An afternoon visit to the Táoyuángǔ (桃源谷) Trail

I visited the Táoyuángǔ trail recently...its an extension of the caoling trail which i have done some times before...
I ususally end here but today si started here...
A temple near Dali train station...
The caoling trail...
"Taoyuan valley trail"...is where we are heading...
It was pretty warm down at the ocean level...
...north of yilan at the east coast of taiwan...
With 2 interns...
This is the peninsula with some hikes...
Fially at the trail enrance...
and they had plenty of porches...
Carl was so warm he went topless...
It was a mysterious path...
Carl brough his camera...to take pics...not much view...rather the myst path of eastern taiwan...
we also encountered some cows...
Pretty rare in taiwan...
Many kodak moments...
Carl didnt miss many chances to take a pic...
They even had characters to ask people to take it easy...
And most of the pics were made for sunny days...however it was nice with the cloud due to lack of shade on the path...
The peak was 616m over ocean level...
...and some other monument...
After some time we evaluated how far to walk...since the path was pretty slippery at the end...and most people told us not to walk to far....
we ended at this place...
2km left to the Taoyuangu site...
If we only knew what we missed....scenic sight wise...
It was pretty foggy...
After a while we made it to some peak...
It was a retty mysterious day and hike...
Carl was enjoying the wind...
Heading the last kilometer back to Dali train station
Its getting hotter the lower we get...and the wind is not that strong down the low altitudes either...
But Carl was happy
...he kept talking pics at the tran station...
We also tried to go to yilan but it was about an hour before next train went there...so we took the train north instead towards taipei...
...jeremy wanted to go for all you can eat pizza hut...
We also went to ximen later...
And to gongguan...

A hike to Mt QiXing in yangmingshan

I went out with some cowrokers recently...
We went to shilin nightmarket...since gide michelin started to rand Taipei resturants in their red guide we tried some hotdogs that got some fork award...
We also had negronis at ximen later...its my bartender friends best drink...reminds me ot old orange marmelade...
I also had some hamburger later on...
Some interns looking for Mt Qixing trail entrance...
...it was said to be the highest peak at yangmingshan...wtairs all the way up...more or less...
Some view from a map that we couldnt enjoy due to the clouds...
...some peak sign...
...and some view....
Some volcanic activity...
...we started at point A and ended at point B, with the main pea inbetween...seems like peak to point B was shorter...that peak to point A...
...pretty foggy at the visitor center at the peak...
And a nice miniature map...
Some peak was 1200-something high...
We climbed up to 1300-something today...
Later we went to a hongkong restaurant...
...we also went for some dessert...with alot of fruit...
And ended at some roof top later...

