Day 38 - Heavy Rain And Wind, and Visiting The National Museum of Marine Biology And Aquarium in Checheng, Pingtung, The Long Walk South In Taiwan

 

Day 38 -  Heavy Rain And Wind, and Visiting The National Museum of Marine Biology And Aquarium in Checheng, Pingtung, The Long Walk South In Taiwan  

The stormy wind and heavy rain continued all through the night.

The morning looked like we might get a break in the weather, and maybe be able to walk south without being drenched by the huge buses speeding along the only road that goes south.

The friendly woman at our guesthouse prepared for us a breakfast of salad, hot flat bread made with sweet potatoes, some fruit and a boiled egg.

We left the beautiful spaceship accommodation and started walking. 

At first we had a walking path a little off the road, which was great because it started to rain almost immediately after we left.

We stopped at a convenience store to buy some food for lunch to eat later on, because my map didn’t show that we would have many options on this walk.

It is not that there were no restaurants available, but that many of them are open for a short lunch service and some are only open on weekends, when more people are traveling.

I bought boiled corn and bananas and a bottle of soda water. 

A kind man who saw me in the convenience store stopped his car in front of us and offered us a ride.

He said that it is very rainy and windy, and he was going south anyway.

We declined his kind offer and continued walking.

My backup plan was that if it got really bad and branches of trees started falling on our path, we could always take the hourly bus going south.

It is not easy to walk in a very strong wind, even when the wind is pushing you from behind like this one was.

The straps of my backpack were slapping me, my hat was blowing off even though I had secured it to my head with tie strings, you can’t use an umbrella and you can’t stop anywhere that is not indoors or sheltered, because it was so rainy and windy.

As we walked, I thought about taking a bus, not just because of the rain and the wind, but because there was a big aquarium and a National marine museum down our path, with a real Starbucks cafe inside it.

My mind reasoned that instead of walking in the blowing wind and rain, I could actually enjoy the time, looking at the beautiful sea creatures they have living there, and then relaxing in the Starbucks.

But I decided to keep walking, hoping that we would make good time and be able to do both, complete the walk and still have enough time to visit the museum before it closed at 5:30pm.

At lunchtime, we stopped at another convenience store to eat our lunch and to drink some coconut water.

We also bought some rice balls to eat later for dinner at our guesthouse.

The scenery around us continued to be beautiful, the ocean to our right and green mountains on our left side.

We enjoyed walking in nature with clean air, instead of through the urban stretch of utilitarian shops that tend to line the main streets of small towns.

We arrived in a small town called Checheng.

People riding scooters cheered us on, excitedly showing their support by hooting and pumping their fists up and down in the air in encouragement. 

We walked through a neighborhood to a local market that featured many stalls selling century eggs and big custard apples.

I was so tempted to buy a custard apple, but they were really big and heavy.

The main temple was big and nicely decorated.  There was no one visiting , but I could tell from the fact that it had an adjacent hotel, that it did get pilgrims and tourists. It was called Checheng Fuan Temple.

As we were walking through the market, it started to rain much harder and the wind was blowing the vendors’ stalls.

Some were packing up and closing the shutters of their stores.

We were only four kilometers away from the Aquarium and museum, and I decided that we should take a taxi there to make sure we had enough time to visit the museum and enjoy the Starbucks.

I called an Uber and the taxi arrived within minutes.

The driver spoke good English and told us that he works part time as a tour guide.

At first, he said that we should not go to this Starbucks because it was located inside the museum, which required an expensive entry ticket.

Instead, he suggested that we go to another Starbucks in the city, seven kilometers away.

I explained that we wanted to visit the museum and that later on we will walk to our guesthouse for the night, just a few kilometers away from the museum.

He insisted that I show him the address of our accommodation, insisting that there were no hotels nearby.

I showed him my phone, and that the guesthouse stands in a long row of other beautiful guesthouses, all facing the ocean.

He suddenly recognized the area and said that it was a wonderful place and that he brought his wife occasionally to visit the area.

Along the way, he was stopped by an old man who looked confused and asked for directions to the highway.

He told us that we were VERY LUCKY people because this coast is called the “Windy Coast,” but that until yesterday, there was no wind.

“Yesterday, was the first very windy day of the season!” He said with pride.

Jules and I exchanged glances, trying not to laugh.

The idea that we were lucky to be walking in winds that could blow us down the road, was very funny to us.

When we got to the museum, it was raining so hard that he went inside to ask the ticket office if there really was a Starbucks cafe inside, so we wouldn’t have to get wet or get stranded without transportation.

I explained to him that we were (usually) walking, and that we had walked here from Taipei and that we would be fine, but he insisted that I take his phone number and detail information and that I call him if we needed any help.

There was no use arguing with him, so I took his information and thanked him.

I did wonder however, why did we invoke in him such a protective instinct? 

Did we look lost or helpless?

Did we look tired and in need of help?

Or was he projecting on us his own sense of lack of direction, and he imagined that he would have been feeling lost in a foreign country where he doesn’t speak the language and he couldn’t get around easily….

The National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium is a massive complex right by the sea.

It is the largest marine museum in all of Asia.

We put our backpacks in the storage lockers and went to the Starbucks to drink matcha lattes and eat a scone.

The friendly woman at the counter, hand wrote on my bill “Welcome to Taiwan! It is so good to see you here!”

After resting and waiting for the wind to calm a bit, we went to see the impressive aquariums.

There were too many to see in the few hours we had, so we focused on the ones that interested me most.

There was an aquarium for Beluga whales which I had never seen before, and an impressive aquarium called The Open Sea, which had giant stingrays and shark-rays that I also had never seen while diving.

I was so excited to see some of the creatures that I had either never seen before, or had not seen such large sized species before.  

The tall aquarium that was supposed to house giant kelp had only plastic models of the kelp, although most of the people didn’t recognize that it wasn’t real kelp.

The museum must’ve been unsuccessful in raising the giant kelp in aquarium conditions.

It usually requires really cold waters and a dark environment in order to thrive.

There was an exciting aquarium that mimicked a wreck with a whole sunken ship and many fish swimming around. 

There was a three dimensional exhibit and movie, simulating the ancient ocean, and the kind of creatures that used to live in it, based on fossils and skeletons of ancient giant whales and fish from around the world.

It was an exciting experience, and Jules said that we should try to visit other aquariums on our travels around the world, because we really enjoyed this experience.

We tried to drink Oolong tea before leaving to check into our guesthouse, but the Starbucks was packed with high school kids, without a single seat available.

We now understood why we saw so many buses on the road south. They were all coming to this museum.

The museum parking lot looked like the biggest bus depot we have ever seen.

Walking south from there, the flow of tourists buses was no longer heavy.

The rain had stopped and I felt as if it was divinely planned, in order for us to have enough time to visit and enjoy the aquariums.

We arrived at the guesthouse and the owner came out to greet us, as we were trying to figure out which one of the attractive buildings was our guesthouse.

The abundance of small lovely accommodations in the area shows how popular this area is in the high season among independent travelers who are looking for quality and are not traveling in groups.  

Our guesthouse had modern and stylish architecture, built in the exposed cast concrete style of Takeo Andò, with floating concrete  stairs and warm wood touches. 

We were shown to a spacious room and got settled in, just as another storm pelted our windows with heavy rains.

We ate the dinner that we brought with us, of vegetable rice with mushrooms, boiled corn and bananas.

With love,

Tali

Today’s Stats:

Steps - 21,880

Daily Distance - 15 km.  

Total Distance To Date - 598 km