Day 69: From Dacheng to Lukang

September 27, 2012.

This was an interesting walk, although again, not necessarily a pleasant one. I arrived at Ershui station in Changua about 2:45 in the afternoon, which is kind of pushing it as the sun was starting to set before 6pm those days, so that didn't leave me much time to make it to the coast and get some km under my belt.

However, it was what it was! I got off the train, confident that there would be some sort of taxi service available. There was: unlicensed guys hanging around the station - they knew the train times of course. I talked to the first guy who approached me, and had to bargain with him. More than that, I had to explain where I was going. The idea that someone would take a taxi from his wee town to the end of a bridge near the ocean was obviously not something he had contemplated before.

We went to look at a free map from the tourist info bureau (I have no idea why they needed one in Ershui, a tiny little town in a poor region, with no tourist attractions nearby) at the train station, and after circling our destination and showing him the desired route on the map, it was down to haggling about money.

500?
No way! 1000!
Sorry, no. 600?
Ha ha! 1000 is OK.
No thank you.
Come on, it's OK get in the car. Let's go!
600?
Get in!
How much?
1000!
No! 700!
Hmmmm...argghhh...
700!
Hmmmm...mmmmm...uh....hao!

We soon hit the road, but still my driver was uncertain. He didn't get the whole thing. He wasn't an abstract kind of guy, and he just didn't understand what was going on. But with me as navigator, we got there. I had told him it was about 40km, but it turned out to be 50km on the road, so I gave him 800.

Out of the car, I was back at the end of a big bridge connecting Yunlin to Changua, crossing the Zhoushui river. This is the biggest river in Taiwan, and it hits the coast in a very flat area, so the flats around the river delta are quite wide. 

It was a super windy day, almost as windy as a typhoon, although it was just the beginning of the Northeast Monsoon, which can be very strong on the west coast.

The air was full of blowing dust, and the shallow water cats' pawed.

Wind-swept grasslands along the edge of the river

Rural life

Broad delta

Spindrift collection

Geese

In all these walks by the sea, there have been times where my imagination has been inspired by the surroundings. This day was one of them. The coastline was almost deserted that day, due to the intense winds, which I would estimate at being on average around 60km/h and gusting up to 100km/h right next to the sea. These winds were diametrically against me, so it was a bit tough to make progress.

The area was very wide and flat, and it being low tide, the mudflats seemed to stretch out to sea forever. There were rivers of water in them, or super shallow lagoons, all being driven by the merciless wind. The sky was greyish, the water grey and the sand grey. Everywhere was shades of grey. It seemed like a windy, isolated universe of grey, almost like a strange planet. I say bits of garbage in wind-sheltered areas and I imagined that they were odd pollution-based life forms. Needless to say, who knows what kind of PCB heavy metal toxic shite is going into Taiwan's rivers and hence into its shoreline?

The muddy shallow seashore at low tide

A very windy day

The coast at low tide

I imagined a world where pollution became something that supported life, from which life evolved and in which life thrived - a kind of strange merciful absolution for a polluted world. In this world there could be different types of life - one of which was ... the plastic witch! I saw her on the mud flats, some kind of mute and sinister figure that emerged from her environment. 

It only seemed appropriate that she would be next to a road that went across the flats straight into the ocean.

The plastic witch

The road to the ocean

Needless to say, this kind of fanciful thinking was just a reaction to walking alone in a bleak and beautiful place as darkness approached in a strong wind. But it was kind of fun!

Moon

Last of the sunset

After sunset the fanciful thinking ended and it was time to face reality. Walking by the coast in darkness was not a reasonable option. I could end the day there - a mere 5km or progress - or walk the road at night. I did the latter - 6 hours of road walking up to Lukang. It didn't take me long to realize why my polluted but beautiful alternative universe wouldn't work out: the smell! By the ocean the intense wind had kept things fresh, but once back in the land of pig and duck farms, oooooeeee ha- that smell! What's brown and sounds like a bell? Dung!!!

Anyway, I grit my teeth and accepted the road hike. Every 10km or so a 7-11 would function as an oasis and offer relief. Then it was back to sore-footed stomping by the road.

In due time, I got to Lukang. After a drunk Indonesian told me there were no hotels there, I eventually found an expensive but comfy B&B. I wasn't going to argue about the price after all that. The next day I hot up and saw the town of Lukang.

Pretty good! Good food and plenty of interesting old attractions. And the best thing was, it was small, so I didn't have to walk too far.

Day 68: From Sihu to Dacheng: Across the Zhoushui River

Sunday, July 29th, 2012.

Small town in Yunlin County

An interesting day of walking, and a rewarding one. But not alas a completely pleasant one. For one thing, I had slept but fitfully on a late night train, as I was busy the day before and had opted for the rough night rather than pay for a night in hotel. After three-ish hours of quasi-slumber on the train, followed by 90 minutes of hobo-sleep on a wooden bench in the train station at Dounan railway station, I got a taxi to the road near the coast where I had stopped last time.

It was a pleasant enough day, and overall the somewhat dull countryside had the compensation of occasional villages, bustling with small-town life: markets, religious ceremonies, or simply gossiping around. The horror of the day however was the smell: I must have passed dozens of pig, duck, goose and chicken farms. Like, shit stinks, ya know? Damn there were stinky moments on that walk! And the sewage from these farms obviously drained right into the numerous small rivers and canals that passed under the road, which meant that they stank too!

Highway 61

She's outstanding in her field!

Here comes the noisy truck!

Locals

Does you mother work? Shucks!

The all-too-familiar

The unexpected

Asphaltville

Unknown liquid, possibly pig shit fertilizer water.

Bai bai: setting up for a temple procession

The guest of honor

Another small, west coast Taiwan town

The massive petrochemical facility in Mailiao, in the distance.

Looks nice, but the smell. The smell!

Exotic meats

Nifty blue place

Mailiao: due to the petro facility, I couldn't get close to the coast for many kilometers.

Stinky birds: birds and their turds

Walking under 61: catching some shade

Shots of the Zhoushui

It was great to get to the Zhoushui river after almost 30 km of walking through stinky countryside. Not only did the the  wide river valley provide a breath of fresh air - literally! - but it also marked the unofficial boundary between northern and southern Taiwan. In other words, I was really starting to get closer to home.

The Zhanghua country side of the bridge

Take me to your eater!

The kind lady described below

After crossing the bridge, I hitchhiked back to Mailiao. A kind lady and her mother drove me to an unlicensed bus company office, where I enjoyed a few Guinnesses (thanks to 711's summer beer festival) before getting on the small tourist bus to Puzi, to visit my friend John. I wasn't much company for him and his wife though! Tired after a poor night's sleep the night before, a 30km street hike, and numerous beers, I passed out at 9pm.