Quick update

So for the last 5 months, I've been in Taiwan exploring and the like.  I've been dating a Taiwanese gal named Daisy for the lot of it as well.  Nearly all this time has been spent in Kaohsiung which is a major coastal city in Southwestern Taiwan.  At 2 million people in a relatively small area, Kaohsiung, like Taipei, is one of the most densely populated cities in the world.  And with all that population and the endless amount of scooters and cars on the road, comes the smog.  It’s not the worst I’ve seen but there is certainly a noticeable haze hanging in the air.

Taiwan is about 70% mountains which is almost completely uninhabited, no doubt due to Taiwanese culture and fear-mongering about the danger of the mountains and waters.  Many people die every year in these natural environments due to not only natural disasters such as floods and landslides, but also due to lack of education on outdoor safety.  So everyone crowds into the coastal areas.  The West Coast is mostly industrialized or “industrial wasteland” as one of my friends described it, but the East coast couldn’t be different. With Hualien, Taitung, Long Dong (Dragon’s Cave), Toroko Gorge, and Beitou, the East is a real gem.  I’ve been many places in this world and seem some incredible sights, but Eastern Taiwan is right up there with the best of them. 

To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, some gentleman made a fantastic aerial video of Taitung in all its splendor.  You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151737279601101&l=b149dffbbb  I don’t own the rights to this video and it was merely shared by a friend via facebook.

I’ve done whatever I’m able to get by financially but it’s tough at times.  This being the first time I’ve had to market myself now that I’m post-military, it’s certainly a learning experience.  Welcome to being an adult I suppose.  I have plans for the future but it’s not quite time to reveal them yet so until then, enjoy the blog posts.

            

Rock Climbing and exploring Cijin Island, Kaohsiung, Taiwan Dec 2013

This past weekend a couple of visiting couchsurfers, Daisy, and I all decided to take a trip out to Cijin Island here in Kaohsiung for a little bit of exploration and climbing.  Being their first time in KS, I decided to give them a tour of the island since I knew this might be their only chance.  So we began our journey by hiking through the market and all its various vendors up the trail to the lighthouse.

Now the lighthouse is probably one of the most easily accessible areas on the island with a great view, but never being satisfied without being at the highest point in a general location, I decided I wanted to get on top of the lighthouse.  Well the staircase was blocked by a locked door, so what would any climber do?  Buildering.  Buildering is essentially just the sport of climbing buildings.  So that’s exactly what I did.  I found a way to make it to the highest point on the lighthouse and snapped some photos.  I wasn’t the only one snapping photos though.  Quite a crowd gathered around and being in Asia, as you can imagine there were cameras everywhere.  Who knows who’s photo albums or wanted posters I’m going to show up on.  One day I’ll be browsing the internet and find a picture of myself.  Anyway, that was all well and good.  The crowd offered a few oohs and ahs and gasps when they thought I would slip.  Our friends joked I should put a hat out and start taking donations instead of offering a free show.  Not a bad idea actually.

After the lighthouse we ventured further up the mountain to the old military Cihou Fort used in a failed attempt to fend off the Japanese back in the late 1930s.  There were machine gun bunkers and tunnels all over the place and we paid a visit to many of them.  Pretty neat to see something that played such a monumental role in the history of this country right here in Kaohsiung.

Finally, after a concerned call from Daisy who was waiting for us at the climbing area, we found our way back down the mountain and through the tunnel to meet up with her.  We didn’t waste any time though.  High above the tunnel, there was a trail leading to a cave in the mountainside that Daisy and I had always wanted to explore.  We managed to climb up on the tunnel, the four of us, and slowly and carefully make our way up the treacherous trail secured by a rope most likely attached there by local caving groups.  This once again generated a crowd, this time about 50 people thick.  One really can’t do much of anything out of the ordinary without gathering spectators here. 

Once in the cave, we ventured forward until we noticed it dropped about 25 feet into the earth.  After much debate and armed with headlamps, everyone volunteered me to be the first and only one to take the plunge.  There were many old broken rope ladders securing the decent so I grabbed as many as I could while chimneying down the crack.  It was incredibly eerie and a bit scary.  I found my way forward another 15 feet very slowly watching each of my steps and all that echoed in my head were the words of a caving guide I’d had the pleasure of meeting in Texas who told me people who go into caves when they are untrained end up not only ruining the caves, but getting hurt or lost thereby preventing any further exploration by true cavers.  So when I saw that to continue forward further, I’d have to shimmy down a 2x2 hole even further into the ground, I called it off and turned back.  With no ropes, gear, or trained guides, this was not a risk I was willing to take.  So a bit of he-man pullups and encouragement from the others and I was back out of there.  We made our way back down the trail one-by-one trying to avoid rockslides and each of us safely made it back down to ground level to the new crowd’s amazement.

