I could talk for quite a while about it, but I've been meeting with this girl named 家寧 (Jia1ning2). Heh. Well, if you can't read that, I'm not going to translate it right this moment.
Anyway, Wednesday was a school holiday – it was the school's anniversary. Lots of speeches and things like that.
I, of course, don't care much for speeches, and even less when they're in a language I barely understand.
Anyway, since I had no class, and no compelling reason to stick around school, I'd asked 家寧 if she'd like to do something that day, maybe take a little bit of a hike into the hills around here. She did, and she said she knew of a good place to go.
Heheh. Well, I thought, for some reason, that we were going to this place I'd been to before, but that's because I wasn't paying attention.
We met at 8:00 AM in front of the school (unfortunately, I was slightly late - I'd decided to try breakfast in the basement, since there's a new girl working there, and she'd asked me the day before if I'd like to try something...she's almost overwhelmingly nice, and I think it's impossible not to like her, but, unfortunately, she doesn't cook real fast, and I was kind of cutting it close anyway - sorry 家寧!), rode the subway, then got on a bus. We were the only two on it for quite some time – oh, and of course, the bus's route number was 666.
After quite a while, the driver told us we had to get off and wait for another bus – he didn't want to drive so far for only two people. So we waited for the next bus.
It came, and it was crowded. Standing room only. But we only needed to go another ten minutes or so.
When we got off around 9:20 or so, I looked around, and made a remark like, “this looks different than I remember.” That's because I thought I was at 像山 (elephant mountain)...and not quite registering the fact that it took almost an hour to get there, while 像山 takes maybe 20 minutes. Well, fortunately, I think I was so confused that 家寧 might've assumed she just didn't understand what I was saying – which is extremely unlikely, since her English is better than most native speakers (she has little trouble reading Shakespeare, for example). Heh. Well, it temporarily saved me some embarrassment, anyway...though I'm sure she's going to end up reading this, or I'll remember to tell her. Yes, I really am that clueless sometimes.
I'm not entirely sure, but I think the place is called 文山 (wen2shan1 – I don't think it has any meaning). Or the mountain is. The town nearby might be called 景美 (jing3mei3), or something like that...but I'm not sure, because 景美 I think means “beautiful view.” It was, though. And we were headed to a place in the mountains called 皇帝殿. (Huang2di4dian4)...Emperor's Palace (though it's actually a temple).
All well and good, right?
The weather was almost perfect – almost – except that it was drizzling slightly. Other than that, it was very pleasant. And, being a weekday, there was nobody there but us. Very nice.
We walked for a ways to get to the trail. The road was steep, and then there were stairs. Lots of them. And I discovered my sandals – yes, sandals – were not especially well-suited to walking on slippery terrain. They were athletic sandals, mind you, but the grip leaves a little to be desired.
We walked up a fair number of stairs, enough to get tired of them, and then we came to the trail. It's a real trail, that's for sure - no pavement or any of that silly modern stuff. Heheh...just dirt and rocks, and tree roots. It was a nice change from the stairs, so I have to admit being a little excited to walk on it. So we walked a bit, the trail was fairly steep in places, the rain was only misting, and we were the only ones around.
After a while we came to a small, open-air temple. It was staffed by two dogs, an old man, and a radio blasting out some talk program. Probably politics - it sounded boisterous. The old man never acknowledged seeing us, but the dogs did. You know dogs - they're all optimists. They all think maybe they can beg something from you (well, except the mean ones). Across from the temple there was a short rise, a little hill, with some sort of incense-burning pit on it. So we scrambled up the rocky, slick, trail, and sat down on a small stone wall on the edge of the hill; the view was very nice. 家寧 had brought oranges in her bag, and she offered me one. I gladly accepted it: it goes without saying, but oranges are good, and I didn't have any food with me. One of the dogs had followed us, and was sniffing around for food...so I offered it the orange. I didn't expect it'd want any, but it took one sniff, then scrambled down the hill. Heh. I don't think I've ever seen a dog get that worked up over food. Well, the dog missed out on a mighty fine orange, that's for sure.
