(Pronounced "Sheen Dee-yen") Today after service, at about 5:15pm, I had to make a decision, what to do with the rest of my day. I wandered purposelessly to, Wanlong MRT station, the nearest station from the territory we worked. I knew I'd have to eat eventually so I was thinking about that. But on my way down the escalator, I looked at the MRT platform sign rising up towards me, "Taipei Main Station - Beitou" it said, yep that was the one back home... but wait... once off the escalator I walked a short distance along the platform, and hopped on the next descending escalator. I had just decided to go south, away from home, to Xindian, the end of the MRT line. I'd been meaning to check it out but I'd never had the time when I had thought to do it. But now I had the rest of the day.
Before long I was stepping off an MRT train onto the half sized "Xindian" platform, a station that I only knew by name, my friend Max lived somewhere near there, it is a station that the green and red MRT line is named after. Soon the name would be more than just a name to me, I'd have been there. The second train across the platform was there too, sitting there with it's doors still open, I realized it was going to go the same direction my train was going to go, the trains here don't keep going, they both stop, wait a few minutes and reverse back. I noticed, as I rode the escalator up that my train still sat there too with it's doors open, much longer than it did at "normal" stations, wow what a cool station.
At the top of the escalator I noticed several buses pulled up to the edges of the station. This station doubled as a bus station. Wow, what a cool station.
Xindian looks a lot like the rest of Taipei, it's a city that kinda melts into Taipei's south end, I think it's part of what's called "Taipei County." One difference I noticed though was big green hills climbing up behind just a few blocks of the busy city streets, a distinct edge of city and wilderness. Cool.
I decided to go in the direction that I had decided was South, I could see the sun shining on the hill in that direction. Sure enough, after about a mile of uphill sidewalk I was looking down at a wide winding blue-green river, the other side was mostly uninhabited jungle with a handful of scattered temples, buildings, and shacks. It's been awhile since I've seen much of anything but city and concrete, other than from a bus window while I was on my way to TaiZhong. I stood there, with busy traffic behind me and nature in front, for about a half hour, trying to take stitchable pictures with my little camera, I'll post them if I can ever get them to stitch, I don't think my little laptop has enough power though.
Less than an hour later I was a few miles down stream, I was afraid it was going to start raining so I'd reversed course but took a different route. I was walking with hundreds of Asian tourists across a wobbly suspended bridge, kinda of a modern/ancient fusion of technology, it seemed to be a rope bridge with wooden planks about 20 feet wide spanning hundreds of feet, swaying and wobbling very noticeably from the hundreds of people walking across it. It looked looked like it was a very popular place to visit, judging by the hundreds of people scattered all around, complete with dozens of food vendors, even a cotton candy vendor, the first one I've seen here.
Across the river, perched on the edge of a cliff that winds in and out along the edge of the river, is a little restaurant with pretty little lights lining the edges of it's white railing with tables and chairs outside in the open air. I might have to go eat there, it looks like a large scale of something you'd expect to see in Disneyland or something.
Not long after the sun had set I found myself sitting on another MRT train, in one of those wonderful powder blue seats, watching the woman sitting next to me play peek-a-boo with her little baby boy as he sat in his stroller. Each time she hid her face he'd reach out and grab her hands to pull them away. I think he knew where she was, but he still seemed to enjoy the game. I guess I did too.
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