How to Quarantine in South Korea

Travel? In 2021? Are you mad? 

Perhaps a little. Here's my lowdown of government mandated quarantine in South Korea if you are looking to travel there for ✨tourist purposes✨. I say this because I was the first tourist in Seoul many people had met in nearly two years. The ladies working in the tourist information centres practically had cobwebs on them. 

Genuinely in the corridor on the way to our quarantine hotel room

What you will need to enter Korea as a mythical tourist:

• Flights (or a ferry)
• Negative PCR test (within 48 or 72 hours of arrival), print this out and highlight the word 'negative'
• KETA form: this can be filled in on the KETA app, but I printed out the certificate for customs
• An address in Korea where you will stay post-quarantine
• A Korean resident or national to act as a reference (they will get called and asked if they know you are coming)
• I did not have to arrange a visa because Brits have a 90 day tourist visa automatically
• Travel Insurance - I got asked for this at the airport, I had it but it wasn't printed out which seemed to be a bit of an issue

The airport procedure

This is where is gets a bit Squid Game, although I am loathe to say it, mostly because of the hazmat suits. Disembark your plane and collect your luggage, and then as you approach customs, non-Korean citizens are separated into a different queue where your temperature and paperwork will be checked for quarantine.

Prepare to be shuffled around the airport to various cordoned off locations, it passes the time and helps you feel like there is progress. Don't bother asking any of the airport staff helping you which hotel you will end up at, it's a total lottery and they don't know. 

One thing I missed at Incheon airport was the SIM card stand - there aren't many places to get SIM cards in Korea if you are not a Korean resident. If you have a recent enough phone model, you can purchase an e-sim through Trazy.com or LG U+ online. This will add a virtual SIM to your phone, giving you a Korean number and data to use. I would recommend getting the data+voice e-SIM rather than just data, as you will need a telephone number to check into shops and restaurants to abide by Covid regulations. The benefits are you don't have to do the fiddly work of trying to open up your phone and there's no risk of losing your regular SIM card, too. If your mobile is an older model, look out for the SIM card stall (likely SKT) in the airport to get a short term SIM. 

Next was the bus - at this point you are shepherded by people in full hazmat suits and you are not allowed to remove your mask. One very irate smoker was determined to test this in the few moments we had outside loading our luggage into the bus: it did not end well for the smoker and I wonder if he had any plans to go cold turkey for 10 days before going to Korea. 

The Hotel 

At the hotel I had another PCR test, filled in more forms and paid for my "stay". 

The forms are essentially an agreement not to leave the room for the allotted time and to take health tests (this involves taking your temperature twice a day, everyday, and logging it on a health app). We had to download another app. If I remember correctly, the app on the left was downloaded at the airport, and app on the left at the hotel. 

I don't know the difference so I uploaded my temperature info into both apps

You are able to quarantine with another person so long as they are a family member (I'm not sure how far this extends beyond immediate family - sorry cousins!) and your spouse. I got a discount on the quarantine fees by staying in a joint room for 10 days: approx £1136 for the two of us, which if I remember correctly is a discount of 40% each compared to staying in separate rooms.

As it is South Korea, I was banking on there being excellent internet connection in the hotel: I was not disappointed. There were two of us on international video calls (an absolute mare in one room) with no problems. 

Weird features of the stay include speaker announcements inside the room three times a day reminding guests to NEVER LEAVE THEIR ROOM, to not open the window too wide, and to not smoke.

Highlights of the quarantine was definitely the view. Although balcony-less and unable to open the window fully without a finger-wagging from the policeman below - I was able to watch the sunrise over Incheon in the East and set over the island we were on in the West, all the time tracking its way over the ocean and Incheon bridge. The outside became another world, like the other side of a mirror, full of observable but unreachable tiny figures, birds, and, occasionally, some cats.

