day 27! tainan, nantou, taipei

Had a pretty fitful night of sleep. The room was all humid in damp, it got a bit uncomfortable sleeping in there. Still my body was starved for rest and I dutifully obliged.

The morning of the hike! My aunt, who is super nice/cool, had made me promise her the night before that if I was still feeling horrible, I had to tell her, and we would go home the next day instead of hike. When I asked her how, she was like, we'll take a cab to Kaohsiung and then high speed rail back to Taipei or something, don't worry about it. And since I protested, she was like no, don't be silly. I want you to be honest and tell me how you are feeling tomorrow, and don't think about being polite. T_T She is so nice....

But I was determined to get better so we wouldn't all have come so far for nothing. Double meaning to "feverish sleep"? :p

Everyone woke up and had breakfast at the inn the next morning. Rice porridge and a few dishes.

The little pavilions we'd sat at the night before.

View from the pavilions.

We checked out of the hotel and started driving to the start of the hike. At this point I was feeling better but standing for extended periods of time made me a bit sick. I decided to stay on the bus and not do the actual hike, but I'd get to see the beginning and the end of it. A little disappointing because this hike is purportedly the most beautiful hike in Taiwan, and had been closed to the public until just recently.

Some views out the window as we're driving along the coast of Tainan (southern Taiwan). The water is sooo blue and clear! Really beautiful. :)

When we got to the start of the hiking point, we decided that maybe I could try hiking a bit, and turn around when I got uncomfortable. The bus was gonna wait at the starting point for an hour, and then drive to the end, so I could just go back if I felt bad. My aunt's aunt also came (80 year old lady) and she had originally planned to stay on the bus, but then decided to give it a shot too.

According to our tour guides/trail rangers, the hike was about 10km I believe, and an ascent of a couple hundred feet. They were giving us an expected hike time of 4 hours, which roughly translates to 1 mph hiking. I was like really?? That seems ridiculous. If only I'd known......

Well, off we went.

Bus. T_T You have no idea how much we are gonna miss you.

The beginning was pretty calm and leisurely. It was 8am, so still not too warm, and the hike  was pretty much just us walking along. Here is one of the rangers that accompanied us on the trail.

Cool vegetation. I love how tropical Taiwan is.

This species of plant has been around since before the Ice Age. 

The hike then transitioned to a pebbly walk along the beach. Not pebbles though, maybe rocks the size of your head. It was a bit slow going cuz you really had to pick your way around carefully to avoid twisting an ankle. Still not bad at all though. Going strong!

Btw the rocks along the shores here were all really pretty. All worn down to be perfect circles/ovals over the years. Many are striated. All the ladies kept picking rocks to take home.

Transitioning to the hard part...time to scale the mountain. The lady in the blue is actually our bus tour guide. Her husband drives the bus, she mans the mic.

So the next part is a steep climb up the mountain. There are ropes to help you climb. We all went up single file, which kind of sucked cuz some of the ladies aren't used to the physical exertion and once someone gets stuck, everyone behind them has to wait. If I had been going up alone I think it would maybe be...10 minutes of climbing? But it ended up taking closer to 20 or 25.

At one such stopped point, I grabbed my camera and tried to take a picture. Was still feeling spry enough to want to document things, at that point.

There were a few of these mini rope climbs, short walks, and then mini rope climb. I noticed that my arms were getting increasingly tired and that surprisingly, even though I didn't think a simple climb like that would wear me out, I was getting short of breath and light headed. The sun was also starting to beat down harder, and with all of us exposed there we couldn't exactly get away to shade.

Michael was starting to look not-so-good. Sweating a lot, and seemed to be on the verge of throwing up.

We made it to the top and Michael sort of collapsed. I had taken his backpack (stuffed mine inside his) but it didn't seem to help matters any. Dragged him over to the shade but he still felt dizzy and lightheaded. He says he thought he was starting to get a fever -- but from the wording there I guess you can tell I am skeptical. I think it was heat exhaustion/physical exertion. We were all feeling the same, but it hit Michael a bit harder I think, maybe cuz he and I were not covered up, no hats, and were pretty exposed.