A visit to the Golden canyon

I paid a visit the the golden canyon recently
Mr Serna was fixing some finger gloves on a friday...
I had some comombuan sugar n lemon drink the same day...
And the day after I headed to Hualien
I found some aborignal drinks such as xiaomijiu
I bought some small one...
It was a sunny day at the east coast...
And people were getting prepared for some river tracing
Up along some small river...
that had its more watery parties...
And a place to jump from...
I published this on google maps...
We also had some costco pizza here...
And later went for some high jump...
And more pizza...
Some locals were also fishing small fish...
Later on we headed up the forrest...
And back to the river...
And some people jumped from this water collection tower...
And later on we swam some more...
...I missed some wild hotspring here...
We jumped from these cliffs aswell...
We were asked to wear wet suit the whole day...pretty hot...
...and some people peed in their suit as well...(i didnt)
Jump again...
And more walking...
and more jumping
some clouds were approching...
later on we put up a camp...
and some people were taking a short swim...
the guides were preparing food
some guy brought fake kavalan whisky...
we also brought some beer...
it was pretty touristic here...many groups walked up and down...
after a while the dinner was finished...
Omg...up n the nearby forrest I also found some hunters hut...
dinner is ready...
some vegetable and flat noodles...
We also brought a very huge log, which we put on fire...
Mr Serna was supporting as an umbrella holder in the rain...
and many of the locals were talking pictures...
...with different poses...
another pose...
Later we went to sleep in the tents...
Breakfast time...
Some bagel...
With meat and more lettuce...
t was pretty good...
Jason, who invited me here was eating by himself...
Some hunters bringing fish down...
Time to head to the golden canyon...
I saw a very suspicous cable...it might be some electricacl grid to the hunters hut...
Mr Serna was preparing water to his bottle via a filter...
Off we go...
We left the tents at the camp while heading further up stream to the canyon...
Slowly walking...
They previous day we were wearing wet suit...
(dates on pics indicated williams go pro cam)...
we were heading further up stream
pretty hot, and sunny...in this canyon south of taroko gorge
me and william and the guides were the ones skiping the wet suit...they first thoguht we were americans who wanted to sue the guides for strachin ourselves...i told them i was european...
...some nice pond upstream....
...we made a train...
...and continues further up...
...later we came to a cave...
...and some time later we came to the place where we had to limb more..to get to the golden canyon...
and many people were posiing.å..
...another lake..or pond...upstream...
...after some climbing we came to another pond...
....and we ahd to wait,,cus the guides had so secure the ropes...
...yet another waterfall to climb....
...and finally we reached the golden canyon...it was said to look golden in some light....
The guides thought about fixing so future tourists could climb further up, but the tarko national administration said no...(when they applied)...
After some time we were back at the camp...for some fast lunch
And cleaning some equipment...
It started to rain...but thats ok...the air is very fresh here compare to the western parts of taiwan...
Mr Serna put on his wet suit again...
We hiked down in some hour, what took us a day yesterday...
Chillin in the water...
When back to hualien we quickly returned ur equipment...
Serna was waiting for the cab...
It was a fast baibai to the others...
While the clouds were covering the mountain tops that yesterday was shiny...
I finished the xiaomijiu I bought the morning before...
But bought some more drinks and chicken...
...omg...a nice pic of the lake near hualien...
I also bought some mochi, which is some rice startch that is said to be famous around hualien...2018 continues...

Beast runner Trailrun 2017

I joined a trail run in Puli some weeks ago with Taiwan beast runners...
Seediq theme...
They had a long list of equipment I had to bring, to not get disqualified...so my luggage was very heavy...I later found out that not many people brought everything of that...
We were chasing these peices...
It was in the lasnd of Seediq, Atayal and Bunun people...this uy was bunun....
We ran and ran...up and down...
I stay at some camp where they made some interesting coffee...
They also had nice aboriginal performance...
This is Petr...who is hosting the event...
...there are several euoprean looking houses here in puli...pretty nice...
We also got some BBQ  at the end of the run...it was a fun run...up and down up and down...

A hike session in Hsinchu

I went to hsinchu some days ago..
Many cars here...
Went with some school mates
Up in the mountains, they had some morning event..
It is nice in the mountains, these were like 1000m high i think
Omg...a hello kitty bus..
We were heading here...
We heard there had 3 entrances to the hike...and some were free entrance...
...apparently some bus also passed by here...
 
Some aboroginal worked here...
...they had allot of cute decoration inside...
...with some quotes...
...the atayal guy...
...and nice view...over some hsinchu mountain..
...i also found a dog with 2 different colours on his eyes...
...after a while we found the trail entrance...
..it was a saisiyat area...
..not sure what this means...
...chop chop start the hike...
...the entrance had some broken stairs...
...i brought some burgers from family mart...
...we entered some bamboo jungle...
...and later some som road..
...steep contrete road...
more steep road...
..and some green nature
Robert was running in the grass...
To some first peak...
...and some second peak...
...they had some paper signs...the path ways...
...and some hight..1182m...
...plenty of pine trees...
And then it became steaper...
omg...some plastic bottle...
...we also met some old people...pretty close to the highest peak...
...omg some steap wall...
...after some time we reached the peak...
...1579m high...
...we had some snacks here...
Some people brought a kitchen to make tea...
...view over hsinchu...
the climbing gang...
And then we went down...
Robert took the lead...
More jungle...
...the rest of the hike was easier...wider path...
...some warning signs...
...and more pine trees...
Omg...a container...in the forest...
after a while it was a wider road...perfect for downhill cycling...
...we were heading to some coffee store...
...and some "forest area"...
...finally reached it...
Some high mountain tea...i think...
...and the houses looks like home...almost...
...or like in the southern part of germany..
...we also got offer for a free ride back to our car..
...pretty nice...
 
