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Everyone met downstairs around 6:30am (OK, we were about 10 minutes late), and the four chartered tour buses parked across from the neighborhood Family Mart ファミリーマート departed at 7:07. At 7:23, it began - the karaoke カラオケ singing. And it continued, non-stop (with the exception of a couple of brief visits to freeway rest areas), until we reached Kaohsiung (Takao) 高雄 just after 10. It's one thing to go to a karaoke box (or KTV's, as they're known in Taiwan) - after all, you do so on a voluntary basis. But on a packed tour bus, there is no escape from the retread enka 演歌 (songs that were originally in Japanese, but retrofitted with Taiwanese lyrics). The view from the bus window certainly didn't provide an escape, for while the on-board TV set was playing videos of European castle towns and snowy scenes of Japanese villages, the scenery outside was 100% west coast. West coast of Taiwan, that is. Flat agricultural plains, broken up here and there by industrial complexes, and small towns with their concrete box skylines.
Amber posing at a rest stop; a video image from one of the karaoke songs, which looks like it was filmed in Magome 馬籠, Nagano-ken 長野県.
Kaohsiung looked almost beautiful after the long, concentrated assault on my eardrums, aka the bus ride down. And, in fact, the city has done a great job in cleaning up its act in recent years. The bus passed by several of Kaohsiung's new subway stations, including the Formosa Boulevard stop, but I wasn't quick enough to get a picture of that station's exterior architecture. I was able, however, to snap a photo of the former city government building/now current Kaohsiung Museum of History, plus a couple of signs that caught my eye from the bus window.
Karasumi カラスミ is the preserved roe of grey mullet or tuna.Our first destination was the Former British Consulate at Takao, completed in 1879 and used for customs administration until 1895. There were good views toward the ocean from the front, and of the city and harbor from the back. It was also already packed with sightseers at that hour of the morning.
After about an hour at the former consulate, it was back on the bus for the short ride to the Gushan Ferry Pier 鼓山フェリーボート, and the even shorter ferry ride across the harbor to Cijin (Kijin) 旗津 Island. The guidebooks suggest visiting the oldest temple in Kaohsiung, a historic gun emplacement that was the scene of a battle when the Japanese took over Taiwan in 1895, and a lighthouse with great views of both the sea and the harbor. We didn't do any of that, unfortunately. Instead, with the 90 minutes we were given on the island, we walked up the very crowded Seafood Street (dodging cars and scooters, as well as people. The concept of a pedestrian-only road, at least on busy Sundays, doesn't seem to have caught on in many places in Taiwan), had a long (overpriced) lunch with some others from our tour bus, then spent the rest of the time letting Amber have some fun in a small playground in front of the beach. Had we been on our own, no doubt we would have taken in the above sights in a leisurely manner, with a break for lunch at a less-crowded eatery, all the while enjoying the ocean scenery. Eat-and-run, however, is the nature of travel, tour bus style.
After lunch and back on the bus, we left Kaohsiung, and made the first of two (count 'em, two) stops at souvenir drive-ins (for want of a better description), this one in Madou (Matou/Matō) 麻豆 in Tainan County 台南県. Ostensibly, the bus pulled in for a restroom break, but in order to reach the bathrooms, we had to run a gauntlet of vendors peddling various snack foods. Many of the sellers were using microphones to ensure their sales pitches could rise above the din of the crowd. The hard-sell didn't stop there, either. After leaving the drive-in, the bus drove on to our next destination, a "leisure farm" in the town of Jhongpu (Chungp'u/Chūho) 中埔, but soon after passing through the city center, it pulled to the side of the road to allow a woman to get on, who proceeded to extol the virtues of salty raisins and vitamin pills all the way to the leisure farm's parking lot. It must have been an effective presentation, because several people ended up buying from her. For me, however, it was all the more annoying than usual because up until the saleswoman had gotten on the bus, we had taken a break from the karaoke and were watching the hit movie "Cape No. 7" 海角七号, which was nearing a key moment in the story when the DVD was paused to allow the raisin lady to do her thing.
The farm itself was a total tourist trap, with its cute farm animals, arcade games, snack and souvenir stands. On the other hand, for my as-yet-not jaded daughter (and may she never become so), this was the highlight of her day. She got to feed leaves to goats, run around on a spacious lawn, and enjoy yet another playground with slides. And I've got to admit, the location deep in the betel palm-covered hills was an attractive one. Still...
By now it was dark when we returned to the bus. "Cape No. 7" had almost reached its conclusion when we arrived at the second roadside souvenir emporium, the "Small Elephant Original Coffee & Mountain Tea Theme And Leisure Park". At least there were free coffee samples, and somehow me managed to get out of there without buying anything. Back on board, I was expecting to see the end of the movie, but instead it was karaoke time again! This time, the accompanying videos were not of the Travel and Living Channel variety, as the following screen shot shows:
After the pachyderm pit stop, it was time for dinner. When you travel by tour bus, large, noisy institutional dining halls are the order of the day. These places appear to be expressly set up, along with the souvenir stand rest stops, to serve the needs of Taiwan's huge tour group industry. Hundreds of people sitting at dozens of round tables, all eating the same courses, which are brought out on a continuous stream of large trays, while tour leaders use bullhorns to guide their charges to the proper tables, and the kitchen uses a PA system to communicate with the servers. The following short video clip, while of poor quality, I hope gives some idea of our intimate, relaxing dining experience:
Watch Group Dining, Taiwan Style in Travel Videos | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
It still took more than an hour to get back to Fengyuan (Hōgen) 豊原 after dinner, 60 minutes of not only karaoke, but games, the point behind which I couldn't really fathom, and which I didn't bother asking my wife to elaborate on. It was close to 8:30pm by the time we got back, and I was knackered.
