As previously reported, we got an extra couple of days at the end of the quarter to pad out Spring Break, but we instantly got that bonus taken away when school went back to online learning this week necessitating a scramble to get lessons tuned and video-casting software tested over the weekend on Saturday and Sunday. Luckily, we'd had a lot of adventures through the week, unlike many round the world, so we're thankful for that.
I got a call, quite fortuitously, from my parking garage informing me that chemicals from a leaking pipe had erupted all over our car. Luckily I went to retrieve and wash it the day before our first planned trip whereupon I discovered a flat tyre. Miraculously, I found a park and scootered over to the nearest mechanic's, who scootered back with a huge compressed air cylinder and a jack, re-inflated the tyre roadside and got me back on the road. Unbelievably, this service cost just $12 Aus, and the guy refused to accept a cent more!
Newly inflated and a spring in its revolutions, we took the car out on the expressway the next morning bound for the north coast and more specifically Bitoujiao. We're getting rid of the car soon, so this may well be its last hurrah...we'll miss it! Bitoujiao is a very attractive, reasonably arduous hike that scrambles and meanders across craggy seaside cliffs, snaking around headland military installations, punctuated by headland topping viewing pagodas and ultimately ending in a picture perfect fishing village on a tiny sheltered harbour with a bobbing fishing fleet. Cass does this trek many times a day annually on our Grade 8 camp to Fulong, yet I'd never done it, so we thought we'd try it without the accompaniment of 220 screaming kids to spoil the serenity!
It was fun trek and extremely picturesque. We ate Cassy's home-cooked curried egg sangas in a pagoda beside the snorkeling pool at the end of the hike and admired the strangely shaped sandstone cliffs and the fishing boats festooned with multiple, orb-like prawning lights. Onward we drove, back towards Keelung, destination Elephant Trunk Rock which is self-descriptive! On the way we stopped to view the old gold factory ruins on the off peak from traditional and beautiful Ruifang village. It's still a very imposing sight and the mist and cloud added to the ethereal effect. "The Rock" was giant sized and unexpected! We walked from yet another fishing village, crabbed across boulders and mud before emerging at the top of the outcrop to see the fully formed elephant: photos capture some of the essence but it's one of those sights that has to be seen to be believed! We eventually got back to the car, motored home and secreted the car back in its underground sanctuary with all his mates!
When Chiang Kai Shek fled mainland China in 1949 he "brought" (plundered?!) thousands of precious Chinese antiquities and pieces of art with him. These saved relics from the various purges of Mao Tse Tung can now be seen at the National Palace Museum, a vast repository of priceless Chinese artworks, just a hop, skip, jump and scooter ride from our house! We've been before specifically to see a visiting Monet exhibition but have been scared off re-visiting from the stories of others about the vast halls, multiple storied galleries and the general unmanageable size of the place. We're pleased to report that after negotiating every floor and every room we were suitably slowed but not defeated: we're veterans of the Louvre, the Rijksmuseum and other galleries of much more imposing proportions than this little fella!
The porcelain rooms were the real treasures. Delicate materials and intricate designs along with flawless manufacturing were the constants, quite marvelous considering some of the bowls, vases and ornaments were more than 1,500 years old! The various royal houses of China were displayed in room after room in decreasing age brackets, some of the oldest being the most exquisite. There were also rooms and rooms of impossibly penned drawings in ink, flowing and sensuous calligraphy and even modern hi-tech digital displays. It was a feast for the senses and a very special experience. What made it even better for us was the visitor to staff ratio: about two to one in our favour! No more 100s of tour coaches stuffed to the brim with Chinese tour groups and we got there early enough, mid-week to beat the Taiwan late risers. All which made it an even better experience!
We're back at work today in an echoing building. Some teachers are here (not many) but no kids. We were streaming video and flitting between pages and platforms today, so needed the lightning fast internet and the tech back-up if anything went wrong. We'll come in again tomorrow, but with a lighter bandwidth demand from our lessons in the remainder of the week, we might just stay domiciled. The link to the full album of the week is here. Photos: self explanatory, except for Cass in her newly altered winter coat with the famous "lady", her beloved seamstress!