Day 14 - Another Very Hot Day Of Walking From Sanyi To Fengyuan, The Long Walk South In Taiwan
Day 14 - Another Very Hot Day Of Walking From Sanyi To Fengyuan, The Long Walk South In Taiwan
We ate a simple breakfast of cooked vegetables and tofu at our hotel, and walked through the town of Sanyi and headed south out of town.
Every shop in Sanyi town is a wood carving workshop, and some display beautiful wood sculptures or slabs of wood for furniture.
The smell of the wood was so pleasant and fragrant.
Sanyi is known as the Woodcarving Kingdom of Taiwan.
Years ago, the Sanyi area produced timber and animal hides.
In later years, Tung oil was produced here, extracted from the abundance of Tung trees and Camphor trees that grow here.
The wood carving industry developed in Sanyi and at one point, over 80% of local families were employed in wood carving.
At the end of the 20th century Sanyi began developing its reputation as a tourist destination, encouraging cyclists and bus tourists to visit the area.
Yesterday, to get to Sanyi, we came from the north and had to cross a mountain pass in the Sanjiao Mountains, standing 567 meters tall.
It was a long climb, and today we were leaving on the southern side, hoping that it would be mostly downhill.
But alas, it wasn’t all downhill.
We had to climb up and down steep hills, walking on roads full of cars and trucks with no sidewalks.
For many kilometers, as we walked out of town, we still saw big wood workshops lining both sides of the road.
Many trucks and cars were driving fast, covering us with exhaust fumes.
We were happy that we had started walking early, because the weather forecast called for an excessive heat of 96 degrees but with the heat index, the national weather forecast of Taiwan predicted that it would feel like 102-104 degrees
As the day warmed up, it really did feel like we were walking in a steamroom.
It was a sunny day with periods of clouds, which felt so much nicer.
To get to the plains of Shengang county north of Taichung, we walked along a 5 km long stretch of bridge and interstate overpasses in the bright sun.
On both our sides and below us crisscrossed the highway, and many big trucks drove by at high speed.
But there was no other way to walk and we had to push through this unpleasant road, because it was the only bridge over the massive river bed that was mostly dry, with almost no water.
We stopped by a big flower garden that is a massive tourist destination.
They had colorful flower beds and many places to take selfies.
With the heat, my sweaty face and hair, I was not that interested in having a lasting memory of my sweaty form.
Their BBQ restaurant could seat many hundreds of diners and each table had a coal grill, for people to grill their own food.
Every hour, we stopped at a convenience store, to drink Coconut water and rest in the air conditioning.
We ate a banana each because yesterday both of us experienced cramps in our hands and legs.
The heat is not effecting only our bodies.
My iPhone is refusing to charge when I connect my external power bank, saying that the iPhone is too hot and will resume charging after it has reached a more normal temperature.
Only it never cools off when we walk outside, and there is nothing normal about walking in 102-104 degrees.
Jules’s I-watch is running out of power every day from the heat.
At the Seven Eleven we bought him a small rescue watch charger that he can use mid day, in order to charge his watch while we eat lunch or stop to rest.
An hour later, we stopped again in a convenience store to rest.
I noticed that they had a whole section offering meat-free vegan foods and snacks, and went to check it out.
A friendly woman saw me looking at the different kinds of vegan jerky, and she came over to tell me not to buy the one I had chosen.
She said that it was too small and therefore not a good value, while the other package had triple the amount of jerky and thus had an average cost that was much less expensive.
I appreciated her kindness and desire to help, but as someone who walks with her load on her back every single day, I am more interested in just sampling new foods, and carrying another pound of vegan jerky seemed unappealing to me.
Besides, I never eat jerky, vegan or not, and don’t really care for the taste of it.
I was more curious about the vegan product than interested in buying it.
It Is a heavily processed food made from gluten, soy protein, sugar, soy and stabilizers. Not the healthiest of foods.
The small one I chose had less processed foods in it and had a French truffle flavor, while the one she shoved into my hands as a good value was spicy squid flavored, which I didn’t like so much.
I didn’t know what to do.
It was only a few dollars and I could taste it and throw it away if I didn’t like it,.
I felt that I could not buy the one I wanted without offending the kind woman.
So I decided that I shouldn’t buy any of them.
I put them away and thanked her, bowing in gratitude.
She must’ve decided that she should buy for me both packages of the vegan jerky, as well as two huge cups of green ice tea for Jules and me.
I tried to refuse but she was not the kind of woman you can say no to.
We thanked her many times for her kindness.
About two hot hours of walking later, we had yet to pass by any cafes or convenience stores, so we stopped at a Vegan buffet restaurant along the way, mostly to rest and cool off.
Only the proprietor of the restaurant did not turn on the air conditioning.
I plugged in the fan above the table and all our napkins flew to the floor.
I also turned on the lights in the restaurant, despite his grimacing look.
He clearly was preparing to close after lunch.
At least he put on the music of a Buddhist chant while we ate.
We chose only a few morsels of food, because we were not really hungry, due to the heat.
We continued walking along big elevated roads, and finally arrived at the outskirts of town.
Now we had a convenience store on every corner, but we wanted to push on and get to the hotel and be done with the heat.
I saw that we had a hot-pot restaurant near the hotel, where we could choose our own vegetables, our own protein (tofu of many kinds) and they had a selection of many herbal soups that you could dip the vegetables into and cook.
I love hot pot restaurants because the food is healthy and delicious.
As we neared the hotel, we passed by a lively market.
Many people were in line at a bakery that sold whole grain sunflower breads, and we bought some.
It was a good choice because we had little energy and even less appetite to eat dinner.
Instead, we showered, did our laundry in their laundry room, and rested until bedtime.
We ate the fruit we were carrying and the bread that we’d just bought with the peanut butter that we had gotten as a gift.
I must add that the truffle vegan jerky was delicious.
As I laid my head on the pillow, many thoughts crossed my mind.
An inner Voice was saying that if we wished to become spiritual masters, we must overcome the world and all of its heaviness.
We must get ahead of the world that is weighted down by heavy gravitational forces and darkness, and enter a different reality, a new world of light, by walking a new path….
With love, light and care,
Tali
Today’s Stats:
Steps - 31,215
Daily Distance - 21 km.
Total Distance To Date - 220 km
