Around the World with K & M: Fun in Southern Taiwan

Mom & Dad & Us

Over our American Thanksgiving Break, Mom & Dad came down to visit us for a change! We spent several days in Kaohsiung, going around the city, and went on day trips to Pingtung County & the village of Meinong. We then went to the infamous Alishan, where we spent two very cold days, getting up at 4:30am to watch an amazing, despite crowded, sunrise. We loved spending time with my folks, and are glad they want to come back, even if only to ride the scooter :)!

Dad whizzing away on the scooter.
(I think he might have even been going over 20km/h!)

The next three photos are from a restaurant called "Modern Toilet" which now has restaurants in both Kaohsiung and Taipei. The concept? You sit on toilets, eat over a bathtub, and are served food & drinks in mini toilet bowls, urinals, squat toilets, or those bottles you pee into at hospitals. Truly disgusting, but yet oh so popular.

Kitsch items for sale,
including a "pooh" (no, not Winnie) hat (on the left),
a "pooh" pencil holder, or mini plastic toilets to serve
ice cream at your next birthday party.

During Mom & Dad's visit, we also took them to a volcano in Pingtung county in the village of Wandan. We followed meticulous instructions via the Lonely Planet through back country roads, straining our necks looking for some sign of a hill. We finally came across this sign:

The sign: 泥火山 (Li Huo Shan) - no, not the big blue letters,
nor is it the giant ad on the right, but rather, the smaller
red letters on the left covered in black smudge, that pointed
our way to the volcano.

And this was it. It's an underground mud volcano. And obviously,
it wasn't spouting anything at this time.

Here is the parking lot, a.k.a. the last place the volcano spewed
fire. This place is actually owned by a family whose house shares
the land with the volcano. We asked them how they knew it wouldn't
spout through their house, and they said, "We just know." Comforting.

Photos of what the mud volcano looks like when it's active,
which is about 3 times a year.

Across from the volcano are beautiful fields of
Wandan's famous crop and
a Taiwanese dessert favourite - the red bean.

Kris & I standing on what may be the next possible volcano crater.

We then drove to Meinong, a village in Kaohsiung county, home to a lot of traditional Hakka culture (Hakka make up a large proportion of the "minorities" in Taiwan.)

Mom & Dad at a Thai restaurant in Meinong
(across from the Hakka "Village")

This tea doesn't look like much, but it tasted SO good!

We later took Mom & Dad to the old British Consulate near Sun Yat Sen University (which just happens to have a beach as part of its campus!).

The many steps to see the Brits. I guess they really
didn't want anyone visiting.

Near the top of the Consulate - Here are Mom & Dad and
Mom's "moon."

Kris & I and the ocean and university in the background.

The next part of our long weekend was spent in Alishan. We drove to Chiayi to board the forest train, which is one of three narrow gauge railways in the world. You also get to see four climate zones as you go up the train, from tropical to whatever the zone is that has pine trees :). It was neat, but unfortunately, we didn't get to enjoy any of the switchbacks as the track was still damaged from the big typhoon that happened in October.

Mom & I and the famous train.

You'll have to double click the photo above to enlarge and enjoy
the awesome English.

If Kris were wearing a suit and perhaps a bowler's
hat, you could almost see him as a gentleman
riding a train in the 1800s.

We had to get off the train here near Ruili,
and wait for a bus to take us the rest of the way
up. It was VERY cold and foggy.

The fog was so thick we couldn't see more than a few feet
in front of us.

The train tracks.

This village that we were stuck in for about an hour
was so exciting that I took a photo of its recycling centre.
It's also so exciting that on its public tourist map, it shows
where the mayor and the other minor government officials live.

Aaah... The highest Starbucks in all of Asia - and boy,
do Gingerbread Lattes ever taste good when you go from
30C to 10C in a few hours!

On the rooftop of our hotel - the Alishan Guesthouse
(Alishan Bing Guan). It was so beautiful. Here is mom, bored
to tears as Kris reads to her from his book about the number "e".

It looks like they're doing Tai Chi, but they're just blocking
the patio lights to look at the stars. We later found the
switch to turn off the lights.

One of the big Taiwanese rituals is to go to Alishan to watch the sunrise. I didn't know why it was such a big deal as waking up at 4:30am on a cold morning while on vacation really didn't appeal....but I soon found out!

Marching with the herd (and many folks with megaphones
yelling at us to hurry so we didn't miss the sunrise)!

The view as the sun was peeking out.

It was just breathtaking to be up on these mountains.

That line across the middle is really the cloud line, and
not a camera defect!

Kris the thinker. I can see why Chinese painters often
painted scenes of mountains like these.
I couldn't stop taking photos!!!

I love the layers created by the sun and clouds!

The amazing sunrise - it was the brightest thing I've ever seen!
Apparently, as it rises, it appears to "dance" seven times!

A view from above of the train that would take
us back to our hotel.

It was worth waking up so early!

I found this function and took these pictures of the train - doesn't it look like they came from another era?

Our breakfast after the sunrise - another beautiful view!

We went on a hike after a brief doze, and got to see things like
this nature-created "Happiness from Golden Pig" (the tree
stump, not my dad!)

More photography tricks :) - My mom at
the Two Sisters Pond.

... but 5 is okay.

The suspension bridge!

This is the old Alishan station where the Sacred
Tree fell.

Lots of random goodies for sale, including
some really good wasabi chips.

Of course, in Taiwan, beside every great tourist attraction
lies a temple. This one even had this puppet theatre (pictured
above) complete with Chinese-opera-singing hand puppets!