An intriguing herd of goats had loitered on a hillside on the way to the Grand palace for many years and we’d often marveled at their brilliant white coats and what sort of maintenance they must receive to maintain such pristine cleanliness. Every other time we’d spied them, we’d noted them with interest as well as the ornate temple gates beyond with a staircase leading up the hillside and disappearing. Today, however, we stopped and stayed and explored and discovered the wonders of Shilin’s very own Juiji temple and garden park.We got our act together marvelously early this morning and managed to get ourselves out to a new brunching restaurant, appropriately called “Hsiang, The Brunch”, for a decadently delicious breakfast. The restaurant is nestled behind the big cinema complex, Miramar, which we frequent, so we had noticed it before. During the week, Wol mentioned to me how good it was so we decided to check it out. After eating our fill of a mélange of scrambled eggs, eggs Benedict, pancakes, muffins and even salads with apple juice and hot strong coffee, we couldn’t believe we were fed, ready to face the day and all dressed up with nowhere to go so early on a weekend morning!
Off to get some petrol for the scooter, I remembered our herd of goats and we thought it was a perfect opportunity to check it all out. The goats were just the entrée to an extremely pretty and beautiful intricately designed garden and temple. The red lantern lined stairway ascended into jungle like growth above and each step of the way to the top we had another beautifully carved marble or granite sculpture or fresco like panel to admire.
The temple was now in its 5th incarnation and had some remnants that were about 300 years old. The old fortification wall was one such part and an ancient gnarled impossibly gargantuan tree laid its canopy across the top reaches of the stairs, strong wires supporting its weight, in turn bolted into the granite cliff faces: no wonder it has survived all these typhoons we get! We eventually got to the top of the stairs to be greeted with another surprising sight: the landscape opened up into a huge flat area featuring a temple at one end, a parapet view of Tienmu at the other and the most magnificently shaped tree, plumb in the middle.
Onwards and upwards, past even more treasures in stone, a series of well built timber walkways skimmed the undergrowth and allowed the sensation of walking above the lush green growth rather than through it. We spent ages wandering down one walkway then the next, each one ending in a little item of interest, such as a tiny lookout, a bas relief of the area in granite, a shady pavilion with seats to stop and take a breath, or a quiet corner to study a signposted plant.
When we got home, we were amazed to find that is was still morning (by a few minutes) and we’d had such an adventurous day already. It’s really been a great day because of that; we told ourselves we should do it more often. The trouble is, this semester seems to be really beating us up a bit: we seem to be so exhausted when the weekends roll around. Cass continues to set herself a frenetic pace at work as well as (in my opinion!) an excessive marking/grading regime which sees her working most nights as well. I have no such excuse, but do manage to fill up my afternoons and evenings by exercising at the gym or dragging myself off to my Chinese lessons. Suffice to say, we’re very much looking forward to the Thanksgiving break in a week and a half and the Christmas holiday not so far away. Maybe we’re just getting too old….(!)
Cass has begun to read Tim Winton’s Breath and I’m reading my writing book concurrently with a book by my new hero, an 80 year old Hungarian woman acknowledged as the world’s greatest polyglot: she speaks 16 languages! Her name is Kato Lomb and the book is “Polyglot: How I Learn Languages”. Photos are all from today, either at breakfast or at the temple park. I’ll inflict a few more on you next week!
