The Detouring Doctor

At the foothills of Taiwan’s central mountain range lies Sun Moon Lake. Surrounded by forested mountains with pretty temples dotted around this is our final stop before returning our rented car and flying home. Our accommodation in Yuchi proves to be a hassle to find as we drive through tiny alleyways inn Yuchi dodging pedestrians shopping at the night market being set up. Nonetheless the view of the lake from our balcony is hard to beat. Arriving late we find that most eateries close at 8pm and we have an underwhelming dinner at a small hole in the wall Chinese.

Depressingly, we awake to more heavy rain and low cloud. After a basic breakfast and the weather closing in we spend ages considering our options. It is tempting to pull the pin on the lake and head back to Taipei early. Just as we are about to pack up the rain stops and the clouds are lifting. Game back on! We have a lovely day driving around the lake enjoying its temples and the cable car. We have even found a nice spot for dinner and some wine. All is good with the world!

Torrential rain buckets down as we pick up our car rental making the inspection and handover a soggy affair. We are leaving the east coast for the mountainous spine of Taiwan. The comfort of the 110 Kmph freeway gives way to a long steep climb through dense forest at a ridiculous speed limit of 30Kmph and multiple speed camera signs spooking me enough to comply. Misty cloud swirls and conceals the peaks above.

This area was inhabited by indigenous tribes until the arrival of the Japanese in 1895. They set up a logging industry which was active until the Japanese defeat at the end of WW2. The then Formosa government set about repurposing the area for tourism and the logging trains became tourist trains. Surrounded by tea plantations the tiny village of Fenqihu was an important refuelling stop for the train and around the station the narrow little old street became a food stop for passengers. Popular was the Bento box which was my lunch for the day even if my life partner turned her nose up at the offering.

Drizzle greeted us up the hill at Alishan Forest Park and with time and weather against us we could only enjoy a short walk through the massive trees.

In 1987 we undertook a 2 month road trip through Europe. Our then 3 year old son would ask each morning “Are we going to a <C>athedral or an Abbey today? He was a happy traveller and trudged through the great churches of Europe without complaint. Fast forward almost 40 years and compare his mother’s attitude. Anguished moans of “not more temples”, “how many more temples” and “I am all templed out”.

Tainan is the oldest city in Taiwan established 400 years ago. The travel information shows multiple Taoist and Buddhist temples in the historic centre just a short walk from our hotel and from each other. My impression was that this must be a precinct of small alleyways, perhaps cobblestoned and replete with old town charm. Unfortunately that is not the case. The streets are ordinary 20th century affairs and the temples are all sandwiched between ordinary shops. While the insides are ornate and pretty the view from the outside is not.

The exception to this is our first port of call the Confucius Temple built in 1665 to offer lectures and cultivate intellectuals.

When is too much temples not enough?

For those who have never read my articles before let me reveal something about myself, I love trains and train travel. The sleek ultra high speed Bullet trains hold a special fascination. I this ultra organised country the process of prebooking, ticketing and the 2 hour journey travelling at 300km per hour down to the far south of this island unfolds seamlessly. 

Our destination is the port city of Kaohsiung the third largest in Taiwan. It is a bit off the tourist trail but has enough of interest for a day. We start the sightseeing at Lotus ponds, on the shores of which are the dragon and tiger pagodas. Sadly both were covered in restoration scaffolding but we are allowed to still walk through entering the dragon’s mouth and leaving the tigers mouth taking in the interesting murals. A short stroll in the enervating heat takes down to more pagodas built around a dragon which again is a mural gallery inside.

The nearby old town sports old walls and pretty gates but the actual “old town” resembles a modern slum and we don’t linger.
A short cab ride to Formosa station has us in the metro station to photograph the weird and wonderful Dome of Light.

A short cab ride to Formosa station has us in the metro station to photograph the weird and wonderful Dome of Light.

After lunch it is down to the raison d’etre for this city the waterfront. At Glory pier there is the quirky larger than life fallen rubber ducky and we are a short walk to the 85 sky tower.

A visit to the night market finishes the day and we even manage to pickup some ultra cheap clothing there.

The Portuguese named Taiwan Ilha Formosa in 1542 and the name persisted until the early 20th century when the occupying Chinese renamed it Taiwan. Ilha Formosa is Portuguese for “beautiful island”. The modern history of this island nation begins in 1949 when General Chiang Kai Shek, having lost the civil war on mainland China to Mao Tse Tung, brings the remnants of his army and followers here to self imposed exile. He led the country as dictator president until his death in 1975 aged 89 years. The country is now one of the wealthiest and technologically advanced nations in Asia.

Taipei, its capitol, sprawls in a basin ringed with mountains. Its population of 2.8 million prominently live in high rises as far as the eye can see. It makes for a pleasant place to spend a day. Once again my companion wilts in the face of what is the hottest day so far, 32C and high humidity. We planned to get on the hop on hop off bus to get our bearings and see the sights but as we get there we find that the next bus is 2 hours away! I pivot and take control and quickly work out a schedule of sights that we want to see and hail a cab. Mission accomplished. The cabs were plentiful and reasonably priced and traffic was light as today is a public holiday known as Dragon Boat Day.

