HUALIEN: Working to create.

After Miaoli, I wasn't exactly sure of what to expect. The type of labour, weather conditions, accommodation and various questions were unanswered. I just knew I had a friend accompany me in the first part of my stay. Her name was Julia and she was here to translate for me. After our train ride, I was excited to see the new place I would be staying. Shialong (Emas: Amis name) picked us up and I was able to learn about the place we were staying. The place I am staying is called Hatila, and they provide accommodation, for visitors to rest up. They also provide catering and beautiful set-ups for events very close to nature. Logan Surf School also operates with Hatila, providing surfing classes taught by Logan. As for the geographical location, I was staying within the region of the Jici Tribe. The Jici Tribe is of several aboriginal tribes in Hualien.

Our first task was to go to the mountain and cut bamboo. It would have been much easier if the trail was better kept. Nevertheless, Emas had his large sickle to cut away the leaves and branches that were in our way. We kept moving up and finally arrived, and I was already sweating so much. Emas taught us the best angle in cutting the bamboo, and we each got a chance to cut some bamboo. Due to our slow speed, we left the cutting to him, and we began clearing the smaller branches on the bamboo. Remember I said it was a tough path going up? Well, we had to now bring all the bamboo we cut down the trail. Julia got a small batch to carry herself, while Emas and I proceeded to carry a large portion on our shoulders. One bamboo stick may be light, but a collection of them, well all I can say is that my shoulder hurt the whole way down. Although we continued down the trail while being slapped by leaves and branches, once we arrived to the truck, I felt great having accomplished something.

I was also able to put my stamina to the test for another task that Hatila wanted to be done. The task at hand was to create an outdoor shower station for mainly surfers to use as the beach is around a minute walk away. At first there was nothing, but dirt and rocks. To allow the water to drain out, we needed to create a trench like waterway. We worked hard to make it deep enough and to break the pieces of cement in the ground. It may look as if I am posing, but trust me, I was simply tired and resting.

After digging the ground, I was already hot and we were pretty out of it. Our next step was to place bricks and fill the gaps with gravel. Many ideas were passed around, a fish, a surfboard, and with the help of a friend and Julia's creativity, we decided on a spiral, and made a lolipop. We have yet to see it be made to the point of use, but it's great to know we created something from nothing!

Visual Beats & River Trekking

Of course with any trip, you meet people. As I mentioned before I was fortunate to meet a group of young creatives that were friends since university. They had made their interests in film and photography and created a production company. Their name is Visual Beats Productions. Other than the beach cleanup and learning how to fish, we also had another adventure. They call it river trekking, and I wasn't sure what to expect as I had never done anything of the like. I wanted to bring my camera in order to capture the beauty. I packed and was ready to go, when Emas brought two tight suits meant for river trekking and told us to wear them. The film crew declined, but Julia and I were required to wear in order to fully promote the experience as is. It takes some effort to wear and it is really hot inside. The crew noticed that my sweat was dripping from my arms, eww gross. I just wanted to jump into the water! As everyone else had shoes meant for water trekking, there was no size that fit my feet, thus had to wear my 20$ closed toe sandals from Wal-Mart. (these are the shoes that my mother insisted I bring- they have done much more than I expected). I was worried that I may slip and hurt myself, but Emas insisted that it was ok, and as there were no other options I went along. As you may expect, without proper gear and some expensive cameras, they needed to be very careful and avoid water as much as possible. River trekking and avoiding water? Yep, it doesn't work. The solution was to carry the equipment over their heads as they followed us. Luckily, they were equipped with several Go Pros which made things easier. After some climbing of ropes and rocks, we made it to the highlight the waterfall. Although I was sad that my camera was not with me, I did my best to enjoy what was in front of me and capture the experience with my eyes. There is a resting place where the water heavily falls, and it was quite difficult to find grip, but we did with success. Although not scarily high, we all jumped. I had not taken off my glasses (I become blind without them), and proceeded with the jump. I knew it when I hit the water. MY NEW GLASSES. When I got up, I frantically searched, a pretty pointless action on my part, since I'm pretty much blind without them. Emas stated that the water was too filled with dirt to find, and came up out of the water without luck. He also stated that someone had lost their Iphone somewhere down below in the past. Tai, a member of the film crew volunteered to try, and BLESS THE LORD, he found it!! I felt so relieved and thankful. We continued to have fun at the waterfall and the crew continued to film. I was so jealous of a function on an individual's camera that filmed in slow motion. Everything in slow motion looks cool. At the end of the day, a Go Pro and a new camera stepped up on my shopping list. With my glasses safely on my face I was able to fully enjoy the rest of my time.

You may have wanted to see pictures of the waterfall, but I was unable to do so. BUT! Stay tuned to Visual Beats Productions when they release the video for Hatila! I can't wait to see it, myself! In the meantime, feel free to check out their other videos on their youtube channel.

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