I clearly remember that phase.......I had newly discovered Murakami, having read his Sputnik Sweetheart as a first novel. I was reading "After Dark", steeped in an eerie, surreal world. A really intense longing to be invisible seized me......to be swallowed up whole in another world where bizarre things happened, happiness played hide and seek, you were there, yet not quite there.....a world of alien beings, grey mountains, azure skies, neon lit alleys, purple sunsets, black hearts and white hope......
Yes I remember the joy......the untainted possibilities, the feeling of being on the move....on the high speed railway lines, crisscrossing through Taiwan.....tobacco leaf shaped Taiwan where the temperature was 17 degrees.....Taipei 101 enticed with its panoramic view..... Alishan loomed ahead, with a dead Mountain railway line leading to paradise....quaint cafes with non-English speaking staff....and a bamboo forest old and wise......and a gorge that was called Taroko.....and after all that crazy madness.....finally the endless Pacific.......
At that time, I did not know that happiness was just memories.....
Taipei 101, Taipei
Arial view from Taipei 101
Taipei 101 at night
Entryway into the Alishan National Forest Reservation Area
Yu Shan National Park
View from my hotel window
Alishan Natinal Park
Purple dusk........
Scenic photographs of the Alishan Mountain Railway
The beautiful mist clad Alishan....
A walk in the early morning sunshine
railway tracks amidst the forest
Weird tree formations deep in the forest
A lonely forest trail.......
Two Sister's Lake in the morning sunshine.........
Echoes of the forest.......
Taroko Gorge.......
And finally the Pacific..........
I still have the pebbles I collected at that beach a long time ago............and some memories.........
