Through a small door in the cow's side he placed books, a mosquito net, a mat, an extra dhoti, a bucket, and some dried fruit and muesli. On top of the cow's frame he installed a sound system and an MP3 player to constantly play Srila Prabhupada singing the maha-mantra. Few people speak English in Taiwan, but after having spent six years in Taiwan Sankirtana was fluent in Chinese. Communication wasn't a problem.

Sankirtana Dasa: The first day out, one devotee came with me for a few kilometers to take pictures, and then I was alone. There are lots of weird people in Taiwan, and maybe some of those who saw me pulling this unusual cow, also thought I was weird! Sometimes people thought I was insane, but because I was shaved up and looked neat and clean, they realized I was indeed sane and appreciated that I was a monk. Despite an enormous modernization of the country during the past fifty years, the Taiwanese people have retained much of their culture and, with it, a service attitude toward monks, many stopping to offer me water, milk, or fruit. Many simply made gestures of approval. Whenever I got a donation I gave a little book in Mandarin, Elevation to Krishna Consciousness or Easy Journey to Other Planets. One time the leader of a Taoist group gave me the equivalent of $65. There were lots of exchanges as people invited me to sit with them and then asked me questions. Sometimes they stopped their cars to have a better look and talk with me. Without an advance party, I was able to find suitable resting places in either a Taoist or Buddhist temple or under cover in a housing area. A few times people invited me to stay in their homes for the night. Sometimes I would sleep in the open on a mat and under a mosquito net. I tried to stay near a petrol pump or temple, because then I would have water to bathe with in the morning. The next day I would get up, chant Hare Krishna, and walk 40 km from 6 a.m. until 9:30 p.m.

The impact on the public was positive. During the first six days of his walk, Sankirtana did two radio interviews and was featured in a newspaper article. The themes developed on his website - now receiving thirty visits a day - seemed to appeal to all classes of people, especially the elderly. In the past, the cow and the ox used to be somewhat respected for economic considerations - the milk she was giving and the labor he was providing - but China is now a heavy meat-eating country.

At some point, Sankirtana Dasa interrupted his walk to take some of his yoga students to India, resuming his place with his magic cow three weeks later for another seven days on other parts of the island.

Sankirtana Dasa: Basically, it was a trial run. I discovered that walking on the street with the cow ratha was not too risky and that the police patrols never seemed to bother with me. I wanted to see how it would be with more devotees. Now I can see that we can easily take a bigger cart, a bigger sound system, and a bigger battery. The difficulty is that it would be costly to fly a whole crew of foreign devotees to Taiwan. Usually foreigners are given only a one- or two-month visa. So anyone who can afford a ticket to Taiwan and likes to walk, please contact me and we can settle for an ideal time to continue. We'd be able to trek around the whole island in about two months.