Homes: homely / ugly

Lanyu Island, i978 ; Bruges, Belguim, 2012.

One of three passengers, I flew to the tiny island of Lanyu on a really old, very small prop plane that took off from southeastern Taiwan. The pilot, odoriferous lunch in hand, boarded, shook hands all round, and assumed his seat. He took a few bites and began his check-off list with airport control. Soon he was banging his headphones on the dashboard, trying to muster a reply. One more bite and he threw the headset to the floor and took off. After a short flight, we circled sea-robed Lanyu as villagers shooed languid goats and sleeping dogs from the landing strip.

A row of dismal cement houses bordered the airstrip, but a few hours walk away, on Lanyu's east side, facing the Luzon Straight, thatched-roofed, stone houses hunkered low to slip under mighty coastal winds. (I’ll show them on the next post paired with stone houses in Bruges.)

Unlike Taiwan's main island, which is economically and politically dominated by ethnic Chinese, Lanyu was home to the indigenous Tao tribe. During my stay there, the only ethnic Chinese I encountered were a few bored and friendly men (below) in small cabin perched on the hilly center of the island. It was only later I learned that they were convicts exiled to the island, but apparently able to roam freely there.

Prisoners exiled to a small cabin on a hilltop on Lanyu island

“You’re lucky it’s winter,” they told me, since in summer, people walk with pockets full of rocks to throw at the poisonous snakes that abound. They were also a hazard on Taiwan’s main island, where the second-most venomous serpent is the two-step snake, named for how far you get after it bites you. First place goes to the white-lipped viper. Don’t ask.

My timing is such that I got to visit places like Lanyu and glimpse what life was like before “civilization” sped us up and atomized community. It’s not that I wanted to stay in some romanticized, sun-dappled past with neither washing machines nor tampons (two of the 20th century’s greatest inventions). And certainly I do not pine for the days when men played god and women were unremarkably assumed lesser. But before internet and smart phones, travel could mean stepping into mystery.

Years after my visit, the 17-square mile island of Lanyu, despite protests, became a storage depot for waste from Taipower’s three nuclear power plants.