 

Food

There were "no beef", "no pork" and vegetarian options available when checking into the quarantine hotel. If you are vegetarian - prepare to have protein sources replaced by bread rolls. I have included a photo below of the four-carb dinner comprised of boiled rice, potato curry, a hash brown and a bread roll. 

It's surreal to hear the doorbell ring at the same time each day, and have bags of food mystically appear outside. Food was generally good - lots of pickles - and in a good quantity so you won't go hungry. 

We did need to order extra water via the telephone as we were given one 500ml bottle of water per meal, which was not enough for this thirsty ho.

 

Leaving

Departing the hotel was a rather unceremonious affair. Of course, the first time I had been outside in 10 days and it was pouring with rain. 

A few days before release, we were given the options of having either, some one collect us from the hotel in a vehicle, or get dropped off at a nearby train station by the hotel minibus. We plumped for the public transport option. On the 10th day of quarantine, I was packed and ready to say goodbye to my prison cell hotel room at the pre-allotted time of 8am. And from the moment you leave the room, it's face masks all the way. 

Given that so much paper work is needed to enter the hotel, it felt very strange to be leaving without even a signature. And with that, we were off into the big, wide world of South Korea. 

Let me know if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer. Although I will caveat that this experience is time-bound to late 2021 and travel restrictions and regulations will change. 

Cherry Picking Festival 采樱桃节

For a few weeks in May, the cherry trees over Laoshan swell with fruit. It is a considerable drive out from Shinan District of Qingdao, but we were fortunate enough to be accompanied by our translation teacher, Mr Luo. 

There were make-shift stalls set up on the side of the motorway for several miles before even reaching the mountains. As we drove past, the pedlars would shake their branches of cherries out into the road over handwritten signs saying '樱桃'. Mr Luo took us deep into Laoshan, to a place called 我乐 where a friend kept a plot of cherry trees. 

Stands selling cherries every few metres

A 我乐 (wo-le) hillside 

It was a muggy day, the air was warm and thick with pollutants, even though the teachers seemed intent on proclaiming the freshness of the mountain air.

Laoshan Cherries are much smaller than the ones we are accustomed to in the West, and are bright, vivid red, similar to Glace cherries. They are sweet, but not excessively so, to the extent that you can pick at a constant rate for over half an hour and not feel full or sick.

The trees do not grow very high - easy pickings!

These cherries are smaller than plums

Mr Luo then treated us to a welcoming lunch with his family. The meal was bursting with traditional Shandong and Qingdao dishes, but as Alice and Will don't eat seafood, the onus was on me to eat the majority of the squid and fish. Not that I'm complaining. To finish off the meal, Alice and I went for a short stroll up one of the country roads. Every house seemed to have several of their own trees, and numerous patches for growing vegetables. We came to the top of a peak and found two young girls with bamboo sticks stoking the water of a pond full of frogs. I remember this because they were the first people in China to talk to me without first expressing some shock at my foreign appearance (even though it is slight), and to talk without hesitation that I, as a foreigner, would not understand. Neither of them cared that Alice and I were foreign but could speak Chinese, which was nice for once.

On departure, each of us were given a large box of cherries to take home as a gift. All in all, a very successful day picking and eating cherries.

Adventures in Chengdu and Xian 在成都和西安探险

Ya'an Bi Feng Xia Base for CCRCGP 

My write-up on this trip is a very overdue, as I left for Chengdu on the 9th of May. I've been busier than usual since then, with my mother and sister coming to visit me in QD, exams, and getting ready to leave. However, this was the most memorable and my favourite experience of my year abroad in China. I was looking forward to this from the moment I touched down in the Middle Kingdom last August, and I finally got to complete my dream of hanging out with giant pandas.

My volunteer card, if you lose it theres a fee of 1000RMB 

Me cleaning up an outdoor enclosure 

Unfortunately, Szechuan had been hit by another Earthquake just a few weeks before we went. Tours to the panda reserves had stopped running. After some sassy research by Will, we were able to find an independent tour guide willing to drive us for over two hours out of Chengdu to reach the Bi Feng Xia base.

