Alishan - Here Comes The Sun

Here Comes The Sun! The Alishan Sunrise.

To get to Alishan we road the regular train for one hour, then transferred to a narrow gauge mountain train that "Zig Zagged" from 50 meters to almost 2000 meters in more than 3 hours and 75 kilometers...quite a ride.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaFgU0C2Rtw This is a link to Bon Jovi doing the Beetles' "Here Comes the Sun" in memory of George.


People come from all over Taiwan and the world to see the sunrise. Similar to Haleakala. At first I was turned off by the crowds but then I realized how wonderful it was that so many people would make such an effort in time, energy and money to see the sunrise. There is hope for our civilization yet. We had to get up at 4 AM - not an easy thing to do on your mini- honeymoon.
Here the aboriginal Taiwanese tells the crowd about the area and guides "us" through the sunrise.
This is just one of many gathering points for people to watch the sunrise.






Annie and I had a mini honeymoon to Alishan Mountain. Now famous in Taiwan for it's sunrise, clean air, 1000 year + old trees and natural beauty. It is not famous for it's food, which is interesting for Taiwan. since Taiwanese really, really care about their food. It's also not famous for it's quality hotel rooms. The room was basic Motel Six style but priced close to a five-star western hotel.

This is a view from our hotel room window.

One of the really cool things that we saw there were Monkeys. I finally obtained my dream (I know, I dream small, but I still want to win the lottery) of seeing monkeys in the wild. And they really are wild.

More radio and Crazy School

Well, I am getting the radio\pod cast thing down. It's really great -like a whole new world. Right now it's six AM here in Taiwan and I'm listening to Kauai Community Radio. Fantastic. Yesterday was Reggae from somewhere...Of course KPFA, A Prairie Home Companion, Sports Center, Democracy Now, Air America Radio, Car Talk and .... It's really kind of endless. The Internet is truly amazing.

Back at work now that Tomb Sweeping Holiday is over. I confess, I didn't sweep any tombs this year. Perhaps next. At my crazy school, the only other foreign teacher quit - again. She left her id badge with a note saying, "bye bye!" So I am alone there and the only native English speaker. Donna was one of my English-speaking natives here. I wonder what impact that will have on me. Perhaps it's really time to learn Mandarin Chinese. It's so hard though.

Well time for work.

Podcasts

Living here in Taiwan I've become lonely for familiar things like radio. I have an ipod thanks to a present from Cindy and Willie. This week I've discovered pod casts! Wow! NPR, Music from
Africa, and local US radio stations. What a treat. (In Taiwan there is one English language radio station ICRT. It's okay but lacks a lot of depth.)

I've also discovered radio station web feeds on my US itunes account. Important note. If you are moving out of the US, register your accounts while still in the US. Otherwise you will be registered from where-ever-you -are and may be denied access to certain content.

Well, I've got to listen to Car Talk now. Hardy har har.....