Alishan Mountain Trip

This weekend I met Dave, Kevin, and a bunch of teacher from Kevin's school to go on a trip up the famous Alishan Mountain. The Tsou tribe was having some ceremony that we would be able to see. We met at the Chiayi train station Saturday morning at 9 before beginning our journey up the mountain. These mountain roads would not be acceptable in America....there are more 180 degree turns than straight-aways. You must drive slowly the whole time, be in overdrive, and pray for your life. More to come on the roads later in the story. The whole way up the mountain, we saw hundreds and hundreds of bikers. It took about 45 minutes to realize there was a bike race up the mountain. Duh...numbers on their backs...sponsor flags everywhere...I bet it's a race! lol! We saw numbers up to 3300, so that gives an estimate on how big the race was. A bike race didn't stop drivers from weaving in and out of traffic or driving two deep on a one-way road. The bikers had to be extremely cautious.

About two hours later we come to a small area (I can't call it a village....) and parked the car. We weren't sure if this was a bathroom break or if we were at the B&B....we just kept following the bunch. It turned out that we were at the Tsou Tribe celebration. There were tons of people, aboriginal and tourists both, watching some dancing and initiation ceremony. Soon after, I head the wedding march. About 15 couples were introduced and stood in a line in front of the crowd of friends family, media, and strangers (like us). I figured that this was an annual festival and all the couples getting married in the last year were being recognized. I was way off. This was their actual wedding ceremony! They shared the ceremony with 14 other couples, and some of them were in Adidas running shoes! The ceremony part was very official. At this wedding, unlike the other I saw, the couples kissed in public. There was one couple that actually had a mini make out session. I can't believe it! In public! No way. After the kissing, many gifts were given to the couples, and they had a ceremonial couples drink. One gift was a bamboo cup that was connected to another...each person would take hold of the contraption and take a drink from their respective cups. This was a huge part of the ceremony - I could tell by how many cameras and news reporters gathered around each couple while they took a drink. It was a major media event. There was some more dancing, then the couples exited stage left. From there, I believe they met their families for group pictures. Kevin, Dave, and I hung back and were watching the elders of the tribe eat, drink, and be merry! They definetely did a great job. Kevin had to get a taste of the alcohol, so he was brave and dove right in to the scene. He graciously took a sip and them gom-bayed (bottom's up) the "stuff" that he was given to drink. He came back and said it tasted like fermented milk. We were told it was wine. I decided NOT to try the wine. After the wine, they were cutting some soft bread. I can do bread....so I stepped up and held my piece of bread while the chief (I think) cut off a piece with a macheiette....watch your fingers! The bread I think was rice flour and water - perhaps not baked at all. It was extremely gooey. It didn't taste bad...but it wasn't a taste I would go back for. The ceremony was over, so what are we doing next? We didn't know! The theme of the weekend! My next argus article is going to discuss how I'm a leader and an indepedent person...but being in a foreign country I need to humble myself and learn to follow when I don't know what's going on. Which is most of the time. Back to the story...

We went to one of the huts in the "area" and sat down for lunch. We were first served a stick of bamboo...when you open it, there is rice inside. We saw this many times over the weekend...and I would not be upset if I never saw it again. It's overcooked rice with a sticky substance (similar to the bread). You cut off a chunk with your chop stick and it's like a stick of rice to eat. It's definetely different. Next, a few vegetables were served. I love the cabbage and pepper vegetable that's always served. yummy. Finally, a noodle soup was served. I think it was pork. It was oily, but very tasty. We were going to get a few beers, but they were room temperature, so we opted for water instead. Next, we walked to another hut and had some espresso. I'd never had espresso, so I was intrigued. I always thought you shot espresso like you do vodka...but we sipped on the tar-like substance. It's not something I prefer...but it was a nice little pick-me-up. We left the hut area and got back into the vehicles (we had a caravan of three). We drove up the mountain for perhaps another hour. Most of us were drifting in and out of sleep...but I woke up at one point and noticed we were entering a scenic park. We drove up to a visitor center, parked, and began hiking. We were in a national scenic park hiking on a trial. We saw so many awesome things: very tall trees, extremely old tree stumps, and national stump formations. I have lots of pictures at kateintaiwan.shutterfly.com of this hiking adventure. There were so many beautiful scenes, I can't even explain. While we were taking a picture with a train, we ran into a guy from America. He was pretty good looking, and his tour guide saw me and said he found a girlfriend! lol! We ran into the group many times that day, and then even once on Sunday at a different place.