Knackered, and amazed. Amazed at why people here seem to go on these kinds of trips time and time again, when the whole process just left me exhausted, and anxious to get back home. Taiwan is a small enough island that most sightseeing spots can be easily done as a day trip without being part of a large group, with the advantages of being able to see and do things at your own pace. But no doubt I'm missing the point. There is some kind of bonding experience going on here. It doesn't really matter where you go (because you have probably been there before) and what you do when you are there (except eat, preferably something connected to the place you are visiting), it's the fact you are doing it with the others in your group that is most important.
So was it a hellish experience? No. As I noted at the beginning, with the exception of lunch and a small insurance charge, this outing didn't cost us anything. Everyone was very friendly, especially towards Amber, and I got to see most of "Cape No. 7" (though only with Chinese subtitles). So I wouldn't call this "hell". On the other hand, Dante ダンテ might have included a Taiwanese bus tour as part of his description of Purgatory 煉獄, had he actually had the chance to go on one. Unless, of course, he loved karaoke.
Comments
Jaded? Absolutely not. I say you just evaluate things a little more objectively based on broader world experiences.
You are right, these are bonding sessions and have nothing to do with your or my concept of a tour. It is a "package". Imagine how disappointed the packagees would be if they could not return and discuss the meal they had at the round-table restaurant. Or they were unable to buy a Southern Taiwanese trinket for their family. And KTV singing, that a Taiwanese inalienable right.
Next time you come south make sure you climb atop the old Chijin Island fort and ride the shinny new MRT. Just make sure you leave the Taiwanese travel troupe behind.
Stephen
www.shandinglu.org
I definitely would like to visit Kaohsiung again, and at my own pace, according to my own itinerary!
(Here comes a long anedcote! Warning!)
The first company I worked for in Japan, a company that is straight out of 1960s Japan even in this day and age due to "guanxi" from NTT, had yearly employee trips to reward us for working like slaves. In good economic times the entire family could come, but in bad times (i.e. after 1970) it was employees only. Anyway, we punched out our time cards around 2 PM on a friday in late February and we'd climb into a bus. As soon as the bus pulled away from the factory all of the men were opening cans of beer. As a result, a 90 minute bus drive had two stops at rest-stations for bathroom breaks (and for souvenir buying!). During the trip the bus tour guide would break into a song out of nowhere and then offer some explanation about the city or town we were passing through. At least I had a beer though.
We'd arrive at some hot spring in Ibaraki or Gunma where there was a mad rush of drunk men to the hot springs. Afterwords there was more drinking at the dinner feast, lots of toasting to the managers and senior engineers and technicians, and the feast was followed by another insane rush to the hot spring (alcohol and hot springs don't mix well!), and then you had to sleep in a room with 15 guys, some snoring like a lumberjack cutting a log, while the other 5 played mahjong all night and smoked cigarettes and drank shochu until sunrise. I never could sleep much due to the cloud of smoke choking me to death. Then another mad rush to the hot-spring in the morning, followed by a breakfast of natto and some local foods.
On the ride back to the factory the bus would stop at some small building celebrating the writing from an author in the Meiji times or sometimes just to look at a famous type of trees. What ever you do though, you're supposed to get your admissions ticket stamped at the end to prove that you had been there. I never really understood why. Back to the bus! The whole time everyone is still drinking beer in the bus and admiring the antennas (it was an antenna manufacturing company) on the towers. For lunch we'd stop in at a restaurant that had our meals already lying on the table when we entered. Ibaraki was OK because it was fresh seafood, but Gunma was...well it wasn't worth the stop. Then the bus would stop at a trick-art museum or a flower-garden that was not yet in bloom, always due to global warming, so the park rangers told us. Then it was back on the bus for more beer consumption and the continuation of some 1970s Japanese film.
All I can say is that it was a cultural experience! I don't know what it is, but there is a tour culture in Asia that is really strong. I guess it goes with the strong group identity that most Asian cultures have. I guess there are not too many "lone wolves."
When we were living in Yokkaichi, my wife signed us up for a tour bus trip to a place in Nagano-ken (I can't recall the name just now) to see the cherry blossoms. The tour guide sang a folk song, and would point out something of historical interest from time to time, but for the most part, the ride was spent in silence (the fact that everyone on board were total strangers was probably the reason). We also made the required stop-off at a roadside souvenir stand, but the effect overall was low key, compared to what happens here in Taiwan.
On a side note, my first girlfriend in Japan was from Gumma, so my memories of the prefecture are tinged with that Star Trek-like soft glow of nostalgia. Not that I'll share any of this with my wife, of course.
As long as the bus trip is quiet, then it probably is nice and relaxing. I'm always amazed when I have to take the shinkansen for work on a weekday...the car is silent and the only noise is the sound of pages of the newspaper or the voice of the annoying "hawkers" trying to sell cheap coffee. Early morning commuter-type flights on a weekday tend to be the same in the US, everyone is very silent on the flight--it is wonderful compared to the noise of those intl. flights.
Regarding Gunma, I just remember feeling a bit sad there. Same for Ibaraki too. There were so many buildings and shops that were closed for good. There are so many resorts in places like Gunma, and back in the day when companies did have employee vacations I'm sure it was booming. But these days very few companies do such trips. Anyway, hope your wife doesn't read your blog though, yeah? :)
-- Bryan
Suburbanization has also had its effect on many businesses. In Yokkaichi, where we lived for 18 months from 2004-2005, many of the shops in the covered arcade around the main Kintetsu train station were shuttered, and the ones still open had few customers. Most people preferred to do their shopping by car at large American-style shopping centers on the outskirts of the city. It's a pattern I've seen repeated all over the country.