Chang Family Reunion: 20 years in the making

For those who don't know, my parents immigrated the family to Australia from Taiwan on the 9th of July 1986. Well my sisters decided that this year we were going to recreate this event. With no small part of organisation from everyone in the family, everyone arrived in Taichung a week before the big flight. My route to Taiwan was via Hong Kong; luckily I was able to get on the same connecting flight to Taipei as Chialia and the 3 boys. The first few days were spent waiting for Eddy to arrive from Tokyo. Those few days was spent in and out of air conditioning to escape the humid Taiwan summer days. The evenings were mostly cruising the many night markets, eating local food and checking out the local barging shopping. The day after Eddy arrived we headed to Alishan, one of the highest mountains in the middle of Taiwan.

Mum and Dad had organised a few nights away in the mountains for the family as well as one of our cousins and his wife and daughter. We went up there by train most of the way and in two vans for the remainder. The trip was almost cancelled on account of rain, as there is a risk of landslides in the mountains. The first afternoon was pretty easy as everyone just settled into our new accommodation. We went for a small walk up to see a sacred tree (cypress tree hundreds of years old) and the foundations of a Japanese shrine, the path also went past an old bunker in the hill. The second day was spent walking around Alishan itself. Highlights included seeing the site of the Alishan sacred tree, this tree was estimated to be 3000 years old when it was chopped down in 1997 (this tree was still standing the last time I was in Taiwan in the end of 1996). Other highlights included the Two Sisters Pond, the story that really got to Josh for the remainder of the trip. The walk took us past waterfalls, streams and a grove of ancient trees, and some really odd shaped tree stumps. That night we took a walk in a dark part of the woods near the hotel and we saw fireflies. Fireflies are getting harder to see in the wild as they require particularly unpolluted conditions with a water source but we were able to see quite a few that night. We woke up at silly o'clock the next morning to hike up a nearby peak to see the sunrise. When we got there was this guy who didn't know the way, didn't have a torch or any water that also wanted to climb the same peak. After a false start (we had walked down the wrong path in the dark) and many stumbles we finally got to the top in time for the sunrise. That afternoon we began the trip back to Taichung, making a number of various tourist stops along the way. A couple of days later we all headed towards the international airport again in Taipei, unfortunately we all couldn't get on the same flight back to Brisbane, but most of us did arrive in Brisbane on the 10th of July.

I spent most of the week in Brisbane frantically catching up with old friends and former work colleges. I managed to meet up with most of the guys that I used to work with at GHD, Brad, Stuart and Dave. Most of the time was spent having lunches and dinners, it seems that the eating didn't stop once I left Taiwan. The quiz night in the valley with Wei Yang, Wayne and Carla and Ian was particularly fun, even though we got our butts kicked. In all too short a time it was back to the airport again for the long haul trip back to London.