We set of at 6am from the Shangri-la (got a free room upgrade, our room had a living room and two bathrooms, ain't nobody got time for that), and I promptly fell asleep. I woke up an hour later, and found the cleanest, clearest air I've breathed in all year. There were Szechuan's snow capped mountains ripping into the sky at the horizon, but all else was flat, vast and green. We got back in the car, where I fell asleep again. 

The Bi Feng Xia base itself is in Ya'an, in the mountains. So the last past of the journey was spent winding around slopes of bamboo forest. When we got to the base itself, we had to wait around for a while as our tour guide had to sort out our IDs and entrance. Following the earthquake, the base stopped letting tour groups and tourists enter, luckily volunteers were still allowed in. I'm glad I didn't have to explain my purpose there to an angry apparatchik. Especially after all the experience I have with Chinese offices, who seem to hold the personal mantra, 'make everything as bothersome and long as possible'. Anyway, after a bit of a wait, we got back in the car and drove a little further to the panda base.

We were greeted and taken to an office where we signed contracts with the panda base, nothing too rigorous, but essentially agreeing to be responsible and follow the instructions of the carers. It costs 700RMB a day to volunteer at the base, but there are more expensive options where you can play with the baby pandas in the panda kindergarten. Uniforms, gloves and lanyards were handed to us, and I'm still surprised they had a suit to fit Will. 

Then the mucky work began. Luckily a panda's diet is so fibrous that their doppings are still basically bamboo. We cleaned an outside enclosure, a couple of indoor enclosures, prepared bamboo, and cleared up the compound (which was the compound for pregnant female pandas). As we were cleaning up one pen, a panda was sitting in the one next door. It nonchalantly watched us clean up its mess, as it sat leaning against the wall, belly out, munching on some bamboo. 

I think our instructor gave us a lot of freedom because we could speak Chinese, which was great. Our instructor had been working there for 4 years, and his favourite was Gongzhu (Princess), a supermum of a panda. He then brought out two platters, one for Fengyi and one for Gongzhu. Pandas spend most of the day eating bamboo and bamboo roots, but the platters contained a special cake, carrots, and apples. Our instructor had trained the pandas to reach out and hold a metal bar when they wanted feeding. Fengyi was very obedient, and would take whatever you gave her calmly, finish eating it, then stick her arm out for more. But because the instructor liked Gongzhu he didn't enforce this rule on her too harshly. Gongzhu also had an obvious preference for sweet foods, after I placed a carrot in her mouth she reached up, withdrew it and tossed it on the floor. After breakfast our chores were over, so we explored the base for a couple of hours until we had to return to feed them lunch. 

This is me feeding Fengyi, the 6 year old panda, her breakfast

Fengyi enjoying her cake

A young panda relaxing in the panda kindergarten.

Regrettably, we had to leave after we fed Fengyi and Gongzhu lunch because it was such a long drive back to Chengdu. However, we did meet some other volunteers (there weren't more than ten other volunteers in the entire base, it was so empty!) who were staying in Ya'an and came back to volunteer each day, of which I was very jealous. I don't think any zoo can really compare to the hands on experience I received at Bi Feng Xia. It was amazing how after such a short amount of time spent interacting with the pandas, you could still recognise out their individual personalities.

The next day, we only had a few hours to look around the city before flying off to Xian, which is a far too small amount of time to look around such a large, exciting and culturally rich city. From all the choice available, we chose to wonder around the People's Park (Renmin Park). Considering it is the main park in Chengdu, it was a lot smaller than I was expecting. And it was packed. Even the pedal boats (some had motors...) in the mini-lake had formed a traffic jam under a bridge. It was one of the nicest parks I've been too, especially in terms of things to do (tea houses, dancing, pedal boats, etc), but it was just too crowded. The most interesting part are the paths lined with advertisements for prospective marriage partners. It seems everyone there is a parent looking on behalf of their children.

