台灣環島日記，四

DAY 8

15/10, 22:20
Luodong township

  Today everything that didn’t happen in the past week happened. I fell from the motorcycle for the first time. It rained heavily - the whole day - and while trying to turn around the bike, thankfully at very low speed, the scooter slipped on the ground and fell. I managed to put my hands forward and protect my face, so that I only came out with a few scratches on the right arm [edit: one of my fingers was sprained too]. Also thankfully I was in a deserted mountain area so nobody saw.

  From Qingshui cliff, you can listen to the deep roars produced by the Pacific Ocean crushing against the rocks. It seems that the name of the bar under my apartment, 嶼聲, derives from this sound.

  The rain drenched everything, from my clothes to some of the gifts I was planning to bring to Taipei. The rain also drenched my phone, which I discovered not being able to charge anymore after reaching the hostel. Then, when I took a hot shower trying to recover from the cold, wet ride, I slipped on a staircase and fell from about two meters of height, landing on my hips. It fucking hurt, but it seems ok now. On a good note… a Czech guy approached me while I was having a break from this awful ride at Nanfangao harbour. After greeting me, he proceeded to tell me his story, and how he had ended up selling fish in a Taiwanese coastal town. Given how friendly he was at the start, in Italy I would have suspected that he wanted to rob me, but I guess in this case he really just wanted to talk with another “white face”, as he said ironically. Similarly, early this morning, while I was in queue to get some 包子 from a famous shop in Hualien, a Taiwanese man started talking to me: he was impressed that I could read Chinese. This man left me with a very warm, and slightly bittersweet impression. He looked so genuinely impressed that I was from Italy and could speak a bit of Mandarin. When I politely asked him what was his job, after he had asked for mine, he bitterly smiled at me, replying:

我是做工的。

“I am a worker”.

EPILOGUE

A week after the end of the trip

Midnight
Taipei (home)

  The last day of travel was almost a complete disaster: like a spiteful god, the rain did not stop to fall intensely for the whole day. The scooter fell again, and I’ve been charged a damage fee from the hostel because of my leather bag dripping dye on the bed. Having skipped my lunch, I got home drenched, exhausted and in a hurry for the date planned with Tiffany. Only to find out she had been checking my Instagram to track down the people I had met during the trip. A few days later, I have ended my brief relationship with her. At this point, I have cut ties with all the girls I have dated in Taipei. I also nearly stopped hanging out with the foreigners. It’s strange to not receive any texts at night. But I have realized that just by entering a bar alone and daring to speak Chinese, I can find new opportunities for friendship almost every day. People suddenly seem less necessary than before. I spent the weekend after the trip cleaning my house, reading, listening to music, drinking tea, and watching videos of other people who travelled. I am not sure what’s happening to me, if I am entering some kind of depressive state, or if I am just realizing what I really want and not caring anymore about the need for approval of others.

-End of the fourth and last post in the Tour of Taiwan series.