2009-05-31 Cloud 9 Campsite (九雲露營地)

Yesterday, the Hiking Club had a get-together at Cloud 9 Campsite in Pinglin. Robert, Chris, and Kat got there from Muzha, but I didn't meet up with in Muzha, instead, I took Road No. 9 (北宜公路) to Cloud 9.

When I was a kid, Road No. 9 was notorious for its bad condition and always assoicated with horrible car accidents and scary ghost stories. (You can get a lot of ghost stories if you google it.) I still had some vivid pieces of memories of the road from my childhood--leaves and ghost money dancing in the wind as big trucks passing by or from Taiwanse movies--female ghosts in white dress waving down trucks and asking drivers for a lift and various consequences follow suit.

But Road No. 9 has changed, now it's a popular route for cyclists in Taiwan. On my way to Cloud 9, I barely saw big trucks or cars, but a lot of cyclist and big bike riders.

I love to see more and more Taiwanese people getting into cycling and want to become one of them. I have been checking some bike models and soon or later, I will enjoy cycling.

I bumped into a female cyclist who traveled with her toy bears. I thought it's very interesting and asked her to let me take a picture. (Her two bears were placed beside wheels).

Everytime I go to Pinglin, I always like to stop at some specific spots to take some pictures.

The first place is Shuang-Feng elementary school (雙峰 [Twin Peaks] 國小). As the school's name indicates, there are two identical peaks near by the school. I am obsessed with taking pictures of the twin peaks because of David Lynch's Twin Peaks.

Yes, I know, I should've erased those lines by photoshop. It looks not pretty with those lines.

The second place is Er-ge Park(二格公園) where I can overlook contiguous ridges and tea farms in Shidin.

The third place is Yun-Hai elementary school (雲海 [a sea of clouds] 國小). where I can see a sea of clouds in right weather. But I didn't take pictures of seas of clouds because it was bright sunny day.

The forth place is a spot where I can overlook Fei-Cui Reservoir (翡翠水庫). The water level was terribly low as I took this picture below. I read that there is a trial in the reservoir and hikers only can get there when the water level is low. I don't think hiking through Fei-Cui Reservoir is a good idea due to the importance of drinking water source, but it might be this could be right time to hike there.

Well, to be honest, I actually got into the revervoir once via a path well-known by Taiwanese hikers. It was very beautiful.

The fifth place is 灣潭 (Wantan) where I can take pictures of a elegant S-shape river bend. The place is named after this river bend. Because of the drought (No rains in May rain season), the river is drying out.

This is a picture I took in 2007, Wantan was full of water and beautifully looked like a serene paraidse.

I spent too much time stopping by those spots and taking pictures, so I was late to meet my hiking partners at Cloud 9.

Cloud 9 is a very nice campsite where right next to a sidestream of 北勢溪 (Beishi Stream). There is a complex network of hiking trails near by which hikers can explore in days. I've stayed at Cloud 9 few times and completely enjoyed the relaxing envorinment there.

This get-together is a great event. I finally met Peter, his wife and daughter--Sophie and Emma. I also met Holger and his family. After a short greeting, everyone soon got the riverside, chatting, enjoying sunlight and the beautiful scenery.

It's a 夜鷺 (Ye-Lu) in Mandarin, 暗光鳥 in Taiwanese (English name: Black-crowned Night Heron, scientific name: Nycticorax nycticorax). It's commonly seen by riverside in Taiwan. I know it well because its Taiwanese name--暗光鳥 literally means dim light bird--sound lovely in Taiwnese. (I love to say it in Taiwanese.) It watched us playing, chatting for a long time yesterday.

Actually, the main purpose of the get-together was to meet Peter's daughter: Emma. Peter told me once Emma is named because one of his favorite novels is Jane Austen's Emma. I think he chose the right name. Emma is the happiest Jane Austen's character who has great fortune. She is rich, clever, handsome and lives without worries. She doesn't have annoying mother like Elizabeth's and she is rich and isn't like poor Elinor and Marianne or Fanny. Emma is happy.

