Thursday - February 13, 2003
Today marks my 30th day in Taiwan and I'm not sure
I've accomplished much of anything yet. It feels like time is running out but
there's still everything to do.
Looking at my Taipei Metro map,
chihshan rock has been bugging me for days. "What is this 'rock'?" I keep
thinking. From the Chinese characters, chih means something I cannot find
in the dictionary and shan means mountain. Anything with "mountain" in
it sounds promising as an interesting destination. chihshan rock just
happens to be within walking distance of the chihshan metro station. I
decided after my trek to the memorial, I'd forego (again) my wall-walking and
check out chihshan rock.
When I got to the memorial, I knew
something was happening. The discordant strains of "Anchors Away" were being
butchered by a school band. There's nothing as distinctive as the sound of a
high school band. Sure enough, the parade ground area was being marked off and
a school band and flag drill team were practicing. Presumably they'll be part
of Saturday's festivities. I noticed a couple military officers milling about
also.
I headed by train to chihshan. When I arrived, I got a good
fix with the GPS as this was a new area for me, although Shilin station
is the next one down the line, and although not too familiar with the area, I
have a few previously established GPS fixes there.
One this to remember
about Taipei is that it is small. It may look as big as Los Angeles on a
map, but it's just not very big. (I believe I once measured the "main" part of
town as less than 8 kilometers across.) I used the detail map in the train
station to figure out where I needed to go: heading south, first major left,
first major right, first major left.
I missed that last "left" because
it was so close, my brain just rejected it as being the right place (besides,
it wasn't as big as I expected.) I ended up walking almost all the way to the
Shilin station and passing the very first Round Table Pizza I ever ate
at in Taiwan. Round Table is merged with Swensen's in Taiwan. Unfortunately, it
was too early and they weren't open, but this "wrong turn" clearly was a sign
that today was the day that I was going to get
pizza!
I looked over my map and realized my mistake... the last left was
the riverfront road. I had been more concerned with figuring out how to get
across the river than to consider that this was where I was supposed to
turn.
Once I was on the right road, chihshan became immediately
obvious. It was also clearly a temple on a hill. The hill itself springs up out
of the city and somehow has managed to avoid being plowed over. In fact,
someone has done a very good job of keeping people from touching the mountain
at all. Handicap accessible "trails" ring the mountain and make it possible to
climb to the top (a whopping 67 meters above sea level). The ramps are wooden,
railed the entire way and raised off the ground - you cannot touch the ground
if you wanted to. The trail has also clearly been built over the remains of a
previous trail as you can frequently see disused steps, benches and tables that
are no longer accessible along the way.
There are a couple places where
you get to climb the old steps carved into the rock, but each always has a
wheelchair alternative.
Based on the geological charts (in Chinese) at
the top, I gather that chihshan really is a giant rock that was displaced
via volcanic activity and then sedimentation buried the lower portion of it. In
Taipei's lush environment, vegetation has taken firmly hold, but as you look
around you realize there's scarce little soil and mostly stone.
It was a
great day outside and I spent an hour or so enjoying being "out" of the city.
There are several temples and shrines on the rock, most of which were very
ornate.
At one point there was a part of the
train that lead to some old steps on the back side of the hill. Three people
were standing there looking down, so I decided not to look there yet as I still
needed to get to the very top and wasn't ready to go downwards. The people at
the steps saw me and tried to tell me it was the way down the mountain. At
least that what I thought they were trying to say. When I finally decided to go
down the steps it turned out they went nowhere. In fact, it was the first
opportunity I had to set foot on the ground. The trail seemed to lead into the
jungle and the maps at the temple indicated that this was a way down. It wasn't
long before I lost the trail completely. I was lost in the jungle. I found my
way back with no difficulty and tried the other possible trail, that ended at a
barbed wire fence that someone had cut a hole in, which seemed to lead down a
straight drop. I decided to take the "civilized" trail back down the way I
came.
I called Chu-Wan and convinced her, much against her will, to
leave Michelle sleeping at home and come join me at Round Table Pizza. I
reminded her that I was well below my pizza quotient for this trip and that
this would probably be my last pizza as we leave in one week.
She met me
at the Swensen's/Round Table Pizza and we went in. They gave us the Swensen's
menus only. This is exactly what happened on our last trip when we went to this
restaurant, so we knew we could order pizza anyway. "Oh no, we don't serve
pizza anymore."
NO PIZZA AGAIN!
