winter break trip part 2

the next day, we set off towards the west side of kenting national park. amanda was driving while i rode on the back of the scooter. a short stop at the main visitor center for the park gave us a chance to pick up a nicer map of kenting and gave me a chance to demonstrate my ability to drive the scooter. i didn't think i did that bad and amanda had nothing negative to say, but i think we silently agreed that she would be doing most of the driving that day. a peek at the map confirmed our route to wanlitong and we very shortly found the only dive shop with an english speaking divemaster. his name was john. i remember he had strange looking eyes behind strange looking eyeglasses. there was no time for a dive that day, but we scheduled one for the next.

the whole day was suddenly free and not knowing where to go, we pointed the scooter up the coast towards shuchungsi hot springs. as we went along, there were a lot of beautiful views of the ocean, each one more inviting than the last, but we'd never get far if we stopped at all of them, so on we went, enjoying each one if only for a moment.

eventually, the road we took started to turn away from the ocean and towards the center of the park. climbing a little bit into the hills. we arrived at shuchungsi a little before lunch time. there wasn't much town to see but we turned off the main road, parked the scooter, and wandered around hoping to find some outdoor hot springs. it seemed as though all the places to soak were inside hotels. not wanting to miss the beautiful day, we took a path up a hill instead. the path had seen better days, with broken planks in the walkway and fallen trees that had to be climbed over. taking random turns, we made our way to the top of one hill and found we unwittingly interrupted an old man and his lover. we immediately turned around and took a different route, making our way to a more peaceful hilltop.

back at the town, we had lunch in the only place that seemed prepared to serve it to us. whatever it was, it had pork, bean sprouts, and noodles. much better than fish sausages. in addition, the owner brought out some vegetables he had grown himself, and a big piece of tofu with two "thousand year eggs". it was a veritable feast compared to our earlier attempts at finding food in off hours. there was another american in this shop named dave. another chinese language student on holiday this week, i learned he had studied chinese for three years at university before coming to taiwan. despite that, he was unable to convince anyone in kenting to rent him a scooter and had to hitchhike to get here. more warm feelings at our good fortune.

already well into the park and not wanting to retrace our steps, the plan grew more ambitious. continue northeast, out to the coast, come down south to see the inland corals, turn west to see the grasslands, get back to the southwest in time for sunset at baisha beach, turn around to see the natural gas fires at chuhuo after sunset, back to kenting for dinner. our haphazard methods had worked well enough so far. we could do no wrong.



the ride northeast went higher into the hills. sharp turns with mountains off in the distance and steep dropoffs perilously close. wind rushing past, cars and trucks appearing out of nowhere, construction workers chewing betel nut shouting at the foreign girl driving the scooter and the foreign guy clinging to the back. the ride was exciting for me, with no responsibilities, with no means to do anything about anything anyway.

at the highest point of the road, we could see the ocean again and what looked to be a huge fort at the top of a hill. as we descended down, barbed wire fences appeared on the right hand side of the road. i remember thinking, if we should crash, i hope we steer off to the left because a face full of barbed wire would ruin our day. fortunately, no such crash happened here. instead, we stopped at one of the most amazing beaches i've ever seen.



is it a beach if it doesn't have sand? whatever you call it, it was full of perfectly smooth, dark gray stones, perfect for skipping if they were the right size. the waves were crashing in as they were at the southern point, but here you could wade out a bit without fear of having your legs sliced by sharp rocks and coral. everywhere i looked were these perfect little stones.



further down the beach, we climbed out onto some bigger rocks and found some golden rays of late afternoon sunshine. it looked like the end of the world lay just beyond the horizon.

in my greed, i picked up at least five rocks to take back with me from this beautiful beach. we got back on the scooter and continued south. within a few minutes, we could see the sand dunes at gangzai beach and pulled over for a look here as well. i do like sand dunes but i couldn't ignore the ocean. i walked some way and found a big tree limb stripped smooth of all its bark sticking out of the sand.



i lay on it with my feet on the ground as if on a bench press and stared up into the sky. the moon was already out and there was maybe half an hour of daylight left. even little rocks cast long shadows. there was no way we could have made it through the rest of our itinerary, but it didn't matter.

leaving that beach, we knew there wasn't much daylight left and although amanda had done a superb job driving all day, neither of us were very comfortable with driving at night. we headed for chuhuo, skipping the places in between. as the sun was setting, the air became colder and the wind seemed to pick up. the sharp turns were unsettling enough in broad daylight. we had to go even slower around them now. we came down out of the hills and the sun had already set. bugs had started to come out and were pelting amanda in the face. no sign of chuhuo yet. we pulled over, some way outside of hengchun, thinking we ought to be near chuhuo. amanda had to blink and clear out all the bugs that had hit her eyes. after figuring out where we thought we were, we got back on the scooter and started off again.

and this is where we crashed.