Formosan Naruwan Taitung

... since we don't really have earthquake drills. They don't have time to practice. Afterward it provided a good learning experience to talk about them needing to stay quiet. The students settled down and we continued class. After class I went up to our work room and I stuck around school for a while. I was talking with my boss about the first earthquake and we were looking things up online when all of a sudden we felt another earthquake. This one was a little weaker but it still ...

... found a brides carriage, and made Ellie (the lightest girl) sit in it and the four boys had to lift her up. It was pretty funny - the second day of Chinese New Year is the only day of the year that the woman was allowed to go back and visit her family. Yay for the wife! The long bus ride to the hotel was relaxing and somewhat of a relief; we were able to sleep. When we finally got to the hotel in Taitung, it was around 5:00. I was so excited ...

... and there are plenty beautiful ones. I pass by the new jail, then the former notorious political prisoner jail ( now no more in use ) from the white terror times. On my ride around the island I usually push my bike uphill ( highest120m ) as, although it has more gears than I can count, but only one works. If you want to stay overnight where the action is, hundrets of hotels and homestays are around the main harbor in Nanliau ( for cheaper ...

... take such heat of over 33C in the shadow and propably near 40C on the road asphalt ) or surving in aircon. What would you have chosen? Honestly! We pass by a prison complex - hopefully no beakout today. So I arrive in a small town called Tai Yuan, the end station of the bus. I walk on and close to the coast there are two options to get to Coastal Road No. 11 - via an old one-way tunnel from 1923, which is still in use almost in its original ...

... on top of them. The water from the slightly higher part of the mini falls flows into our boat and fills it completely. All efforts to get the boat loose by rocking the boat ( I know the proverb " don't rock the boat " ) failed. It did not w, orsen our situation, but it also did not help. Should I have walked the way? I wanted to get out of the boat and try to push it, but then I thought it's probably not such a good idea - if the boat starts ...

... the village and get to the primary school. As I look a bit around, especially at the cute aboriginal children's paintings suddenly about half of the school's students come running at me. Then a tirade of questions follows " How tall are you?", " How old I am ?", " Why do you have so much hair on the arms? " , "Where I am from?", " Are you American?" Here is my chance. I get my pictures from Germany out and many hands grab them and they are passed around ...

... architect, builder, mechanic, cook and ... you name it. Unluckily the marrige did not work out after some years and ended somewhat ugly. Jenny, the wife still ran the place for a while and he returned to Italy. It is a sad story for all involved. Now the restaurant belongs to another couple, but I have to say that, although most is still the same, it looks a bit run down and the atmosphere is gone, partially perhaps because of the decoration which ...

... a month, extremely lucky with the timing. Really magnificent, the gentleman singing about the first time he saw the sea, about a friendship ( hao peng you ) and collaboration with an 80 year old friend, about his political opposition, as an aborigine, to the proposed construction of a major freeway " SuHua " linking this part of the world with the masses of civilization, switching between Mandarin, Aborigine, to Hakka. Bloody brilliant! ( Kurt ...

... dances. So I get my own morning concert, it really sounds wonderful. They also hold some physical exercises. When they have a short break ( I have waited a bit for such opportunity ) I leave my room and wave good bye to the group, which many of then return. This is one social aspect of the churches' activities in the mountains, which I had described before. At 9:45am I begin my short 6 km walk to km 106 where I will meet up with Neal in Shihyusan. On ...

Made it to the south of Taiwan. Rain, rain and more rain since I arrived in Taipei. (It's now rainy season.) Not able to do much except play with my nephews and, what else, eat. Coming to my birth parents this time is interesting. First, I walked in the door of the home and was greeted by a giant photo of President Bush and me at the White House Correspondent's dinner a couple years ago sitting in a prominent place in the liquor cabinet. Our ...