Wednesday, November 28, 2007

kenting national park

To Kenting National Park, the Southernmost tip of Taiwan. I guess it will be about a 3 hour drive there, I am beginning to go a little crazy from the amount of time I am spending in a car, staring out the window, only understanding about 5 words of Taiwanese. It’s awful being an explorer/photographer staring out of a window, looking at all the things you want to photograph. Just passing you by, as if just a tease. Luckily, I am a pro at capturing imaginary photographs – you should see the album in my memory! ‘A bi’ tells Jason that if I want to stop to just say the word. I do a couple of times but it’s difficult on so many levels. Traveling in a car, kind of fast, with 3 other people. So, I know they will get out and they have to stop and find a place to pull over. Second, I have learned on this trip that locals don’t see the same things I see, and sometimes are very perplexed at what I want to photograph and why. I got it a fair amount in China, “Why are photographing that, there is nothing there!” It’s just a hassle…I make up my plans for my next visit to Taiwan – on a scooter – and when I can speak for myself…and no oldies mc’oldie. Not that I mind ‘Dune Dune’ being old – it’s him being so senile.
On one stop of mine, of some Beetle nut trees, there was a pack of wild dogs taking in the sunshine. I was forewarned that they approach women a lot sooner than a man. I was told to crouch down and put one hand on the ground. I did, they ran away – the motion is symbolic of picking up a rock to hit it with.
The beach is beautiful – big surprise, right? The water is blue and clear – the first time I have ever seen clear water, where I can see my feet through the water. It’s Thanksgiving right now in the states, and I am wearing shorts and a tank top hanging out on the most gorgeous beach I have ever seen. That’s what I am thankful for, this opportunity to travel half way across the world.
We walk down to the night market and have dinner. At the hotel, we catch the last hour and a half of the spa. After dressing, Jason and I make it to the arcade before “A bi” and “Dune Dune” – it’s 10 pm and all the games have been shut off but there are still 2 pool tables and 2 ping pong tables as well. Jason and I start a game and I have to interrupt…quietly, trying not to alarm him too much…”Jason…Dune Dune…” and signal to look with my eyes. Here he comes, completely dressed, except without pants. Jason rushes up to him and escorts him back to the showers at the spa. Jason reports when he gets back that he couldn’t find his pants so he just went ahead without ‘A bi’. This is so sad.
The four of us play ping pong and pool and we cut out around 11 to check out the “town”. We end up walking about 2 miles until we hit something going on. But the night market has closed, so has the cart with the homemade light up “BAR” that was camped outside. So………………………..Jason and I travel to the end of the area with places and we see a little female black dog. He goes inside to buy a hot dog to feed to her. She gobbles it down but now she has 2 additional friends along. 1 of the new friends was sleeping in front of the 711 door and has a nice, apparently new, battle wound on his rear. A little blood from probably a fight for food. Jason buys 2 more hot dogs, and feeds them to her. You can tell by her belly she has given birth to a fairly recent litter. I cannot explain to you the amount of wild dogs in this country. Not that they are wild, but more abandoned pets or run always. She is such a cute dog and I want to take her home so badly. We have to leave because it’s making Jason and me so sad. I believe there is one more purchase by Jason at 7 11 for the dogs, but this time it was fish ball skewers. The dog in front of the police station was an asshole and snubbed his nose at it so we went back and found a litter of kittens and through it between the buildings. These dogs hang out in front of convenient stores, and I was actually approached by one inside of one here as well. I was a Yellow Lab that just decided to see what magazines I was checking out.
At this point we have travelled from the hotel about 2 miles to point A. Then returning towards the motel. Then we walk back towards point A, where Jason looks at me, “here, go get something, I can’t keep going in there and buying hot dogs”. At this point, it was after we saw a tiny, scrawny, white, very young female dog watching a man eat his noodles in front of 7 11. Jason bought a hot dog and we walked a few steps away to feed it. I walk into the 7 11, I go to the canned food because hot dogs can’t be that satisfying to this visually starving dog. She has a buddy out on the stoop too, which is a fairly larger dog with a gimp hind leg. I eye the sardines, no, the canned meat, no….there has to be pet food here. There it is, a large can of dog food for 30 NT (exchange rate here, about 36 NT = 1 USD). I buy 2. I figure the cashier can’t say anything to me like, “you can’t feed the wild dogs”, because, shit, it’s obvious that I can’t speak Taiwanese. I am going to use my stupid American stigma to the fullest extent for the wellbeing of these dogs. I walk out and Jason looks at me like I have just won the ultimate prize in the ring toss from the night markets. We feed the 2 dogs and now here comes 2 more. One is definitely a pure Alpha male…and has been in his fare share of fights.
Jason now buys 2 cans and we go into an alley and slam the down on the ground to empty them out. We try to split it up between the 4 dogs. The first 2 original dogs stay behind and the Alpha and his BFF follow us for awhile. We try not to look and we think we lose them at one point, but we can hear their little toenails approach us from behind. Okay, 2 more cans, and that’s it. We empty them out and the BFF of Alpha literally swallows his can in one gulp. Jason is explaining, “Oh my god, my dog at that whole can at once, I can’t believe it”.
We head back to the hotel, walking along the edge of the coast, around 1 am, after spending close to 2 hours feeding wild dogs, and Jason drinking his Taiwan Beer. I wish something really stupid and Jason wishes “that all the dogs have a home”. I look up at the stars in the black sky and think how much I absolutely love him. This may be one of the most wonderful times we have shared.

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