.

Scroggins wanders ahead on one of the many little trails we found around the road.  This one, like so many others, wound through an orange orchard.  We eventually had to turn back when we came across a pack of angry, wild dogs.

We came across this little temple further down the road.

This little trail was just across from the temple.  While seemingly well-groomed and even lined with little benches such as this one, it soon fizzled out into impassable jungle.

Jasmine flowers like these lined the trails and roads.

An old, long-forgotten tomb sits in the middle of a bamboo forest.

Scroggins running down another trail we found.  In the city, he’s the most timid dog you’ll ever see.  But once he gets into the hills, he’s a fearless ball of energy.

Taking a break at a little rest area.

Later in the afternoon, Nok and I drove aimlessly further into the hills, and eventually found this temple about 20km from home.  Another pack of dogs came roaring out to greet us, and the leader can be seen here.

The other dogs that tried to scare us away from the temple.  They acted fierce, but ran away as soon as we walked towards them.

On the drive home, we came across this massive Taiwanese cemetery.  It was really eerie to see all these ancient, miniature mausoleums crammed so closely together.  And the cemetery was enormous.  This picture covers just a fraction of it, but I didn’t feel comfortable taking any more.

This big temple was just next to the cemetery.

To end on a lighter note, here’s a shot of our new kitten sprawling out comfortably on my pillow.  I have decided to call her “Hagatha Christie,” aka “Haggy” aka “Hags Mcgee,” in honor of the original Hagatha Christie.  You know who you are.