13. The Path of Giant Tree Countdowns

A well-known feature of Mount Ali is its giant trees forest. Some have been around for thousands of years, and in a certain section of the forest, there is a walk which counts down the giant trees in order of smallest to largest. A feature of the giant trees forest is its ability to enhance endorphin production via natural chemicals being taken into the body. Another feature of the giant trees forest is the exotic birds, which are supposed to make exotic sounds pleasing to my ears. But my favourite feature is the wildlife or a wildlife, or more specifically the dogs, which has dominated a large territories inside the forest primarily because people in the city don't want them to be running on the streets.

I always bring food with me wherever i go to add an extra sense to the experience, whatever it may be. The giant trees forest was no exception because it had already the senses of seeing, hearing, smelling and touching - tasting made me complete. But the result of eating too much is that you will have people scabbing off you. I don't like the word 'scabbing' because it gives rise to negative connotations such as 'stingy' and 'poor' on behalf of both the giver and getter. Therefore, eating too much will have people located thoughtfully and purposefully close to you for certain reasons. Not that anybody followed me around the giant trees forest, but that thought struck me when i spotted some dogs stalking me. Inside the path of giant tree countdowns, the dogs have clear advantages over me. They can communicate in their own language, they are not bound legally by the path and their dog holes are invisible to human eyes. Some of these dogs seem like they haven't eaten for days, and you don't even have to lift up their lips to see their growling teeth. But that didn't mean that they disrespected me in any way.

Close to the end of the count down, there were about five dogs following me. I thought that it was quite good of them to do so, so i sat down on a step to watch them. They too decided to sit down along the path around me in a semi-circle. It was nice of them to just sit down and spend some time with me on the path of giant tree countdowns, so i decided to spare some food. As soon as i reached my hands into my bag, all five dogs jumped up from their sitting positions and began to growl at their opponents. They swiftly split up into two teams, team one was to my left and team two was to my right, and they pivoted about so fast that i was beginning to get double vision as well as a little bit scared. So i pulled my hand out of my bag and was just about to stand up, when both the growling and the pivoting suddenly stopped. Intrigued by this behaviour, i reached to unzip my bag, and surely the double vision was happening again. After this cycle had happened a few times, i truly realised what it is like to be so powerful that something would be accomplished at a wave of a hand. But somehow, after another repetition of my hand moving up and down, the fighting had become uncontrollable. One dog was taken down by three others, and the he was dragged out and helped along out of the scene by his mate who was on his side. The three gave chase, and after a brief moment, i was left all alone. Interesting to know that dogs make alliances and defensive pacts with one another. They remain loyal to their team even when his team mate is on the losing side, and if only i had known more about the incident e.g. gender, age, blood line, history or hunger situation, it would have been touching story. For such loyalty and friendship, isn't it worthwhile sitting down to get to know some of them a little bit better?

The dogs have fierce competitors for food, so they have to adapt to the environment to be able to survive. The dogs in the photo have a house under the wooden path. Not a bad idea, because older dogs would have no reason to overtake it because even if they did, they would need to live inside with their arms at the same height as their head. And those longing eyes, tell me that they want me, but are too scared to come and get me.

It is a different story with bigger dogs though. If their longing eyes eye onto something, they will be all too happy to go and get it. I sat quite close to the door as i was eating at a hotpot restaurant on Mount Ali one night. The owner seemed kind to me when she stood outside her restaurant to finally pull me in to eat 'hotpot with all you can eat rice'. A hungry yet gentle dog sat outside the door of the restaurant and knowing that i had a hotpot, she snuck in with her front legs on the bench of the table, and her sniffing and highly vacuum-like nose high in the air. When the owner saw this, she told her gently to 'zou kai' (go away) because she didn't want to alarm all the other guests. The dog ran outside to avoid the scolding. After a while it happened again, and the owner was very apologetic towards me and asked her son to watch the counter so that she can keep an eye on the dog. It happened a third time, and this time the dog and i were talking and laughing over the hotpot. When the owner saw this and had not realised our relationship, she picked up something which closely resembled a plastic bag and heaved it at the dog with all her might as she followed through half a dozen steps. The dog immediately raced out of the restaurant, but after hearing no sound she turned around to see a piece of material float down towards the ground. The owner had a choice between customers and dogs. If the choice was dogs, she could easily close down the business to turn it into a dog house, while if the choice was customers, she would simply close the front door to keep the dog out. In the end, i spotted her secretly give a bowl of food to the dog to eat, a compromised decision. She didn't want to show the customers that dogs like to hang around and she definitely didn't want to hurt the dog. Her kindheartedness was her dilemma, and her dilemma (and the half a dozen step follow through) was our joke.