Wednesday October 11, 2000
If I have to pick a day out of the entire trip, point at it and say it was
the most memorable day of the trip, I'd have to pick Wednesday the 11th. Being the
most memorable day doesn't necessarily mean it was a good day - it was simply what it was,
memorable.
View of the city from the balcony of my aunt and uncle's home
Taken at: 7:04 AM, Wednesday 11 October 2000
We got up around 7am and headed out to continue our trip down South. My uncle had to
drop off my aunt at her school (she's a middle school history teacher) before dropping us
off at the bus stations. There are tens of bus companies who operate buses between
large cities. The day before we took the "Fly Dog" bus, this time we
decided to take the "Airforce One" bus - the company who supposedly started the
whole "Airforce One" style seats. So far we had been very satisfied with
our experience and was looking forward to our adventure down South. We would later
found out just how much we're going to get more than we bargained for.
The "Airforce One" bus was just as good as the "Fly
Dog" bus, with the comfortable on-person seats and tv monitors for every seat.
We decided again to seat on the second level up front so we can get a good view of the
roads. However the seat that Russ was on was too high and his view was block by the
monitor in front of his seat. So Russ decided to move to a different seat somewhere
in the middle of the bus while I stayed in mine. During the trip they showed the
movie "The Bone Collector" starring Densel Washington. I was into the
movie about 3/4 through when the bus slowed down to some traffic congestion. It was
stop and go for a while then all of a sudden our bus rammed into the back of a truck that
looked like a construction vehicle. I had about 1/2 a second to react before the
window in front and beside me shattered into pieces of glass.
The front of the bus after the crash
Taken at: 8:33 PM, Wednesday 11 October 2000
Where I was seated at the time the bus crashed into the truck
Taken at: 8:36 PM, Wednesday 11 October 2000
The shattered windows formed thousands of little knifes; it took days before we
cleared our possessions of these things
Taken at: 8:38 PM, Wednesday 11 October 2000
The first thing I did was get out of the seat and went back to check on Russ.
Everyone seemed to be okay including Russ. Then he pointed to a woman behind me who
had a pretty bad bloody nose and cuts on her face. I got a piece of paper towel that
used to be a head cushion and dabbed water in it to let her use it to clean her
face. She seemed to be in shock but conscious and not badly hurt. Then
suddenly Russ looked at me and said that I was bleeding. I've gotten cuts on both of
my knees and legs, the worst on my knees. Thankfully there were only skin-deep.
I started to pick off the little bits of glass on my body when I realized that they
were not safety glass! I could feel hundreds of small glass bits on my skin
everytime I moved or come in contact with other things. I had two bags with food and
drinks sitting next to my seat that we ended up throwing away because they were also
covered in glass bits.
We sat and waited for the next bus to pick us up and continue the trip.
One of the co-drivers came up and asked if any passenger had witnessed what
happened and could give the account to the police. It turned out that they didn't
really want a witness, just someone who would say that it wasn't their fault. A
woman pointed at me and said that I might have seen something since I was the only one
sitting up front. I told the driver that I wasn't paying attention to the road
because of the movie and therefore didn't see what had caused the crash. The driver
said: "don't worry about it, we'll tell you what to say." I was more than
appalled by his implication and simply refused to lie to save his skin. They should
count themselves lucky that I wasn't going to sue them for not using safety glass.
What also bothered me was that the woman who pointed me out to the driver
also told me not to worry about what to say and to just say whatever the driver wanted me
to. This led me to believe that it's a common and acceptable practice to lie and
cheat in the Taiwanese society. I was quite angered by her suggestion and told her
plainly that I would not lie for the driver. She seemed confused by what I said.
The bus as it was been towed away; taken from the bus that picked us up
Taken at: 11:13 AM, Wednesday 11 October 2000
I was relieved when the second bus finally arrived and took us on to continue the trip.
Because the second level was full, this time we sat in the first level of the bus
which had extremely low ceilings. I've always been a bit claustrophobic so it was
not a pleasant surrounding for me. Well, it beats sitting up top at the front
risking another crash.
The bus took us to Kaoshiung, from there we had to transfer to a different
bus that took us down to Ken-din, about a 3-hour ride. The second bus was not as
nice but comparable to the Greyhound buses in the US. Frankly, by then I worried
more about the quality of the bus driver than the comfort in the bus. Along the way
we took many pictures with Russ's digital camera. Because the highway was so close
to the coast, we could see some fish and shrimp farms. We saw alot of this pedaling
machine on the waters and wondered aloud what they were. Later when I asked my
mother she told me that they are likely used for shrimp farming; but what for? I
still don't know.
These little pedaling things can be seen along the highway leading to Ken-din
Taken at: 8:40 PM, Wednesday 11 October 2000
Taken at: 8:41 PM, Wednesday 11 October 2000
At first glance I thought these were palm trees; later on I found out that they
may be "bing-lan" trees. People who chew "bing-lan" are in the
same category as ones who chew tobacco, except "bing-lan" is environmentally
harmful - "bing-lan" chewers tend to spit them out everywhere which leads to
permanent red spit marks all over the roads. It's illegal in Taiwan to spit
"bing-lan" on public grounds, but no one seems to pay attention to the law
(especially down South). Take my word for it, it's absolutely and undeniably
disgusting.
Taken at: 8:42 PM, Wednesday 11 October 2000
From the Taiwan tourist guide book we had singled out a few hotels that were recommended
for their prices and cleaniness. The moment we stepped off the bus, a woman came and
solicited us to take a look at one of the rooms in her hotel. It was an okay room
and she asked for NT $800 (approx US $25). I wanted to take a look at the other
hotels suggested by the guide book so I turned her down. I'm glad that I did,
because the other hotel was alot better and charged the same amount. October was not
a tourist season so the local tourist buses were not running on a regular schedule and not
a whole lot was going on. However, it appeared that it was a special day for
whatever the religion practiced by the locals, and a ceremony accompanied by god statues
and firecrackers was in process. Our room was on the 3rd floor of the building so we
got a very good view of the proceedings. It was an unexpected and welcomed treat.
A typical roof of a temple
Taken at: 8:44 PM, Wednesday 11 October 2000
Inside the carriage is a statue of a god; the structure in the background was the
local middle school
Taken at: 8:45 PM, Wednesday 11 October 2000
These men jumped forward and backward in front of the altar a number of times
while the firecrackers were going off; taken from the hotel room window we stayed at.
Taken at: 3:49 PM, Wednesday 11 October 2000
Taken at: 3:51 PM, Wednesday 11 October 2000
We both took showers immediately after we got into our room to wash off the bits of glass
stuck to our skins. Russ then tried to clean the glass bits off our bags as much as
possible. He went to the 7-Eleven downstairs and managed to get me an anti-bacterial
ointment and bandages - I was very impressed considering he spoke not one word of Chinese.
We rested for a little while before heading out to hunt for dinner. We spent
most of the night at an underground mall inside a large resort - there were game rooms,
pool tables, karaoke's, food court, shops, an indoor water amusement park, and an indoor
amusement park with 3-D, virtual-reality type rides that was closed for the night.
We decided to come back tomorrow and check out the amusement park.