Dating: Park Life Style. All the people, so many people, they all go hand in hand...

Then came Xian...

Whoo looking at the Terracotta Warriors! The most extensive guide I've found about visiting the Terracotta warriors can be found here: http://www.tour-beijing.com/blog/shaanxi-travel/xian-travel/how-to-visit-terracotta-army-in-xian/

Which can be summarised into:

• Take bus 306 from Xian Railway Station, a ticket should cost 7yuan. I've heard that there are fake 306 buses and other tourist trap buses who drop you off at their mate's factories. When I got on the 306 I noticed that no one was shouting from the door trying to coerce people into boarding. So avoid anyone trying to push you onto their bus. The Terracotta Warriors are the last stop on the 306, don't get off at Huaqing Hotspring or Qinshihuang's Mausoleum (unless you're into that).  
• Once you reach the site, you will be approached by a number of English speaking Chinese tour guides. If you already know a bit about the Terracotta Warriors, don't bother.
• There are student discounts available, halving the price of a ticket (150yuan for peak times of the year, 120yuan for other times).
• Once you decide you have had enough of the Warriors, you have a very long walk through endless shopping streets and complexes back to the bus stop. The guide warns that toilets in the shopping area are not free, so if you need the bathroom, be sure to go while you are still in the museum site. 
• The best tip from the guide is probably 'don't expect too much'. Which is sad, but true. With the huge numbers of tourists, you are corralled around the pits. You can get a feel for the vastness of Qinshihuang's project, but you don't get the intimacy with the warriors that comes with watching a documentary.  

 In another news, Xian was very, very hot and very, very dry.

In peace nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility, but when the blast of war blows in our ears...

....disguise fair nature with hard favoured rage. 

...then imitate the action of the tiger, stiffen the sinews...

Day two in Xian, Will and I met up with Alice and Leo to cycle several kilometres round the old city wall. After completing the circuit in record time and not dying on a tandem with Will, we head to the Muslim quarter, which was essentially just a long market street.

Alice and Leo mastering the tandem

Wall mural in the Muslim Quarter

Fun fact: I went to at least one buffet a day over this long weekend. Omnomnom.

Qingdao Travels Continued 在青岛旅游 第二部

Yushan pagoda 小鱼山

Yushan Pagoda was built in 1984

Once again, thanks to our Beijing classmates, Danni and Beijia, for giving me the impetus to finally tour the city I've been living in these past nine months. From the station we made the usual trip down to the pier, then on to Daxue lu, stopping for some freshly made baozi on the way. Daxue lu is as pretty in the spring as it is in the autumn. We made the most of the newly verdant plane trees by going to Coffee Space, a kitsch little coffee shop with a glass roof and excellent cheesecake.

Afterwards we wandered into the Yushan campus of Ocean University. I have to say, I am thoroughly jealous. It's a much more aesthetically pleasing affair than our Fushan campus, with older and less square architecture and aged twisting trees. Above it all floated the Yushan pagoda.

To get to Yushan pagoda, you need to walk out of the university campus and up a few residential streets. In true Chinese tourism style, access to the pagoda isn't free; a normal ticket costs 10RMB, students/elderly 5RMB. I would say the pagoda, and especially its view, is definitely worth the fee. Even though the structure doesn't lay claim to as much history as the incongruous hieroglyphs that decorate the walls would like to suggest, it is still a beautifully made building. From its top floor, there is a wonderful 360' view of Qingdao, looking South to the sea, East to Zhongshan park, surrounded by the wide roofs and broad trees of badaguan. A great place to take tourists to get their bearings.