After this we immediately hopped over the adjacent railing and began climbing down the rock face to the climbing area on the beach.  This gathered a few “Jaiyo” from the crowd as well.  This basically is an encouraging chant meaning similar to “yeah!” or “do it!”  So anyway we climbed down and after a quick tour to the CSers we walked over to the climbing area and began setting up all the gear.  As they were setting up the gear, I walked around the check out what was around the wall.  I did a bit of climbing and emptied my pockets including my wallet and set them down on a nearby rock.  Unfortunately I forgot about them and ended up leaving them on the rock for a while.  When I came back to join my friends, it seemed a large group of Philippino guys had decided to join us on the beach which was odd because almost no one ever ventures off the bridge.  They took pictures with me and meandered around for a bit.  I didn’t think much of it until later I walked back around my wallet sitting there.  I opened it up and realized all of my cash was gone.  About $65 USD worth.  Those bastards!  Whatever though.  My fault for leaving my stuff sitting around.

Anyway, so for the rest of the day we set up a few different climbs in various places on the wall using slings and a couple of bolts for protection.  We sport climbed and bouldered until dark and at the end of the day, we were all pumped from the overhanging limestone.  All in all it was a great time.  We finished the day with a treat and Daisy’s friend’s café called Seattlite on the island then parted ways until the next time we meet.  Twas a great day.

Kayaking in Coron, Philippines Nov 2013

A few days into our Coron (Busuanga Island) trip, the typhoon had already knocked out everything so most tourist functions were down.  So Daisy and I, not wanting to burn another, took advantage of the chaos and decided to kayak away from it all for a day.  Around noon we rented a double sea kayak and pointed the tip for Coron Island.  I’d seen many pictures of what appeared to be fabulous rock for deep water soloing and even read a couple of blogs about it so I packed my shoes and was stoked for the prospect of reliving the Tonsai, Thailand experience.   This was also Daisy’s first sea kayaking experience so I was excited albeit a bit nervous to see her delight in the pleasure of the experience.  Surprisingly, she’s actually a kayaking natural.  It didn’t take her long to pick up the technique and did really well.  45 minutes and lots of rowing chants later, we got a close-up view of the famed rock formations.  We paddled right up next to one of the cliff faces for closer inspection and I quickly realized this wasn’t your typical limestone famed for tufas and pockets making great Deep Water Soloing.  This was coral rock similar to Okinawa, Japan.  The rock was incredibly sharp and pointy and to make matters worse, most of rock jutted out just enough that if you were to fall, you would still land on it underwater.  It had merely been cut away by years of waves thrashing about but the underwater rock still stood.  This complicated matters.  No worries though, there was still lots of exploring to do and we were having a great time.

Daisy says "Oooooh! What's that yellow thing?" I said
"That would be my mango."

A little bit of Deep Water Soloing

At the first stop, we carefully dodged all of the giant black sea urchins that plagued the waters as we stepped out of the kayak for a swim and preview of whatever underwater delights may exist there.  We also took the moment to enjoy some fresh mango we’d brought along.  Hm, afterthought, last time I visited an island by kayak for deep water soloing was in Thailand and my kayaking buds and I brought mango along for that trip too.  Anyway, we swam about for a bit then jumped back into the kayak to explore this particular cove we’d stumbled into.  I was on the lookout for DWS and Daisy was just enjoying the ride.  We honestly were having a blast.  We later found out we had discovered ………  lake.  We found there appeared to be some buildings on the shoreline and so we paddled further inland to investigate.  Here we found the entrance for the thermal lake.  After trying to mitigate Daisy’s parking technique of slamming into the shoreline not knowing how to brake, we pulled the kayak alongside the shoreline and hiked over the mountainside to discover a pier bidding entrance to the lake.  There happened to be a few people we had already met in Coron town on Busuanga island who were on an island hopping tour.  They were swimming and jumping off a rock so for a bit we joined them until I decided I wanted to climb higher to get a real DWS experience.  As I climbed higher and higher, I once again got a “no sir, it’s too dangerous” from the local island hopping guide.  I told him, “I know, but this is why I came to the Philippines.”  I guess he didn’t want to be liable for me so he turned around and swam out of the water as quickly as he could while calling the rest of his patrons to join him.  I was perhaps 30 feet off the ground at this point and most everyone had left the lake except Daisy and I.  I finally admitted this was too dangerous and held disastrous consequences if I were hurt and thus, I climbed back down to the normal launching spot and finished my climb with a victorious cannon ball splash into the lake below.

