Taiwan – Part 2

After leaving the Memorial Hall we drove out of the city and up into the mountains to the Yangmingshan National Park to see a sulfur vent from what Andrew said was a dormant volcano. Taiwan is primarily a mountainous country which sits on the convergence of the Eurasian tectonic plate and the Philippines Sea plate. The boundary runs the entire length of the country with the Eurasian plate sliding under the Philippines one.  As a result the place is very geologically active, as we found out this morning April 3 as I’m writing this. It’s on the Ring of Fire.

The place we went to was Xiaoyoukeng which is a place with mountain side sulfur gas vents.  As we approached the place in the bus we could see steam wafting up from the mountain and the smell of sulfur became very apparent. We walked down a short trail and there we could see hot sulfur springs bubbling up, steam rising and rocks colored yellow from the sulfur.  It was interesting to see but pretty awful smelling.

From there we drove to the place we spent the night, the Tien Lai Hot Spring Resort. The hotel was nice but looked a little tired.  Each of us had a room with a balcony with a hot springs tub on it.  It was essentially a hot tub but the water that we could put in it was from a sulfur spring.  It was very hot (you could add cold water to regulate the temperature), slightly acidic from the sulfur and smelly.  I tried getting halfway in but didn’t like the smell.  (Truthfully I was also worried that I’d get in and wouldn’t be able to get out.  I’d be in a real pickle then.)  There were also communal hot springs pools, one with bathing suit required and one nude coed.  I think only one of my fellow travelers tried the latter.  He's a very  strange character we call "bathrobe man" because he has shown up in various venues on the ship wearing only his bathrobe. The room was comfortable, even though the bed was very low to the ground.  Dinner was a different story.  Once again we had very Chinese food including some things that we couldn’t identify even after reading the names.  Who knew that eating jellyfish skins was a thing?

This was the view from my balcony

My room which was comfortable

My hot springs hot tub

In the morning we were off again, this time to the Dharma Drum Mountain Monastery.  The place is a Buddhist spiritual, cultural and educational foundation dedicated to educating the public about Buddhism.  We had a guide named Michael who told us about the place’s work and philosophy.  I had a very hard time understanding him because he spoke heavily accented English.  The other thing was that for a lot of his presentation we sat on hard wooden benches with no backs and with no air-conditioning.  He started by telling us as we sat there to relax from our heads to our feet and focus on well-being.  Perhaps I’m a philistine but really all I could think of was how uncomfortable I was sitting there.  After his talk we watched what was basically a ten-minute promotional ad. Following the film Michael took us to see the great Buddha hall.  It was an interesting but I thought overly long visit.

The Great Hall with three Buddhas

Upon leaving the monastery we drove down from the mountains to the coast to visit the Yehliu Ecological Park.  First we had a lunch buffet at the Fishermen’s Kitchen in a hotel in Yehliu.  This meal did have some food that was more western; they even allegedly had pizza but by the time I got there it was all gone.  (I wasn’t worried – I won’t starve.)  It was a very sunny and hot day and Andrew explained that this park we were going to had no shade, uneven rocky paths, and no handrails.  We were going to see rock formations that were the result of wind and water action.  Many of us decided not to even try going there and the ones who did came back quickly because they were boiling from the heat.  One of my friends did get a few pictures and I’ll put a couple here. The most interesting one is called “the Queen’s Head” because it resembles the bust of Nefertiti.  There was evidently a long line of people waiting to get up to her to get their photo taken.

The Queen's Head

Once everyone returned we boarded the bus and headed along the coast back to Keelung City where our ship was docked.  Along the way we passed through some towns that didn’t look nearly as prosperous or modern as Taipei. We passed a few streets that reminded me of some of the streets in the less modern parts of Saigon.

I was glad to be back on the ship in air-conditioning.  My cabin is like a deep-freeze because I have the thermostat set as low as it goes.  I was happy to eat a cheeseburger for dinner.  I’ve developed a significant cough as have many of the people on the ship.  I’ve tested and it isn’t covid but the cough was bothersome enough that I went to see the doctor when I got back.  He checked me and said my lungs sounded good and what he attributed the cough around the ship to be is an allergic reaction to the dust and smog in the places we’ve been.  He gave me some antihistamines and cough medicine and told me I could go anywhere because I’m not contagious.  So we shall see.  I don’t feel bad; I just get these big coughing spells.

Well, I was glad I took the overnight trip because I got to see a little more of Taiwan than I otherwise would have.  I definitely literally got a taste of Taiwan and I’m not as sure about that.  Would I do it again if I came back here?  Probably not but it was an experience I haven’t had before.  So I can tick off another country on the map of places I’ve been.