The Basic Aid festival was held in Puli this year. I had never been there, and as such only recently learned of the geographic center of Taiwan monument. As nerdy as it may be, I was excited to go there and see it. It isn’t as cool as straddling the equator, but for some reason unbeknown even for myself I was pulled to go there. It had to wait a bit though, as getting to the festival in time for our show was priority one.

We left around three and it rained on and off (mostly on) the entire ride. After making a few circles near Cao Tun, we finally got on the right track and with the help of some fine locals were escorted to the base of Hu Tou Shan , which was where the festival was located (on the pitch/cliff where the para gliding company is. I forgot the name of the owner and tour company, so if you know it drop it in the comments).

We got to the top of the mountain right as the rain was subsiding. It was muddy as hell, but surprisingly considering the rain there were quite a few people there. We hung out for a while, had a few beers, and began to settle in. The clouds were lifting off the mountain top and we were able to see the view from the top of the mountain.

Our (the Grooveballz) set went ok, but we are breaking in a new drummer (who played with us for the 3rd time that night) so it wasn’t as great as it will be in a few weeks. Militant Hippie had a nice set, as did Divebomb and the Rising Hedons. Tyler Dakin played a set I enjoyed but felt it was a bit loud. Damn sound guys. I didn’t catch many bands, and the last live hip hop band set was cut short by the police at about 2:30. Didn’t stay for day 2, but made our way slowly back to Tainan while visiting some sites along the way.

In the morning when we left I was able to touch and stand by the monument for the geographic center of Taiwan. As exciting as that seems, I feel it can make anything you do near there sound more exciting. For example, if you say you read a book this afternoon I would be like.. big deal, but if you told me you read a book next to the geographic center of Taiwan monument I would be like.. oh, wow.. sounds interesting. Anyway, I like the photo of the old man on the bench there. I guess that is tooting my own horn a bit, but if you don’t like your own photos what kind of photographer are you?

Here are some more photos of the event. Things to note - the people sleeping on the ground (their tent fell down at night or they just passed out, the mud wrestling, the view, and the mud. Hope you like them.

Some shots of Puli and the surrounding area: