Yellow Ice Cream and Waterfalls

July 20

Today was the first day on our four day long trip around the island of Taiwan. It is the part of the Wenzao program that a lot of people had been waiting for. To start, we had to wake up earlier than usual. Each morning when we have activities to do, the intercom will play two songs to wake us up. This morning, they played those songs at 5:30. We were on the road by 6:30.

A couple hours into the journey we took our first rest stop. One of the unique features of the rest stop was that right behind the buildings was the ocean. Before we got off the bus we were told that we were not allowed to go onto the beach. But calling it a beach might not have been the best word. When I think of a beach, I think of sand. There was no sand there. Instead, it was filled with dark gray stones that were really smooth from the water. No matter. I still was able to throw some stones into the sea before we had to get back on the bus.

After the stop, we soon went from traveling along the west coast of the island to traveling east. A few hours later we reached our first destination. It was a campground for one of the aboriginal tribes (I can't remember which one). They did a presentation, but I didn't get a lot out of it because it was all in Chinese. After another lunch of aboriginal foods we had an hour of free time to walk around the area. I wasn't too thrilled to walk around in the sun for very long, so I found a shaded area with ducks and a pond and just stayed there for a while.

The highlight of the day was easily our second destination. We stopped at a big waterfall in the middle of the mountainous area. It would have been fun enough to see the waterfall from the path, but we had the opportunity to walk across the stream and take a little path to get even closer. After our tour guide started walking across the stream, I looked around for a minute to see if we were allowed to go as well. When I realized it was OK, I took off my shoes and socks and followed him. The short trip was worth it. Within about 10 seconds I was already drenched because we were on a flat area right to the side of the waterfall and the mist was intense. Within five or ten minutes, I was cold for the first time on the trip (excluding air conditioning). But I stayed for even longer because it was a lot of fun.

After I went down from that area, I watched two native boys walking up the stream. After watching them walking up, I visualized my path and went up as well. As I was travelling up, the boys came down and I was on my own. After I went part way up, one of the helpers told me not to go any further up. But after talking with the laoshi (teacher) from Beijing who told me to go further, I figured I should listen to the professor.

I went all the way up to the pond where the water was landing and stayed there for about ten minutes. It was great. There is something about being that close to a big waterfall that is unmatched by anything else. I took the opportunity to wash my whole body since I was already soaked, plus take the closest pictures of the waterfall out of the whole group.

Before we reached the hotel, we took a brief stop at a place known for serving unusual ice cream flavors. Three flavors I remember them offering were brandy, wasabi, and durian. Durian is infamous for its strongest scent of any fruit in the world. Pretty much nobody in the world likes the smell, even if they like the taste. Most people either love it or hate it, with most being in the latter category. Guess which flavor I got? I of course got durian, which turned out to be very average in ice cream form. The best part was convincing unsuspecting people that I had bought vanilla and letting them try a little. The looks on their faces when they discovered it was actually durian instead were priceless. Just to get a sense of how potent the smell of durian is, when I got back on the bus with only a spoonful of the ice cream left, someone a few rows ahead of me yelled, “Is that durian? Get that stuff away from me!”

For dinner, we went to another place that served aboriginal food. Correction, they served the ingredients for the food. We had to make it ourselves by crushing all of the ingredients and then adding water to create a sort of soup. After that, they brought out some other dishes. One of the things that I ate was some sort of cooked pig fat. I can’t remember exactly what it was for sure, but I remember being the only one at the table that ate any of it (and everybody else was Chinese or Taiwanese).

At the hotel (which is where we ate dinner); a few of us met with the family that owned the place and drank some tea. After we found out that one of the girls played the flute, we coaxed her to get it and play a song. Then, we mentioned that Minjae, one of the Koreans, played the ocarina. We made him go and play a couple of songs. The second song he played was the Celine Dion song from Titanic. Somehow, we ended up going into a bigger room that must normally be used for parties. Sabina (an Indonesian from Wenzao) played the guitar and Sandy (French) played the drums. We ended up singing a few songs and had some fun. Soon, more people outside heard what was going on and came in. It ended up turning into an impromptu birthday party for Scott, one of the staff members, who was turning 18. We helped him celebrate by giving him a glass of beer, a tradition that would not be legal in the U.S. All in all, it turned out to be a pretty eventful evening.