...some traffic jam...
And we were back to the 2 coloured eyed dog after some while...
...i visited a store at the saisiyat area...to buy osme aboriginal thing...
..i ended up buying xiaomijiu..i hope the saisiyat made it...
No one wanted to drink with me...so i ended the whole bottle...
we also went to this fish place...
and this funny guy showd up ...most people were old NTU student...
the resturant gang.....
Plenty of taiwanese food...
Some group pic...
They people hadnt seen 20nt before...they had to take pic...
Omg...they had kavalan whiky...2017 continues...

A hike to Pingxi crags

I went to pingxi recently
With some ranomd people from australia and usa
We were heading for 2 places...a waterfall hike and a hike with crags...
Pretty steep start...
The crags hike is around 1-2 hours..
Wires are attached to the mountain
Crag top view...
Later some made a decision to continue further on the crags hike...not many other people make this extra route...
Stairs carved out in the mountain...
A wall of mountain...
Macho man climbing the stairs
As usual in taiwan, there is often a risk of falling far...one need to be cautious every now and then...
Some flying lantern...I found 9 of them in the forest....sine the nearby villages sells them...these vilalges are famous all over china...
Some small break, on the ridge....
And some map...they are not always super precise...so it can be hard to estimate how far it is left...
Some more carved out stair...
There was a rope to hold on to...but some times this rope was gone...
This extra route was to the Tzmu peak...
An ozzy boy pointing in the jungle..
After a while we were back in pingxi...
A place where people rest on the rail...

Hongludi hiking trail

I went for a hike recently in the southern parts of taipei
Omg...a roof elephant...
There are many trails in the southern part of taipei...acctually trails eveywhere in taiwan...just hard to know how ot find them, since not much are in english, nor do many tais like to hike (in comparison to the huge population)...
...another elephant...
First city view...it was very hot this day...
Some small path..but not our path..
The hike had allot of stairs...
And it was a "temple trail" so we passed by many temples...some were selling things...
Thuis cute munk had problems counting, so the customers had to help her to calcualte the final price...
Most locals didnt eat or drink the things anyway...they donated it to the gods...
omg...a door as in the hobbit town...
A trail map...
"Yuantong Temple Hongludi Hiking Trail Guide Map"
...also many cats were walking around...
Once in a while there were some signs...
...we also passed by some graveyards...they also had elephants....
 
It was a peaceful landscape...
Once in a while it reminded me of the Sanxia trails, or Shidong trails, with allot of clifs and wires...
Many squirrels ere jumping around in the trees too...
After some hour we arroved to the peak...if it was sunny, we would see the whole taipei from here...
302m above sea level...
Not far to the city...
However...warning signs for slippery surface near the temples...
Another temple view over the cloudy city...
And some cute cat scupture...
...and some japanese house...like in jiufen area...
...omg, a person with a Saab, treating it very special...
After another 5-10 minutes I was back in civilsation and the hectic taiwan traffic...
And some random night market...2017 continues...

A trip to Manyueyuan national forest recreation area

I recently made a trip to sanxia, and the mountain area to check out some water falls...
It was in Sanxia at a forest recreation area
Many hikers were here...
And as usual many locals prefer full hiking gear for recreation area walks
One needed to buy tickets here... 
The path was along a river
It is a dangerous river, where people yearly die
Since it was a forest recreation area they charge to enter, but in contrary its pretty good quality of the path
Some line up to enter
People living in taipei get discount...its common in taiwan that people living in a nearby area gets discount
They had different routes here
No cooking here...
The path was partly in asfalt...
They also had snakes in the area...it was near road 7, which is called the "snake road"...
...also monkeys might appear...
More rivers...
And some cosy tea cabin....
...where they sell local specialities such as duck feet...
...but it smelled like brobacka kaffestuga outside alingsås...probably due to the wooden interior...
Some rangers hut
There were many trails here...or 3-4 of them...all pretty short
This was the Manyueyuan waterfall
They had plenty of view spots, as most waterfalls in taiwan has...
...some other angle
Omg..."hsinchuv"..
many people taking pics of the water falll
 