Sunset on the return trip

We swam about a bit longer and hiked back over the mountain to leave the lake as it was beginning to get late in the day.  After haggling with some locals about paying an entrance fee (we’d been misinformed about the price of the entrance fee.  This went something like him: “400 sir” us: “we don’t have 400, only 200” him: “yes sir, 400” rinse and repeat) we turned out to sea and headed back.  We timed it perfectly as the sun just started sinking low in the sky as we were about halfway through the journey back to Busuanga.  We became spectators to one of the prettiest sunsets I’ve ever seen and I was eternally grateful yet again for all of the wonderful things I’ve seen and done over the years.  We parked the kayak back at the resort and reveled in our job retelling one another our experiences from the day and laughed the night away.

Entrance to the lake

South Cross Island HIghway Part III Dec 2013

Next morning we stuffed our tent in the bag and departed once again.  Daisy had to work later that afternoon but we had a bit of time to explore so I took us up a couple of random roads in the village.  What a treat this turned out to be.  As we drifted through these backcountry orchard roads, I couldn’t help but stop every few meters to snap some photos and take in the some of the most incredible colors I’d ever seen.  Some of these folks lived a very simple life in an amazing location.  Cruising along these mountain roads peering over the river and village in the valley below, I realized how easy it is to forget places like this exist in Taiwan when living in a place like smogville Kaohsiung. 

On our way back up the mountain, we spotted a waterfall off in the distance.  I couldn’t resist.  I pulled over and told Daisy if we hurried, we could trace the riverbed up to it and still make it back for her work in time.  So she reluctantly agreed and I took off.  I estimated it to take us about 30 minutes, but I was essentially running up the riverbed and cut that in half.  Parkour-style river tracing over big boulders- one of my favorite pastimes. 

Finally arrived at the falls huffing and puffing but it was worth it for me.  Though the water flow had slowed significantly due to the changing seasons, there was still a pool at the bottom of the cascade filled with thousands of tadpoles and algae though it was.  Once again, the colors and contrast of old and new algae was positively stunning.  A bit later Daisy made it up to the crag and had had her fill.  After a brief pause, she stepped off back down the riverbed while I continued up the mountain around the waterfall over some serious rock scree.  I essentially ran up the mountain sliding the whole way.  Nature was definitely working against me in this case.  It was like trying to run uphill through a pile of marbles.  Almost nothing was solid but I set a goal for myself and after another 15 minutes or so, I made it halfway up the mountainside.  Unfortunately the view was muggled by several patches of trees but it was worth the effort.  I’d only made it about halfway and the trail only got ever-steeper and ever-more dangerous from there.  Fearing a serious landslide that would almost certainly bring injury or death, I calculated the risk to be too high and not worth it so I did an about-face and began slidin down the mountainside Bear Grylls style, continually cycling my feet in front so as not to lose balance.  Every now and then the boulders I was sliding on would give out and tumble back down the trail so I’d have to lie back and wait for the maelstrom to calm before it took me with it.  Imagine trying to skate down a sand dune and you've just about got it.

After making it back to Daisy in one piece, we high-tailed it back to Kaohsiung.  Not without one final pleasure though.  Daisy’s friend owned a farm along the way and she’d done a bit of work with him so she gave me a little tour of the squash and bean plots.  Once again in an amazing location.  With storm clouds rolling in and our time running short though, we didn’t stay for long.  We gassed up and started the four-hour journey back to KS.  The slow transition from open roads and clean air back to traffic jams and smoggy skies made me reluctant to complete the journey but hey, that’s life.  Until the next trip, I hope you are enjoying the Myriad wanderings.

South Cross Island Highway Part II December 2013

Next morning we were up early since our fellow compatriots had partied until late at night and then resumed with an early breakfast at about 5 a.m.  Our tent was right next to their party/dining area so naturally our sleep wasn’t the best.  They had invited us to join their festivities the night before, but we weren’t in the drinking sort of mood.    Nonetheless, we rolled out of our sleeping bags and first things first, hit the hot spring for another blissful relaxation session.  It was pretty crowded this morning and when one of the grandparents brought their baby into the pool we decided that perhaps it was time to get moving.  I could just see the pleasant cleansing waters turning into a toilet bowl for this kiddo. We sure would miss this place though.

Blooming peach blossoms

So we packed our stuff and jumped back on the scootering meandering back down the mountain trail.  The scenery was much more magnificent during the day despite the morning fog.  We adjusted course and took detours all the way to Meishan National Park.  Here we found the end of the path for us at least.  The road was completely blocked off to all traffic due to more landslides.  There was even a guard shack prohibiting our advance.  So we took the opportunity to learn a bit about these Aboriginal lands and their history at the park tourist center.  It's difficult not to generate some sympathy for the Aboriginal peoples here as they’ve been kicked off their own land continuously throughout history just as many other indigenous peoples around the world.

