Welcome to Wulai

Sitting at a lil tourist cafe in the lil tourist land of Wulai. I got up at my typical 4:30 am and was out of the house by 630 after an hour of productive travel planning and organizing my stuff. I walked out of SJ's very quiet neighborhood. It is a Monday which is more of a "weekend" feeling that I was expecting- all of the stands in the morning market are completely closed. I was hungry (ate some yogurt and fruit at 5am) and because SJ the wheat avoider was not with me, I got a giant, soft, fluffy bun from Family Mart as my second breakfast. 

I took the green line metro train to the end of the line and then got on bus 849 out of the city. The terrain quickly became very mountainous, the road winding around the hairpins of the road as it hugged the mountain. Verdant, bouncy vegetation with intermittant drizzling. The bus was full of workers, school kids, and older people and it was very full so I did not pull out my phone to take many photos of this beautiful scenery. Fairly densely spaced were houses, institutional buildings( we passed bus stops for a sewage treatment plant, a police training center and a Boy Scout's club), and then just a gorgeously adorned temple. I love it and I wanted to visit every one!

Eventually I tracked my location to just above Wulai and and got off the bus. Stopped to climb up to this suspension bridge and enjoy the view. Then walked through the very quiet start to the city- almost nothing was open and it was starting to rain. I've foolishly not brought an umbrella on any of my day trips so far so I walked back through the town street to the only store that was open at that time and bought an umbrella and a grilled rice stick. This is a paste of glutenous rice (think the texture of mochi) that is on a stick and then grilled. You can get a variety of toppings on it, sweet or savory. I choose brown sugar syrup with peanut dust on it. Third breakfast!

Happy with my stick, I wandered through the rest of the town, looking at the many hotels advertising their hot tubs that could be filled with the hot springs water. I had thought that there was a public bath similar to Beitou but it didn't look like that was the case and I was having some feelings about the possibilities that existed after I had come all this way out here.

But, in the mean time I focused on the other attraction in Wulai- the log cart rail railroad and the log cart museum. The area had been first logged by the Japanese colonizers and then became a tourism spot for Japanese colonizers. There was a hand-powered rail way that went up and down the mountain. This has been preserved in the form of a tiny novelty train that cost $.66 to ride one way. As a single person, I got put in the front with the driver and got a front row seat for this very dinky train adventure. I of course documented this for your viewing pleasure.

At the top, I spent some time at the Logging museum, much of it with a sweetly enthuisastic guide who was determined to explain to me in English the exact content that was written on the exhibition descriptions, in English.

The museum had a viewing platform on its bottom floor for the dramatic waterfall that feeds into the river, so I spent some time enjoying 4th breakfast of an onigiri and watched it flow, as well as felt pessimistic about my possibility of finding a place to bathing where I wouldn't feel like I was either a prostituion studio or, like, Aspen CO.

Eventually, I left the waterfall and walked up to the tourist trap area above it. There are and were the native Aytal people who originally lived in the area, so the stores around the waterfall had a lot of "woven handicraft" vibes, most of which looked tacky and manufactured. I went to a cafe that had a sign advertising some homemade teas and ordered an iced coffee because it was noon and my body was telling me it was either time to sleep or die. The coffee was great- ice cubes of frozen coffee and flavored with what I think are white peppercorns, adding this super tangy taste to it and something to chew on, which I always appreciate.

After working on my blog and chilling for a bit, I paid and the shopkeeper asked if I was going mountain climbing- there is a big hike to a cliff several k away. Flattered, I said no and that I was just looking for bathing options. He indicated my phone and marked a place for me back in the main town area, telling me to follow the path down to the right.

Leaving the tourist area, I enjoyed the 1.5k walk back down the mountain, stopping to touch some of the tiny streams flowing down the mountainside. Yet again, Taiwan imresses me with its road infracturecture- even on a tiny one lane mountain road, there was a designated place to walk! It was also evident that this place was not in its heyday, there were a lot of abandoned/decrepit resorts and restaurants.

