Just an hour ride into the mountains. It’s not too difficult… was the wording I heard encouraging me to join a whole ETA group trip to 六十石山, 60 Stone Mountain. I’ve got to say I was excited to get to see everyone together again. I’ve gone back to Taitung City, but I haven’t been able to make a group dinner yet due primarily to the distance between Guan Shan 關山(my town) and the city, and also to the fact that I’ve visited Taipei to see Sean intead of 台東城市, Taitung City. However, the torrential downpour that occurred Friday afternoon put a boot in those plans. With my school’s playground flooding it was determined a trip to the mountains the next day wasn’t as safe on wet roads. I changed my plans and instead I went into the city with Sean and saw an art exhibit, happened across a blue festival - which oddly enough included rapping, and went to my favorite restaurants in the city (dumplings and smoothies).
Even the corgis are dressed in traditional Amis outfits.
Despite enjoying my relaxing day in the sun walking around the city, I found out that the other the ETAs in Guan Shan 關山, other than Crystal and myself who chose to go to the city, had still gone to the mountain. Their pictures were beautiful. I was a little upset to be left out. From August to the end of September the mountain is covered in day lilies. I thought that on missing the chance to go with the other Guan Shan 關山ETA’s I wouldn’t be able to go before the flowers all died or were picked. Sean proposed that we go the next day on Sunday highlighting the fact that if the Guan Shan 關山ETAs could get there safe the day after a rainstorm we could go if it didn’t rain again.
Bright and early on Sunday we met Crystal by the Buddhist temple to leave for 六十石山. Sean was on the back of my scooter acting as navigator as Crystal followed behind. I had practiced driving around town with Sean on the back of my scooter, but it definitely didn’t prepare me for the ride ahead of us. The first 40 minutes of the ride was on a highway that has a designated scooter lane. I don’t think I went above 40 km, the speed limit is 60km, and Sean was still nervous on the back of the scooter. -Don’t worry mom and dad, you can drive under the speed limit like that as long as you are on the right side of the scooter lane.-The closer we got to the mountain the more caravans we ran into on the road. The vans were always in groups of 4, labeled 1, 2, 3, and 5. Number 4, 四, in Chinese is pronounced similar to the word for death. As a result, buildings in China and Taiwan often skip floor number 4 and go from floor 3 to floor 5. Anyways, driving with these vans was a hassle. Every little bit I would pull over to the side so the vans could pass because it felt like a safer choice than continuing to ride amongst them on the narrow road.
The base of the mountain was easy. The DMV driving test to get our scooter license prepared us for it. The higher I got on the mountain the larger the incline and the narrower the turns. This is where it became difficult. I don’t want to say I blame Sean for making it harder, but, I blame Sean for making is a little harder. The extra weight on the scooter meant that on some of the inclines I could gun the engine and we would still barely move up. At one point I was convinced we were moving so slowly up that we would just start to fall down backwards down the mountain instead. I did have two almost accidents, but never fell. I like to say these small little “mishaps” were also made harder because I was turning a sharp turn while also trying not to hit the people walking on the right side as well. All said and done, we got up the mountain safely.
The day lilies were worth it. Every little bit on the path you could stop and go into the fields. We tried to only take the paths through the fields that people before us trampled so as to not injure the flowers anymore. I was lucky I remembered my allergy medicine that morning because just walking by the floors you would look down and have pollen on your arms and clothes. At one point it was almost like you were amongst the clouds. I will be honest that multiple times I broke out into song, singing “the hills are alive with the sound of music” and was horrified to find out the Sean. Yes, Sean, didn’t know who Julie Andrews was. It really made me rethink our relationship.
On another note, a trip in Taiwan isn’t complete without food and I tried most of it. We had fried day lilies which taste similar to fried zucchini. Even though there were bags ready to be taken, the woman insisted on making a new batch for us. She sprinkled pepper on top and I could’ve eaten three more bags of that deep-fried goodness. I decided to jump fully into the whole flower theme and instead of buying a traditional popsicle like Sean and Crystal did, I think they chose passion fruit, I got the day lily flavor. Although day lilies had a flavor deep-fried they do not in a popsicle. That wasn’t the best choice of popsicle. It was more like a sugary popsicle with a really strange texture.
As it neared 11:00 we started to get ready to leave. We hiked back down the mountain to where our scooters were parked. I think this portion of the trip was the most frustrating because out of the whole parking lot area someone decided to park their scooter so close to mine that I was unable to push mine forward to get the brake off. Sean ended up having to hold the handlebars of the other scooter straight so that I could push my scooter forward to release the brake. Then as I struggled to turn my scooter around everyone was just watching. There were older women that just kept walking in front of my running scooter as I tried to exit the parking lot which was up a slight hill. As I slowly starting nosing my way forward apprehensive of when I should join the traffic no one offered any help. I was entertainment as they waited for their van drivers to return with their tour vans. Putting myself in their shoes I might’ve done the same thing, but in the moment I was getting entirely frustrated and stressed. Those feelings carried into the long journey back down the mountain.
If I thought the ride up was hard the ride down was even harder. I was so scared I would touch the acceleration accidentally so I ended up turning the engine off completely. I wasn’t even coasting down. I was full on riding the brakes. I couldn’t have squeezed those brakes harder the entire way down. I ended up coxing myself down the mountain taking each new turn and decline as a new challenge. I was so thankful that the way to 池上, Chi Shang the neighboring town that has my Chinese tutoring classes, was straight on Route #9. I flew there wanting to be done with driving as fast as possible. We made it into town and without even making it to the train station, Sean asked if he could get off at the corner opting to walk the rest of the way. I don’t blame him. When I sat down for lunch after meeting up with the other 關山ETAs for Chinese class I was still feeling the rumble of the engine in my arms and the pump of my adrenaline.
I came away from this excursion with great pictures, a good story, and even more confidence in my driving going forward. Nothing can be as bad as that mountain.
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