In Kaoshiung I met a few friends and visited Felix, a german I already teamed on his Information Seminar for ICYE in Germany.
He is working in the local youth and children center, mostly being there for the kindergarten.
He seems to be doing well, so I dont regret recommending him to come here.
In the evening I then stayed with Didi, another old friend from the times at the firedepartment.
After Kaohsiung I set out for Kending to see the parents of my good friend Lin. On the way I encountered some heavy rain and the Kleppermantel, a heavy duty raincoat my I inherited from my grandfather, when he used to ride to work with his motorcycle, could prove its use.
In Fangliao I dropped by at one of the recent civil servants who is now serving at the Fangliao Lutheran Church. As a big coincidence he happened to have visitors, two from the ICYE Taiwan office.
Unless the others he is not so satisfied here, mostly because he expected more than being "trapped" in that fishing village in the middle of nowhere.
Anyways, in the afternoon I arrived at Checheng and put my luggage with Lins parents. Then I set out for a trip around the south tip of Taiwan, also visiting the most southern tip of Taiwan, and we all met again for dinner at Kending.
I am really grateful to have those hosts here, always a good place to stop by.
The next morning I then prepared to ride to Taidong, everydays ride being a bit further than the one before.
Its good to be on the road, very often beautiful winding parts through hills and valleys, along the coast and back in the countryside. I enjoy being able to let my mind wander and it still doesnt get boring because there is always so much new to see. So after all its good to ride alone, again a very different experience from taking this trip with friends.
The only problem is, riding the scooter all day is quite stressfull on ones behind, making it a bit uncomfortable from time to time. But one gets used to it, after the second day its getting better.
Arriving in Taidong I visited the Kindergarten where my friend Vincent, the exchangee from france, has been and promtly got invited by the headmaster to stay at their place. Just to well because Taidong has been the place where I havent been able to contact my possible hosts up to that point.
This whole trip again has been a chain of great encounters of friends, old and new, who were so helpful with everything.
So I stayed at the house which has been a home to Vincent two years ago, also quite feeling at home, listening to the stories about school of the guestsister, playing with Dong Dong, the youngest and just being part of the family.
But the next morning I went on, up to Hualian, two thirds of the coast up north.
One interesting detail, along this part of the coast, mostly just a narrow strip of plain land before high mountains rising high up, I saw many many small churches, even more numberful than 7-Eleven, which means quite a lot in Taiwan. Mostly being of two denominations, seemingly batteling for the hearts of the believers along the middle east coast.
In Hualian I stayed with a couchsurfer, Blanchard, being his first visitor. He showed me around his University, a massive compound, almost like a small city of its own, and some roads up the hills with a great view over Hualian.
He is originally from Hualian but because his university is about half an hour out of the city he had a small appartment there. This place he gave me all form myself, quite a comfortable couch.
After having breakfast with him, I set out for the furthest and most dangerous part of the trip, the "coastal highway" along the ridges of the mountainrange north of Taroko Gorge.
I cant really describe the beauty of the landscape, even the pictures dont fully capture it. Big mountains, narrow valleys, a road carved into the steep wall, from time to time rivers coming out of the mountain. Just one of the most beautiful roads I have ever taken. And as I already said, very dangerous, big trucks taking the narrow turns with big speed, at other places landslides took half of the road far down into the ocean.
After this part of the road it got more even, trough a great river delta near Yi Lan. North of that the countryside changed, not the Mountains rising right out of the ocean but basalt reefs making of a shallow coastline, gentler hills on the other side of the road. Winding up to the northern part of the country it got more mountainous again, as I came closer to the Yangmingshan National Park.
Finally at Keelong it really got beautiful again, especially one city, being located facing a bay, way up on the plain between two mountains, probably 300 meters above the sea, facing the oceans, like a city up in the sky.
The road still went on, up to the most northern point of Taiwan.
From there it was not far anymore to Danshui, the place of Xiao Du, where all my luggage is stored.
That day being saturday the 20th, I spent two days in Taibei, visiting friends all day and now today I took the mountain path to Xinchu, about 100 km southwest of Taibei. It was a great decicion to take the mountain road, again different landscape, this time mostly bamboo forests swinging in te first gusts of wind from the approaching Taiphoon.
Here still the text of the newspaperreport by 吳濡均, the daughter of the director of the fire department.
愛上台灣 德青年騎機車環島
曾在消防局服役的德國青年梅佑昇，昨日與消防局長吳明芳相見歡，在吳明芳悉心叮嚀後，梅佑昇即踏上環島之旅。 （記者吳濡均攝）
記者吳濡均／南市報導
三年前曾到台南市消防局服役的德國青年梅佑昇，返德後始終心繫台灣，今年利用暑假回到台灣，打算騎機車實現環島夢，用行動愛台灣；昨日先到消防局拜訪老朋友後出發，他開心的說：「台灣是我的第二個故鄉！」
梅佑昇於九十四年八月，透過「台灣國際青年文化交流協會」的安排，選擇至台灣服役，因此結下深厚緣分；他說，和台灣一樣，德國憲法規定，男子上大學前需服兵役，在當地服役只要九個月，但還有一項特別的選擇，役男可到國外服務，不但可增廣見聞，也是特別的體驗。
梅佑昇來台後負責防災教育館的介紹與操作，身為台南市消防局第一批外籍替代役，異國面孔常引起民眾好奇，反而成為消防局的特色。
他表示，來台前也曾對非英語系的國家，感到害怕，擔心溝通障礙。不到半年，梅佑昇不但練得一口好中文，還能用中文打字，成立專門記載台灣點滴的部落格，且深深愛上台灣的熱情與好客，因此決定找機會再回台灣。
在消防局服役間，雖然已玩遍台灣，梅佑昇仍想嘗試自己騎機車環島，希望用最簡單的方式，好好欣賞台灣之美，今年總算趁著升大三的暑假，實現夢想，昨日靠著一輛機車和簡單的地圖，從消防局出發，消防局長吳明芳也在行前，祝他一路順風。
2008/09/16 18:41
