Maokong, Taipei

Moakong is the name given to the Southern hills of Taipei, they have a history of tea growing and there are numerous tea shops dotted around. This is where i went the other day and is probably my favorite place in Taipei. Despite spending 10 hours here, i still didn't have time to see all the sights here, in fact i think i saw very little. My main problem is planning, or a lack of; this normally means that i arrive at place and wander around for about an hour hoping to discover something, when this fails i usually go the information booth and find a map and some information. This is pretty much how my day started. 

To get to the top of Moakong, you take a 20 minute gondola which had some pretty amazing views, they would have been more amazing if it wasn't cloudy/ Taipei wasn't so polluted. The gondola had a few stops to get off at, one being Taipei zoo. I didn't get off here because i'd been here before; the second stop however stopped at a place called Zhinan Temple. I got off here an had a look round for a while, there were a couple of temples here and a few short walks round the mountain. There wasn't so much to see here so after about an hour i got back onto the gondola and proceeded to the top!

A 10 minute gondola ride later i had arrived at the top. This is when i did my usual thing of walking around aimlessly for an hour. I had heard that there was a temple over the other side of the mountain, that had a tunnel in it that came out behind a waterfall, i though this sounded like a pretty good place to go. Even though i didn't know where it was or have a map, i decided to try and find it. The search started pretty well, there was a sign post for a trail i knew would take me close to the falls. The only problem was that i had to get to the top of the mountain which mean climbing about 700 steps, due to a combination of me not doing much exercise in a long and the weather being very humid meant that this was a struggle and by the time i got to the top i was knackered! At the top was a very small path with a sign leading down the other side of the mountain, it look as though no one had been down in a very long time but i thought 'what's the worst that can happen' and continued on anyway.

I walked down this path to the bottom of the valley for about an hour, it wasn't the easiest track in the world, some parts of the part had worn away, others were covered in slippery rock and on some bits, the decent was so steep that a rope had been tied round a tree to help you down. It was after about 40 minutes down this path when i realised that there weren't any signposts or markers but i didn't think anything of this and keep pushing on. Little did i know that 20 minutes later the path forked and I'd be in a bit of a dilemma. When this happened, i walked down each path for 10 minutes and didn't find anything so i gave up and walked back up the the top of the mountain. I was a little annoyed to say the least and to add insult to injury, when i got to the top, i looked in my backpack for some water and found my lonely planet guide which when i read though properly, it told me which direction to go. This has not put me off though, i will be going back to Moakong before i leave to find this place, if it's an anticlimax when i get there i won't be happy!

Needless to say i needed a rest after my pointless trek, so i went into one of the many tea shops and tried some local green tea and had a waffle to perk me up again. Maybe it was just because i was tired but this was the best waffle i'd ever eaten.

I think i stayed in the teashop for about 2 and a half hours before thinking that i should probably get a bit more exercise so went for another search of the area. I soon found an old Kitchen/ tea drying room which was quite interesting, but i was soon chased off by an angry sounding dog. I still don't know weather it was a tourist attraction or if i'd walked into someone's house by mistake.

I spent the rest of the day walking around the right hand side of Moakong, i visited another temple and saw numerous tea plantations and crops. It was a really cool place but i think i only saw about half of it and there are a few museums and other attractions i am yet to see so i'm planning to head back there before i return home. It's definitely a place i'd recommend to anyone going to Taiwan!