I thought that most people would be taking Friday …
I thought that most people would be taking Friday off, since Thursday was a holiday, but I had to wait on the MRT platform for several minutes while packed trains swept passed that morning. Not only were the streets full of people on their way to work, everyone seemed to be trying to push through the crowds as roughly as possible. One possible reason for this was the recent and unexpected return of Summer. We had all thought that winter was upon us Thursday, but Friday arrived with hot sun and fresh, rain-cleansed air. No doubt everyone who had decided the weather wasn’t good enough to take the day off was pissed off. It made for a maddening walk from the station to my office.
I got off at noon, though, so my spirits were high. I even walked home instead of taking the MRT, running into a former co-worker from O&M on the way. He told me that my replacement was just about tearing his hair out in frustration, and this after only a couple of months! Amazing.
That afternoon I rode out to the Tianbao Temple, where I usually go for all my Temple needs. It being Friday, no one was around, so I burned some incense for the lonely gods, including the Dragon god etched into the rock face in back, and then rode up the twisty, roller-coaster road to the Bao-an Temple on Four Animal Mountain, where I got off and started up the path to the cliff overlooking the city. One of the old men at the temple saw me and said to another old man in Taiwanese, “People don’t even stop to pray any more. They just go up to see the view.”
The view is impressive, though. Taipei101 is now higher than the mountain itself, an impressive sight, especially accompanied by the rainbow that appeared when the setting sun shone through a small rain squall. It’s truly amazing how much the Xinyi District has changed over the past decade. I should find some old pictures of that area and do a comparison on here sometime. Several health-conscious people were up there exercising as well. One man doing calesthenics took a break to hold his drooling dog up to a tree for a closer look at a lizard.
When I arrived back at the Bao-an Temple, an old man was playing a bamboo flute to the temple mutts, who seemed to appreciate the music. So did I, but I knew from experience that the mountain roads were dangerous and under construction, so I rode back down before the sun set.
The weather is nice again today, and I really should get out and enjoy it before winter comes back. There have been a couple of earthquakes over in Hualian recently as well, and someone mentioned worms and ants congregating in the streets without a permit, so being outside might be safer as well. Maoman is having a barbeque this afternoon at his jaded community apartment in Xizhi, and my friend Mark is having a Going-to-Blighty-to-get-Married Party at Whiskey tonight. Should be interesting.
