Scroggins

Nok and I are suckers for animals.  After the unfortunate passing of Jeebo last month, we swore we wouldn’t get another animal until we were in a position to settle down in one place indefinitely.  Our plans haven’t really changed in that we won’t be in Taiwan for more than two years and will probably continue moving from country to country for the foreseeable future.

Yet here we are today with a new dog named Scroggins.  We got in touch with a group of foreigners here who run a handful of dog and cat shelters in Taichung county.  They had tons of dogs looking for homes, and after visiting one of the shelters we chose an 18 month old mutt previously named Maui.  He was found living on the city streets as a puppy, and he would have stayed there if he hadn’t been picked up by the government animal catchers.  Since the government shelters eventually put to sleep the animals they find, these people rescued Scroggins from the pound and took him to live on their spacious, no-kill shelter at the top of a lovely mountain on the edge of Taichung City.

Nok and I went out to that shelter last week, and it’s a pretty interesting place.  The road gets incredibly steep, narrow and windy towards the top, so much so that our taxi refused to continue and we had to walk another kilometers pretty much straight up.  Scroggins was delivered to our home the next day, and so far he seems to be adjusting well.

Scroggins in our apartment just after he arrived.  He is one of the shyest dogs I’ve ever seen.

 

Nok hugs Scroggins on the floor of our apartment.

Scroggins on the roof of our building.  I tried to get him to sit for a picture, but he’s so clingy he just kept following me when I backed up to take a picture.  This was the best shot I could get.

Today we took Scroggins for a walk at the school behind our apartment.  The tall building behind the palm trees on the left is our building.  I don’t know about the quality of teaching inside the school, but facilities of the schools I’ve seen here are far superior to any schools I attended as a kid.  This is an elementary school, yet it has a massive athletics field complete with a nice, new, rubber-topped track.

A shot from Go-go mountain, where Scroggins’ shelter was.  This was taken from where the taxi dropped us off, on top of a massive abandoned Buddhist monastery.  The monastery was condemned after the massive 921 quake.

Another shot from on top of the old monastery.

For those curious in the how things are going regarding my recent bicycle mishap, for the most part it’s good news.  My wound seems to be healing well, though most people I’ve spoken to agree that the doctor who stitched me up did a terrible job.  It’s incredibly sloppy, and even though the wound covers almost one whole side of my ankle, he used only three stitches spaced very far apart.

I was also concerned because my foot and lower ankle have gotten pretty swollen over the last few days.  I’ve seen five different doctors since the accident, and only today was I able to get a reasonable explanation for the swelling.  Apparently, in addition to the nasty gash I also have pretty serious ankle sprain, which explains why I’ve had so much trouble walking around.

On the legal side, I’ve been referred to an American ex-pat who’s lived here for about thirty years and specializes in representing other foreigners in Taiwan. I’ll let you know how it goes.

The Painful Irony of Riding a Bicycle in Taiwan

Well, I said I was going to write more about my riding a bicycle to work, but this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. When I first moved to Taiwan, in spite of riding a motorbike for a year in the insane traffic of Bangkok, I decided that it was too dangerous to ride a scooter here. So instead I bought a bicycle which I planned to use for my daily 5k commute, until I could afford to buy a car.

Last night I was riding home from work as usual. As I was coming up a small hill, I stood up and shifted all of my weight onto one pedal to gain momentum. As I did so, I heard a loud CRACK! as the pedal snapped off the bicycle. I nearly fell off the bike, but instead I slammed my leg into the metal spike where the pedal used to be. I don’t know if the pedal shattered or simply fell off. I was in too much pain to think about that, and didn’t bother looking for the pedal on the ground.

Still, as painful as it was, I could see that the spike hadn’t torn my jeans so I thought the wound wasn’t serious. I rode on, with no pedal, for another kilometer or so. It wasn’t until I had to stop at a railroad crossing that I noticed a pool of dark liquid staining my jeans. At first, I thought it was oil from the pedal, but after I touched it and held my hand to the light I was startled to see that it was red, not black.

I’ve been known to be a wuss about such things. I still didn’t look at the wound. I was probably about 600 meters from home now, so I returned home before I finally took a look at my leg. What I saw was a nasty, gaping wound that was clearly in need of stitches. So off Nok and I went to the emergency room where they cleaned my wound, stitched me up, gave me two shots and five bags of pills.

