台灣環島日記，一
Oct. 24, 2022The following is a full transcription of the notes I took while touring the island of Taiwan, during the Double Ten festival of 2022. These notes were handwritten on a cute little diary, for which I have to thank Sahana, my friend and former companion of hardships during our Master’s in Milan. The tour was carried out on a 125cc bike, which I had rented for a month from a very kind British man by the name of Jeremy. The planning of the trip had been sketched out only roughly just the night before departure, the idea being that of changing it freely if necessity raised. Please note that the following notes are intentionally unedited and unrevised, and that the language I have used in them is a reflection of the immediacy of the moment in which they were written.
Note: in the original version of this post, the photos of the two diary pages where the travel plan had been sketched were printed at this point. Since I preferred to keep these posts as light as possible in terms of image content, a transcription of those two pages is provided below.
TAIWAN - OCTOBER 2022 Trip Planning
MUST STOP: Lion Head Mountain, Miaoli, Taizhong, Sun Moon Lake, Taroko Gorge.
DISTANCES: Taipei to Lion Head Mountain (2.5 hrs); L.H.M. to Hsinchu (1 hrs); Hsinchu to Nanzhuang (2 hrs); Nanzhuang to Miaoli (1 hrs); Miaoli to Dajia (1 hrs); Dajia to Taizhong (1 hrs); Taizhong to Chiayi (3 hrs); Chiayi to Sun Moon Lake (3 hrs); Sun Mon Lake to Taroko (4 hrs); Hualien to Yilan (3 hrs); Yilan to Taipei (2.5 hrs). Total days needed to complete the tour: 8.
DAY 1
08/10, 4 am
Taipei city
Departure in 6~8 hours
I spent a really good night with Tiffany (Note: a girl I was dating briefly at that time). I am scared of developing feelings for her, what I often refer to as a jump into the void. I watched photos from 3 years ago. Time truly flooded our small worlds, brought our bodies to unknown shores, that we didn’t think of before. It’s time to sleep. Tomorrow is 出发!
08/10, 22:00
Nanzhuang township
First day successfully over. Morning spent preparing the backpack and riding under a light rain. Had breakfast at 四海 and they gave me two free sandwiches. The countryside between Taipei and Taoyuan is particularly pretty. The big city fades into the mountains through its bridges and highways. Street lamps and traffic lights give way to trees and rivers.
Met Serena in 新竹. She has an incredible capacity for conversation, really. We spent about 3 hours together, talking about Taiwan, Korea, and the politics of Asia, and Italy. We got a coffee in a nice Japanese-style garden. Her personality is much collected. Her smart words and conversation protect perhaps unspoken hopes and dreams. She can become a very good friend of mine. Her ambitions for the future are almost solely academic.
Rode after sunset, in the darkness,
The night ride evoked thoughts, memories. Did I almost forget about the first time I said,
我爱你
It was actually you who said it first. It was late night in that dirty motel where I was staying, after the dorm contract had expired. I can still remember the sound of your voice, pronouncing softly those scary words. And I could barely hear it when I laid my ear over your lips. And I asked that you said it again. And you said it again, this time more assertive, more convinced. And I reassured you, replying - I love you too!
Those words were echoing through the wind, while I rode between the villages of Beipu and Nanzhuang. Under the soft rain, a bright moon, and the dark sky!
DAY 3
10/10, 22:??
Taichung city
Today is National Holiday in TW. Not the day of independence, but the day the Republic was founded, back in 1911.
Yesterday was an amazing day. I spent the morning hiking Lion’s Head Mountain. The solitude of the mountains leaves empty space for the mind to wander. This is perhaps why Buddhist monks decided to occupy these ridges with temples and monasteries. The area must have been sacred for a long time, since many shrines were constructed in the inside of caves, like those ancient sacred huts in India.
Under the main temple, a small cave, which had been excavated inside the rocks, creates a short labyrinth of lights and shadows, culminating into a little alcove that protects a statue of the sitting Buddha. The religiosity of Taiwanese people is remarkable, especially compared to my impressions of that of people from Japan or Korea. Temples are - at least on weekends and holidays - almost in a constant state of activity. Most of these consist of a form of direct communication with the gods. Usually, people will burn wooden sticks and paper money in offering. When a desire is granted, they will bring back gifts (usually some kind of food) in sign of gratitude. Believers also interrogate the gods by various esoteric means, such as by throwing wooden blocks on the ground, or by picking wooden strips with the god’s response written on it. [1.]
Today at Jie Lann temple, female performers enriched the morning prayers with chants and music from various instruments, among which an electric organ.
Taiwan really hides its treasures within the mountains. That is not to say that places like 台中, where I write from, are completely devoid of interest. But rather, the natural landscape is capable of evoking such emotional pathos which simply cannot be reached between the noisy, dirty streets of a large metropolis.
Yesterday I thought a lot of my parents, and today, while I was looking at the postcards in a gift shop in the city, I cried. Nostalgia hits at very unexpected moments. The smell of shaved wood from a construction site will suddenly bring me back to the time when my dad brought me to his friend’s woodcutting shop, when I was a kid. Back in Taipei, the dust from an old computer in the office will arouse the memory of the visits at my father’s workplace, during summer vacations…
Tomorrow I plan to wake up early. I want to ride to Chiayi in time to spend some hours at the museum. The day after tomorrow, I will cross Alishan and head towards Sun Moon Lake. I will stop there for one day. I hope to have more energy to write when I’m there.
-End of the first post in the Tour of Taiwan series.
Notes
[1.] My impression is that most Taiwanese people, even young ones, strongly believe in the significance of these various forms of divination. One of my colleagues, a few days ago, confessed to me that she had recently visited a temple to ask the god if she should quit her job, and if a certain company that she wanted to apply to would be a better fit for her. The god replied to both questions with the answer of both wooden blocks facing up, which means, “laugh”.