Library Owl

11元的鐵道旅行

台灣最慢的火車，最短區間的里程，最便宜的旅行，票價是11元。(From 11元的鐵道旅行 by 劉克襄)

(圖片取自遠流博識網)

11-Dollar Rail Trip

The slowest train in Taiwan, the shortest railway trip, the cheapest travel price is NT$11. (US$1 = NT$30)

from "11-Dollar Railway Trip" by Ke-Hsiang Liu.

(圖片取自遠流博識網)

There is always a myth in travelling. 

A walk around nearby neighbourhood, a railway trip to the nearest town, or a journey around this small island called Taiwan are never considered as travelling.

But a journey to somewhere abroad is always regarded as travelling.

The author, Ke-Hsiang Liu, is famous for his writings concerning nature observation. The book, "11-Dollar Railway Trip", is presented by his known slow and romantic languages, guiding readers to see the world from another angle.

Personally, I love the story about Chih-Pen Station, in Tai-Tung prefecture.  

Liu talked about one of his students in his writing class. The student is an aboriginal girl who lived in Tai-Tung. When she was a small child, Taipei, the biggest city in Taiwan, is the furtherest place on earth. It's a city full of rich, white, Mandarin people. When she entered a college in northen Taiwan, she was forced to leave her hometown, and was burried by study and work. When she looks up into the sky in the middle of the night, she can't see stars, and can only recite the old childhood song to yearn for her homeland. Then she found that the furtherest place on earth isn't Taipei, but her hometown, Chih-Pen. One day, she took a brief visit back home. While hurrying onto the train back to Taipei, she heard a melodic voice reciting in her mother tongue and saw her parents waving at her, at the very moment, she was no longer the gal burried by loads of work, but the naive girl who believes that Taipei is the furtherest place in the world. 

For every kids leaving home and struggle to live in an unfamiliar world, it's a heartbreaking story which stands sad and true. 

The book also contains many other stories that are touching and reminding readers to discover the unseen in daily life. Perhaps, travelling is not just about setting oneself into a whole new environment ,forgeting about who oneself is, and starting as a whole new being. It's about slowing down and discovering the unseen worlds and emotions.