Found the Mountain Top and Peanut Butter Ice Cream

From Danshui – Bali, Kwan Yin Shan was easier (but not easy) to get to. I wandered around for a while and felt *so* tired before finally finding a way to the mountain through a graveyard. Hard to miss the graveyard. Seems like the whole northern side of the mountain(s) was covered by graveyards.

Anyway, energy finally started coming back about a third of the way up. Something to think about. When you don’t know how to get to where you want to go, you feel tired. When you think you’re on the way, hey, lots of energy.

So, more stairs. And more stairs. And … when the stairs are arranged in switchbacks, you know it’s steep.

Got to the top to find a crowd. Expected a parking lot. Nope. They’d all come up the other side. So, after looking around and shooting some long shots, I start running down the stairs on the other side.

Somewhere on the way down, I met a guy and his daughter who were also going down. We all struck up a multilingual laughothon and picture taking extravaganza. His English was 4 years of school and almost zero conversation. Interesting effect. He could spell faster than I, but was really working to remember the words. Anyway, they ended up taking me to the famous Shi Lin night market where we had what I’m guessing by the little tentacles was octopus. And, the 13-year had peanut butter ice cream, too. A good time was had by all.

If I’ve not said it, it should be noted that Taiwan is a very friendly country. Rather American in openness.

Ah, one thing too. Several local people have said that I have “courage” for going to Taiwan alone, etc. Interesting, that reaction.

3 Responses to “Found the Mountain Top and Peanut Butter Ice Cream”

  1. Tom says:

    My uncle married someone from Taiwan about 5 years ago. He was remarking that Taiwan was an amazingly safe place.

    A few of his examples:
    – if you look down a dark alley you are more likely to find a mother and child walking than you are to find someone with a knife looking to rob you.

    – pregnant women are put on a pedestal by the society at large. a woman that is with-child would not be allowed to do strenuous tasks if anyone was nearby and noticed. his main analogy on this point was that if a pregnant woman were to be reaching up to the top shelf of an aisle in a supermarket, someone would run over and get the item for them, and then keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t try it again. he said it’s because children are highly valued in Taiwan, and people can easily imagine how important that child would be to them, so they project that and act accordingly.

    So, confirm/deny?

    Thanks for sharing your experiences!

    -Tom

  2. Tom says:

    Well that turned out to be a strangely formatted comment!

  3. Word here is that Taipai is, indeed, a very safe city. Tokyo is the only place that gets higher marks, but Tokyo is apparently off the safeness scale.

    No question that little dark alleys are not scary. In fact, I’ve eaten in at least one restaurant that can only be accessed thru the end of a tiny alley.

    Taiway may be Ben Franklin land from the work ethic point of view, but it sure seems to be my kinda place so far as hours are concerned. Late to bed, late to rise. So, yes, late at night you’ll see many, many unaccompanied women of all ages on any street. Latin America it ain’t.

    Not a lot of pregnant women to be seen, so I can’t comment on that. But it sounds perfectly believable.