MAGIC HOUR

I believe the joy of travel actually lies in the planning stage. I take my time creating a detailed itinerary, putting a considerable amount of effort into it. After all, God is in the details.

For the trip to Taiwan this year, the weather was particularly unpredictable in advance. I had given up on my plan to trek in Alishan. When I arrived in Taichung, however, the weather forecast turned out to be better than expected, so I decided to try reviving the Alishan plan. I remembered the general outline of the plan, but I had forgotten even name of the hotel and had left materials such as the trekking map at home. Even so, I tried to replan by recalling my memories, but it was a task that required a lot of mental effort.

Since I could not secure Alishan Forest Railway tickets, my visit to Alishan fell again and I decided to focus on photographing the Alishan Forest Railway instead. The guidebook I brought to Taiwan explained how to ride the Alishan Forest Railway, but it did not mention where to go to photograph it. I started my research from scratch.

In Taichung, I acted as a tour guide for my family, so I had to plan my schedule in spare moments. After struggling with research, I finally managed to put pieces together a plan for photographing the Alishan Forest Railway. After photographing the railway, I decided to visit a wet market and a former sugar factory in Chiayi, but even with them, all would be completed early in the afternoon.

It was already late at night when I finished my plan for Chiayi. By that time, I no longer had the mental energy to think about what I would do after Chiayi.

I had tour guide tasks on the next day as well. Considering that I would need to use the spare time to make various arrangements, my time was really limited. I had to pick plans to fit my schedule from the vague backup ideas I had considered before the trip. The candidates were Keelung, Kaohsiung, and Taitung. My reasoning was that with such a wide geographical spread, the weather would be good somewhere.

The closest to Chiayi is Kaohsiung, I could make it by the time of sunset at Kaohsiung Lighthouse. It is a beautiful lighthouse, and since it was cloudy at the last time I visited, I could not miss a chance to see it on a sunny day.

The problem was the following day. I already had visited most of the places I had wanted to see in Kaohsiung. The only place left was a temple that supposedly had amazing night views, but I figured I could easily visit there after seeing the lighthouse. Since I was not interested in art museums nor shopping, it seemed difficult to spend a whole day in Kaohsiung.

That leaves Taitung or Keelung.

Because I used to live in Taito (台東) Ward in Tokyo, I had been wanting to visit Taitung (台東) in Taiwan. So, I had done a bit of research beforehand, but it seemed there was no spot in Taitung itself where I was particularly interested. On the other hand, if heading out to the countryside from Taitung, there were beautiful rural landscapes and coastlines. However, traveling around eastern Taiwan by public transportation seemed quite challenging. Besides, it was going to be a one-day trip, I needed to narrow down where I actually wanted to go. By that point, I already lost the mental energy to think that far ahead.

That left Keelung, but my main draw there was a local fish market that starts around 3 a.m. However, after watching the sunset in Kaohsiung, the southernmost city, I wondered if I would really go all the way to Keelung, the northernmost city, by passing Taichung and Taipei in the middle. I have noticed my stupidity, but even with my limited mental capacity at that time, I could tell that would be ridiculous.

I overthought things late at night and lost my ability to think clearly. I was left with no options and got desperate. It would be more accurate to say I “remembered” rather than “came up with the idea,” but I decided to take Breezy Blue, the same train I took last New Year’s holidays. It was the only thing I could think of which would make the most of the sunny forecast. I managed to book tickets at the very last minute.

On the day of Breezy Blue ride, I planned to wake up early in the morning and head to Zuoying Station by subway. To board the Breezy Blue, I needed to go to Fangliao. The rapid train that goes Fangliao originates from Taiwan Railways’ Xinzuoying Station, which is adjacent to the subway Zuoying Station. Furthermore, the high-speed rail back to Taipei also departs from the adjacent High-Speed Rail Zuoying Station. Ultimately, everything effectively is the same station. If I went ahead and stored my suitcase in a locker at Xinzuoying Station, I was sure to secure a seat on the rapid train and could travel without heavy luggage. God is in the details.

I surely got a seat on the rapid train at Xinzuoying Station, but I could easily find a seat even at Kaohsiung Station. I supposed demand for ordinary trains in southern Taiwan was not strong.

From there on, it was obvious that things were mostly the same as last year. The only difference was that I realized I could place my suitcase on the overhead rack in the passenger car as other Taiwanese travelers did. Since riding the train was the main focus of the trip, it was an itinerary that involved very little carrying of luggage anyway.

As it turned out, there was no need to wake up early and went to Xinzuoying Station to use a locker. Moreover, lockers in Taiwan seem to be hourly-based rate, and using one for about 12 hours ended up costing a fair amount.

Overthinking when you no longer have the mental energy to think about is truly something to think about. The devil is also in the details.