And the little Emma was very happy playing in the water at Cloud 9 in company with her parents.

After the get-together, the Hiking Club embarked on an exploration of the Bei-Shi Hiking trail, but I didn't join in them because of some reasons. Even though I missed the hike afterwards, I still have a great relaxing getaway at Cloud 9. It was a very good morning.

Few notes for my friends.

有陣子沒更新Blog，消失很久，像是人間蒸發。但在端午節假期，有和幾位會看我Blog的朋友見面（世平、秀芬、若瑜），所以也有交換近況。比較沒機會見面的，大概是一中吧！不過，還是有些狀況沒機會聊到，所以就簡單作些說明。（這招是學亦順的。）

1. 因為前陣子留言版被駭，所以關掉comment的功能。

2. 終於做完情緒圖片的前測，已經花掉將近一年的時間。終於要開始進行第一個正式的實驗。但是實驗的幾個pilot的結果都很奇怪，數據方向很亂，汪老師跟我都擔心實驗會沒有效果。

3. 要離開惠雅老師的輔大研究室，轉到台大的葉老師的實驗室。

4. 暑假起要學眼動儀，到葉老師的實驗室，可能要學腦波儀。這意味著，我會繼續消失。

5. 計畫再一年，完成碩士學位，不過，我還在拖啊！逃避啊！論文只寫一行，真的只有一行。XD

6. 有計畫要繼續念博士，不過會轉念交大的工工管的人因工程。所以除了寫論文，還要準備考試。哈哈，真的是把自己搞到書永遠念不完。

2009-04-29 MY Lab Party

2009-04-29 MY Lab Party to celebrate Hon-da getting admission of gradute school of Psychology of NCCU.

2009-04-05 U-Theatre in Bitan

Yesterday was the second day of 2009 Xindian Riverbank Cultural Festival (新店碧潭水岸文化節) and the most inviting show there was U-Theatre's performance in the afternoon.

Patty and I went there around 3 p.m.. Because of the gloomy weather, we thought we would have few tourists there and we could enjoy a quiet afternoon, but out of our expectation, the audience was huge there.

I don't like to jostle with strangers in the crowds, so I rarely have experience of taking pictures in the crowds. I liked to take some pictures of their performance, and tried to find a good spot of picture taking, and eveutally, I realized I was too short, and a lot of taller people in front of me blocked my view.

It was the first time in my life I wish I was a tall person. But it was interesting to see those poeple with cameras taking pictures of peformers.

I found another good spot of taking pictures, so I moved to the other side of the venue

But unfortunately, good places were taken. (David told me he is in the picture. It's a great coincidence.)

An old lady in front of me concetrated on filming of the performance via her small camera.

I eventually stopped taking pictures and concetrated on their peformance. I love their performance very much. Their drumming, singing, and movements brought me into a meditative status. The feelings was relaxing and refreshing.

I haven't had chance to go to their performance venue in Muzha mountains, but after I saw the show in Bitan, I thought a fitting environment is very important. The venue there yesterday was too noisy and crowded, and I couldn't completely enjoyed it. It was like being tore with meditation and reality. So I plan to see it again this year and hope I can reexperience the soothing and refreshing performance again.

2009-03-24 Well.....

I've not updated my blog for a long time. That's mainly because I've been working on my thesis lately and partly because I've been sick for days.

I finished my pilot study and had a first glace at my result. The result isn't promising. I will have try to overcome some problems soon after I recover my health. I've been sick since last Saturday, and I haven't felt so bad for a long time. It's probably because I spent most of my resting time on bed and watching House MD. Every case in the show is severe illness and it makes me feel bad.

I finished watching its first season so I will have to watch something optimistic and makes myself happy.

Well...I am not feeling well.