And more stairs to see the waterfall from an other angle....
...max 5 people at the porch...it means 2 foreigners...
Some trail was broken...in the country of landslides
Next waterfall was the virgin waterfall...oit was a littlebit bigger...
...maybe 15 meters high...
Many people taking pics...
...and taking selfies...
...omg a rainbow...
...and another wildlife sign...
I also went on an "self guiding tour"...
...and found that they had some almost 10km hike here...but currently it was closed...
Some creek...it was pretty similar to brobacka naturm here...except from the exception that here was no giant kettles...
They had many of these info signs...and even in english..which was a plus...
This seemes to be the mountain that named this area...
I wonder where this peak was...
The self guiding trail took 15 minutes...
And the park was in a nature reserve...
Hmm...women...handicaped...and men....i knew the toilet signs...but they also offered a family shit together room...
I had some local frui before I left...I hope it was local...but wouldnt surprise me if some things were imported...
Before leaving I had some local honey...
They had some ricewine with bees...however I bought some honey from a special flower, making the honey bitter...I bought it not for the taste..but rather that the texture of the honey reminded me of swedish honey...

A hike to Zongyangjianshan (中央尖山/Central Range Point)

The "only pyramid shaped mountain in taiwan" i was told...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Range_Point
It has been on my bivket list since 2010, when I went with a m ountain climbing club for some lame mountains
http://johansvennung.blogg.se/2010/december/mountain-climbing-in-taiwan.html
I drove from Jiayi north on road 14...in the night...passing Puli, they use to have a swedish restaurant here...
I also made a 7-11 purchase of alot of food...
Then we passed the highest road in taiwan...hehuanshan...or wuling...as it also is called...
Some tunnel on road 8...towards road 7...
And then I slept in tent at the trail entrance of zhongyangjianshan and nanhushan....
After some hours climbing I could se Snow mountain..or xueshan...
And there...pintian and a part of the "holy ridge" corssing taiwan...vbut it partly borken at hsinchu area...
After some time we reached the trail entrance...time to dump some papers...mountain climbing is very complicated in taiwan
some random tais climbing...and many some hongkong people
omg...mushrooms...
starting on nanhu trail...up up up
my cookies became pillows...the air pressure is low here...
and up here abobe 2000m its mostly pine trees and bushes...
cory walking in the grass...
he walked this trail 12 times...he likes to hike...but he only reached the mountain we are heading to now once...2 weeks ago...after 4-5 attempts...
its hard to get a good reception on ytour phone up here..so the few spots that have connection they usually announce it with a sign
a pic taken at a remote area on taiwan...
Another mountain pic
And cory walking up the hill
Enjoying the view
He knows every name of each peak...impressive
and far down there is road 7 and some random village
and some clouds
Johan posing with our destination in the background...zhongyangjianshan (中央尖山)
After a while we had to leave tha large nanhu trail
and walk down a river...
alot of river tracing is in this trail...and sharp rocks...very remote...
not many people go here....i never seen any person here, so far...except me and cory
after another 1-2 hours river walk we saw a sign at the first cabin...but we dont have time to stay here...just a quick snack
crossing nanhu river
many landslides are here...so the trail often change
omg...cory had the raw eggs at the bottom of the backpack...luckily only 2 were broken...
omg...one of the confusing signs about distance...
and some remove waterfall, which not is listed on http://taiwanswaterfalls.com
it was many leafs here, like in a swedish autumn
after some 1 hour uphill again it was down hill...we have to cross 2 mountains before we reach the zhongyangjianshan river...which will take us to the base of the mountain
some rest at the steep downhill path
after some time we reached a creek, time for refill the water bottles...this area has many creeks...
And then another sign. to the second and last cabin of this trail
and now the river tracing becomes more intense
