A year is up. Time for a new adventure.
After the last two days of change, I now have: a new roommate (everyone say hi to Emily!), a new place, a new city, a car (rented for two days) and some great memories from exploring Maolin Park (along with some new bug bites to boot).
"What?" you may ask, "How could you possibly do so many things in so little time?!"
Sit back, I will tell you.
It all began on a bright, blindingly hot morning. Emily and I got up (she had been staying at my place since her rental contract was up before mine) and took the train to get our shiny new rental car. After wandering all over the station looking for the Hertz stand, and being told that Hertz doesn't exist in Taiwan, we found our way and were handed the keys to a mid-size sedan.
Imbued with the joy of traveling like Americans, we drove to Yuanlin and picked up breakfast along with some of Emily's belongings which she had stashed with a friend. Then it was back to Changhua to pack up my significantly larger amount of items and wait around for when my landlord could meet and checkout.
Everything was going smoothly. We had a system. Emily stood outside in the blazing sun. I shuttled bags down to her, which she then packed in a expert-level game of Tetris. Once the room was empty, we parked the car and went to the 7-11 next door to grab a quick lunch and chill in the AC.
It was at this moment that things went sideways.
Three hours before checkout, my landlord text me
"请再确定要提早解约嘛？如是，会扣一个月抻金喔！“
"Are you sure you want to leave your contract early? If so, I will have to keep one month of your [two month] safety deposit!"
Or in other words "You're a female foreigner all by yourself and I'm going to try and rip you off."
This was bullshit for a few reasons, namely because I had told him two weeks prior I would be leaving a few days early and he hadn't mentioned anything. Also, I wasn't breaking my contract early, I was leaving five days earlier than the agreed end, and had already paid the month's rent in full.
So my next move was to get Ricky on the phone. She helped me compose a strongly worded reply. I then fumed in 7-11 for a while before finally receiving as response.
"Even though the contract states if you broke the contract, you owe a month's rent. But since you paid all the month's rent, I will let it slide."
Which in other words is "I judged incorrectly on my ability to pull this one over on you and will now walk it back."
His first words to me at the checkout meet up were "Wow, you speak very good Chinese."
Finally free of the contract, we set off on the road. Emily was at the helm while I navigated and chilled the whole time. Part of the drive was through a typhoon/tropical storm that was rolling over the island and Emily handled it like a pro. Once reaching Kaohsiung, there was some tricky navigating around scooters and one way streets before we found our new temporary home and met up with the owners.
It was immediately obvious that we had made the right decision. The apartment was what we had both envisioned prior to coming to Taiwan. A nice little kitchen. Dining table and living room. We each had our own bedrooms. There was a large balcony. It was small and cute and perfect.
At this point, the typhoon had reached Kaohsiung. It started to pour as we tried to take a few belongs up to our new place. We quickly scrapped that idea and went to get dumplings, although we were waylaid by pizza and had that instead. By the time we had finished and grabbed basic groceries, the rain had let up and we were able to move most of our stuff up to the room.
That brought about the end to Day One. We were both sweaty disgusting messes that were excited to take showers and drop into bed. We were also relieved to feel like humans again. The last year hadn't been bad. But having a car, a kitchen and a dining table restored a sense of self that I hadn't realized had been left in America.
Our plans for Day Two were to get as much use out of the car while we still had it. More specifically, we were on the hunt for waterfalls. This chase led us to the Maolin National Scenic Area, about an hour outside of Kaohsiung. While this park has three different sections, we only had time to visit the Maolin/Duona area, which is the home of the Rukai tribe of indigenous peoples. It is also home to many different species of butterfly, the most prominent being the Purple Crow Butterly, which migrates south during Taiwan's cold season.
We cruised through the staggering green mountains, winding down through the valley and up across a ridge. Our first stop was Awaiting Husband Cliff, which had a panoramic view of the valley, and gets its name from when the men of the tribe would leave the mountains for work, and the women would wait on the cliff watching for their return.
The next stop was Serpent Head Lookout. Some nifty ecological erosion in the past led to the river dividing and leaving large chunks of mountains in the middle. One was aptly named Serpent Head for it's likening to the Hundred-pacer snake.
