Other than the foundational road trip, the mountains have whispered to me on two other occasions that my scooter and I may suffer an early death.
The first time was during a night ride home from the mountains, when a wild, wild storm blew in. These roads are twisting cliff faces anyway, but terrifying when they transfigure themselves into raging rivers. Mudslides formed on the edges, and shards of lightning kept striking the roads in rabid madness. The passing traffic was sending walls of water through the darkness, and the onslaught was so thick it nearly swept us off the edges. What should have been a relaxing forty minute ride had become TWO HOURS OF HIT AND MISS WITH THE GRIM REAPER …
Obviously Thor didn’t have the power to keep me off stormy mountains roads though, or I am a close relative of the maze mouse who goes back to be electrocuted for the fifteenth time. On another wintry day, (with the same two friends), we headed into Taipei’s northern mountains. It was a misty, stormy day that took us deep into Yangmingshan National Park, to indulge in the pleasures of volcanic mud baths. Night fell early, and we decided to head back down the mountains for the comforts of Taipei.
My scooter stalled from the cold, and because the mist was so thick, in an eye-blink, my friends’ tail-lights were out of sight. I finally got my bike started, headed up through the mist, and unwittingly took the wrong road. I spent the next hour and a half utterly alone, frozen from the cold, my clothes drenched from earlier rains, and scootering through the thickest and eeriest fogs I have ever seen. There were no lights, no road reflectors, no signs of civilization, and no other traffic. There was barely a road, and I couldn’t see more than a metre ahead through the whirling mists. Eventually I saw some roadside stalls in the distance … I had made it over the northern mountains … in the opposite direction to Taipei! I stumbled into one of the stalls, shaking from the cold, and too terrified to brave the journey back over the mountains.
The family who owned the stall were the most wonderful people I could have met in this moment, and they were of course grateful I had brought a little drama to liven up their evening! They were so genuinely worried they helped arrange for my friend to come back over the mountains in a taxi to find me, and stuffed me full of sweet potatoes, jasmine tea, and bowl after bowl of steaming ginger soup that they wouldn’t let me pay for. They also gave me a bright yellow flower and many, many prayers. I stayed with them for over an hour, as my friend travelled back through the mountains in a taxi. We then spent the next two hours riding through the heavy mountain mists, just to get to the outskirts of Taipei.
It was another hour of bright city rains, before I pulled up outside my apartment at 2am. I got under the covers in my bed and literally stayed there for the next 34 hours!
*
The first time was during a night ride home from the mountains, when a wild, wild storm blew in. These roads are twisting cliff faces anyway, but terrifying when they transfigure themselves into raging rivers. Mudslides formed on the edges, and shards of lightning kept striking the roads in rabid madness. The passing traffic was sending walls of water through the darkness, and the onslaught was so thick it nearly swept us off the edges. What should have been a relaxing forty minute ride had become TWO HOURS OF HIT AND MISS WITH THE GRIM REAPER …
Obviously Thor didn’t have the power to keep me off stormy mountains roads though, or I am a close relative of the maze mouse who goes back to be electrocuted for the fifteenth time. On another wintry day, (with the same two friends), we headed into Taipei’s northern mountains. It was a misty, stormy day that took us deep into Yangmingshan National Park, to indulge in the pleasures of volcanic mud baths. Night fell early, and we decided to head back down the mountains for the comforts of Taipei.
My scooter stalled from the cold, and because the mist was so thick, in an eye-blink, my friends’ tail-lights were out of sight. I finally got my bike started, headed up through the mist, and unwittingly took the wrong road. I spent the next hour and a half utterly alone, frozen from the cold, my clothes drenched from earlier rains, and scootering through the thickest and eeriest fogs I have ever seen. There were no lights, no road reflectors, no signs of civilization, and no other traffic. There was barely a road, and I couldn’t see more than a metre ahead through the whirling mists. Eventually I saw some roadside stalls in the distance … I had made it over the northern mountains … in the opposite direction to Taipei! I stumbled into one of the stalls, shaking from the cold, and too terrified to brave the journey back over the mountains.
The family who owned the stall were the most wonderful people I could have met in this moment, and they were of course grateful I had brought a little drama to liven up their evening! They were so genuinely worried they helped arrange for my friend to come back over the mountains in a taxi to find me, and stuffed me full of sweet potatoes, jasmine tea, and bowl after bowl of steaming ginger soup that they wouldn’t let me pay for. They also gave me a bright yellow flower and many, many prayers. I stayed with them for over an hour, as my friend travelled back through the mountains in a taxi. We then spent the next two hours riding through the heavy mountain mists, just to get to the outskirts of Taipei.
It was another hour of bright city rains, before I pulled up outside my apartment at 2am. I got under the covers in my bed and literally stayed there for the next 34 hours!
*
