Wulai, Taipei

The other day was the hottest day i've had in Taiwan so far, it was 35 degrees with 70% humidity! So stupidly i decided to go to Wulai and walk 16km in this heat. Wulai is a small town in Taipei famous for its hot springs and aboriginal culture. Most people go to Wulai to visit the hot spring or the Wulai waterfall, we saw these things within the first hour of being there so decided to explore some more, what was going to be a 1 hour walk up the river turned into a 4 hour hike! We also gave the hot spring a miss because it was a little too warm.

Before jumping in at the deep end, we decided to get some food to build up our energy for the day ahead. We'd heard that Wulai was famous for its fresh vegetables and wild bore. We found a restaurant and ordered a bunch of stuff and were sure we ordered some wild bore but i'm not convinced that we actually had any. Nether the less the food was pretty enjoyable.

After refuelling, we set off on our hike. However, we felt a little bloated so instead of walking the first part of the journey we took a little train about 2km up the valley. This took us to the Wulai waterfall and a few aboriginal shops. From here we walked about 4km to a woodland area with another waterfall and some walking tracks up one of the mountains. The waterfall was quite beautiful but we did not expect the walk that was to come. Once again we set off without a map and just followed our noses (this turned out to be a bad idea, we took one track for 2km up the mountain, when we go to the end of the track there was nothing there, not even a view, so we had to turn back and walk all the way back down.

We saw  a fair amount of wildlife that day including lizards and frogs, i was more interested in seeing snakes but that day it seemed that it wasn't meant to be!

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!