Back in the town, I saw a little sidewalk leading down to the river from the sidewalk, and followed it down. To my left was a lone man with his feet in the river. To my right was a pathway made of concrete blocks, sandbags, the riverbed itself, and tamped down grass. I felt anxious but thought about it- literally no one has warned me about mugging, raping or killing in Taiwan, this path was well marked, it was the middle of the day with good weather, and my friend knew where I was. I continued down the path for a good bit, then saw a few older men swimming in the river, hopping off a concrete slab built into a rock that formed part of the bank. I put down my backpack and set up the umbrella over it (top tip for visibility AND protecting your stuff if it starts to rain!), then waded into the water. It was cool and grey, with a smooth sandy bottom with large rocks at surprising intervals. I stayed in a little shallow "lee" of the river, not past my knees for most of it, and staggering carefully as i encountered rocks. I watched them and was able to get in deep enough to swim, staying carefully out of the intense current in the center of the river and paddling so as to stay in place.

If you know me, you know I'm a river baby, so this was pretty wonderful for me. I had the challenge of the water, the sky and mountains and folliage for my eyes, very gentle rain hitting my face, and such happiness that I took this trip bouncing in my heart. I took a break from swimming and stood in the shallower area, stretching my legs. The sand below me was actively warm, warmer than the water. I started to think that this was the area with the hot spring in it, and look closer at the behavior of the people nearby. There were 5-10 older people milling around the area to my right, on the far side of this big rock. I had assumed they were swimming, fishing, homeless, washing clothes, or just out for a stroll, but I looked closer ( I hadn't want to stare at first) and it was definitely possible they were doing things you do before and after you dunk in super hot water- stretching, drinking tea, breathing deeply. There were some makeshift tents set up with bamboo polls and tarps, and life vests and life rings strung up along the retaining wall that held up the road above. A person would climb up on a concrete slab that I has assumed was just for erosion prevention, and they'd climb down into the rock!

A guy in a speedo saw me looking, and told me "hot water! Want to swim?" I nodded and he showed me the set up- first, "wash your body" using containers dipped into a bucket collecting water coming out of a hose from the ground- not so hot. Dip your feet into the mini pool of hot springs water that ran along the perimiter of the concrete area then step onto the cement slab. There were two holes in the concrete, "big hot" and "not big hot," accessed by rock steps suck into the concrete and using some rebar as grab bars. I went into "not big hot" first and found myself in a small, deep pool of hot springs water, about the volume of a car. the slab covered about 60% of the roof of the car, leaving lots of air circulation but lots of cover. To one side was a wall made of sandbags, and on the other side of that was "big hot," a similar set up but smaller size. Both sides were really hot but I could only tolerate big hot for a minute or so.

Fully in the moment, I spent about an hour alternating between the hot pool, wading in the river, and splashing off with the running water. This is one of my forms of spiritual practice and I was so happy and engaged. People came and went- a mother and teenage son, who both sat meditating in different areas. Two women who went bathing in their long sleeve clothing, modest and dripping. A guy stretched out his back over a truck tire that I had assumed was just debris- no, it was for spinal decompression! My litte umbrella set up remained untouched in the light rain. I'm very grateful for this experience.

Eventually, some younger Chinese and white people showed up and started to talk about swimming across the river and walking all over the place with their shoes on, so I took my leave and headed back up to the main road. what a time out of mind.

I was starving and incecisive so I bought a box of twelve mochi balls. Delicous (filled with/rolled in sesame, peanut, red bean and taro/coconut) but also my 4th or 5th serving of a rice product so far that day....

I briefly walked through the musem of Aytal history and ethnobotany that was unfortunately freezing and did not have any signage in English, then headed up the road to a bus stop where I waited in an orderly line of benches with many tourists for many minutes until our bus came. Rode that to the end of the metro line, then got on the train to meet SJ in the park where they were playing ball with the dog.

The landlord had come by to fix the rooftop water tank so they were feeling better than before, but had spent much of the day in "waiting mode" so we decided to have some de-stressing and then went back to the delights described in "Assorted Treasures" - food, foot massages and more food.