From there, it took about two hours in the car. It was getting dark, so I thought perhaps we were going to check in to the B&B and then perhaps get dinner. Again, we didn't know our destination or plans...we just waited to find out. The drive was like nothing I've ever experienced before. We were mostly on one-lane paved trails, going about 20 mph, with hairpin turns every quarter-mile. If there were cars coming in the opposite direction around a turn, we would probably be dead. There were many times when we couldn't make the turn, so we'd have to go in reverse and try again. I was reminded of going up north trying to find a camping spot in the middle of the night after a long day of driving. I was actually scanning for deer. lol. There's none here! It was spooky, like Blaire Witch project spooky. After I thought we were further away from civilation than you could imagine, a bed and breakfast pops out of nowhere, and there is dinner waiting for us! I couldnt' believe it! Who would ever find this place? The people greeted us with large smiles and bows. We sat together and ate dinner: the bamboo rice stuff again, some fish, some pork, some chicken, and lots of vegetables. It was ok, but definetely not my favorite meal. I was getting so tired from all the driving and no knowing what we are doing...I was ready for a power nap. We got to our room (which was a rustic cabin with two beds and a bathroom. That was it. It was like a camping trip, I like it! The guys were very kind and were ok with me laying down for a little. Remember, I'm still sick at this point, so I'm trying my hardest to forget about my conjested chest and sinus headache. The guys were so understanding! They left the cabin to take a little walk, while I rested for about 40 minutes. I heard some guitar and singing, so I decided it was time to get up. I easily could've crashed for the night. The owners of the B&B started a camp fire and were entertaining our crew. How cool! Not just bed and breakfast, but dinner, entertainment, and bonfire too! That's Taiwanese hospitality for you! We listened to some really cool tribal songs, then the older man brought out his harmonica. He brought his old dog over and the dog howled to the beat of the harmonica playing. It was HILARIOUS! Such a cute dog! Then, they played some English songs. It was great when he brought the guitars to us and had each Kevin, me, and Dave take a shot. Kevin drummed on the guitar, Dave actually played a few chords, then there was me. I stood up and strummed up the most awful sound ever acting like I was rocking out to a sold out Aerosmith concert. I was definetely a rock star. I got an encore in the end! you know! I'm sweet like that. lol. It definetely was a good laugh. At the bonfire, Lily got Kevin to try a chicken foot. He said the sauce on the outside wasn't too bad, but the texture was something you need to get used to. I can't believe he tried it...how gross! They eat these things all the time and they are so disgusting looking and I can't imagine they are any good. How many gross things does a chicken step in everyday! Okay, no eat it! NO THANK YOU!

It was almost ten and I was completely out of energy. I decided to go inside and read for a while. Right as I went into the cabin, Damien called, so we talked for about a half hour. Then I finished a chapter in my book and turned out the lights. Right then, the guys returned to the cabin and laughed because I wasn't reading like I said. They had gone inside to where some of the men were playing a game or watching tv or something. They had some shots of vodka with them and were given some beers. We were planning on partying Saturday night, but we didn't get beer because we didn't know what we were doing or where we were going when....and we were all pretty exhausted from the drive and the hiking. So it was better this way. Kevin really wanted to see the sunrise the next morning, but he would've had to get up at 4 am or before to get a sunride tour. I'm glad that idea was nixed.