Gift Street, Creative 100 礼品街 创意100产业园

I am so so sad I have only just discovered this place! Situated at 100 Nanjing Lu, Creative 100 is the home of Qingdao's blossoming culture scene. It has a pottery shop, an arts and crafts shop, tea shops, an anime merchandise shop, fancy dress shops, artists studios, home decor shops, Horcrux (the Harry Potter themed coffee shop) and a book-come-coffee-come-trinket shop. I finally managed to find some non-tacky Qingdao memorabilia in Sono Cafe (I think that's the name, I'll go back and check) for a very reasonable price.

This area fills me with so much enthusiasm for Qingdao, yet it was really disappointing to see a number of vacant shop fronts. I would love to see creative 100 bustling with as many people as it has creative energy. Qingdao's art scene is quite notably lacking, I hope Creative 100 will become the first stepping stone in path to innovation and originality that would give the city a beating heart in the art world.

On a side note, Creative 100 is also home to Redstar magazine, where I am currently interning! Check out my articles on the May Fourth Movement and Korean War films here. Get ready for June's issue too! Plug plug plug.

Firewood Court 劈柴院

I read a five-star review on tripadvisor saying Firewood Court (pichai yuan) was 'like stepping back in time'. I'm sorry, what? Maybe I got my hopes up by reading that review, but Firewood Court was more like stepping into a badly made film set. So apparently the original court was built at the end of the 19th century. Today's Firewood Court was restored in 2007, when they say 'restored' I assume they mean it tongue in cheek. The shops have wallpaper with a brick pattern in order to give some semblance of an 'antique' feeling. As for what the shops sell, there's nothing traditional about it. One was selling posters of Paris and London. You might as well go to Taidong because they won't charge as much. 

Everything else was a copy of each other, most food stalls were peddling various kinds of seafood on sticks. I bought a kind of snack that I was assured was just seafood, I ate it to find out it was pork. Clearly the shopkeepers have no qualms with lying to your face about the content. I doubt they have any hesitation lying about the freshness or quality either. Furthermore, the shopkeepers openly insult passing foreigners in Chinese. Firewood court is a horrible, hackneyed place that passes for tourism. Its narrowness, perhaps the one feature giving it authenticity, just works to the benefit of the shopkeepers as you run the gauntlet down the alley, ambushed on both sides by barking peddlars.  

The museum was shut. The "tea house" on the first floor of the museum was appalling, the centre pieces were a couple of fake concrete trees adorned with plastic leaves, characteristic of the whole artificial nature of Firewood Court. If you want to see a real restored street, visit Bopilao Old Street in Taipei, a great example of how original features can be preserved, and enhanced by modernity. I hope I'm not being too obvious when I say, I wouldn't go near Firewood Court with a ten-foot bamboo pole.  If you want to find Qingdao street food, there are many other cheaper and better quality places to buy it from. 

'Til next time folks!

Spring in Bloom 盛开的鲜花

It is said that the most beautiful aspect of cherry blossom is its ephemerality. Seeing as there is such a small window of time to enjoy the flowers before they fall, Qingdao's Zhongshan Park draws in tens of thousands in one week in April. With that in mind, on the 17th of April I rushed to Zhongshan Park to see the blossoms for myself.

Outside of Japan, Qingdao can boast the largest concentration of cherry blossom trees, some 20,000. They were planted by the Japanese during their occupation from 1915 to 1922, and the trees have remained as perhaps the only welcome feature from that period. 

Capturing the moment

Zhongshan park has many other flower gardens apart from just Cherry blossoms

A view along Sakura Road

A bride and groom between wedding photos

Thousands of people took advantage of the spring bloom to visit Zhongshan park

Of course, where there are people, there is business opportunity. This was no ordinary walk in the park. Hundreds of stall holders had set up stands, peddling everything from portraits to bunny ears. Despite being in a park, don't breath in through your nose, because it won't be the scent of cherry blossoms that greets you. Stinky tofu is a hugely popular snack, and its unpleasant odour pervades the entire park. If that wasn't enough to disrupt your meditative stroll through the spring flowers, add the sound of thumping technopop, pounding away into your very soul.