The trail guide kept pushing us to walk, there was shade in about 10 minutes. We could walk really slowly if we wanted to but it's not good to just sit down after getting so warmed up. The reason I could tell Michael was really bad off is that usually he would be game, and push himself to do it even if he didn't feel like it....but I think he actually couldn't. Like if he moved he was going to faint. That's what it looked like. :( The ranger took out some hot oil, rubbed it into his neck and gave him a massage, to let the heat out. He said he'd seen it happen before, and that it wasn't a fever cuz when you get a fever you sweat, but what's happening here is that he was feeling sick because he COULDN'T sweat and let all that heat out.

Anyway I was worried. :( Michael did not look good and if something happened, I realized there was no way for us to physically get him out. It was just me, my aunt, Simon shushu, Vicky ahyee and the tour guide at that point. Simon shushu's office has a bunch of Filipino workers, and some came along (they were the only guys there), but only one of them was on the bigger side. Plus, all of us were already tired. I didn't want to show it but I felt lightheaded and ready to faint too. Plus I was weak from having not eaten the previous day. I kept wishing that Kevin was here, to drag Michael along if it really came down to it, or really, that anyone else in my family was here. It's pretty rare that I feel so helpless and unsure of what to do. And of course my aunt was taking great care of us, and Uncle Simon too, but you know...it's not QUITE the same. Hard to explain. But I knew Michael couldn't move, and even though they were saying let's go and the polite part of me was saying that we should do as the adults were saying, the other part of me knew (as family) that he couldn't and that he couldn't really defend himself from it either. So I had to argue with the ranger and say that he actually can't move, while trying to get Michael ready to get up and keep going. I dunno. I don't feel like I'm expressing the situation well at all, but I was a little panicked.

Somehow or another though, we made our way over to the shaded spot where we rested for about 15 min. Michael started looking a lot better, I think it really was heat exhaustion.

Thank you shade. orz

From this...

to this. :) And by the way props to my aunt, and all the aunties for making it up there. :) It was hard enough for me, I can't imagine how hard it was for all of them.

Especially 80-year-old auntie. ;) THAT WOMAN IS A TANK.

Didn't have much time to appreciate it while climbing but, the view was still quite spectacular.

Well so, here I was thinking, phew that sucked but the worst is over! Right?? RIGHT??

Wrong. :( We had only covered about 1 mile. It was the most vertical portion so far but we still had a long ways to go. The clock read maybe 10am.

The next part was the descent from the mountain. Not nearly as hard as the climb, and we were shown a technique for how to safely do it. Everyone was feeling rested, and most importantly (for me), it was shaded!

My aunt climbing down. The slope is at about a 70% decline.

Simon shushu and Michael were in front of me.

A picture up Hell Mountain.

We made it! That's Vicky ahyee to our left. The trail ranger gave Michael his hat to wear, I think it helped with the sun. Oh and due to our miscalculation for how long the trip would take, I'd run out of clothes and am hiking in my pajamas :D

You're rewarded with more beautiful beaches at the bottom.

Hiking along the shore.

A tortoise shell!

Sea cucumber?

...and this picture of a fisherman (to the right) is the last  I managed to take on our hike. See, as beautiful as it is, we were  already feeling pretty drained. The sun is rising higher in the sky with each passing minute, and more than that, the air is getting muggier and muggier. I'm used to walking in the sun, exercise, whatever. It's not that bad. But I'm not used to this kind of heat. Bearing down constantly, heavy air weighing on you, oppressively smothering you. It drains you of all your energy and robs you of all your strength. By the end it's all you can do to put one foot in front of the other....

Walking along the coastline there were some areas with shade but a lot of it was just directly out in the sun. We were on the tail end of our group, so we could see everyone else winding along in front of us, and there was no end in sight. The ranger said that we had another hour or so to go, and I remember completely despairing making it to the end. Michael had become a zombie again, and nothing seemed to help. He had a towel that he put around his neck and face, and we tried to keep it refreshed with water. I couldn't even see further than the next step in front of me, I just stared at my feet and slowly plodded on. Somehow I knew that we would eventually have to make it to the end, I just didn't know how we'd get there.

