[Taiwan] Chapter XLIII: In which Taiwan betrays a very jingly tune

Previously, whenever we would hear a vehicle driving through the streets, playing a jingly tune, we would think "an ice-cream van". Not anymore; not in Taiwan.

In Taiwan, a vehicle driving through the streets, playing a jingly tune, is a garbage truck, calling upon home and shop owners to bring out their dust bins and recycle cans. And it's the very same tune in every single city and town that we have been through, every single afternoon and evening (except perhaps Sundays).

And it's not the only jingly tune that we have become accustomed to. There's also the one you hear every single time the sliding glass door of a convenience store opens, whether you're in the store, or entering it yourself, or in your hotel bedroom, if its window just happens to face a convenience store. And do remember that Taiwan has the highest density of convenience stores per capita in the world (1 store per 2,500 people, more than 10,000 in total throughout the island, almost half of them being 7-Eleven).

And to top it all, it's Christmas time. And although it is not a holiday celebrated in Taiwan, nothing prevents more tourist-oriented shops --- despite not displaying a single non-Chinese character anywhere on premise --- from playing "Jingle Bells"over and over again in a loop.

But the Taiwanese have been wise enough to also create places where one is safe from jingly tunes. They call these places national parks, or nature parks, or forest recreation areas, or scenic areas, and they are often a sight to behold and their serenity and silence a most welcome respite for jingly tunes.

And we came to the South East Coast --- a semi-tropical region that overflows with Taiwanese and Chinese tourists during the hot summer months, but a lot more pleasant now, during the warm winter --- to visit four of these safe havens:
- The Kenting National Forest Recreation Area: Sits on a mountain of coral risen from the sea, with coral cliffs and coral rocks and coral caves and coral ravines, as well as large banyan trees with hanging aerial roots, splendid sea views (on less windy days than we came on), skittish macaque monkeys (we glimpsed two running away), and even a modest botanic garden.
- The Sheding Nature Park: Similar in nature to the Kenting park, with no caves, but with more gorgeous gorges, many fluttering-by butterflies, and a million pavilions (actually only two, but it rhymes better).
- The Chuhuo Special Scenic Area: A minuscule curiosity composed of three fissures in the ground from which natural gas escapes, visible in the form of continuously burning flames (not immensely impressive, but still something we have never seen anywhere before)
- The Island of Little Liuqiu: A small island situated 20 km from the mainland (reached by a 30-minute ferry and easily navigated by bicycle), with coastal grottoes, inlets and beaches, wind-sculpted rock formations, and coral and limestone cliffs covered in ferns, vines, fig and banyan trees, as well as lots of temples (like everywhere in Taiwan).

Accommodations:
- Hananoi Bed and Breakfast, Hengchun (4 nights; very nice, despite being remarkably breakfastless)
- Tapeng Bay Holiday Hotel, Donggang (2 nights; very nice, and with breakfast included)

Photo captions: (a-k) Kenting National Forest Recreation Area; (l-x) Sheding Nature Park; (y-z) Chuhuo Special Scenic Area; (aa-qq) Little Liuqiu Island; (rr-tt) a few wood sculptures seen on Little Liuqiu Island; (uu) the sea (and black sand) as seen from the train going south; (vv) Kenting beach; (ww-xx) walls and gate of old Hengchun; (yy) sunset near Hengchun; (zz) a dragon fruit; (aaa-ddd) food stalls at the Hengchun weekly night market