No room for bigots

http://www.newint.org/features/2009/05/01/no-room-for-bigots/

As for the much-derided Muslims (580,000 in the 2001 census, but now estimated at 750,000) – they are a satisfied lot, according to a poll done for the Trudeau Foundation in Montreal. They register higher levels of pride in Canada than the population at large. They are less likely than Muslims in Britain, France, Germany or Spain to feel that their fellow citizens are hostile to Islam. They did cite discrimination as a problem, but ‘the thing Muslims least like about Canada is the cold weather’, just like all other immigrant groups.

Burgary hotel 寶格利時尚旅館, Ximen, Taipei, Taiwan

The Burgary hotel 寶格利時尚旅館 is just next the busy Ximen area on the busy Zhonghua road.

Ximen is ideal for shopping, food an ideal to catch a movie with its numerous movie theaters (we saw Star Trek on a large Imax screen).

The rooms are expensive (3680NT$ or around 120$US), the entrance is unimpressive, the free breakfast is the worse we've had. The bed is so-so, better then the plywood hardness in other hotels, although we would have hoped for better and more sheets.

Where the Burgary really shine is in the bathroom with an enormous bubble bath with colored lighting effect and nice shower with a standard showerhead and a rain type overhead showerhead. Next to the bath is a TV screen.

Overall, a good experience and we would come back for a night or two to be in the happening area.

Olympia bakery, Taipei, Taiwan

Olympia bakery (3 places in Taipei, including one is Ximen) has surprisingly good cream puffs for 30NT$ (1US$) each. They are also very filling so you can't really eat more then one. Another surprise are the dim sum who are tasty and fresh.

Olympia (http://www.olympiafoods.com.tw)

Baiyang trail 白楊步道, Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園, Taiwan

A few minutes walk in the hot sun from the Grand Formosa hotel was the Baiyang trail 白楊步道.

From the start, Min Lin was worried when we had to walk a few hundreds meters in a straight tunnel where the light at the other end was only a dot.

She got more worried when we got to a curved tunnel where we couldn't see the light until we walked to the curve a few meters in.

But she got really worried when we had to walk a few meters in yet another tunnel in total darkness! That last experience was exactly like being blind even with our eyes wide open, the convenient rail our only guide.

Dragging Min Lin through it all was worth it for the sights of the roaring canyon river on one side of a rope bridge (limit 10 persons) and waterfalls on the other. Absolutely gorgeous!

In addition, the trail ends with the water curtain tunnel, where a river flows fed by water leaking abundantly from the ceiling. If you go through, be ready to get wet and watch out for the frogs.

All of this is framed by vegetation covered cliffs, huge boulders at the bottom of the canyon and mountains peaking through the clouds. It is also an easy trail, apart from the scary tunnels. A flashlight is recommend except if you like to have your significant other hold on tight to yourself...

Grand Formosa Taroko Western Restaurant, Taiwan

The decor is wood and a large slab of rock next to which are placed the various salad dish. Two more islands have most of the meat dishes and a chef speciality area. Tucked in a corner the desserts are layed out.

The staff is very accomodating and prompt, offering us good seats and are quick at picking up the steady stream of dishes.

The desserts are all delicious and include a mango mousse, an angel cake, fruitcake and more. There is also some watermelon and if you want to go French style you can get some of the tasty smoked gouda cheese in addition to a Min Lin's favorite, matcha (green tea) ice cream. The chef was nice enough to bring an extra plate of cheese when we scavenged the last piece.

Wait you'll say, what about the main dishes? Sadly, they are all messed up in their own special way with an uniform abuse of pepper in all dishes. The supposedly French style onion soup is an insult to France and even the spaghetti ranks as the worse I've had.

The buffet food is 590NT$ plus a 10% service charge. We recommend stuffing yourself on the afternoon tea (250NT$) and going for some stinky tofu next door for dinner.

Grand Formosa Taroko 天祥晶華度假酒店, Tien-Xiang 天祥, Taiwan

Ma-Lu-Su? ("How are you?" in the language of the Atayal, a local aboriginal mountain tribe)

Nested in the mountains and only reachable by an half hour drive in the sinuous and narrow roads through the tall mountains is the Grand Formosa Taroko hotel 天祥晶華度假酒店.

