Any place under the sun... Maybe next time.

My intention was to go around Taiwan and invest heavily on the East side and its nature. I also wanted to take a nature trail from Sun Moon Lake to Alishan mountain and sleep somewhere in between. However, my biggest fan, the typhoon, found me again, destroyed the road to Alishan and a bridge to the East side, as well as stopping most trains, immobilising me in Douliu.

I do not complain though. My host is just great, and the mood of heavy rain is not bad. After waiting out the rain I visit my host's hometown and am taken to Sun Moon Lake, which is a major disappointment. No nature trail, and the views are mostly ruined by urban design. There is no way I would stay there overnight. My host finds me another place to stay for the night before I go to Kaohsiung.

Moving on to Kaohsiung, I find yet another host who meets me with a friend and they take me to see the sunset at a harbour. We climb a small rock to get a better view, even though people try to stop us, saying it is dangerous. It is not. After sunset we have dinner and my host explains to me that because of family staying over I cannot, but it does not matter because there is again another person to put me up for the night. In the morning I go out with one of the people I met last night to eat a bowl of great beef noodles and I try to commit the taste to memory so I might be able to recreate it at home.

Having left part of my travel belongings to Douliu, I have to stop there to pick them up before returning to Taipei.

My final host turns out to be a nice person, to none of my surprise. With a friend she helps me to gather gifts and we have good foods. My mind is already in Malaysia though, and during my last day in Taiwan I only try to make the time pass faster so that I can more quickly step on the plane and be on my way.

Seeing the natural parts of Taiwan, camping out and wandering did not happen this time. These I will have to leave for another visit.

Typhoon tamer, snake eater.

One day Formosa is beautiful and the sun casts a golden glow over the island. The next day the typhoon strikes. I wonder if it will follow me home when the time comes to return. I move from Taipei to Zhongli, where I have the chance to eat snake in a soup. It is disappointingly stale, but I hear that in one district in Taipei it is possible to find something a little more special. Fortunately I will go to Taipei again later.

While struggling through the spiny meat, a man I come to know only as the Boss joins my and my host's table. He speaks no English, but my host translates. When the Boss was younger, he went to New Zealand where his lack of language skill was a trouble. However, he met a Chinese-speaking man who showed him around and helped him in many ways. He says that because of this, he wants to give me a similar experience and asks if I am free the following day. I am.

In the morning, however, I have another appointment. My host is a high school teacher, and he asked me if I would like to go speak to his class in the morning. He had already promised I would to his students. I gladly go, of course. The students seem thrilled to have a visitor and ask me many questions. Sadly I was not prepared to ask them anything, so when the time comes when they wonder if I want to ask something, in my mind I only have silly things such as "why do young Taiwanese not drink tea" or "why does every Taiwanese consistently want to 'ax' me a question".

After class, an employee of the Boss, accompanied by two of the Boss's kids, picks me up. We go to a farm to meet the Boss and see lotus flowers, after which we go for lunch in a place that serves Hakka cuisine. Then we go to enjoy tea at the Boss's office. He asks which teas I like and then offers me some of them as a gift, not taking a "no" for an answer. I am left with the feeling that the combined worth of these gifts plus the meals of the day is more than my life, but the Boss wants me to think nothing of it.

In the evening the Boss invites my host and his friends for dinner. My host cannot make it because of his work, but five of his friends join me, the Boss and his family. The Boss orders all kinds of animals for us to eat, frog and turtle among the more interesting ones. It seems I am allergic to turtle meat as well. Oh well. One of my host's friends chats with me in Japanese while the rest speak Chinese among themselves.

Throughout the day I have had fierce stomach cramps, which somehow amplify the surreal feel of the day. After returning to my host, they subside and let me sleep peacefully.