Perhaps try visiting very early in the morning to avoid the crowds and music, because the scenery is stunning.


So, here's a really badly filmed video about spring blossoms. Cannot believe this is a song about how beautiful flowers are and they've filled the video with CGI. What.

Tales of Taroko 太魯閣的故事

So a few of you may have already heard me tell this escapade, in which case, read it again! Unless you are my mother. Mother, do not read this post under any circumstances. It will just make you angry and unnecessarily distressed. / End disclaimer. 

All the way back in February, I fled from cold China to temperate Taiwan. I had an absolutely great time meeting up with my old friend, Helen, who is currently studying in Japan. Our week was jam-packed with touristy goodness. We managed to visit the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, the Palace Museum, Shilin Riverside Park, Shilin night market, Taipei 101, Zhinan temple, teahouses in Maokong, Longshan Temple, the restored Bopilao street, Botanical Gardens, the shopping hotspot of Ximending, the Red House, the Contemporary Arts Museum, Tianmu, hotsprings, and a massive hot pot dinner. One experience will tower above them all in my memory, and that is our trip to Taroko National Park. 

Having spent 4 full days touring urban Taipei, we were determined to get out of the city and explore some of Taiwan's spectacular countryside. Hello Taroko. The plan was to spend one afternoon in Taroko, and catch a late train back to Taipei so that Helen would have plenty of time to pack for her flight the next morning.      

The view from the tourist centre in Taroko National Park

To make the most of our time in the wilds, we set out from Taipei early. We caught a fast train from Taipei Main Station and arrived in Taroko around 1pm. In the tourist centre, the man at the front desk advised us to take the bus tour that stops at all the famous scenic spots. Helen and I listened. But we had just been on a 3 hour long train ride and were itching to stretch our legs. We wanted to walk in the great outdoors, to feel at one with nature. We weren't gonna sit on no bus, nuh-uh.

So we checked our map, and saw there was a route starting just next to the tourist centre. The route led to a small village on top of the mountain called Dali. We figured we'd climb up, see the village, climb down, then if we had time maybe take the tour bus. And so the journey began...

Setting off...

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

Checking out the flora... 

...and the fauna

Up, up, up the stairs we go

Not all those who wander are lost

We reckon there must have been about 1km of steps. All of a sudden the stairs came to an end, with a
signpost saying 1320m left to Dali village. The route ahead was a path of moist soil, slippery rocks and winding tree roots, but we hadn't just climbed a kilometre of stairs to just turn back now. So we pressed on.

I had never been hiking. I've walked up hills before, but considered it different as I assumed the activity of hiking involved more equipment. Well now I've hiked, without equipment, or experience, or training. Hiking is just regular climbing but with more adrenaline and more risk of FALLING OFF A MOUNTAIN. Because when the stairs ended, so did the barriers. At one point we had to climb across a section where some kind of landslide had blocked the path and had cleared the trees right off the slope, giving a clear view all the way down. We hadn't seen a single person for a long time, and we were starting to get nervous about the route. Helen and I agreed that we would climb for another half an hour, then turn back if we hadn't reached Dali. Suddenly we rounded a corner to find a couple of Taiwanese aborigines and their pet monkey having a barbecue. Luckily, they spoke mandarin. We were offered some of their meat, which we declined, and were told it was only another 20 minutes to Dali.

Damn you, signposts

Oh what a cute monkey!

I

Then things turned nasty. The monkey grabbed the knife the man was using for his barbecue and proceeded to chase us up the mountain. Yes, I have a photo of a knife-wielding monkey. 

OH MY GOD IT HAS A KNIFE, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES

We could hear the shouts of the lady echoing through the trees as she tried to call the monkey back. This is hopefully the closest I'll ever come to be hunted by Predator. GET TO DA CHOPPER!!!

