A few years back, the advertising slogan for the University of Colorado College of Music (our alma mater) was "Music to Match our Mountains." Very cute and alliterative. Well, today, Elizabeth and I stumbled upon one of the most bizarre and joyous cultural events in Taiwan.
It's a story we're calling: "Karaoke to match our mountains."
Elizabeth and I have been wanting to get out of Taipei for weeks. We finally took the opportunity today to hike the Jiantan Shan trail. This trail is accessible by subway and basically scales a mountain overlooking the city. It's a beautiful day hike and was just what we needed. . . peace and quiet, solitude, relaxation.
And then we started hearing voices on the hillside. Amplified voices. In the middle of the woods. Apparently the North side of Jiantan mountain is covered with small permanent shelters, very much like picnic shelters at most U.S. public parks. However, these shelters are owned by families, marked very much like U.S. ranches and include badminton courts, a storage shed, and most importantly, electric generators to power televisions, microphones, and a sound system.
On our way up the mountain we passed at least 6 separate families singing karaoke. At full volume. Without a care in the world. It was incredible, bizarre, fun, and surprising. We have a video of the experience, but it is too large to upload on this blog. Which means we'll have fun home video time when we return to the U.S.!
Hiking in Taiwan is stunning. The flora and fauna are lush and colorful and vibrant (in December!!!). Hiking here is quite similar to hiking in Boulder. Most of the trails in Taiwan start from sea level and immediately climb up into the mountains. Therefore, the trails are steep and give great views overlooking Taipei. It reminds me a lot of hiking Flagstaff and seeing the red tile roofs of the CU campus or going up to Red Rocks and looking out over Denver.
More mission writing next time and less travelogue, I promise. But until then, enjoy the beauty of Taiwan:
3 comments:
sounds like a lovely and beautiful hike.
To upload your kolossal karaoke kaper video, look at Vimeo. On a free account you can upload 500 MB per week. Then you can embed the link in your blog.
I have an account which I haven't used in a while -- we're not a big movie-making family I guess. I'll send you the link by email because I'm feeling shy.
Charley
Hi, checked out your blog for the first time. Really neat. I wanted to email you guys but am not sure what email you'd be checking so email your dear cousin, Nicole.
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