The crowning achievement was our visit to Taipei 101. Completed in 2003 at 101 stories high it was at the time the world’s tallest building. It was overtake in 2010 by Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. Standard admission takes the visitor to the 91st floor. I had pre-booked one of twice daily tours to the 101st floor. The experience is an exclusive adventure. The elevator takes up to 89th floor in 37 seconds and then a couple of shorter elevators takes us to the top. Lined up on the floor are harnesses and the penny drops for Suzanne, we are going to be roped up on the outside of the building. Panic sets in! Those who read the Komodo blog can imagine the scenario. “No I want to go back, I will just stay here, I will go down now” were amongst the many entreaties. I just adopted the well worn path of playing deaf and the guide reassures her that all will be alright. She dons the harness and out we go. Wow, what an experience, what a view. In less than 5 minutes she warms to the experience and later proclaims it to be a superb experience! Oh the joys of wedded bliss!

When travelling just as in life in general we all have days when everything that can go wrong does. This was one of those. I have always maintained that as a tourist destination Hong Kong does not have much of interest. Well anyone would think that I had set out to sabotage the day to confirm this. I promise that I did not. It just seemed that we were always on the wrong side of the clock.

The 1 hour ferry took us to Hong Kong Island and I had neatly planned out an itinerary but I should have started out an hour earlier to get it all in. A ten minute walk takes us to the world’s longest outdoor escalator A bit of a lame attraction but the ride up does take 20 minutes straight up hill through HK suburbia.

It is then a 17 minute walk to the Peak Tram terminus and my travelling companion decides to throw the towel in. Hot and sweaty she is suddenly dizzy and short of breath and cursing her “tour guide”. She maintains that we have been walking for 2 hours. That is when we left our hotel, 2 hours ago, and minor details such as we spent 1 hour sitting on the ferry and 20 minutes on the escalator are inconvenient truths. In among the angst she points us inn the wrong direction and adds an extra 10 minutes walk. We arrive at the ticket office to confront a veritable “zoo” of people and time ticks away. I manage to move our lunch booking over to relieve the time pressure and we eventually are on the top of Victoria peak. Unsurprisingly it is foggy and we see almost nothing.

Lunch at Honjo was superb and we made a major dent in their offer of unlimited French Champagne. Bouyed by the booze we set off for a booked harbour cruise but again we underestimate the time to get to Kowloon Island and we miss it. As a compromise I take us to the Hong Kong “eye” for a view across the harbour. Again the queue is horrendous but I persevere in an attempt to salvage something out of a pretty ordinary day.

Macau was settled by the Portuguese in the 17th century just a short ferry ride from the corresponding colony of Hong Kong developed by England. On lease from China until the close of last century they are still not completely integrated into China. Both colonies have their own currencies and border formalities even between each other. Both have their own legislatures but control is increasingly from Beijing. Hong Kong developed as a financial hub under the British as well as, of course a British port. In contrast Macao became a Portuguese port but developed as a gambling centre. Sometimes dubbed the Vegas of the East this little island state has 3 times the annual gambling revenue compared with Vegas.

Casinos are everywhere and here on Cotai Island the casino strip is a more impressive version of Vegas. Here you can see a massive replica of the Eiffel tower, Big Ben and the Venetian Bell Tower at street level.

I have selected the Venetian and am not disappointed. Apart from the luxurious accommodation there are 3 levels of shopping malls to rival the biggest shopping centres I have ever seen. There are 150 eateries, luxury labels abound and 5 massive casinos. What really impresses is the 3 huge long Venetian canals under a massive dome lit up as if it were the sky. We indulge in a gondola ride which is every bit as authentic in appearance as the Italian version.

The capitol city is Coloane and the main tourist sites reflect the Portuguese heritage of Macau. The pretty main square (Senado Square) is flanked by Portuguese buildings.

It is a short but steep climb to the Portuguese fort built in the 17th century primarily as defence against the Dutch. It seems like the Dutch and Portuguese regularly fought over Asian outposts those days.

From there down to the ruins of St Paul’s Cathedral. Built in 1637 it was destroyed by fire during a typhoon in 1835. The remaining front wall is now UNESCO protected and a popular site for locals and tourists alike.

St Paul’s Cathedral

Lunch at Cathedral Square

Last few pictures are night time at the casinos

Chris and I came to Leshan in 2004 to see the world’s second largest Buddha. In those days it was a long bus ride from Chengdu. Fast forward 20 years and once again the changes are stark. A sleek bullet train takes us there in 50 minutes. We arrive to a massive new visitors centre with all the mod cons.

The biggest change is less about China. We are now visiting the world’s largest Buddha following the destruction of the Bamian Buddhas previously the world’s largest. Situated in Afghanistan the vicious Taliban committed cultural vandalism in 2001 by laying explosives around the feet of these centuries old statutes and blowing them up for the simple reason that it is a representation of a religion other than their own.