Again, writing about this in my air conditioned room it all sounds kind of silly now. But I remembered how we all felt at the time...we were not prepared at all for how draining it was gonna be. We each had 2 bottles of water and were down to the last bit. No hat. I was hiking in pjs for christ's sake. -_-; I could feel my skin slowly burning and I tried to cover my face with bangs so I wouldn't get burnt too badly.

And it went on like this for ages...trudging along wearily, sun beating down. Every now and then at a patch of shade, we'd see if Michael wanted to rest, and he'd collapse, and we'd pour water on his towel. The other group was out of sight now so we had no indicator of how long til we were done. The ranger had said 1 hour but so far he had been understating everything in an effort to keep our spirits up....

The sandy road became a dirt road, dirt road became concrete. We knew we were getting close. We started seeing signs of civilization, a lamppost here, a fence there. I was...so so relieved and grateful. I had seriously thought we would faint from heat exhaustion. One of the rangers brought us to a little shed that was hiding a mini fridge with cold drinks. I had the most amazing green tea I've ever had in my life. :o

And another 10 minute walk, and there was the bus. :) I'd been dreaming and hallucinating about that goddamn bus for hours.

Guess who was sitting in the bus when we got there? lol. 80 year old auntie. :) Seriously. What a beast. She kept giving me the thumbs up and saying that I was 'lihai' (actually, the whole start of the hike she kept worrying to my aunt about me in Taiwanese, asking if "the little girl would be  ok", since what they'd seen of me the previous day was just me lying in a pile on the front seat shivering, and me listlessly staring at food on the table. I thought it was so sweet and funny cuz, I mean, c'mon! She's 80!!! and I'm the lihai one?? lihai = strong/incredible).

Oh btw we were totally gypped. By the time we scaled the mountain and reached the top, we were informed that 1 hr had passed and there was no going back to the bus. And it's not like we could have turned around while climbing up. So it was like the last nail in our coffin, we had to go forward from that point onward. So much for the plan to sit in the bus. :p lol.

Anyway before we left I ran up to the head ranger and asked if he would take a pic with Mike because, in my crude Mandarin, "he had saved his life". He really did watch out for us, and I felt a lot safer with him there.

Thank you!! T_T

And there it is. Hike done. I wish I could write more about it, better, because my mind was flooded with thought the whole time, but now it all seems so ...irrelevant. I guess you wouldn't know unless you were there.

I remember thinking many times about climbing Mt. Fuji. That hike was horrible/awesome in the same way and yet in a completely different way. The ascent of course was MUCH higher and the overall hike was maybe 2x as long. But this still felt harder. Then, it was all about physical strength, and lifting my aching legs to take another step. Here it was...mental. It was a war against heat, against nature, I guess. On Mt. Fuji I knew I would make it eventually because I trust my body and I know that I will physically be able to get to the end, even if I'm exhausted. But here, well....the mind defeats itself. It's weaker and stronger at the same time because it gives in so easily, and yet it's strong in that the thought itself overpowers the rest of you. Bah none of this makes sense. I'll stop. Basically, it was a tough hike and I am never doing it again. :)

So the only plan for the rest of the trip was to drive back up to Nantou.

Made one stop for lunch (lunch??? who wants LUNCH at this point?? O_O crazy) at a restaurant that's famous for their pig's feet.

The signature dish.

That one on the left is ostrich meat.

Dunno what that one was.

Michael had regained his appetite a little, and seemed tons better. Actually he had some Coke to drink and I wanted to slap him. Coke?? Motherfucker, DRINK TEA. Drink it until you're healthy enough to get up and down a mountain that 20 aunties were able to climb, and THEN go back to drinking Coke. -_- Yah I was feeling angry at that point.

Watched a cute little movie called Down with Love (with Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellweger), and got back to the office around 8pm.

Our aunt dropped us off at the bus station where we took the last 9pm bus back to Taipei (another 3 hours). So in the span of one day, we traversed the island. :) Hiking in Tainan, bus back to Nantou (middle of Taiwan), and bus back to Taipei (northern end of Taiwan).

When I got back I thought I was going to collapse and sleep all day but actually I couldn't manage to sleep. Too much to think about. Finished The Bonesetter's Daughter (which I'd started on the bus back to Taipei, it's a page turner. ;)) and eventually drifted off....

And that is the end of the Nantou saga. :) T-minus 1 days til Hong Kong.