I am very, very pissed off
at this restaurant. I had to have a cheeseburger instead. It doesn't matter
that it was a pretty good cheeseburger, there's no way they could get a
favorable recommendation from me today. They still have the Round Table pizza
sign outside, they still have their Round Table Pizza delivery scooter, they
just don't have Round Table Pizza. I think the owner is putting too much effort
in his Chili's franchise.
I'd had a long day of hiking already, but it
wasn't over yet. Chu-Wan's mother wanted to buy Michelle some outfits and
Chu-Wan and I wanted to go to the Core Pacific City Mall or "The Living Mall" -
supposedly Asia's largest shopping mall. Considering the size of the malls in
Singapore, this was something we had to see.
While Chu-Wan and her
mother went to the 9th floor for baby clothes, I walked all 15 floors (12
floors and 3 basements.) Well, if you've seen one mall, you've seen them all,
but this one is an oddball. The mall only has one "anchor" department store,
The Mira, which is built in a 10 story ball. The rest of the mall
semi-encircles it. It's something to see, but quite annoying as the escalators
are positioned so you have to double-back on yourself twice to see each floor
and then move onto the next, unless you want to walk through the Mira on each
floor. It looks like a Las Vegas theme-casino inside. Each of the floors has a
stupid name like , "Champs de Elyisse", "Grimm's Street" or "007
Street".
On one floor (Sharon Stone Street, I think) I encountered a
window display that really threw me for a loop. The diagram was in Chinese and
I didn't want to study it too closely, but it appeared to be "women's" panties
designed to conceal the fact that the wearer possesses a penis. After the
bathroom drill at Eslite 116 the other day, I wonder if Taipei isn't getting
just a bit too liberal.
I had to hurry my 15 floor exploration because
Chu-Wan and the baby needed to get home early. Some of the people who've worked
with Operation De-Handicap over the years were coming over for a pot-luck
dinner to see the baby. It turns out I didn't need to hurry because I was able
to walk the entire mall before they picked out six outfits in one
store.
I managed to get out of the pot luck and got out of the house for
more walking, but I cheated by using busses and trains where
possible.
My first stop was MOS for dinner. I apparently did so well
ordering my food that the cashier decided to have a nice conversation with me.
I barely understood what he was talking about, but I think I'm now a
card-carrying MOS frequent-buyer club member. I at least have a card to show
for it, whatever it is.
I went back to the computer market looking at
MP3 players. My MP3 player that I brought with me is just about dead and if I
can get a good, cheap replacement here, so much the better. Prices are almost
never marked at the computer market because haggling and daily price changes
tru are the rule of the road. I can ask prices, when I can get the salespeople to
talk to me (they've got a million people asking prices), but haggling is nearly
out of the question and I didn't have any money anyway.
Outside the
market, a guy was selling hardcore pornography out of the back of a car. I
presume it must be hardcore, because there's no shortage of the regular kind
inside the market. (The computer market is the upper level, the lower level is
DVDs, VCDs, CDs, Books and Magazines.) I never got a good look at what he was
selling. As Chinese men would walk by he would thrust the box under their
noses, but he conspicuously pulled the box back and away when I had to walk
past him.
I also went to the Eslite bookstore (same owners as the Eslite
116, so I avoided using their toilets) and found a couple Chinese textbooks
specifically geared towards Taiwanese Chinese instead of the mainland. Before
the opening up of China to Westerners, it used to be that Taiwan was the de
facto standard for Mandarin study, but now mainland Mandarin Chinese is in
more demand. The spoken language is nearly identical, but the writing is
different. Chu-Wan cannot read material printed on the mainland because they
simplified many of the frequently used characters and they are now
unrecognizable from their original form. I managed to get book one of a 2-book
set. Now I have to go to more Eslite bookstores to find number two before I
leave.
The pot luck broke up, so my exile was over and I headed home.
Tomorrow night we take a bus to Pingshi a small town somewhere where
they will launch hundreds of floating lanterns. They'll do this on both the
14th and the 15th. The 15th is the actual day of the Lantern Festival and the
last official day of Chinese Lunar New Year. We'll be spending that at the CKS
Memorial watching the big ugly horns light up.
Toilet Cleaning
Count:
| CKS Memorial |
Forgot to check |
| chihshan |
Cleaning |
| Shilin |
No |
| Kuting |
Cleaning |
| Chungsiao Hsinsheng |
Cleaning |
| Chungshiao Tunhua |
No |
| Chungshiao Hsinsheng |
Crew just leaving bathroom |
|
|
