On my second-to-last day of huandao, I had two grandpas sing for me, I had two religious experiences, I narrowly avoided a snake, I was chased by dogs, and I climbed a mountain of salt.
Tomorrow’s gonna be underwhelming…
I started my day with a walk through Chiayi Park. An elderly man invited me to sit with him under a pagoda. He was a friendly guy who spoke perfect English. After an enjoyable chat, he offered to sing for me(!). I only grasped the gist of the song; something about missing the woman he loves. I asked if he sang it to his wife, and he said they sing it together. Then as I got up to leave, he asked if he could pray for me. And so, despite not being religious, I stood in Chiayi Park, head bowed, as this stranger prayed for my safe onward journey.In the middle of Chiayi Park is the 12-story Sun-Shooting Tower, named after the ‘sun-shooting’ legend of the Pingpu Indigenous People (平埔族群). In the legend, the world originally had two suns, but excess heat caused crops to be perpetually dry. So a group of three warriors shot down one of the suns, thus creating a more balanced climate. The design of the tower references many details from this legend.The hollow interior references a crack in a sacred Pingpu tree.The elevator stopped at a gallery on level 10. I took the stairs to this cafe on level 11.I wondered how problematic this must’ve been, to prompt these signs next to every window.I walked up a second flight of stairs to the open-air observation deck on level 12. This is the west-facing view across Chiayi City. It feels like a comfortable, laid-back city. (Earlier, I’d run this hypothesis past the singing grandpa, and he agreed.)I rode towards the coast for around an hour, before stopping at a 7-Eleven for lunch. Just around the corner was this giant pile of salt. It’s not as random as it may seem: this had been a famous salt-making area from the 1600s through to 2002. The salt was left behind when the factories closed.Nearby, I stopped at a more-intentioned landmark: the High Heel Church. It’s an 18-meter-tall building made with 320 pieces of blue glass, commonly used for weddings. My mind went to Priscilla, Queen of the Desert—but the design actually symbolizes an element of Taiwanese wedding culture: Traditionally, the bride wears high heels while walking on some tiles. Any that break are discarded, symbolizing the end of past misfortunes, ahead of a blissful married life.The High Heel Church accommodates 100 people. After grandpa prayed for me earlier, going to church was my second religious experience of the day.It’s just as well he prayed for me, too: later I narrowly avoided this meter-long snake on the road. It’s first wild snake I’ve seen, in Taiwan or anywhere else.Sticking with the staying-alive theme, I visited this iconic sculpture—the Tree of Life (生命之樹)—in the middle of the Tainan salt flats. There were two groups ahead of me as I walked the 600-meter-long path to reach it. As we were arriving, a man in the first group ripped off his shirt and started striking bodybuilder poses, while another guy pulled out a professional camera. It was like a two-person flash mob. Myself and the second group of people were all a bit like ‘WTF?!’ Later, another WTF moment happened as I returned to my scooter: I met a second friendly grandpa—a retired English teacher from Tainan—who also offered to sing for me. In German.Sticking with the salt theme, my next stop was Qigu Salt Mountain (七股鹽山)—a more dramatic salt pile than the one I saw earlier. It’s around six stories tall, and covers a hectare. The salt has compacted and hardened over the decades, bizarrely making Qigu Salt Mountain the highest point of ‘land’ in this part of Taiwan.I was amused by two of the instructions for visitors: “As Salt Mountain is the property of Taiyen, removing salt from it is in violation of the law”, and “Please refrain from throwing salt for fun”. I don’t remember the last time I threw salt for fun.The slippery climb to the top took a couple of minutes.Soon enough, I knocked the bastard off.Just ahead of sunset, my last stop was Guosheng Port Lighthouse (國聖港燈塔)—at the western-most point of Taiwan. During my huandao, I’ve now visited Taiwan’s northern-, eastern-, southern-, and western-most points (and lighthouses).Here’s the sun setting on my second-to-last day of huandao. It looks peaceful, but minutes after taking this photo, I was chased by stray dogs on my way to Tainan City.