A bit deterred by the interruption, we began our journey back in the direction we came.  Now I have a knack for turning off on random roads to see where they lead and after we saw a 4x4 club in the tourist center parking lot, I was curious to know where they intended to maneuver their baby beasts.  In the U.S., 4x4 club would consist of jeeps, trucks, and SUVs all of which would have big mud tires, modified suspension, and a lift kit.  Here they had big vans, stock family SUVs, a couple of Suzuki Jimnys, and not one truck.  So when I noticed a small paved road turning off the main road, I couldn’t resist the urge to explore. 

We hiked along the riverside

A quarter of the way down, the trail got a bit too rough for the scooter to continue so we hoofed the rest of the way on foot.  Along the way we saw peach blossoms (Daisy said), weeds that stick all over your clothes, and even more landslides.  We discovered a bridge ahead but once again the road had given out.  A bit of effort and we were able to cross anyway, but someone had put caution tape up to block the rest of the path.  With only 2 hours left until dark and no jackets, we decided to call it and turn around before we ventured into the unknown.  We finally made it back up the trail and pointed the scooter back to Taoyuan where we camped on a stage for the night.  Once again, we were in for more interruptions throughout the night as we were woken up by some freaky deaky noisy cats on three separate occasions.  This went on until I tromped out of the tent and chucked my shoe at them.  That seemed to be an effective noise control measure.

South Cross Island Highway Taiwan Dec 2013

This past weekend, Daisy and I traveled the South Cross Island Highway in Southern Taiwan.  Well, as much as we could rather since major parts of the road were gone due to landslides and one portion was completely blocked off.  We’d seen video of the drive but we weren’t sure of the treats that lay ahead.  Along the way we saw deep green rivers, stunning mountains, aboriginal tribal lands, forested valleys, hot springs, landslides, lots of construction, a couple of museums, and one remote waterfall.

We took off early Saturday morning on a rented scooter in typical fashion with Daisy as navigator and I as driver. After several hours, we made it through the pollution and congestion of the Taiwan west coast industrial wasteland into the real beauty of the central mountain range of Taiwan.  The first day was quite overcast so our view was a bit muddled but it didn’t stop us from continuing.  Our first stop was an Aboriginal village in Taoyouan.  We visited the heritage museum where we learned a few things about the local tribe’s clothing and tools.  We also asked about camping to which the curator welcomingly offered us the front of the museum as a camping refuge from the terrific weather.  It was quite small and thus probably didn’t see many visitors.

It was at this village we learned that the road ahead was cut off about halfway through and we would be unable to achieve our original goal of driving coast to coast ending in Taitung County.  Countless typhoons begot countless landslides begot total road destruction.  Entire mountainsides had disappeared and many have lost their lives over the years. Nevertheless we persevered.  Once you learn enough about travel, you come to realize that something always goes wrong and learn to expect and accept it.  Along the way there were parts of the road that had utterly disappeared, cast to the riverside like a wadded piece of paper to the waste bin (recycle bin).  As a result, there was a proliferation of road construction all along the route creating detours for traffic.  At one point, we paused to take in the enormity of the massive destruction.  It was here that a van of locals just happened to shout to us about a hot spring nearby.  We had been looking for a certain natural hot spring all day and the best answer we had gotten along the way was, “there used to be one a long way away from here but I don’t know if it’s still there anymore.” And “I’m not sure if you can get there on a scooter.”  Well I’ve been on four-wheelers, dirtbikes, and 4x4 vehicles my whole life so I felt confident enough to maneuver a scooter through any reasonable terrain.  So they told us it was nearby- just around the bend actually.

"Daisy, I think we have a problem"

So we hopped back on the scooter and plowed through the mountain roads (all other drivers were in 4x4 vehicles as we mockingly scooted by on a 125cc road motorbike).  We finally arrived after dark had fallen and as we drove up the mountain side to a nearby shelter, we were greeted by a slew of elderly people and the caretaker (an elderly gentleman wearing a hot spring polo shirt) who told us we could camp and have unlimited access to the hot spring for 200 NT.  Lo and behold we had found the mythical hotspring.  Mythical indeed because, as we soon learned, this hot spring is extremely vulnerable to every major storm in the area and in fact, had been buried four times already this year alone.  I’ll give props to the caretakers continuing to dig it up, considering it’s no easy task due to the enormity of the project.  So after a bit of debate, we decided to settle down for the night, pitching our tent in a wooden open-air shelter.

Cold spring

That night, after a joyous dinner with several fellow Kaohsiungers visiting for the weekend, we visited the hot spring and it was incredible.  After stumbling around in the dark for a while searching for it, we finally found this incredibly welcoming oasis.  As we sunk down into the thermal waters, I was eternally grateful that at last, after months of searching (I had missed all the hot springs in Japan) I had finally found a totally natural oasis.  Filled with boisterous, chatty Taiwanryen (Taiwanese people) though it was, it certainly reflected tranquility.  With 3 separate pools running the gamut of spa temperatures, it was a heavenly experience.  Daisy and I soaked in the sulfur and chatted for hours.