Monday November 22nd, 2021.
(The one where Tim lets the cat out of the bag.)
After another long break due to inclement weather, we decided that we’d walk today, come rain or shine. Looking at the weather forecast, rain seemed far more likely and so, wearing our rain gear, we met up at the Taipei City Hall Bus Station for the 10am bus to LuoDong. Tim was able to join us again and keep us entertained on the bus journey and indeed, throughout the day. We alighted in LuoDong around 11:20, before taking the brief taxi journey to our starting point, The National Center for Traditional Arts, which was just a short distance across the river mouth from the Lanyang Waterbird refuge, where we had walked to on day 13.
To quote the English brochure, The NCFTA is a place to “Experience our ancestors’ traditional lifestyle and culture in the ancient setting of a commoner’s everyday life”. How could we resist going in? It’s certainly a pleasant place to stroll around, even under cloudy skies, and consists of exhibition and concert halls, replicas of ancient streets, cafes, restaurants, an old shrine and even “Scholar Huang’s Residence”, relocated from elsewhere in Yilan. It’s all located in nicely landscaped grounds and we would have liked to have lingered longer but unfortunately, we three commoners had a long walk ahead and we headed over to the nearby coast.
After passing an Arabic style building complete with Islamic writing, which was actually a small hotel, we reached the beach, where a strong wind was whipping up the sand. However, right next to the beach was a lovely, sheltered path with frequent views of the ocean so we chose this option instead. There always seems to be something along the way to amuse us and even on this short path we came across a lovely tree house viewing point and a very bizarre art sculpture of a car next to an abandoned building. This seemed to make no sense whatsoever but that’s not the first time we’ve thought that on our walks.
After a few kilometres, our path veered inland and we walked through the grounds of the National Ilan University, Wujie Campus. Without the signage to alert us we’d never have known we were walking next to a university but apparently it specializes in animal research, so perhaps we shouldn’t have expected the dreaming spires of Oxford. Next up was a long stretch of road with various industrial buildings on our right and to make this interesting, we tried to guess what was up ahead. What’s that building with a smokestack? An incinerator, a power plant? Actually, it turned out to be a large waste recycling plant, so kudos to Elaine and Tim for being able to read enough Chinese to know that. Even in the middle of the industrial zone there were cows grazing by the side of the road, mango trees and a signpost pointing out that the nearest Tsunami evacuation route was 1.8km away, which seems quite a distance when the ocean was only a few metres away.
The industrial zone eventually gave way to the DingLiao Ecological Park and our plan to walk on the boardwalk through the park was upset by a chance encounter with a small kitten. As we were trying to figure out where to start, we found ourselves being followed by a tiny, mewing feline, which was rapidly using up its nine lives by constantly getting under our feet. Hoping to avoid squashing it completely, we headed onto the nearby beach thinking it wouldn’t bother to follow us any further. This was one very determined cat though and it continued to chase after us and run under our feet, with seemingly no regard for its own safety. This was now becoming a problem as the cat was in serious danger of getting hurt under our feet, so Tim made an attempt to carry it in a plastic bag. All was well for about two minutes until the cat managed to scramble out of the bag and jump down between our feet again. Another period of walking and cat dodging ensued before Tim made a second attempt to carry the cat but it was out of the bag even faster this time and we were back to square one. By this time, we’d reached the end of the beach and had turned inland where we noticed a small allotment with several wicker baskets, so we hit upon the idea of putting the cat under one of the wicker baskets while we made our getaway. This place had the added advantage of being well used by locals who would hopefully adopt the cat. Leaving the cat behind, we headed off down the lane with frequent backward glances just to check the cat had got out. After a couple of minutes there was still no sign of the cat so Tim decided to run back and check; fortunately, the cat was happily playing near the basket and we were able to make our escape undetected.
On we tramped, past the Chii Lih Museum (closed on Mondays) and round the corner to discover the Kili Bay Pearl Milk Tea Cultural Center. The KBPMTCC pays homage to one of Taiwan’s most famous exports, Bubble Tea, and it seemed a good spot to pause for refreshments. Tim went into the main restaurant to order a bubble tea, while Elaine and I headed to the take-away area for coffees. On our return, we found Tim in earnest conversation with Mr. Chen, the manager, who on finding out we are engaged in Overseas Study, wanted to go into partnership with us in setting up a bubble tea school in England. He was rather crestfallen when Tim told him that most large cities in the UK already have bubble tea shops catering to Asian students and the potential partnership was put on hold. Unabashed, Mr. Chen displayed his generous nature by giving us two more coffees and two more bubble teas for free before we could say our goodbyes.
We were now getting close to Su’Ao and for the next part of the journey we went back and forth between a busy main road and the more interesting side lanes that weaved between rice paddies. Grey clouds scurried across the glowering sky overhead and made for a very atmospheric setting but remarkably we still hadn’t seen any rain. We were now very close to Su’Ao, with just a tunnel separating us from our goal but Google maps was telling us to make a wide detour around. Fortunately, we noticed that there was a small pavement for pedestrians on one side of the tunnel and a quick, albeit noisy, march through the tunnel brought us into Su’Ao itself.
We could have turned right into the town centre but choose instead to walk on a little further and having passed the attractive NanFangAo Jinan Temple, we finally reached NanFangAo Harbour, just as the first drops of light rain appeared. This is a very busy fishing port and it was fascinating to watch the boats being loaded up with giant fishing nets prior to heading out to sea. On the far side of the port was the usual row of fresh seafood restaurants that you’ll see at every harbour in Taiwan so it was clearly time for food and drink. Having made our choice of fish from the selection on display outside, we armed ourselves with cold beers and began to munch our way through a seafood feast. There’s no better way to round off a long walk and after 19.5km we felt we’d earned it. As we left the restaurant with full stomachs and slightly aching feet, all that remained was for Elaine to employ her negotiating skills in Taiwanese to secure us a taxi at a reasonable price and we headed back to Taipei.
End of Day 14. Total 19.5km.
Richie Rich