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Tinkerbell
at Alishan crack of dawn
http://community.webshots.com/album/188648381DRDOYY
Hi folks,
As part of my draw down on my outstanding
leave, I
took off on 6-8 Sept planning to go for
extended stay
on Alishan mountains again. I could have
taken money
for all my leave, or leave Taiwan much
earlier,
neither of which appeal to me.
I did not count on the weather. Bad weather
warning
delayed my departure planned for Sunday. Alishan
was
missed but the SiNan ChiLiu dump 900mm in
North Taiwan
adding to the woes of 1600mm of rain dropped
by
Typhoon Aere just a week before. You folks
understand
better my paranoia on the Sinan
Chiliu(SouthWest
weather stream) which hit us with 2700mm of
rain on
July.
Monday being better, we decided to ride up.
Some
photos of repaired roads start the photos for
this
round. As we made our way higher, it got
colder and
misty forcing us to wear raincoat to keep the
chill
out. Tink got pop back into her carrier cage.
One part was scary. The road clinged to side
of
mountain and was washed away. Huge rocks were
dumped
to make a base for a temporary lane.
Few people were up at Alishan this time
partly because
it was not the weekend and largely few were
foolhardy
enough to go there. We got ourselves into an
old
hotel I have been trying to stay but never
got rooms
before. On telling them we will stay for two
nights,
they told us we better check in for one night
first.
That was kind of worrying as normally fairly
empty
hotel should be eagerly welcoming guests to
stay
longer.
While the sun came out a while, mist drifted
in and
decided to stay. I wanted to take Tinkerbell
to see a
proper sunrise this time unlike the fiasco
around
Christmas where we faced West to catch the
sunrise.
So we had a morning call at 4am to catch the
special
train to the other side of the mountain. This
time,
we caught that sunrise with Tinkerbell at the
crack of
dawn. To celebrate that, Tink was cued to
come to me
but unfortunately, camera froze up after a
few shots
and you get Tink disappearing into the sun
instead.
Last night, the TV warned again of massive
rains later
in the day. You have seen the precarious
repairs
made. If that road is cut again, we cannot
get down
at all. I silently thanked the hotel for
checking us
in for one night only and decided to get down
again
that morning.
We stopped by the coffee house halfway down
near the
town of TseChor. It was so nice and comfy
just a few
months back and in such a beautiful location.
But the
persistent bad weather prompted the owner to
abandon
it which was sad.
On the way back to Chiayi, we decided to stop
at the
WuFeng temple. We meant to stop here many
times in
the past but never got to do so. Since this
trip was
shorten so much, we had the time now.
300 years or so ago, there was this chap
called WuFeng
living in Chiayi. He was an official trying
to bring
civilisation to the indigenous people living
here that
time. It seems he was a very nice chappie and
actually loved and respected as he actually
love the
locals and did not lined his pocket. One
traditional
custom of the locals is to take off heads
that WuFeng
tried to discourage. There was this important
local
festival coming and the locals insisted that
they must
have a head for the ceremony. WuFeng could
not
dissuade them. So he told them that on a
certain day
and along a certain path, a man dress in red
will be
riding and his head can be taken but that
must be the
last head.
So the locals waited and true enough that man
in red
came riding and in a twinkling of an eye,
they took of
the head. After taking off the cape, they
were aghast
to find that they taken off the head of
WuFeng that
they love us much. As the story goes, they
were so
remorseful that no more heads were ever taken
around
Chiayi.
Wufeng was eventually turned into a diety and
the
temple build in his memory. You can see I
took a photo
of his picture.
It was a lovely temple to fly Tinkerbell in.
A short distance away was a park dedicated to
Wufeng
as well. After the temple, rain poured down.
Since
Tink disliked flying in rain and I disliked
recalling
her in rain and my wife disliked taken photos
in the
rain, we all compromised and came back to the
park a
few days later to complete the shots.
Hope you folks enjoy the photos
Tinkerbell at Alishan crack of dawn
http://community.webshots.com/album/188648381DRDOYY
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With warmest regards
Shanlung - lackey to all below
Joy - wife, Tinkerbell - CAG & surrogate
daughter
Halftail the Bimbo - beautiful sweet silly
cat
Zorro - ferret which loves parrot pellets
Bim and Zor are with other loving families
now
I will remember them for the happy times they
gave me
earlier emails and photo links on Tink -
http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9
(erratically and sporadically updated)
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