Years ago, the Japaneses during the occupation were the first to turn the region from a dangerous mountain path hanging dangerously on the cliff of the mountains to a tourists destination.

Now, tour buses of mostly Taiwaneses and mainlanders with a few westerners and Japaneses sprinkled throughout negotiate a not much larger road, stopping to admire the beautiful sights of the high, jungle covered mountains and bare cliffs that drop to the rivers.

Some, like us, stop at the amazingly affordable five stars hotel Grand Formosa Taroko with all the modern facilities in the middle of it all. Two restaurants (one western style buffet and one chinese style), indoor and outdoor (roof) swimming pools, spa facilities and a gamut of entertainment choices (ping pong, billiards, video games, bowling). The dinner buffet looks delicious although expensive even by the standards in North America.

You can get a room with a view on the courtyard or overlooking the river and cliff outside. We switched to the second choice so we could run naked in the room with the windows opened.

At night, huge insects (including an enormous wasp that made it in the room) are attracted to the light and land on our window. A bat profits of this by flying again and again next to our window to eat them.

The rooms are decorated tastefully with some inspirations from the mountain tribes while the friendly employees wear uniforms with slight additions that reminds us of traditional aboriginal tribes.

Amazing, if not slightly nauseating, that this mountainous and remote area went from tribes getting necessities from nature to hydroelectric dams to the comforts found in any large city of the world in the span of less than 75 years with the help of a few generations of murdered natives or exploited labor.

All of this so that I can make a call sitting on the toilet by using the convenient phone handset there or watch HBO while lounging on the bed...

Thank you doesn't seem enough.

The only thing left to do then is to complain about how hard the bed is, how the hotel corridors are smelly and how few towels there are.

S-Wa-Yai Da Da! (goodbye in Atayal)

Hike in mysterious valley, Shakadang trail 砂卡礑步道, Taroko National park 太魯閣國家公園, Taiwan

The staff at the hotel Taroko warmed up to us and we warmed up to them. We were going to leave for the next hotel but they convinced us to try at least one trail, the Shakadang trail 砂卡礑步道.

So after breakfast (fried egg sandwich) we did a 8 km hike through the 1 km tunnel that goes to the "mysterious valley", then following a trail built into one cliff and finally the mostly dried river bed with just enough water for miniature waterfalls and small fishes.

There are a few aboriginal people still living in the valley and they grow a kind of vegetable consumed for its leafs in addition to raising a few chickens.

We then came back to Taroko village and had lunch, mostly gathered from the local 7 Eleven store.

Hotel Taroko 太魯閣旅店, Taroko village 太魯閣, Taiwan

Taroko village 太魯閣 is the entrance of Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園, but we found that it is a scary and deserted place at night: gangs of 12 years old holding sticks roving at night (we only survived those when we said we were Canadians), mean dogs on leashes that jump at you to push you off the sidewalks, a 7 Eleven kept at freezing temperature and a series of abandoned and probably haunted houses that dot its main street.

The hotel Taroko 太魯閣旅店 staff is unwelcoming this late at night, almost requiring torture to extract tidbits of information while a dog keeps barking menacingly outside.

Our inquiries about using the bicycles are met with veiled threats that we will be run over on the pathless streets of Taroko. We discovered later that this isn't strictly true; there are some bike paths.

We took the most expensive room and ended up with a bed with the firmness of plywood. The shower is so badly designed that the hook to hold the shower head is aligned with and two feets from the sink.

A little sign in the shower warns that we have to let the water run for 5 minutes to get hot water. In actuality, this is more like 15 minutes - I had time enough to brush my teeth and take a full (cold) shower including an hair shampoo before the hot water came on, wasting probably the equivalent of an Olympic size pool. I can assume that the environment won't be an hot issue during the next political elections. Min Lin in the meantime was trying to get the issue resolved with the front desk but only got accusations that we didn't let the water run for long enough...

The restaurant across the street has a good wild (and by wild they mean farm raised) boar dish. However they probably couldn't serve a vegetarian dish if their life depended on it as they gave Min Lin noodles with bits of meat in it.

The next day is a different story. We must admit it is still a good, new, clean hotel well located next to a national park with a view on the nearby river and mountains. And the front desk woman finally cracks a smile while the manager gets up and is actually helpful. Sadly, they still give us misinformation and we end up too early at the visitor center as we were told it opened at 7:30 instead of 8:30.