Eventually, we lost the monkey and sound of the lady's voice faded out. We climbed for another 20 minutes. Then maybe another 20. And finally we came upon Dali village. If you can even call it a village. There was a fenced off electrical box, and a couple of scooters. It was an anti-climax of mountainous proportions. Especially considering how dangerous our path up had been. I didn't want to go back down the same way; climbing up was hard, climbing down would be even more risky. Helen agreed, and we pulled out our map. It showed a route that joined Dali to a scenic trail. Sure that reaching the scenic route would be less perilous than turning back, we decided to persevere. I can only remember one obvious road leading away from Dali, and the map next to it didn't actually give the direction of the road. We did what we do best, and forged ahead.

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. 

I travel for travel's sake, the great affair is to move.

The beauty is in the walking - we are betrayed by destinations

You have got to get lost before you can be found

Hours passed and we hardly noticed. The air was fresh and warm. Our feet had set a rhythm we couldn't break free from. We walked on and on and on, weaving round an endless green mountainside. All the while hoping to reach the scenic route and head back to the tourist centre. 

As the sky gave in to the first hues of dusk, we came across a multi-coloured, single-story house in the middle of a field. A woman called out to us in Chinese, "where are you going?". We approached her and asked her where we were. "Datong," she replied. Our map showed a small point called Datong, miles away from Dali, accessible by logging trail. She told us that the path we mistakenly thought we were on had been closed last year due to damage from high winds. It wouldn't re-open until next year. Helen, meanwhile, was baffled. I was getting answered in Chinese, and all Helen really wanted to know was how to get back. When I asked, and was met with, "it's not possible, you won't make it back". The route we had arrived by was the only way. Helen and I finally wanted to turn around, admit defeat, but the woman stopped us. She asked if we had torches, or proper night clothing, which of course we didn't. She was angry we had arrived so unprepared, but was even more stubborn in refusing to let us go. 

Helen can't speak Chinese (if she can, she's been hiding it from me very well), so I spent the next hour getting an earful of how reckless we were, and how could we do this without male accompaniment, while Helen nodded happily. However, we did get complimented on the fact that we made it all that way across some pretty treacherous mountain. Hells yeah.

The lady, called Ximut, who had generously offered to let us stay for the night heated water for us over her fire. We ended up washing ourselves in buckets in her outhouse. As we were bathing, Ximut cooked us a dinner of rice, fish, vegetables, and soup. I felt so bad about imposing on her and her house that I tried to eat as little as possible, but she kept forcing food on us until we were full. The handful of villagers who live in Datong stopped by at different points during the evening. The women were horrified, and somewhat maternal, that we had journeyed to Datong alone. Whereas the men seemed more impressed by our accomplishment. One man poured us glasses of 'whiskey', which was in reality very sweet black-current juice with a little bit of alcohol. 

We headed to bed early, knowing that we had a race on our hands to make sure Helen caught her flight on time. In contrast to Taipei, we fell asleep listening to the chirruping of insects rather than the hum of traffic.

Rising with the sun the next day, Ximut prepared us plain rice porridge for breakfast with pickles and eggs on the side. The previous night I found out that Ximut actually runs a guesthouse, and takes in guests who want to experience real countryside living. Helen and I luckily had enough money cover our stay, so it ended up almost as if we had pre-booked! I don't have enough words to express how grateful I am to Ximut, her rainbow house, and her friends that looked after us when we didn't realise we needed looking after. You've got to be pretty trusting to let two foreigners who've just stumbled out of bushes stay in your house overnight.

Me and our mountain mamas

Helen and co

Our breakfast and the stove

The cloud from the day before had cleared, and on our hurried journey back, I was able to take a few shots that capture Taroko's natural landscape in all its majesty.

A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving - Laozi

Morning over the mountains

I'm pleased to say, we made it back safely (just about) and Helen caught her flight back to Japan. I will leave you now with a quotation from Ernest Hemingway which I feel rightly sums up this adventure;

"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."