Broken-Bridge Leaky Tribe
Glamping with my high-school graduation-committee friends
Prologue
Back when I was about to graduate from senior high, the school organized a graduation committee (GSA) that let students plan their own graduation ceremony. I’d already gotten into university through the special talent pipeline, so I had nothing to do at school, and this was the last event of my high-school career — plus a good number of people from my class were joining. So I went to the first organizing meeting, and after that I decided to join the IT group, the one handling venue, equipment, and video production. At the next meeting I had to take leave to go take my driver’s license test, and Zeng Tuhao1 nominated me as IT group leader!! So I became the leader by default and got to meet this bunch of people. The ceremony planning took about a month, and in that one month we got closer than I’d been with my own classmates in three years. We’ve kept in touch ever since graduation — a small get-together every half year, a big one every year. I hope it stays that way. This time we all went glamping at the Duanqiao (Broken Bridge) Tribe in Miaoli — everyone showed up except the ones doing internships and the one with a cold!
Achievement: Free McDonald’s Lunch
On departure day, the campsite wasn’t open for check-in until 3 PM, but at 9 AM I was already too eager to wait and went to find Huangchong2. Turned out I got to Fengyuan too early — the Pacific Department Store wasn’t open yet, so we just wandered around the neighborhood until lunchtime. (Here’s a photo of Huangchong running around refusing to let me take a picture)
Once the Pacific Department Store opened, we went in to find food, but after one loop we still didn’t know what to eat, so we went out and grabbed McDonald’s. Finding a corner table, one of us watched the bags while the other ordered. Right after ordering and just as we were about to pay, a McDonald’s employee walked up holding up his badge and said, “I work for McDonald’s. We have a new product coming out and we’re looking for people to do a taste test.” We had plenty of time, so we agreed. What we ate can’t be written here because we signed an NDA — it was two burgers and a questionnaire, about half an hour in total, and at the end they even threw in a free small fries, just no drink. So we used a “Sweetheart Card” to get a buy-one-get-one drink, and ended up eating lunch for NT$19.
A Ten-Dollar Watermelon?!
After lunch we headed to the PX Mart supermarket — we needed supplies for the BBQ and the booze-and-gossip session at night. On the way we passed a claw-machine arcade, and Huangchong said, “Claw machines first, or PX Mart?” and turned straight into the arcade. Inside we spotted a machine holding a stuffed watermelon — win the plushie and you could trade it at the counter for real fruit. That day the choices were, it seemed, watermelon, cantaloupe, and mango. Seeing it, we texted the group chat: “Anyone want watermelon?” Before they could even react, Huangchong had already clawed it out. Cost: NT$10.
(In the end we couldn’t finish it and gave it to the campsite owner.)
Mountain-Road Racing
After shopping, we met up with the people coming up from Taichung on the train, and waited for Cai Dongdong coming down from Taipei. Everyone called two taxis to take us up to the campsite. Suddenly Tian-ge said there’s a Line community where you can book rides, cheaper than Uber and the like, so we booked two cars — one for NT300. The pricier car arrived first and I got in. Halfway there, a message suddenly popped up in the group: “We’re riding a black car!” At the time I had no idea what he meant, but moments later I looked up and a shadow flashed past — a black Mercedes swung into the oncoming lane and blew past us at speed; before I could even react, their taillights were already gone. The group chat got flooded with messages, everyone debating how fast he was going. Even our driver said it was the first time he’d seen a car carrying passengers like that. Near the destination there was a fork in the road; the black car overshot it and — actually reversed on the road. Next time we shouldn’t ride black cars just to save a bit of money.
Broken-Bridge Leaky Tribe
It happened at night, after everyone had showered, while we were in the middle of drinking and gossiping. It started raining outside, lightly at first — we got ready to fall asleep to the sound of rain. Then suddenly someone yelled, “I got dripped on!” The rain outside grew heavier and heavier, water seeping in through the seams of the tent fabric, dripping across the whole bed and pooling at its edge into a little river. Everyone squeezed into the very center of the tent — the only spot that hadn’t been taken over yet. At that moment a thought struck me: we’d never taken down the roof of the cooking canopy outside, and at this rate it would flood. A bunch of us went out with umbrellas to drain the water, and sure enough one of the frames had already collapsed, bent at a 90-degree angle.
After urgently contacting the duty staff, they rushed up the mountain to ask whether we wanted to swap the tent or the mattress. But by the time they’d sorted it out I was almost asleep, so I slept in the original tent while the other half moved to a new one. Apparently the campsite’s CEO even came up to deal with it in the end — at least that’s what they told me, since I’d long since gone to visit Duke Zhou (i.e., fallen asleep).
The Rail Bike You Don’t Pedal
The next day we went to ride the pedal-free rail bike. The whole way, the “driver” just turned the handlebar, moving at roughly 20 km/h by the look of it — a gentle breeze, perfect for snapping photos while cruising along. We just went with the flow, stopping at Tunnel No. 6. It’s basically a sightseeing mini-train ride. Along the way we even ran into a former classmate of Huangchong’s, who joined us for photos.
And the moment we got off — it rained again.
Mountain-Road Racing, Part 2
Inside the visitor center, every table came with cards for various drivers, and since we wanted to go to Sanyi for shopping, we used one to book a nine-seater van. When I called, the driver said he wasn’t in Sanyi at the moment but would arrange a car for us. We waited almost twenty minutes — humid and hot, swarming with mosquitoes, and we were starting to get a bit impatient. Five more minutes later, a van showed up, but… it had a black (private) license plate. Back on board, and the speeding started again — cutting every corner straight. (The driver said he was already driving slowly.) Later, learning we were going to eat, he directly recommended dropped us off at a Hakka restaurant. We arrived with only half an hour until closing, and the owner still took us in. We ordered eight dishes and a soup, and she cooked everything alone — we waited a long time, but it was delicious.
PX Mart Treasure Hunt
After eating we headed to PX Mart to shop, but we had plenty of time, so we played a little game inside. Split into two teams, one team picks an item and takes a photo of it (you can zoom in and out, shoot just a detail), and the other team has to find it!
The two of us each spent nearly half an hour on these two items. If you can figure out what these two things in PX Mart are, you win!
Afterword
It feels great going out with this group — the only blemish being that not everyone made it. It’s only going to get harder to gather everyone: grad-school exams, internships, everyone busy with their own stuff. Thinking back to our first long trip together — that was when we went to Tainan — when it ended and we were back at Taichung Station, about to part ways, the cheerful mood suddenly faltered, because after this goodbye we had no idea when we’d see each other again. But this time when we said goodbye, for some reason I didn’t feel that way at all — as if we were bound to meet again for sure.
Photography
- Windson with NIKON D90
- Tian-ge with Canon EOS R10+18-150