Cory was using river tracing shoes
I had normal running shoes
but it was nice to walk in cold water...after some hours with heavy backpack
the trail had these stripes, from some random hiking club....it helped...as well as the support of some cairns...since the river wasnt that easy to walk along
up up up
It was deep forrest up here
and once in a while there was a pond...with very clear water...
luckily no land slides today...even if the canyon was pretty big and steep
More cairns...
and some small water fall...
Cory showing the way
Cairns
and jumping on stones
after a while we reached the second cabin on this trail
Many people slept in tents...we met 6 people at this cabin...and suddenly one of taiwans most remote places didnt feel that remote anymore
We made some soup
...or cory made it...i assisted
and later on the night darkness arrived...like at 19...
the place we stayed at these 2 days
Cory working in the dark
Zhongyangjian waterfall....
And some steep climbing...luckily there were ropes on this wall...
And more river tracing...
A break in the deep forrest
a rest along the river
another waterfall..at the end of the river...
now the steep climing up the peak starts
An endless road of stones...
up there somewhere...the stone road ends...
Cory had two sticks...it helped...
Nanhu mountain
Cory is small in this valley
Nanhu mountain is higher than zhongyangjianshan but not pyramid shaped...
After another 30-60 minutes...we reaches a fork...between the main peak and the east peak
Cory is taking the last steps up to the fork
And from there, we went on some bushy landscape
this is some 3600 meters above sea level
And many mountains in the horizon
And some random flowers
Cory on a small peak
Omg...i found a perfume bottle...reminded me of my visit to yushan, where i brought perfume to the top
Cory on another small peak
The path continued up
and some goat shit...I saw 2 dead mountian goats on this trail...and heard alot of barking dears...
We now walked on some ridge...
And in some more bushes
And finally we reached the peak...
After using some ropes...its alot of snow here in the winter...so people need (or might need) crampons...and these wires/ropes...
some old peak stone...
There is xueshan...i think...from there, this peak looks like a pyramid...
cory was approaching the top as well
Perfume on the peak sign
Blue steel pose...
After some lunch we headed to the east peak
We also met some hongkong and taiwanese hikers...
And we saw some rain clouds coming closer
Flower pic 1
Flower pic 2
Flower pic 3
Flower pic 4
And the long way down begun
Endless stone road
and downhill river tracing
Cory took a break with his cowboy hat
And then ready to go
Another water fall
And more water
Later it was jungle
And some grass forrest reminding me ot home (this is corys favorite area of this whole trail, it was rather peaceful here)...
And some dinner break
Omg garbage
Only 8.3km left...but pretty steep hills to climb
Cheese curry for dinner
Met some taiwanese people on the way...
In early morning we took off...the sunlight decides if we walk and not...
Omg...Dabajianshan...epic
Some river crossing
And steep river tracing...
And lunch break...
I found trash that I didnt see on the way up..some people who doesnt care about the environment...I collected the trash I found...the deed of the day...
After a while we were back on the Nanhu trail (mentally it felt like i was already at the end of the trail here), since this trail is a walk in the park...
Still steep hills
And some short rest
And some 2795m high peak...
After a while we reach the trail entrance...
But still had some 5km to walk...i think...we met some locals on the way...
Then fast walk...
And almost at road 7...
And in the car to hsinchu
We were not at the north west coast...people were not wearing helmet here...
I had a baozi at a local store
We later on took road 7 towards Taoyuan due to some 3 people in the car policy at yilan (else we might have taked a faster road back), this road is called the "snake road"...
We also passed by a small lake...
And a bungy jump bridge
Nervous people
Rain was on its way...
But in hsinchu it was a cloudy sunset later on
I ended the hsinchu visit by inspecting a Handicapped children (boys) only toilet...that few people are allowed to use...(no female, no non-kids, no non-handicapped)...

