I’ve been trying to get creative in finding ways to entertain Jules during the soft lockdown here in Taiwan during the oppressively hot summer. Hey, kids, we’re not allowed to have more than four people in our home, but we have unrestricted access to air-conditioned mass transportation. You say train car, I say living room.
OK, so it hasn’t gotten that bad, but I did want to find a new place to check out and where the kids could run free. Once again, I rang up our friends, the Roy’s, to explore Heping Island Park, an island formed from a couple tectonic plates colliding back in the day. Over time the elements have eroded the rocks and sedimentation and created otherworldly geological formations similar to their more famous cousins at Yehliu Geological Park.
Heping Island also has a dark past where it was once the site of the mass murder of civilians by the KMT military in the late 1940’s. It was originally called Sheliao Island and later named Heping Island, or ‘Peace’ Island, to commemorate those lost and to bring more peace to the island.
It’s safe to say that the more brilliant the photos are that you see of Taiwan, the hotter and therefore more miserable that I am. There was a lot of exploring and hiking to be had on this island, but my body found an 8 sq foot piece of shade and it would’ve killed anyone who tried to take it away. To add insult to injury we were right next to the largest seawater swimming pool I’ve ever seen, but we were banned from even dipping our toes in. Poor Emma pulled down her mask for two seconds to take a sip of water and received a verbal lashing from a security guard who appeared out of nowhere. Jules was starving at one point, so we stood guard while he crouched in a corner to shove some bread into his mouth. Absolutely pitiful.
I was minding my own business in my 8 sq ft patch of shade when an elderly man on a scooter yelled at us to tell us that the park was closing early due to COVID. Wait, what? We had trekked over an hour and a half to get here to only stay for an hour and a half? Ugh. Once we exited the park we noticed people sitting down on benches, unmasked, eating and drinking. Oh my god, are all of these people part of the same suicide pact? I looked around nervously for scooter man, but apparently, as long as you order food and drink from the two park-approved vendors, then you’re allowed to remove your mask to eat and drink. Jules and Emma immediately ripped their masks off to drink their park-approved slushies while walking to find shade. Beep, beep, beep. Scooter man showed up again to berate us and tell us that you could only remove your mask to eat and drink while sitting down, not while standing or walking. So, the kids got smart and slipped their straws underneath their masks. Voila! Drinking while masked and walking at the same time.
Since the park gates were closed we walked around its perimeter for some nice ocean views until the dreaded put-put-put of scooter man’s engine set my heart a-thumpin’. I was six years old again in Ms. Singh’s second grade class being scolded in front of everyone for turning around on line to say hi to my friend Bridget. Time to go home.
As we headed back to the Keelung train station to return to Taipei we did get nice views of Keelung harbor and a friendly scooter man taking his parrot out for a joy ride.
If the swimming restrictions are lifted on this trip we’d love to return to this special spot, since it’s not every day where you can see such geological formations and swim in a massive seawater pool. Here’s to hoping scooter man will have retired by then.
Now, here’s when things get really fun.
After exiting the train at Taipei Main Station we had to enter our tickets through the turnstile to access the metro station to go home. Jules and Emma were playing tag and ran ahead of us. As Julien, Chloé and I approached the turnstile we noticed some commotion and saw Jules standing by himself next to a police officer. My initial thought was that he jumped the turnstile in order to avoid being tagged by Emma. When I walked towards Jules the officer commanded me to stop and not go near Jules. That’s when I looked up and saw an infrared camera pointing down towards the turnstiles and a large monitor showing each passenger’s thermal image and body temperature as they passed by. According to the officer, Jules’ temperature measured 42 deg C, about 107 deg F. I told her that there must be something wrong with her machine, but then the four of us were rechecked and all of our temperatures were normal, gulp. Suddenly, I had visions of grabbing Jules and booking it to the airport to get on the next flight back to NY to escape another 15 day quarantine, except this time in a government facility. The horror. Julien and Chloé looked worried at this point lest they be rounded up too for their association with us. Jules was more upset about the fact that he couldn’t at least stand near me, but he waited the 10 minutes as instructed by the officer and his temperature dropped to 37.3 deg C, just getting in under the 37.5 degC cutoff, where we would have been immediately whisked away to quarantine with just the clothes on our backs. The officer left us with these parting words of advice, “Kids shouldn’t run.” We are not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.