Fun in the Sun

I hit a strange milestone in my life abroad this week, I looked at flights home for the first time.  I don’t have words for it, especially since I haven’t made any purchases yet (I suspect that is this week’s hurdle) but it has made my upcoming departure seem much sooner.  Knowing that my time is coming to an end, I know I need to make the most of all of my weekends left.

It seems a silly thing to say, but I often forget how much I love being in the water.  I have always enjoyed swimming, but when if you asked me what I wanted to do on any given weekend, going to the beach or pool probably isn’t my first thought.  Perhaps it is because I feel like I have been to all of our standard swimming holes? Regardless, I had a sunny, water-filled weekend, and loved every minute of it. 

Saturday was the summer solstice, so to celebrate the longest day of sunlight the year will provide us with, a group of locals and foreigners alike gathered Zhunan’s largest beach.  Zhunan is about 1.5 hours north of Changhua, in Maoli county.  I had only been to Zhunan once before this weekend, and that was during my Chinese New Year (2013) road trip when we slept in the park and woke up to the red-face of the agricultural deity staring back at us.  This weekend we were not on the lookout for temples however, we were heading straight to the water for some swimming, barbequing, and bonfiring.  I have been told before that the beaches in Zhunan can get pretty windy, which makes them idea for kite surfing and wake boarding (someday I’d love to learn how to do either of those sports) and it lived up to that reputation (the windmill-lined skyline can attest to that).  When the sun finally set on our day we set up a grill and cooked up some barbecue meat while we sat around talking.  Before I knew it, it was time to catch the train home.

Summer Solstice in Zhunan, this is the "volleyball court".

This morning I met up with some friends for a ‘small trip to the waterfalls,’ which turned into a massive group adventure through the mountains of Taichung.  I don’t know why I wasn’t expecting a full-sized group, but by departure time there were 18 of us, helmet-clad and ready.  We drove out to Taiping (which is an area I have explored several times now) and made a brief stop at the bat caves.  Though I swore to myself well over a year ago that 1-time through the caves was more than enough, I grabbed a flashlight and crept inside.  The bat cave is an interesting experience because the walking trails are only about the size of a person, and when you have a flashlight (I didn’t last time), you see the mud and poop-caked walls clearly the entire way.  We made the mistake of entering the caves from two different directions (past exploration of the caves had lead to dead ends), and ended up colliding with each other (both groups equally scaring the bats closer to the other groups’ faces).  Squished against the walls we managed to slide past, and a few minutes later we were back in the light of day and on the road to the waterfalls.  The waterfall itself was particularly difficult to reach today.  Last year was a dry summer, but the rains this year have caused a slippery layer of moss along the tops of most of our climbing rocks.  We must have been quite a spectacle, falling all over each other or flat on our butts the whole way up the river.

The "scooter gang" making our way through Taichung

Climbing up the rocks as the river rushes by.

We made it!

Now, as a temporary memory of the weekend, I am surprised to see I have a slight sunburn.  Hopefully that fades quickly, I don’t think countries with vast assortments of whitening products will be impressed with my new color.