A trip to Bayan wild Hotspring

Early morning queuing at jiantan MRT, bus 15 should take me to some trail entrance for the Bayan trail...
...many locals are here, since its weekend...
...omg a fjällräven bag...
...after some time, the small bus of 15 arrived...(but 5 is the ones that most ppl took)...
At this visit center the trail started...
...with some info about the park...
...and the route...
...my friend brought his speaker..playing scandinavian music...
...some brige..."10 people or 1000kg" the elevators usully say...im 95-100, I guess its "5 foreigner or 10 taiwanese"...
...lizzard...can u see it?
...most of the first walk looked like this...
....and some part we had to take stairs...
...the locals usually hike with some super heavy outfit...I never understood why...
...this part reminded me of the caoling trail...some grass fields...
...and some high peak in the horizon...
...not sure where we are heading...but looking for "bayan"...
...many locals seem to go here...most take car or scooter...car is very slow...since taipei is a multi million ppl city, and many of them try to hit the country side when its weekend...(scooter can often pass by the queuing cars)...
...local cow...
...Bayan 4.8km...
...and warning signs...
the trail heads downhill from now...
...Bayan 3.9...
...still stairs...
...and some smoke from some dry geyser...
...this seem to be some historical trail...
...and some ancient temple...
...but this one seems new..
...some 200-300 year old civilization...
...still have some distance to go...
...and some old bridge construction...
...ahrd to see it...
...this trail part was broken...
...and this too...
...but there was a new part we could take...and we found a small cave...
...and some small waterfall...
...no "bayan"...but I think we are pretty close...
...some advanced water system...
...and some volvanic activity...
...omg "aboriginal period"...
...thats my new period...prior 1684...
...maybe its possible to take bus 1717 directly to Bayan...
...or car...
Yangminshan peak...
...back on road 2...
...and some military area...
the guy on the taiwaense sign has a short neck...
...we also made soe food stop at a local market...
...and had to cross some rice fields...
...a small creek making the rice fields wet...
...this field you could pay to walk on...
...these are the people who paid...not sure why...
...closer to Bayan...and more hot areas...but not that smelly...I think this hotsprings are not sulfur based...
...some large volcanic field...
more smoke...
...and anohter 100meters we saw the wild hotspring...
...some warning signs...
...many locals seem to go here...
...warm water from this creek...
...meeting colder water from some small river...
...it was probably 35-40 degrees...
...some pools had cold water also...
...but the air temp was probably 25-30..not hotspring swiming temp, in my opinion...
The guide...he likes to ask foreigners where they are from...
...and the hike continued downhill...
..."america" these 2 white ppl replied, when the guide asked..."oh, freedom" the guide replied...truly the country of freedom...
...the river heading west...
and some civilization...
...not late we arrived to some local parking lot...
...with lockers...
"Bayan hotspring resort"...
On road 101....
...this road was not that heaily trafficed as road 2...
some land slice...
bus 1717 and its schedule...
...it was almost empty when we entered...bus after some stops it was very full...
the guide showed me some euorpean book...even went christian cus he likes "western culture"...I tried to learn more about christianity from him...
...ppl lining up fo the bus...
...and a payphone...in case your cellphone runs out of battery? They can aswell have a charger station instead...

A lazy day in sanxia and zhonghe

I went south today to look for a geocache...
It was on the road I use to go everyday to work...
And then some monutes up hill for the mountains...some 700meter...
It felt like more than 700meters...
A nice view from sanxia...an early sunday night...
Later I also found some nice street with coloured lighted trees...
I had some pizza with some people...
And had swedish cider...form Herrljunga...
Omg...later I went to some nearby store...and found some swedish machine...
I also saw my neighbour play this machine to win some toy..but I was sceptic...

A trip to XIaowulai waterfall, and baibai party with the swedes

I paid a visit to Xiao wulai (little wulai) yesterday (wulai means hotspring in Atayal language (an aboriginal tribe from nothern taiwan))...
Wulai is easily accessable from Taipei, however, Xiaowulai one needs to go some hours to reach...since its on another side of a mountain...(or one can river trace I heard)...
Many people went here this day...
And many places to visit..but many people wanted to see a waterfall...from a transperent bridge...not sure why...
This was the path to the view from the waterfall base...
With some metallic stairs...
And some locals swimming..
Up there somewhere is the waterfall...
It was a 10 minutes walk in 30 degrees...
Omg..there is the waterfall...
Pretty big...
With some old temples that one can see the waterfall from...
It was a pretty small river right now...
And some smaller waterfall over the first one...somethere there the transperent brdge is...
Not sure which waterfall is the biggest in taiwan but this seemed pretty big...
From the road one could also see it...
Later on I went to taipei 101...for some all u can eat...and drink...
Many swedes joine up...
Patric was the one who announced it...
It is one of my favorite ones...
We were 9 people so they gave us 2 tables...I walked between the tables..its fun to mingle around...
Patric has striped shorts, pretty fancy...
Omg, so weird...they had many jars with chocolate etc at the ice cream bar..but only 1 was for eating, the rest was for decoration...how wants forbidden food as decoration?
Later on we went to a nearby bar...where I had this IPA:..
I was told that they also have local beer but it was out of beer this day...
Most beers were about 242 nt (or 220 nt plus 10% service charge)...
This guy was the bartender...Stanley 18 years old...
Later I also had an Hoegarden...
Later Joel insited of visitiing a night club...
We were heading to Club Halo...
But ended up at Club Spark...never have high expectations in taiwan...or anywhere else...
They often encourage people to spend money here...and they try to have a luxurious attitude...
More girls shoing everyone someone who bought champange...
OMg...broken sofa...
Joel was happy..
And drunk...
More sparkling wine bottles in the air...
Joel also bought some champange...but no girls holding up the bottle with a light...
Some picture taking...most people here were celebrating some event...the foreingers went here cus it was saturday...
Some guys who couldnt stand the pressure...
And some numbers sharing...business also on the freetime...

