Frogland Trip Day 1: Arrival (26 Sep 2010)

Since M nicknames me Frosch, my homeland Taiwan is naturally a frogland. Haha, sounds like a real habitat.

During an online chatting back in May, I invited M to come for a visit. Because winter semester in Germany starts in mid-October, M decided to visit in late September, along with his friend, FD. On the other hand, I was doing a health checkup rotation in September and an ICU rotation in October, thereby having a more flexible working schedule. Sounds perfect, huh? Actually, I had made some efforts to make all the pieces fit together. It is not an easy task I'd say.

As a side note, I had to sit in the official license exam for internist on 25 September, the day right before their arrival. I had spent most of my downtime studying over the past few months and became so wound up. Planning and organizing the trip has become an escape to my tension during those days, although making the plan was sorta cumbersome. But the cumbersomeness per se is also where the pleasure lies.

When I looked for accommodations, I found some short-term or day-rental apartments (and they are in increasing numbers in Taipei, but I've learned that such accommodations are forbidden in NYC now). I picked up the one located off the center but apparently comfy and with a nice panorama of the river.

The place is in the proximity of the red line Chuwei MRT station, so the downtown area is readily accessible in less than 30 minutes. (It's a shame that the webpage is written solely in Chinese; for those who don't read Chinese, you may inquire the landlady for details via emails.)

A marvelous shot out of the window by FD.

It was super sunny on 26 September. I got up late in the morning, trying to recover from the exhaustion caused by preparing for the exam lately; it felt like running a marathon and finally having the chance to gasp at the finish line. Nevertheless, I felt extraordinarily delighted for what I've accomplished and for what awaited ahead: the frogland trip.

M and FD took the China Eastern Airlines and stopped over at Shanghai. They arrived half past 7 pm after a couple of hours delay. I haven't seen M for months and I never met FD in person, so I was eagerly staring at the exit in the fear of missing them. Well, the worries were apparently unnecessary. M is almost 2 meters tall and FD might be 2 cm shorter; when they came out of the automated door, I recognized them immediately.

We exchanged hugs and I told them about my observation.

"Like the twin towers," FD came up with the term.

"Exactly," I concurred.

Hualien

You were run off your feet working. Whenever you stopped to catch your breath and looked out of the window, the weather appeared lovely and charming. You wondered when to go outdoors to embrace the sunshine yourself. Finally, you had a weekend off and determined to leave the hustle and bustle of the city behind. Unfortunately, your weekend off was accompanied by the cold front.

The first weekend of November, when we visited Hualien, was like that. Cold. Damp. Annoying raindrops all day long.

No, I'm not a whiny person... Well, at least I wouldn't have been.

Actually, the weather kinda reminds me of the UK when I was there this summer. So nostalgic and so poetic. It's, however, not quite right for those of us who are overworked and need some sunshine to sweep the gloominess away.

It's not my first time visiting Hualien, but previous memories have long since blurred. Hualien has gotten more and more touristy over the years. The infrastructure appears better off, apparently for the sake of tourism. Fancy souvenir and omeyage [local produces] shops are everywhere now and so welcoming.

Hualien, located on the eastern edge of Taiwan, escaped tourism for many years because Taiwan’s central mountain range posed a significant hindrance to explorers stopping them from rushing in. Hualien’s isolation became its advantage sparing it from over-exploitation. Yes, over-exploitation. Just look at what we have in the western part of Taiwan: Pollution. Pollution. Pollution. I'm afraid the planned build-up of new highways may accelerate the corruption of Hualien's natural beauty.

I'm not a hardcore environmentalist, but I don't trust all those politicians who merely want to feather up their own nests. What if poor construction causes irreversible damage to the environment? It seems like a lose-lose situation to me.

Fortunately, as long as disagreements continue to halt actual construction, the nightmare will at least be delayed.

One of my friends seemed to be really attached to Hualien. Along the journey, he kept daydreaming about moving there, working in the Mennonite Christian Hospital and living in one of Hualien’s villas with their magnificent facades. I was kinda sucked into this dream weaving process, well, at least for a little while.

Currently in my late twanties, I spend most of my life in the city. Although I enjoy the countryside's peace and quiet, I can't live without convenient transportation and vivid commercial activities for too long. Taipei is noisy, often chaotic, a place we like to complain about. Yet, the noise and chaos are the driving forces of the city and, strangely enough, the driving force of my life as well.

Maybe all the downsides of living in a city may heighten our pleasure in escaping it for holidays.

Hualien is certainly a great distraction for the weekends, even if there's no sunshine. Crummy weather can’t keep you from avariciously breathing in fresh air while wandering about the Taroko Gorge and acquiring inner peace sitting by the Pacific Ocean.