I returned to the hospital this morning to have the dressing changed and to get a fresh batch of medicine. But it’s not over yet. The doctors are afraid of an infection, so I need to return to the hospital again on Saturday and again on Tuesday, and then yet again in two weeks to have the stitches removed. And even though I have National Health Insurance here, I’m still stuck with a good portion of the bill. Pretty crazy, eh? I bought a bicycle because scooters were too dangerous, and look what happened.

Anyway, for those with a strong stomach you can see a picture of my freshly stitched wound here. The shot was taken today, the morning after the accident.

My freshly cleaned and dressed wound.

The offending bicycle, now with only one pedal.

The nasty spike that bore into my leg. I’m looking into the possibility of taking legal action against the store where I bought it, so far it doesn’t look promising. At the very least, I’d like to have my medical expenses paid. I’ll write more as I know it.

Hillside Temple — Second Attempt

It seems I’ve become the thing I’ve always dreaded: a lazy blogger. Sure, I have the same excuses everyone else has. I’m so busy! I have no time! Well, that’s kind of true but it’s also true that I’ve just been feeling pretty lazy.

Actually, I’m working a lot at the moment. In addition to my full time job and four hour Sunday class, I’ve also taken on an early afternoon class twice a week along with a late evening class every Wednesday, on what used to be my only free evening. So I really am busy, and when you add into the mix the fact that I now ride a bicycle to work and back everyday (5 kilometers each way), I’m usually pretty exhausted by the end of the day. More about that later, actually, because it’s a pretty beautiful ride to work.

The good news that comes from all of this is that I should be able to meet my goal of purchasing a car next month. In fact, I went and looked at a car on Thursday which I had fully intended to buy after my next payday on April 1. But I hit a snag when I learned that in Taiwan car taxes are due on the day the registration/insurance is changed to my name, which will tack an additional $400 onto the price. So, the car purchase will have to wait until mid-April, but after that I should be able to cut down on hours and actually have some time to explore and hike.

So in the meantime, here’s a post about our second attempt to reach the mysterious hillside temple. The difficulty we’ve had locating the place brought back childhood memories of the strange, hidden town in Exodus Ultima that could only be reached during a short window of the waning moon.

This was about two weeks ago. We started out by tracing our footsteps up the tiny trail off the small hillside road. Since we’d been so close to the temple on our last attempt, we were certain we’d be able to find it this time by trying some of the other trails in the abandoned orchard.

The view from the top of the first hill. It’s nice to know that even though Fengyuan is a fairly good sized city (similar to Portland, Maine), it basically ends where the hills begin.

When I saw this fallen tree, I just couldn’t hold back against my monkey instincts to shimmy on up.

Once in the orchard, we took what appeared to be an old trail heading into the jungle in the general direction of the temple. Even walking on this “path” was tough going, as the jungle is incredibly dense and had taken over the trail in many places.

Our little trail turned out to be an ancient rock wall, which soon abruptly ended in the middle of the jungle. This was us returning to the old orchard.

We didn’t manage to find the hillside temple this time, but on the walk back from the hills to our apartment, we came across this massive temple and monument. The picture just doesn’t give an idea how huge these really were. The fact that the moon can be seen in between makes for especially surreal picture.

The front of the massive temple in Fengyuan City, lined with countless Chinese lanterns. You can see one tiny person to the left, which gives at least some idea how giant this temple really was.

Inside the smoky temple. The giant brown shrine was for burning incense.

Taiwanese temples are elaborately decorated and are usually filled with fruit, flowers and Chinese lanterns.

More from inside the temple. The smoky air from so much incense made for a rather blurry picture.

Nok poses in traditional Thai fashion inside the temple doorway.

On the way out of the temple.

From the enormous parking lot, it looked merely ordinary.

Still on the walk home, Nok and I discovered this nice little park in the middle of Fengyuan City. It seems like every time we go for a walk we find a new park.

Also in the park as the light was beginning to fade. This monument with a typical, quiet Taiwanese neighborhood in the background made for a rather nice atmosphere. We didn’t make it to the hillside temple this time, but the day had not been wasted. But that temple can rest assured: We will be back.