A trip to Teapot mountain and the Gold muesum

I left the scooter crowded taipei today...
Millions of scooters every day...
...I headed east...(ironically not by bike this time...(but by scooter))...
To the touristic place called Juifen...
Omg...taiwan has many ways to spell the same place..."Sijhih" or Xichi...etc
Here the "cliff" teapot mountain can be seen...
Not sure why...but they say it looks like a teapot...
To get here I had to pass by a gold geological park...this house was made by the japanese a long long time ago...
Many tourist were here...
Omg..they used a mini rail to pull and push the gold...
Another view of the teapot mountain...
One of my long term goal in taiwan is to see the boggest gold bar in the world...i think it should be here...
Omg...many people guarding different areas...not sure what they are for...
Its open during daytime...no wonder I often miss the opening hours...
Cool...they had rail going everywhere here to transport the gold...
And a big cave (or gold mine)...cute kids wearing helmets...
Omg...gold has been found here for thousands of years...
An interesting illustration of the gold mine...
And some medals...
Gold art...
And here it is...the biggest gold bar...
So interesting, no guards...
Covered by some plastic glass...
4 meters from the exit that doesnt have any guard either...i remember when I went to a temple north of taizhong and they had a 400kilo gold statue also unsupervised, the taiwanese said that they didnt need to guard it since "no one would steal any religious thing..."...hmm...smash and grab...i wonder how much one would get for this bar...
It was interesting...
I should have strachted some of...
it was pretty heavy though...
And here is the exit...in 20 meters from the exit, one could meet up bu scooter...
...enought security discuttion...here is another mountain opposite to teapot mountain...
And the path from gold museum to the trail entrance for the teapot mountain...
Omg...some japanese style house again...I really like their archititcture...
Signs to find the trail...
And the teapot...
And some tunnel...not sure where it leads...
Here it the trail entrance...I was told...
Stairs...stairs...
And nice view...
Omg..some car road also heading up hill..it felt unnecessary to climb if i could take the car...
They also had many of these small temples...I wanna build one of these back in swedes...its pretty nice with this asian architecture...
Not far now..."chahushan" is teapot mountain in pinyin...
Here is the "real" trail entrance...after some kilometer walk uphill...
or "ear-free teapot"...
900 meters left...
The stairs were partly broken...
But later they were fixed...
So it wasnt much of a climb...more a walk...
Omg...so close...
And some sign...not sure what they mean...
From here I could see juifen...
And keelung...
But I had to walk in some cave...to reach higher...
Here is the path...it looks interesting...
More tunnels...
Asome random guy was here...changing shirt..it was super warm...
Up on the "top"...
But not the real top...some high rope was indicating that its possible to climb higher...
The random guy also suggested me to go higher...to anogher mountain...but i think i could take the car to that mountain another time...comepare to the caoling trail that i did some year ago...this wasnt that spectacular...
just a cliff on a mountain...
Omg, I can also see taipei 101...i always see that building from peaks in northern taiwan...
To reach another peak further up I had to continue to in the caves of teapot mountain...
The ocean is pretty close...its the north coast of taiwan...
To the left one can see the higher ridge passed teapot mountain...
Some interesting field near the gold ecological park...
And the car road heading down...
And some hugh statue near the trail entrance of teapot mountain...
And a cool tree house...
Here is the gold museum...
Many tourists here...(mostly japanese I think)...
More people taking pic of the gold bar...
I had to see it again..so cool...
And the door didnt have any specific lock or anything...so interesting...
Next think on my schedule: geocaching...
I walked back in the gold ecological park...
Closer to Ruifang...a nearby train station I was told that there should be a cache with a trackable...
Near this old tunnel....
 
