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.

921 Earthquake Memorial

Lying on the Pacific Ring of Fire, Taiwan is subject to some of the world’s nastiest catastrophes. Earthquakes and typhoons are a regular occurrence here, and the danger of of another disaster is always at hand. A quick search on Wiki reveals that Taiwan has experienced 44 major earthquakes since 1906, an average of once every 2.3 years.

The most recent major earthquake in Taiwan was in 2006, which in spite of having a whopping 7.1 magnitude claimed only two lives. Other quakes have not been so generous, with the most infamous being the 921 quake from 1999, which struck in the the middle of the night and claimed more than 2,400 lives and seriously injured another 11,000. Of course knowing all this is not very comforting, especially knowing that the epicenter of that quake was very nearby and Nok and I live on the top of a 14 story apartment building.

On Saturday Nok and I returned to Dakeng Scenic Area in the hopes that we could find some new trails and not get rained out. We got of the bus at a different spot this time and walked into a nicely groom park nestled into the hills which we presumed would be the entrance to one of the hiking trails. As we walked towards the back of the park, searching for a path into the mountains, we came across an old abandoned school which was cordoned off by a fence with occasional picture displays with written Chinese.

We guessed that the school was important for some reason, but couldn’t yet figure out why. As we walked along the building, we began to notice that the walls were finely cracked from floor to ceiling in many places, and the building was actually leaning to the left. Then we came across a monster of a gap torn into on of the buildings pillars, nearly separating the building into two pieces from the ground to the roof. Across from this gaping wound, we were shocked to see an old concrete path on the ground with a jagged 6 inch gap carved out of the middle, and we instantly realized what this place was.

Turns out, the school had been abandoned after that infamous 921 quake, and the area surrounding it had now been turned into a somber memorial.

The giant crack. Notice the smaller cracks nearby and the slant of the building towards the left. It’s pretty amazing the building didn’t collapse altogether.

Coming from such a geologically tame place as Maine, seeing this giant crack in the ground was like something out of a movie. It wasn’t hard to see how this quake had completely destroyed more than 44,000 homes and seriously damaged another 41,000.

We returned to the weird little obstacle-course park in Dakeng, and Nok had a go up this wall. It was a lot higher than it looks here.

Hiking in Taiwan has so far proved to be a rather frustrating endeavor. The hills and mountains are full of promising-looking trails that take you just under the ridge line and just fizzle out into impassable jungle. This was me venturing to the top of the ridge in the hopes I could find a walkable trail, but all I found was thick jungle full of tangly vines and dense brush.

From this viewing platform, the very edge of Taichung city can be barely made out straight ahead in the distance.

A view away from the city. Through the clouds, you can barely catch a glimpse of the much larger mountains beyond.

Chinese lanterns like this are a common sight throughout Taiwan.

Nok and I from another viewing platform in Dakeng.

Afterwards, we headed into Taichung City and spent some time in Taichung Park. It was actually a rather nice park, and quite large. A political rally for this month’s presidential election was just beginning inside the park, but sadly my camera batteries died before I reached it.

I have no idea why, but this giant goat statue was in the park just behind the Taichung City Library. The library here is brilliant, by the way, but that’s for another post.

Dakeng Scenic Area

On the edge of Taichung City and not so far from Fengyuan is a massive park called the Dakeng Scenic Area. I’d heard great things about it from several people, but I wasn’t really sure how I could get there. Well, last Saturday afternoon Nok and I hopped on the train to Taichung City, determined to find a way to Dakeng.

As it turns out, there are several buses that drive past the park. However, the park is a pretty massive place with trails spreading out over quite a large area. As a result, it’s difficult to get to one specific part of the park. Our bus driver dropped us off in a strange part of town with no signs indicating we were in the park at all. But after walking around for a while, we found some trails up into the hills and were very pleased with what we saw.

Unfortunately, after a week of beautiful weather, Saturday proved to be a dreary, rain-soaked day, and our hike was cut short after a downpour started just as we began our walk. We waited out the storm in a small hillside temple next to a strange little park filled with obstacle courses and a paintball field. We will definitely be back to Dakeng in the future, but hopefully with better weather.

An interesting thing did happen before the rain came though. Near the temple, there were several trails branching into different directions. We ventured down a few of them searching for the best one. On one, we found a rather feeble looking dog strapped to a tree. The trail was rather narrow, with a five foot drop on the left side and a thick forest on the right. Nok and I passed the first time without incident. However, after finding a dead end we were forced to walk past the dog on the narrow trail again.

As I walked by, the dog started growling. Nok was just behind me, but the dog lunged at her. It happened very quickly. I heard the dog make a nasty snarling sound as it pounced at Nok. Nok screamed and put her hands up to block the dog’s advancing teeth. In a split second, she fell down the five foot drop onto some brush below. I thought for sure she had broken something, as it was a nasty fall.

I swung my backpack at the dog, who then cowered behind a tree and watched timidly as I went to help Nok. Thankfully, Nok was smiling when I went to pull her back onto the trail and I knew that a disaster had been narrowly averted. We were laughing nervously about the incident for the rest of the day.