We woke up abotu 730 on Sunday and I had no idea what the plan was. Where we packing up and going home? We all go ready, then headed to breakfast. Some porridge, rice, vegetables, dried pork, and egg. Breakfast isn't the same here...it's almost like another meal just less meat. I had some porridge with peanuts on top and some coffee. We got into the car and took off down the mountain. WOW! In the daylight, the roads were EVEN SCARIER than last night. We could see the cliffs that we were about to full down to our deaths. We had to get some insurance for the weekend because it's such a hazardous trip. I'm not sure what it costs, if it was individual insurance, or what....but I had to give information for insurance purposes. I see why....this was so dangerous. There were many occasions where landslides and typhoons took off almost half of a road. There was a point where the road was completely gone and a new path was made higher up in the mountain on the landslide. These roads were rediculous. Sometimes there were cones to warn you of a cliff, sometimes yellow tape (so safe!) and other times, nothing. No camera can capture the amazement we experienced in these awful roadways.

During the day, we took about 4 stops. The first two were pretty views of the mountain where we got out, took some shots, and got back in. Then we came to a small village with no people and were told to meet back in a half hour. There was nothing to see! What would we do for 30 minutes! We were completely confused. Then we found a shop with handimade crafts...which were all imported from China. They were pretty crappy. Then we went across the street to a refreshment place. There is this nut that they dry and then turn inside out and dry. Somehow it turns into a geletin like substance. They were drying everywhere and didn't look very appatizing. Here, we each got a cup of the geletin substance. They added some flavor and water so it was like a jello drink or something. The geletin had no flavor, but the flavoring syrup they put in it was pretty gross. I swallowed as much jello as I could, then threw my cup away. I didn't want one in the first place, but didn't want to be rude.

After our snack, we hopped in the car and took off to what I thought would be home. Wrong again. We stopped at someone's house...where we thought we might have lunch. We hung out on someone's porch for about a half hour before anyone said what was going on. There was an extremely dirty dog that caused there to be flies EVERYWHERE. The leather couches were nice, but everything else was very uncomfortable. Finally, we were taken across the road to have lunch. We had rice (normal this time) and fish and chicken and lots of vegetables, and snail. Kevin tried it and by his reaction I decided to not go near it. I'm just not at adventurous when it comes to taste. We had some beer and some food, and then karaoke came on. Oh geez. One of the ladies with us wanted to sing, so we left to chill while they sang for probably an hour. At one point, we walked across the street to where some tea was being harvested. Many people in long sleeves and pants and hats were plucking fresh tea leaves in the hot mountain sun. We learned what leaves were good to pick, and it supposibly smelled amazing up there (I couldn't smell anything). From there, we went back to sitting on the porch. This stop took three hours. All we did was have lunch. I assume that the lady of the house was a good friend and the friends wanted to visit....so we gave them their time to visit and catch up. It was wonderful once we got back into the car. Are we headed home? nope. This time, when we stopped, I asked what we were doing. I was answered in Chinese and given to real answer. This actually pissed me off. I was tired, didn't know what was going on, and wanted to know when (if ever) we were going home. All I asked for was to find out if I needed my wallet, my camera, etcc.... I didn't take anything because I thought maybe it was a bathroom break. We ended up hiking aagain through what looked like a jungle. We hiked about 30 minutes to this place in a river that had fish that only were in this area. It was really awesome and beautiful. We played on huge rocks, and Kevin fell in with his shoes. It was something that I was originally annoyed by, but ended up being worth the hike. I didn't have my camera because I didn't know what we were doing, so I'll have to steal pics from Kevin, Lily, and Dave. I finally asked how many more stops we had, and I was told this was the last one of the day. It was a relief. I just wanted to know when I would get home. I saw a lot of beautiful things and had a great time with my friends, but was ready to be home and relax. A few more hours, and we were at a restaurant. It was about 5:30 and I didn't really feel hungry. I was wondering if someone would just take me and Dave to the train station instead of eating dinner...then we found out we were too late for dinner, so we left anyway. I think we were all relieved. When we finally got down the mountain, it seemed like we were in Chiayi forever before finding the train station. We got there, had some hugs goodbye, and parted ways.

It was a very lowkey weekend, with a lot of beautiful sights, not so wonderful food, and good conversations with friends. I love when Kevin uses his slow voice with particular announciation to speak to Taiwanese...it's hilarious!

great Dave quotes:

Do you want some? It's pork paper. Like paper. Made out of pork. Pork paper. You can write on it. It's paper.

Sorry this is such a long story, but I wanted to get all my adventures in!