Coming or going?
Leaving or staying?
Living or existing?
The answer to these and other questions in a few days time.
Leaving or staying?
Living or existing?
The answer to these and other questions in a few days time.
5.29.2002
5.02.2002
So, how did it happen . . . where did it happen . . . and was it really that bad?
Two Sundays ago had to be one of the worst days of my life. Seriously. It all started Friday evening when an innocent question was asked:
"Mike, do you want to go hiking on Sunday?"
Now, to understand this question you must realise that in Taiwan hiking usually means walking along a flat path. So I figured "what the hell, I'll go." But there's always a catch, isn't there? Isn't THERE?!
We had to be at the park near our apartment at 5 am. 5 AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't even know what 5 am looks like. But now I do, and I wish I could take it all back.
But I was able to get my ass out of bed, and get to the park in time. And then we drove to the hell on earth location known to locals as The Whole Of The Empire. It was 7 am when our journey began. We were nine hesitant souls. Only one in our ranks knew what we were heading into, but to quote our Fearless leader: I was here 2 years ago and I cannot remember everything. So I was a little worried about what was about to happen. All we knew at this point was it was going to take four hours and we seemed to be walking up a very steep road. That's right, a road. Turns out there was a parking lot closer to the trail-head than Roger remembered.
And what sight met us at the trail-head. Stairs. Oodles and oodles of stairs. Now any of you who have been keeping current on my travails will know that I am not partial to stairs because of my knees, but I seem to have this wild luck with facing immense amounts of stairs everywhere I go. So up we went, into the heart of darkness.
Forty-five minutes later there was no sign to end to the stairs, and did you know how bloody hot it can get at 7:45 in the morning? I know and trust me when I say that it can get freakin' hot! But then . . .
Sanctuary, my Fortress of Solitude! A rest stop. Ahhhhhhh, but then it was up some more. We must not fail to complete our treck, we must prove to who-knows-what-god that we will not give up in the face of adversity. But there was another catch. This was the point where the stairs ended and the steep-help-yourself-up-with-a-rope-or-chain path started. And it's a funny thing about stairs. You hate them until they are gone. And then you will love them like a newborn.
Fifteen minutes later we hit the peak. Ahhhhh success, and two hours ahead of the pre-stated schedule. But then I saw the cliff to my left. A sheer drop to a valley floor of trees and no gaurd rail. No warning signs, nothing, squat, diddley. So I eased and edged my way to joint the group and take a seat to enjoy the view. Oh, it was splendid, but I was so looking forward to the path that awaited us. Mainly the downward angled path that awaited us. But alas, my wishes were to go unrequited.
It turns out that there are 5 peaks that we must conquer before we can begin our downwards trajectory to the cars and comfort. This was also the point where the muddy-leaf-strewn-don't-look-away-from-the-path point of our hike began.
So we headed off and the first mental obstacle of the hike confronted me. A twenty foot section of path that was about one and a half feet wide. the catch to this section of path was the fact that on either side of the aforementioned path were cliffs heading practically straight down. I am slightly afraid of heights. And when I saw slightly, I mean totally. So I had to bear down, grin and walk/crawl across the top of certain death.
Ahhhh, I'm across, I'm safe. I hope I never have to do that again . . . whoops, spoke too soon. Turns out that there are plenty of points along the path identical to the one I had just crossed and at each one I could feel myself getting ready to fill my shorts in fear.
I made it safely across each section. It was ironically on a very flat, very safe path that I actually fell for the first time. I stepped, and it was like in a movie where the man steps on a banana peel and kicks straight out in front of him. I stepped, I kicked, I left the earth with both feet, I came back to the ground on my ass. But no pain just shame.
Then aboot 2 hours from the cars I had the bad fall. The path was narrow, slippery and bumpy. But luckily it wasn't too steep on either side, and there were trees 5 feet down on either side to break someone's fall and bones if they should happen to fall. And fall I did.
In movies they always say something like "be careful," and it's immediately after that the accident happens. Well Sunday was just like the movies. Adrian sealed my fate that day by telling me to scream if I fall and break my neck, and literally a fraction of a second later my shin is heading towards the earth at 9.82 m/s2. And after slamming into the unfogiving rock it slipped into a crack and that's when I thought it would snap. Luckily I didn't break it. I think. I just ended up having to limp the rest of the way to the car. Another lucky occurance was the direction of my fall. I fell straight down and didn't actually go off of the path and into the fall that awaited me.
The rest of the hike was fairly free of incidents. I just hobbled down the stairs back to the car and went for lunch.
If you doubt the validity of this tall tale I have a bruise the size of a large hand on my left shin to show that it happened. It's getting smaller, but for a while I was getting a little worried. And I thought maybe my bone was chipped because it still hurts to puch on it gently, but the pain is going away so I am sure I am ok. For now.