We enjoyed the view for a while, and then we moved on. We decided to go higher, towards another temple. The trail got steeper, and we were walking up rain-slick rocks and tree roots exclusively. The vegetation grew closer. And we climbed further and further.
At some point the trail got even steeper - it went up a slick rock slope. Someone had carved some shallow toe-holds, but they were very slippery with rain. Fortunately, someone had also put in some ropes, and chains. You literally pull yourself up the slope.
After walking some more, and coming to more of these steep slopes, we came to the top of the ridge. It looks fake - it's like walking on the edge of a giant stone knife. Someone some time ago hacked up the top layer of rock so that there's a flat path wide enough for one person, and that's what you walk on. To either side is a steep dropoff. It's so strange-looking I thought it was concrete at first.
I'll say this for Taiwan - safety isn't that big a deal here. heh. That might not sound entirely complimentary, but I mean it. In America, most places you go, someone's put up warning signs, and pavement, and guardrails, and stairs, and all sorts of other things, on the off chance that you might do something stupid and hurt yourself. Wouldn't want to get sued, after all.
Here, though, they put up whatever they feel like putting up, and you make the best of it. It feels a lot more free - it feels more like I'm choosing where to go and how to do it - in other places, you feel like someone's wound you up and set you on a nice little path, and you'll follow it like all the other little automatons, because heaven forbid anyone should deviate from the path.
Here's a picture I found of one of the slopes (I forgot to take pictures until we were about to leave, so this isn't my photo) -
In dry weather, it wouldn't be too difficult to climb up without that chain. In wet weather it is extremely difficult. But it's fun! And you get to do it often. There are metal chain ladders, too (they're more slippery than the rock, but they're found in areas where you couldn't safely climb up or down the stone face unless you were an experienced climber).
I had joked, before leaving, that we weren't really going for a hike, more like a short walk. I wasn't expecting much, you know.
I was extraordinarily wrong. But I'm glad to have been wrong - we got muddy, and wet, and had to climb a lot, and used our balance maybe a little, and halfway fell down several times. It was fun. It's much more rewarding to be challenged on your 'walk'.
Anyway, here are some more photos of the area:
That's the part of the path that does have railing - like I said, it's very narrow, and in most places there is no railing at all.
Just another view of part of the ridge. Also with barriers.
The rain slowed us down quite a bit. I didn't exactly know where I was going, and 家寧 didn't know which way to go, so we never actually reached that other temple. We passed above it, and saw its roof. It was a nice roof, for sure, but I hadn't planned on seeing that part. heh. Well, there was a lot more climbing up and down, and slick rocks, and trees roots, and ropes, and ladders, and etc. And finally, we arrived near an entrance. That path had smoothed out. I finally remembered to take pictures -
Doesn't look too steep, right? That's because this is almost at the exit.
That's a bit more like it! Now imagine climbing trails like that for several miles.
And I don't mean by 'climbing' the more general sense of "gaining (or descending) in altitude", either - I literally mean holding onto things and pulling yourself up, or lowering yourself, like she's doing right there.
Then we came across an unexpectedly welcome sight - stairs.
This's looking back up at them.
Most of the time, seeing stairs is slightly unpleasant - who can say they honestly really enjoy climbing the things, or that they look forward to every opportunity to do so? Once in a while, sure, it's nice exercise, and it's not so bad most of the time, but after clambering on the slick slope for four hours, those stairs were as comforting as a warm fire on a cold day.
Yes, four hours. We got a pretty good workout...and the stairs were not the end. We had to walk downhill for a mile or two (and that really worked the calves well, that's for sure - it was steep).
We'd been in a little bit of a rush because 家寧 had to get to a meeting that started at 2. When we got into the town at the base of the mountain (again, I think it's called 景美), it was already 1:30 or so.
What happens next? Will we get back in time? Will we decide, "eh, screw it, let's have fun"? Or - does the unexpected happen?
This post is already huge, though, and I've got a couple other things to do tonight, so that's all for now! Tune in later for the conclusion!
In the meanwhile, you can occupy your time with The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny If you grew up in America during the 80s and 90s, you'll probably like this a lot. Even if you didn't, it's still pretty good. Thank you, Brandon, for reminding me of it!