After that we made a brief stop at the area for historic rock carvings, but were unable to locate the carvings and instead enjoyed the view for a while. Then it was on to the village at the top of the mountain. Here we ate at a local restaurant which was serving rice and meat steamed in bamboo leaves, along with the specialty rock-grilled meat and sausages. A local man also gave us some longan berries. When we balked slightly, unsure of taking his fruit, he gestured at the berries growing all over the trees around us. After lunch we wandered up the street of the village.
I always feel a bit strange in local, small villages. Something doesn't entirely sit right with me about peering around these people's homes, even though I know that tourism is a large source of income. Maybe it stems from the fact that I very obviously don't belong. Whatever the reason, I do appreciate the kindness of the family that served us, and the beautiful traditional decorations that weave through the village.
One the way back down the valley, we had one more major stop: the Duona Suspension Bridge. It's hard to miss, as it spans the chasm of the valley below, it's silhouette crisp against the blue sky. Crossing a bridge in the valley below, I stared out the car window up at the sight, trying to tamp down the apprehension building in my stomach.
On the road there, we passed Dragon Head Lookout, which you might be able to guess, is a similar ecological formation to the Serpent Head, just shaped like a dragon. Then it was on to the bridge.
The pylons were painted with traditional Rukai symbols, a bold yellow against the green mountains behind it. The sun lambasted the bridge planks faster than the stiff breeze could whip the heat away. The bridge rocked softly. I'm not ashamed to admit that I held Emily's hand on the walk across. It didn't stop me from marveling at the river rushing below, or the green valleys rippling outward like shock waves. Safely on the other side, we set up a tripod and had a nice little "we're new roomies!" photoshoot, which produced some gut-busting laughs.
At this point, the heat had nearly baked us in our own skin. It was time to find what we had come to see in the first place: a waterfall. Luckily, Lover's Valley Waterfall was not far away, though there was some confusion in locating it as the main road had washed out and we found our way via spray-painted signs. It was well worth the confusion.
The waterfall thundered over a cliff, crashing into a little pool that had been built up with rocks. I sprinted back to the car to change into swimming clothes and ran right in. The water was cool and crisp. The spray coated everything in a light mist. Sitting in the shallow water, the wind bursting from the impact zone stole the breath right out of my mouth. The roar was so loud I couldn't hear Emily from two feet away. It was magical.
When Emily managed to drag me away, we toweled off and headed to the last location on our list, another waterfall. This one outside of Maolin Park. As we drove grey clouds swept over the sky. A drop of rain fell on the windshield. My Seattle-raised brain was telling me it would be way too cold to visit a waterfall. The part of me that has lived in Taiwan for a year knew it would finally be a bearable temperature.
We parked in front of a massive temple tucked into the trees and started our climb. After fifteen minutes and one monkey sighting later, we arrived. Unfortunately, so had the typhoon. Despite it being only 3:00pm, the sky was nearly black. Rain started to drip in fat drops on our head, before unleashing a downpour. We made an attempt at pictures in front of yet another stunning waterfall, but the weather was not cooperating.
Emily, always the pragmatist, had brought an umbrella. I had, buoyed by hopes of another swim, brought a towel. I will let you decide who was better equipped. Luck was on my side though! As we started back down the mountain, an older gentleman waved us down and offered his very large umbrella for me to share. He wouldn't listen to my protests, so we walked down the mountain together, conversing a bit in Chinese. At the base of the mountain, we asked if we needed any water or bananas (we said no, thank you), then he pointed out the restrooms and the road out. He walked us to our car and told us to wait. He came back with a massive bag of bananas, which he handed us and waved goodbye.
We returned to Kaohsiung and after saying goodbye to our trusty white steed, we walked to Mexican food. Taiwan is great at a lot of things, but variety in cuisine is not one of them, especially in the small towns Emily and I had come from. This Mexican restaurant had workers who were from Mexico and spoke Spanish, and so as you might be able to guess, the food was authentic. And also delicious.
So that my friends, is how we managed a jam-packed 36 hours. Mostly thanks to having a car, which we already miss the convenience of dearly, if not the driving through scooters bit.
We've taken a step in finding a new path in Taiwan. Originally we were supposed to be on a plane headed for Bali this week, with a world trip, hopping through seven countries, in the months ahead. However, the whole world is changing, and so our plans had to change as well. It remains to be seen what is next in store for us, but I'm sure that we'll make it an adventure no matter what.