The little hillside temple where we waited out the storm. On the next hilltop we could see a giant golden Buddha poking out from the treetops. I plan to head up there on our next trip to Dakeng. When the mist lifted briefly, much higher mountains could be seen just beyond.

This little shrine was next to the temple.

We came across these two rope bridges over a little park filled with military-style obstacle courses. It was a strange place.

Nok and I started to cross it together, but she got scared and turned back after about 15 feet.

I ended up crossing the bridge alone. It got pretty high in the middle, probably about 30 feet above the ground. You can see it is over some of the tree tops.

From the other side of the rope bridge. Some tombs can be seen on the hillside beyond.

We found these stray puppies at the start of the trail. Unfortunately, they were too shy to let us near them, and their mother was barking ferociously the whole time.

R.I.P. Jeebo

April 2006 - February 21, 2008

Nok and I have just heard the sad news that our loyal cat Jeebo has died. The circumstances surrounding his death are not certain, but the official story is that he ate a poison-filled dead rat. I suspect something far more sinister. Thai people have a very different perception of animals than most Westerners, and stories of intentional pet poisoning are abundant. If a cat or dog annoys the wrong neighbor, they will think nothing of destroying it. The very idea makes me sick.

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So long Jeebo. You were the best cat a person could ask for. Sleep well, my old friend.

Little Liuchiu Yu Island

The pinnacle of our CNY trip was a little island called Liuchiu in the south of Taiwan.  We really didn’t know much about the place or what to expect when we arrived there, but had read it was a quiet island with some beautiful scenery.

Indeed, it was a beautiful place.  The island is covered in pieces of old coral, which makes for some interesting sights.  The weather was cold and windy, so although there were a couple of decent beaches with stunningly clear blue water, neither of us ventured for a swim.

The tiny island was pretty packed full of tourists, especially during the day time when boatloads of tourists came over for a day trip.  It was a bit less crowded after the last boats left, but still full enough that we couldn’t find a hotel.  Instead, we were forced to rent a tent and some sleeping bags and camp out in a nice little seaside campground.  The wind was wild all night, pounding against the tent and making for a rather sleepless night.  But still, it was a fun trip and I’d recommend the place to others.

 

Walking on one of the beaches just before sunset.

This pathway led through giant coral formations, and even had quite a few caves.

This walkway was actually barred off just to the right of where we were standing.  That didn’t stop Nok and I from hopping the barrier and continuing onto the little lookout, but the walkway had actually been blown to pieces near the end.  The wind was pretty powerful that day, too.

Standing in the windy lookout.  The wind was fierce, and the waves were big enough to splash us even up on the lookout.

Our rented tent, with the sea beyond.

This was just behind our tent.  The wind and waves were pretty stinkin’ strong here.

Another beach.  This one was just quick walk down from the campground, but it was blissfully empty.

A small tomb overlooking the sea.  The island seemed to be some sort of burial ground for the Taiwanese, as it was covered with countless tombs, many of them overgrown and forgotten.

The island was also covered in temples, like this massive temple next to the shore.  This photo was taken from another temple on a hilltop.

Mysterious walkways like this were also all over the island, some of them leading to nowhere.

This lighthouse was in the middle of a forest on one of the highest points on the island.

From next to the lighthouse, the town and pier can be seen in the distance.

An old tomb in the middle of the forest, next to an ancient banyan tree.

The ancient banyan tree and a little shrine.

Pingtong

The second stop on our Chinese New Year tour was in a city called Pingtong in the south of Taiwan. As I mentioned before, there is nothing famous or spectacular about Pingtong, but knowing that any place of note would be teeming with multitudes of Taiwanese tourists on holiday for the New Year, a faceless, nameless town was exactly what I was looking for.

At this point, Nok and I still didn’t have any real idea of where we would head after Pingtong, but after examining a map I decided that the city would put us in an ideal location to head out to any number of interesting places. So after being sort of booted from our hotel in Tainan at 9pm on Thursday evening (they tried to change the rate after we’d already been there for a day!), we hopped on a train and headed south.

We arrived in Pingtong at about 10:30pm with no idea what the city was like or where we might spend the night. After nearly an hour of wandering the streets in search of a hotel, we finally found a hotel with ancient, shabby rooms that wasn’t fully booked or charging triple the rate just because it was Chinese New Year. Across from our hotel was this enormous and elaborately decorated temple.

The giant temple in Pingtong. This picture really doesn’t do the temple any justice… It was HUGE. A giant furnace for burning ghost money can be seen on the right.

The front of the big temple. It was pretty crowded inside, as going to the temple is an important part of Chinese New Year.

The giant furnace for burning ghost money.  The old lady sitting next to it was selling stacks of ghost money.  These furnaces are found outside of every temple.

Tainan

Tainan was the first stop on our recent trip for Chinese New Year. Tainan is one of the oldest cities in Taiwan, and in fact used to be the capital. The city is famous for its many old temples, museums and other cultural sites. It was a rather pleasant place, very clean and not so crowded. It was nice to spend a day there walking through the old streets, taking in the vibes of old Taiwan.