 

The Hillside Temple — First Attempt

On the top of my apartment building is a nice little rooftop garden with picnic tables, trees and grass, and even a karaoke room. It’s a pleasant place to go on a quiet afternoon and read a book in the sun. It also gives a nice view of Fengyuan City and the hills and mountains on the edge of town. One of the most tantalizing things about that view has been a giant temple nestled towards the top of the first set of hills. Since the first time I set foot in the rooftop garden, I have been determined to find my way up to that hillside temple.

Our first week in Fengyuan, Nok and I tried to walk to it, but were met only with impassable jungle. However, after discovering the network of trails at Chungcheng Park, we were confident we would be able to find a way to the temple after all. So a few weeks ago (I’m pretty late on posting this), we set out on our first real attempt.

The view from the rooftop garden. I took this picture today, and unfortunately there was a haze in the air that prevented a clear shot of the temple or the much larger mountains beyond. The hills begin just a few kilometers from our apartment.

After arriving at Chungcheng Park, we headed up this small road that appeared to be heading in the direction of the temple. We paused to take pictures and eat squid next to this weird little shrine.

A shot of the shrine from further up the road. The forest around the shrine was thick and tangled with vines.

We headed off onto a tiny “trail” as soon as we spotted one. This section was incredibly steep as we climbed straight up to the top of the hill.

Our puny trail soon fizzled out, but we were lucky to find this incredibly overgrown path nearby.

Also on the overgrown path, I instruct Nok on how to take my picture. She didn’t listen. This path reminded me of the many old, overgrown logging roads strewn throughout the Maine countryside.

We soon came into a clearing, where we were greeted with this lovely view of Fengyuan City. From the hilltop, I could see our apartment building, but I can’t make it out in this photo.

This quiet little valley was the view from the other side of the clearing.

See that little temple peeking out through the trees? We were near, and I thought we’d reach it shortly. Sadly, this was about as close as we were able to get to it on this trip.

Like so many other promising trails in Taiwan, this one soon fizzled out and we found ourselves wandering through this old abandoned orchard, with Fengyuan visible in the distance.

We wandered through the old orchard for over an hour, just searching for a way out.  Seemingly solid paths like this one would instantly turn to overgrown jungle at almost every bend.

We came across the lovely purple trees after rounding a rather promising corner, but were soon confronted with yet another dead end.  Fengyuan is in the background.

So near yet so far.  Lost in that maze of an orchard below, the temple seemed to be taunting us.  This was taken as we finally discovered the way out by following those power lines.  The temple had managed to elude us on that day, but Nok and I would be back.

Chengchung Park

When Nok and I first arrived in Fengyuan, we set out one day towards the hills in the hopes that we’d stumble across some hiking trails. Unfortunately on that day, we found nothing but impassable jungle. It turns out, if we’d headed in just a slightly different direction, we would have come across an excellent park filled with miles of hiking trails.

Today Nok and I went for a stroll there, a place called Chengchung Park.  The name Chengchung Park is particularly amusing, because it is so close to the Thai word for “go pee.” But that’s another story.

We spent a few hours hiking through the trails there and came across some interesting sites along the way. We were feeling rather lazy today since I’m six days into a nasty cold/flu, and had to teach four hours in the morning. But it was still a nice day and we’ll definitely be back in the future.

This giant statue was at the bottom of the park, with the trails beginning just behind it. I have no idea who he is, and the sign was in Chinese.

A view of Fengyuan City from the first hilltop. The air was surprisingly clear today.

Little shrines like this are found on the tops of many hills. They remind me very much of India, accept the Taiwanese shrines are metallic and shiny.

This giant temple was on top of one of the hills. Chinese style temples are incredibly ornate and remarkably creative.

A closer shot of the front of the temple. The walls were covered in what appeared to be granite carvings.

The inside of the temple. This was a difficult shot to take because there were no lights inside, just the sun reflecting off the floor. I didn’t really feel comfortable going inside, so I had to take this from the doorway.

A giant stick of incense in a shrine in front of the temple. Many Buddhists in Taiwan and Thailand believe that burning incense is respectful to Buddha and can bring good luck.

Resting in a swing before the walk down. It was pretty hot today, especially after the cold weather of the last couple of weeks.

The walk down. I think Nok was getting bored of being in so many pictures.

A picture of the cameraman. This was taken in a strange little gazebo we found near the bottom of the trail.