The statue was hand carved out of the sandstone mountain between 713 and 803 AD. Standing 71 metres at the confluence of the Min and Dadu Rivers the monks of the day believed that the Buddha would calm the turbulent waters plaguing shipping vessels down the river. As it turns out the carved out debris deposit in the river did actually have that effect. The detail of this massive seated sculpture is remarkable right down to the curls on his head and fingers and toenails.

I hand over my passport and ready money for payment. We are at the ticket office for the Panda Breeding Research Stationon the outskirts of Chengdu. My passport is handed back to me and my money waved away with some Chinese words. The woman behind us interprets and says “there is no charge because your age”. There is a mixture of happiness at being able to enter for free tinged with realisation that I am getting on in years now.

As with everything in mainland China there is a paucity of information combined with the language barrier that hampers independent travel. Signage is in Pinyin lettering, almost no people speak any English and the internet and electronic information sources such as QR codes are on their own electronic platforms that do not interact with ours. Even credit card transactions are mostly with their own financial institutions and informatics rendering our cards useless and suddenly cash is king again! How retro!

I have stressed all night about getting tickets and entry and here we are with a rugby scrum of locals heading into the panda sanctuary with a minimum of hassle. My son Chris and I were here in 2004. We stayed at the now defunct Panda Hotel and visited the, since destroyed by earthquake in 2008, Wolong Panda Sanctuary. We were rewarded by a panda sightings but it was more of a zoo experience with a handful of pandas eating supplied bamboo in sparse enclosures and concrete pits.

Twenty years later and this is a totally different experience. The grounds are massive, green forested and with well maintained gardens. Obviously the pandas are not completely unrestricted but they have generous green, natural enclosures with space aplenty, vegetation including trees to climb. Breeding here seems to be successful and panda numbers are increasing which is fortunate as, in common with other species, deforestation is proving to be the biggest threat to the species’ viability in the wild.

The day starts just after dawn and is hectic early with large numbers of locals around the early enclosures. Nonetheless they were surprisingly less touristically “aggressive” than my experience in previous years and much more orderly. Content with our early sightings we head off for a coffee expecting to then have little to see as the pandas sated sleep the rest of the day off. We settle down after an hour and a half at the cafeteria. It is 9 am and a lot of the “early birds” are leaving. We are at a counter with glass walls up against a panda enclosure. Suddenly a couple of cuddly pandas amble into view and settle down to chow down on bamboo. Here we are spending morning tea with the pandas! Amazingly the next couple of hours wandering around are the best of the day and the crowds have dissipated.

As we leave I reflect on our amazing wildlife experience with this endangered species. Interestingly Suzanne and I are the only “round eyes” (non Europeans) in evidence all day. I smile inwardly that if this is the popularity of pandas to the local population then their future here surely must be assured.

Up until recently Chengdu was the gateway to Tibet. Whilst now one can fly in from Kathmandu or come in via rail from the north, my previous 2 visits to this city was as a stepping stone to visit Tibet. My first visit in 1992 had me on an alien travel permit in a city with only 3 hotels open to foreigners. Us foreigners had to use a different currency to locals and of course there was a different price for us for the same service brazenly advertised everywhere. Approaching locals then was met with a firm “meiyou” which translates to no and was the government directive to Chinese who stumbled upon one of us evil foreigners.

Fast forward 30 years and wow, how things have changed. Cars have replaced bicycles on the roads, massive new high rise buildings everywhere. Designer label shops and marquee cars on the newly built freeways.

We arrive in our central hotel and set out for a couple of hours’ exploration after lunch on Sunday. Our first stop is Tianfu square with a classic very 1960s Mao statute. From there off to the Renmin (People’s) gardens which was a hive of activity on a Sunday afternoon. The pretty green gardens and artificial lake was abuzz with locals. Shopping at the craft market, sipping tea, paddling boats and enjoying open air concerts. What fun to immerse ourselves in this unexpected slice of local life.

A subsequent afternoon sees us out to one of the many Buddhist temples. This city is in Sichuan province away from the western seaboard in the foothills of the Himalayas . For centuries a part of the Tibetan empire and hence the preponderance of Buddhist temples. Wenshu is the most popular. Built in 618 AD and reconstructed in 1706 it is Tibetan in style and it reprises my memories of my Tibetan Buddhist practises of the past.

Finally no visit to Chengdu would be complete for a foodie without paying homage to the unique signature dish that originated here. Mapo Tofu dates back to the Qing dynasty. The name translates to “pockmarked grandmother” a description of the elderly lady who first made this dish. The restaurant that made it started in 1874 and it is still here a bustling busy eatery where the signature dish is one of many Sichuan classics. Our trip to the restaurant sees us in a minor car accident, our taxi driver evicting us from the cab while he filed a report about the accident and us having to walk th final 25 minutes to the restaurant in a tropical deluge. Nonetheless the trip was worth it. Once again we are the only westerners here enjoying a culinary and historic classic.