We came across this massive, incredibly strange looking sculpture while walking towards the first temple of the day. Stray dogs like this are pretty common in Taiwan, but they’re all very friendly.

The front of an old Confucian Temple. This was our first stop of the day.

This was actually part of an old fort called the Great South Gate. It is one of the last remaining pieces of a giant wall that used to surround the old city. This was taken on top of the wall, about 15 feet high.

This tree was taking over the wall of the Great South Gate.

This little temple was also the tomb for the five loyal concubines of the old king.

The garden outside the temple of the five concubines.

This temple was by far the most interesting we saw. Tucked away on a quiet little side street, this nearly 300 year old temple seems to have been all but forgotten by the world.

This ancient dragon-like creature was next to the entrance. Old pictures like this were throughout the temple, though inside everything was much more colorful.

Inside the front gate of the old temple. Just to the left was the main hall of the temple, where a group of monks was busy singing and chanting.

The front room of the temple was filled with these massive, rather intimidating looking creatures. Each of the four giant statues was crushing some poor soul under its foot. The enormous inscriptions of a heavily bearded, ax carrying ogre on each of the doors was also rather frightening.

This tall, much newer temple had been built next to the old one. These spiral-like structures are almost always found next to temples, and I’ve always wondered what they were for. After looking inside an open door on the backside of the building, we soon discovered its purpose.

This was what we found when we looked inside the open door at the back of the tall, spiral temple. It was a room packed full of human ashes, many of the urns complete with pictures of the departed. Apparently, these tall structures are like vertical cemeteries, and are a somber feature of most temples in Taiwan.

The ugly and the surreal converge. Sights like this are very common in Taiwan, seeing ancient and magnificent temples crammed in between old ugly apartment buildings. Wandering through the cramped streets of Taiwan, you never know when you’ll stumble across some old beautiful gem like this one.

Mixed in with all the Buddhist temples, there is also a surprisingly large number of Christian churches. This was a rather large church on a busy street of Tainan.

Another Tainan church, this one with a rather funny illustration of Jesus leading his sheep.

This smoky temple was an extremely grim place, and seemed to be some sort of a temple of death. The walls were covered with old inscriptions of the Buddhist vision of hell, and it was indeed a somber sight.

Also from the temple of death, this woman was throwing wads of “ghost money” into a raging furnace. Taiwanese Buddhists believe that after a person has died, it is necessary to burn special “ghost money” for them to spend in the afterlife.

On a more pleasant note, Nok and I came across these four little kittens in a quiet alley. We came back to feed them many times during our stay in Tainan.

 

Another Video from Angkor

Chinese New Year 2008 - Intro

I’m five days into my six day holiday for Chinese New Year, and it’s been an interesting time so far. Nok and I returned to Fengyuan last night after four days exploring the southern parts of Taiwan. I have a ton of pictures to look through and even a few videos from the coast which I hope to put up later. But not now.

Traveling through Taiwan during Chinese New Year made me realize a few things about this country. First, that Taiwan is incredibly densely populated. This is not surprising when you consider that Taiwan is practically a part of China and its population is largely comprised of Chinese immigrants. But during CNY, when an entire country of 22 million people takes to the road, you realize just how crowded it really is.

Apparently, Taiwan is the most second densely populated country in the world, second only to Bangladesh. Taiwan is a pretty small island. It runs about 350 kilometers from top to bottom, and a mere 150 kilometers across at its widest point. Now imagine cramming 22 million people onto this tiny island, then giving them all a week off from work and a wad of cash to spend and you can imagine what CNY is like here.

As you might guess from this image, 90% of the population lives on the western plains, which means that essentially the entire western portion of the island is one large urban sprawl, from Taipei in the north to Kaoshiung and beyond in the south.

The second thing I learned is that I really, really need to have a car if I’m going to truly enjoy my time here. Public transportation is great for traveling to any of the major cities on the east coast, but to get to the isolated mountainous interior, a car is essential. Not to mention, the crowds on the trains and buses can be pretty unbearable during a time like CNY.

Originally, Nok and I had planned to do some hiking during the break. However, the weather has been pretty cold and wet recently and we don’t really have the best gear with us here in Taiwan. So we decided instead to head south, with no real idea what exactly we’d be doing or where we’d end up. We chose a city called Tainan as our first destination.

After a day wandering through the streets of Tainan looking at old temples, we moved onto a city called Pingtong, a bit further to the south. There is nothing of any particular interest to Pingtong, but I’ve always enjoyed the no-name travel-through towns than the big tourist destinations.

After a night in Pingtong it was onto the fishing town of Dongang an hour south, then onto Little Liuchiu Yu Island. Liuchiu Island was a beautiful place, and aside from the tourist hordes we encountered there we had a great time zooming around on our rented scooter and camping by the water. The next day it was back to Fengyuan, this time through Kaohsiung.

Below is a crude map showing our trip. I will be putting up pictures soon.