[Taiwan] Chapter XLI: In which the Taiwanese hospitality overwhelms us

When we were children in elementary school, there used to be a joke that went something like this: A child arrives late to school and, when asked by the teacher why, explains that he had been delayed, helping an old lady to cross the street. The teacher commends him on his kindness and helpfulness, but cannot help but wonder about his excuse, for he was more than an hour late, to which the child replies that indeed the whole affair took that long, because the old lady kept

insisting that she didn't want to cross the street.

That child may well have been Taiwanese, where abundant helpfulness is always around the corner, even if on rare occasions you wish you could refuse it. You cannot.

From Taipei, we took a short train ride --- our first in quite a few years --- in a north-easterly direction, to the small village of Jiufen, which we used as a hub for exploring selected sights around Taiwan's North-East coast. In that respect we were slightly hindered by rather fierce rains on three of the five days we spent there (and light drizzles on the other two). But we did not let it stop us. Clad in white plastic calf-long raincoats and armed with coloured umbrellas, we ventured daily into the rain, making extensive use of Taiwan's excellent train and bus network to quickly get to where we wanted to go, mostly natural phenomena, all easily accessible on short hikes (1-3 km) along well-maintained and well-designed nature trails.

We visited Nanya (wind-carved and wave-sculpted rock formations), Bitou Cape (a hilly peninsula offering panoramic sea views), Gold Waterfall (a medium-sized waterfall in what was once a gold-mining region, where the water and soil are still yellowish, even if not necessarily with gold), and Shifen Waterfall (a much larger and very dramatic waterfall set in a park all to itself).

And let us not forget that Jiufen itself, where we lodged, is a major attraction in its own right, with thousands of Chinese and Taiwanese tourists literally packing its long and narrow old street, come primarily to enjoy the many culinary titbits offered on the hundreds of food stalls --- from pork sausages to stinky tofu, from taro balls to oolong tea. And we too found it better than similar places we saw in the region (e.g. Keelung night market, Shifen old street), especially one tiny vegetarian eatery at no. 63 Jishan Street, which although ostensibly having eight items on its menu (six of which are variations of the same soup), is an attraction first and foremost for its famous Vegetarian Red Vinasse Meatball Dumpling, which we ate six times in the five days we stayed in Jiufen.

The one place we did not like in our tour of the region was Houtong, which was described as a cat village with "hordes of feral moggies that thrive there". What we found instead was a touristy village with some bored and overfed domesticated cats (thanks to the food bowls and litter boxes made available by the local villagers to ensure that the cats --- their livelihood --- stay around), some of which are actively being used as semi-willing live attractions (e.g. where one old lady --- perhaps the one who didn't want to cross the street --- was demonstrating to a handful of tourists how to dry-wash a cat). After ten or so minutes, when we came across a mewling cat locked in a crate, with a sign explaining that he was being kept there to "reflect on its bad behaviour", we turned around and went back to the train station.

Accommodations:
- Jiufen Ligin B&B, Jiufen (nice and wonderfully located two short flights of stairs from the old street, but with a tad overhelpful and overhospitable owner)

Photo captions: (a-n) Jiufen Old Street; (o-p) views from Jiufen down to the bay; (q-w) Nanya; (x-ee) Bitou Cape; (ff-gg) a temple in Bitou; (hh-ii) Gold Waterfall; (jj-ll) launching wish lanterns in Shifen Old Street; (mm-tt) Shifen Waterfall and nearby; (uu-yy) cats of Houtong; (zz) snails of Houtong