2009-02-08 Fuba Hiking

2009-02-07 Cherry Blossom in Guangxing, Wulai

Around 11:30 a.m. I went to Guangxing (Guangsing) Riverside Park with my friend and her 4-year-old girl. It rained in the morning, but the rain eventually stopped as we approached to the park.

Guangxing area is famous for chicken farm restaurants along Guanxing road. A lot of Taiwanese people like to drive there and have dishes and soups made of chicken mixed with various kinds of ingredients. I am not into food from those resturants, but I was baffled by one cuisine called Bag Chicken(布袋雞, Bu-dai-ji). My friend and I saw a lot of signboards printed with 布袋雞 as we walked to the park. I tried to figure out what it meant, but I couldn't; so I asked my friend what it meant. She didn't know it, either. But we pictured some horrible scenes that chickens were put into bags and beaten to death, and then a cook took them out to boil them, pulled out their feathers, and took out their guts, etc. Really horrible, it's not a good imagination around lunch time.

(Note: I checked what Bag Chicken means after I got home. It's a kind of cuisine made of a whole chicken. A cook takes out all bones without cutting the chicken open. The cook only can cut off its head, neck, and rump, and left two holes, but takes all chicken bones out via those two holes. This special cutting method makes the chicken like a bag.)

Wulai has become a popular region for cyclists, and we found that Xindian city government developed few bike pathes in Guangxing region.

Most cherry tress along the road to Wulai were in blossom, and cherry blossom is more accessible along the bike path we took to the park. Those flowers looked fabulous after the rain.

2009-02-03 Rescued Stray Cats

Three of my friends rescued two stray cats in the vicinity of my school. I have been a cat-sitter (Okay, I coined this word.) for one of their cats several times, so they asked me if I could take care of them for few days, and they will try to find people who are willing to adopt them. I am packing and will relocate myself to other place, but I still live in a roomy apartment now and have spare space for those two kittens, so I told them I could take care of them until I move to new place.

Soon my friends bought those two kittens to my apartment. It seems that they are brother and sister. They weren't timid even though they were surrounded by four people. They explored every corner in my apartment soon after they came out of carrying box.

They were really cute and energetic.

As we were busy with preparing litter box for them and trying to figure if they need toilet training, the brother came to my guest room and poo on my blankets, and soon the sister follow suit.

It seemed that they love the blankets.

They played for a while and eventually got drowsy.

When I took pictures of them, the sister already fell into sleep.

2009-02-01 Hiking In Maokong

Today is the last day of Chinese New Year vacation, Patty, Kitty, Chris and his friend, and I went hiking in Maokong region. We started our hike at NCCU around 10:00 a.m. and took Tea Pickers Trail to Maokong. There weren't a lot of tourists because of Maokong gondola's breakdown. We arrived at Maokong station about 11:30. and had lunch at 小木屋 restaurant. After our lunch, we climbed up to Erjiaoge shan(鵝角格山) whose trail is steep way up to the ridge and slippery down to it foot. I love this trail because I can see most part of Maokong gondola cable line on the top of the mountain. After hiking up to Erjiaoge shan, we went to Xinghualin and turned to Zhangshan temple, and then got back to NCCU about 5:00 p.m..

I didn't take a lot of pictures because I didn't want to slow down my pace and I wanted to build up my ability and strength so that I can do longer and challenging hikes in the future. Here are pictures I took during our hike.



The day was balmy, we enjoyed the warmth of sunlight and soothing breeze of the day. A lot of stray animals came out to enjoy the nice day, too. A stray cat came out and had sunbath, it was completely relaxed and wasn't alerted.

This is a view of Maokong gondola line from the top of Erjiaoge shan. There was no cable cars shuttling back and forth over the valley now. I took a picture of same spot last year which I still could see a lot of cars in a line. It will take me approximately one and a half years to see cable cars again.


This is where landslide happened, which has made Maokong gondola stop running for months, and Taipei City government decided to rebuld pillar forward about 30 meters.

I took this picture while I was strolling on the campus of NCCU. A kite without a runner. (I shoud find some time to read The Kite Runner.)