So the moral of this story is to not accept invitations to go hiking at 5am in the morning in Taiwan. Cause I am sure this will all happen to you if you do.
Talk to you all soon. 80 days to be exact.
Two Sundays ago had to be one of the worst days of my life. Seriously. It all started Friday evening when an innocent question was asked:
"Mike, do you want to go hiking on Sunday?"
Now, to understand this question you must realise that in Taiwan hiking usually means walking along a flat path. So I figured "what the hell, I'll go." But there's always a catch, isn't there? Isn't THERE?!
We had to be at the park near our apartment at 5 am. 5 AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't even know what 5 am looks like. But now I do, and I wish I could take it all back.
But I was able to get my ass out of bed, and get to the park in time. And then we drove to the hell on earth location known to locals as The Whole Of The Empire. It was 7 am when our journey began. We were nine hesitant souls. Only one in our ranks knew what we were heading into, but to quote our Fearless leader: I was here 2 years ago and I cannot remember everything. So I was a little worried about what was about to happen. All we knew at this point was it was going to take four hours and we seemed to be walking up a very steep road. That's right, a road. Turns out there was a parking lot closer to the trail-head than Roger remembered.
And what sight met us at the trail-head. Stairs. Oodles and oodles of stairs. Now any of you who have been keeping current on my travails will know that I am not partial to stairs because of my knees, but I seem to have this wild luck with facing immense amounts of stairs everywhere I go. So up we went, into the heart of darkness.
Forty-five minutes later there was no sign to end to the stairs, and did you know how bloody hot it can get at 7:45 in the morning? I know and trust me when I say that it can get freakin' hot! But then . . .
Sanctuary, my Fortress of Solitude! A rest stop. Ahhhhhhh, but then it was up some more. We must not fail to complete our treck, we must prove to who-knows-what-god that we will not give up in the face of adversity. But there was another catch. This was the point where the stairs ended and the steep-help-yourself-up-with-a-rope-or-chain path started. And it's a funny thing about stairs. You hate them until they are gone. And then you will love them like a newborn.
Fifteen minutes later we hit the peak. Ahhhhh success, and two hours ahead of the pre-stated schedule. But then I saw the cliff to my left. A sheer drop to a valley floor of trees and no gaurd rail. No warning signs, nothing, squat, diddley. So I eased and edged my way to joint the group and take a seat to enjoy the view. Oh, it was splendid, but I was so looking forward to the path that awaited us. Mainly the downward angled path that awaited us. But alas, my wishes were to go unrequited.
It turns out that there are 5 peaks that we must conquer before we can begin our downwards trajectory to the cars and comfort. This was also the point where the muddy-leaf-strewn-don't-look-away-from-the-path point of our hike began.
So we headed off and the first mental obstacle of the hike confronted me. A twenty foot section of path that was about one and a half feet wide. the catch to this section of path was the fact that on either side of the aforementioned path were cliffs heading practically straight down. I am slightly afraid of heights. And when I saw slightly, I mean totally. So I had to bear down, grin and walk/crawl across the top of certain death.
Ahhhh, I'm across, I'm safe. I hope I never have to do that again . . . whoops, spoke too soon. Turns out that there are plenty of points along the path identical to the one I had just crossed and at each one I could feel myself getting ready to fill my shorts in fear.
I made it safely across each section. It was ironically on a very flat, very safe path that I actually fell for the first time. I stepped, and it was like in a movie where the man steps on a banana peel and kicks straight out in front of him. I stepped, I kicked, I left the earth with both feet, I came back to the ground on my ass. But no pain just shame.
Then aboot 2 hours from the cars I had the bad fall. The path was narrow, slippery and bumpy. But luckily it wasn't too steep on either side, and there were trees 5 feet down on either side to break someone's fall and bones if they should happen to fall. And fall I did.
In movies they always say something like "be careful," and it's immediately after that the accident happens. Well Sunday was just like the movies. Adrian sealed my fate that day by telling me to scream if I fall and break my neck, and literally a fraction of a second later my shin is heading towards the earth at 9.82 m/s2. And after slamming into the unfogiving rock it slipped into a crack and that's when I thought it would snap. Luckily I didn't break it. I think. I just ended up having to limp the rest of the way to the car. Another lucky occurance was the direction of my fall. I fell straight down and didn't actually go off of the path and into the fall that awaited me.
The rest of the hike was fairly free of incidents. I just hobbled down the stairs back to the car and went for lunch.
If you doubt the validity of this tall tale I have a bruise the size of a large hand on my left shin to show that it happened. It's getting smaller, but for a while I was getting a little worried. And I thought maybe my bone was chipped because it still hurts to puch on it gently, but the pain is going away so I am sure I am ok. For now.
So the moral of this story is to not accept invitations to go hiking at 5am in the morning in Taiwan. Cause I am sure this will all happen to you if you do.
Talk to you all soon. 80 days to be exact.
