2 minute read
Have Fun, Do Good
By Simon Foster
Welcome to the 3rd edition of Hello Taitung and my first time as managing editor! I’d like to start by thanking Cheryl and the editorial team for bringing me up to speed, and to all of the contributing authors for sharing their stories. The purpose of the magazine is to provide information about life and things to do in Taitung, both for visitors and prospective residents. Since writing an article for the 2nd edition of the magazine, I have received many positive comments, including from people who are in the process of relocating here, and hope that the magazine has been some help in that transition, but would also value feedback so that we can continue to make the publication as useful, informative and interesting as possible.
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The theme of the 3rd edition is “having fun in Taitung.” Living in a developed country in a modern world, we have to come to expect the basic necessities of life such as food, water, education, and healthcare, although this isn’t the case for everyone. We also hope to enjoy our lives, having fun, laughing, and seizing life’s small pleasures are an important part of this. A dictionary definition of having fun is “the feeling of enjoying yourself, doing activities that you enjoy, that make you happy.” As a kid, I had fun with my family, but then as a young adult, I sought out my own version of enjoyment. Now with kids of our own, family fun has once again moved to the top of the list. We love Taitung’s simple pleasures—time at the beach making sand turtles, finding hermit crabs, swimming, snorkeling, bike rides in the Rift Valley, scootering at
Sanxiantai, or just playing badminton in our garden overlooking the ocean.
Laughter and tears, pleasure and pain, happiness and sadness are two sides of the same coin, and if we didn’t have one, we wouldn’t have the other. This notion is central to the “have fun do good” charity adventures we organize for an international airline. Whether riding local gearless bikes through the Indian desert or Cambodian jungle, trekking the Great Wall and Tiger Leaping Gorge in China, or cycling in Taiwan’s impossibly steep mountains, adventurers will test themselves physically, and therefore mentally, but will also be helping others through fundraising simultaneously, and as such, ultimately helping themselves by overcoming obstacles. The doing good bit is driving yourself to get up that hill, using the knowledge that it will help those in need, to motivate you, the have fun bit is the downhill after the hard work, and then enjoying shared experiences with fellow riders or hikers over dinner and drinks before getting ready to do it all over again next day!
Whilst the source of enjoyment and fun might change during the course of our lives, there are also some constants, and for me, one of those would be hiking in the great outdoors. I did my first long hike at age 12 when I completed the 65km historic Lyke Wake Walk in Yorkshire in England in 15 hours. Since then,
I have hiked in the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Andes, the Himalayas, and of course Taiwan’s Central Mountain Range. My most recent hike here was to Taitung’s very own Jiaming Lake, a small but perfectly formed lake perched at 3310m above sea level. As always, at points on the steep ascents with my heavy pack I questioned why I do this, but then you get to the next (often false) summit and are rewarded with another spectacular view and it all makes sense. Not everyone’s definition of fun, but every bit as exhilarating for me now approaching 50 as it was when I was 12!
