Crazy day-trip extraordinaire

Trip Start Sep 18, 2007

Trip End Apr 17, 2009

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Flag of Taiwan Wushe, Taiwan
Sunday, January 6, 2008

Before I begin re-telling our Sunday adventures...here is a quick blurb on New Year's Eve: Meghan and I both worked til 9:10 PM and then stopped off at the dorm to change and head out to Taipei to try to catch the fireworks. Apparently they are absolutely amazing and this would be the last year that Taipei would be doing the whole NYE fireworks thing. So, Meghan and I booked it to the train station (we had purchased our tickets the week before) and got to Taipei shortly after 11 PM. We then took the local subway...which was absolutely packed. Like...incredibly packed. We got to the concert square at 11:45 PM and then just hung around until the countdown. The fireworks were truly incredible (I have pictures and videos on Facebook). I am so glad that we went. Meghan and I then went to this club called 'Room 18', stayed there til 4:30 AM and then took a cab back to Taoyuan.
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Meghan and I had decided to go on a Sunday day-trip (which is quite common for us). I one of the books I teach from, I found a write-up about this one park that is famous for its Maple trees and how they change to this bright red color between November and January. The place was a bit far away...and there were multiple steps to getting there...but Meghan and I just love a good challenge. We left the dorm at 8:30 AM and took the train to Taichung (1.5 hours). We then took a bus to this city called Puli (yes, like the dog breed) (1.25 hours). After that we took a local bus from Puli to Wushe. The bus was rather rickety and squeaky (as evidenced by the 44 second video I took of us climbing higher in the mountains). Early on in our bus ride, the bus driver pulled over and there was some angry shouting going on in Chinese. Meghan and I were trying to figure out what was going on. Apparently there was this severely drunk man on the bus and his friends/family/whatever were trying to get him off. The yelling and struggling went on for some 5 minute before the bus driver turned the bus off and stepped up to help. After that, the ride was rather uneventful (minus the nice scenery).
We got to Wushe and then headed for a sign that pointed us in the direction of the park. On the official park website...it said that the park was 12.6 KM from the city of Wushe.

Meghan and I just started walking and figured we would be walking for an hour and a half or so...and keep a look out for a taxi or tour bus we could flag down. We walked for an hour and were just not seeing any park signs or identifiable markers of any sort. We saw this one car coming and decided to flag it down. He stopped and we tried...in the few words of Chinese I knew...we managed to get across that we were walking to the Aowanda park. The guys gave us this look of astonishment. I asked how long it would take to walk there and he said 5 HOURS. We were like...WHAT?! The website said 12.6 KM, not 25 KM!!!
The guy got all flustered and drove off. Meghan and I were like...what the hell do we do now?! We decided to walk on some more. We tried flagging down this car that had two people in it...but they didn't stop. We walked on a little more and saw this van turning the corner. We flagged it down and were pleasantly surprised the man spoke enough English to communicate with us. We told him we were going to Aowanda on foot and how long it would take us. He gave us the same 5 hour answer. We were flabbergasted. We realized we were up the creek without a paddle. It was nearing 2 PM and we had to be back in Taichung to get the train to Taoyuan at 10 PM (factoring in all the travel time between the park and Taichung). We asked the man if he was heading towards Aowanda and he said he was not. He suggested we try to see the park on another day. We said we had come a long way to see it and had been traveling all day. I asked him if he could at least give us a ride as far as he could towards the park before he veered off to wherever it is he had to go. He agreed. Meghan and I were partly relieved. At least we would get a heck of a lot closer to the park by car than on foot.

We weren't in the car very long when the man suggested we stop and take a picture at this one pretty spot. We did so and then after we got back in the car he said to us: 'I have decided that I will take you to the park'. We were like...but you're not going that way...we don't want to be trouble! He said it was okay...because if he didn't take us...we would still be walking tomorrow. LOL! He seemed like a very nice man. He told us his Chinese name...but I'll be damned if I can remember it. He said that the leaves were no longer red at this time of the year, but that the park was still nice. Man, the park website sure had a lot of discrepancies in their information! Nothing they had posted there was correct! We had a nice chat all the way to the park (which turned out to be a 40 minute drive) and found out the man was a Taiwanese aboriginal. We finally made it to the park and ended up not paying an entrance fee because our friend was a local resident. So guy parks the van and we get out. Turns out he's going to be our tour guide as well...which is a good thing...because he knew that park inside and out. We saw some great things and scored lots of fantastic pictures. We left the park around 5:30 PM. We had informed our friend that we needed to be back in Wushe by 7 PM latest, because that is when the last bus for Puli left at. He said not to worry...he would drive us to Puli. Meghan and I began to worry a bit...wondering if he was expecting something for all his 'help'...but decided to play it by ear. Once we were back in civilization, instead of getting on the highway...he veered off into this residential area. We were like...what's going on? Apparently it was his good friend's grandmother's 85th birthday (did you get all that?) and they were having a traditional aboriginal celebration and feast. There was meet being barbecued and dumplings as well as noodles and rice. We were invited to join. Meghan and I were in shock...we just couldn't believe what a turn of events the entire day had been. We were given a shot glass of 'mountain wine' which was like...incredibly strong. We were then given a can of beer to chug our mountain wine with. Needless to say...after a hard day of hiking and adventure and an empty stomach...I was feeling rather tipsy from it all. There was the patriarch of the family at our table. A man named 'Duru' whose father was 'Lulu'. I SWEAR this is the truth. He was drunk. He kept saying how Meghan and I were REAL women now cuz we did shots of mountain wine with the aboriginals and how were both his wives now. LOL. He lived for 4 years in Sao Paulo, Brazil (what a freakish coincidence the whole Brazil connection was). He said I reminded him of the girlfriend he had when he lived there and that I broke his heart every time I laughed. All in all, we did have a ton of fun. We exchanged phone numbers and emails and next time we are in Nantou county (to see Sun Moon Lake) we will call them up and hang out once more. But we can only go after March...cuz 'Duru' will be back from Malaysia then...;). We got a ride down to Puli and then got on a bus to Taichung. It was midnight by the time we got back to Taoyuan. Man, I haven't been that exhausted in a while. What a day!

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