It was pretty deep...
 
I remember the "hint"..but my gps wasnt that accurate...
After a while i found it...now I better head back to taipei...the sun is really strong here...i use to be Mr Shadow man..a day out side in the sun is killing me...

Thursdays trips and trekking...

Taking the first MRT at 6, I had to wake up even earlier...
In a dark Taipei...i walked to JingAn MRT Station...
I lated joined the car taking us eat...
I got some nice coffee...
Nice mountains at the east coast...
And the "ghost village" near Juifen, itwas built during the gold rush...
More narrow woars in the djungle...
And some garden work...
My friend had nice plans...he already had some plants there...
We also got sandishes...so professional...
Even if we were far up inthe djungle innorthern Taiwan...there were many houese here...
Omg, Keelung island...the one I wanted to go to some weeks ago...
I later visited a recently opened café...
And made a new batch of beer...
Before I went for a hike near Taipei 101...near where I did a trail run some years ago...
The first place was called the "elephant mountain"...
Impressig stone plate...withinformation...
Anders joined up, and showed some hip mobile apps...
This is a famous spot where people take pics of taipei 101...
We also found some strange machinery...
Some cable car...
More people enjoying the view... 
Sexy...
Photo shooting...
It was easy to get lost up here...there were many pathes...
What does this sign say....no pics?
Near this sign...pics?
As usualy, they were doing some constructions of the trailll
Among the people enjoying the view...
ämy friend Anders likes this cap...its common that tais wear strange words on caps...
We found many maps...but not many that showed our location...
More construction...
And some holy buddha...
I think this is the character my teacher gave me some month ago...
We were getting further and further away from Taipei 101...
Sometimes it looks strange..with the gray colours of the building...
We had some cookies during aquic break...
Andmore app sharing...
Anders has been here some years ago...he could recall...
Somered plants of a temple in the mountain...
And some old folks...drinking tea...just likethe mountains at the south part of taipei...
Some christian room...
The sun was setting...so we started to return... 
Many times her in taiwan, the sun sets over the horizon.-..due
to fog or something...
We checked how far we went as welll...
Except some minor GPS errors...we could conclude our distance and speed...
Later that night I also met an aboriginal from the Bunun tribe...they are famous for archery and hunting...so cool...
I also made a quick visit to my negihbours neighbourhood...
I passed by many times but i never entered...
We had some Weissbeer from taiwan here...
And some meet...it was pretty slow kitchen...
And some salty shrimps...
The waitress was also half aboriginal...her father was Amis...

2 hikes in 1 day...

I went up at 6 last morning...jsut to hit the road...
...road 3...heading south...
Its always tricky to follow roads in taiwan, since they can suddenly change name in an intersection...rutn without notice...
My friend cory was meeting me up in the mountain...after some 2 hours drive...
Up here they have no 7-11, but some private convenient stores...
This is the place we will try to go to...cory was here some month ago...and its on my bucket list...
Its famous for its steepness...
Cory showing the way...
Omg, they had fake money on the ground...
After 20 minutes walk, we concluded that we went wrong, and went up again...after another 20 minutes we came to the river...and cory concluded that we went wrong agaon...since it was suppose to be a waterfall where the path meets the river...
Up again...
The stones here looked a little like in a hotspring...
It was alot of trash in the bushes...
But "no"...cory didnt recognize the place...
Maybe it was up stream, or down stream...
But not here...
I saw an arrow on a tree...but there were plenty of pathes...in each direction...I had to leave for an other hike after 2-3 hours...bt Cory concluded that it must have been the path to the right...I will check it out later on this week...
The next hike was in Sanxia...
My friend Anders met me up...
We saved some time, by driving scooter up hill...on a small road...
Anders is as usual very hightech...having cool applications on his phone, and recent technical devices...
We walked a "famous" trail...
Some locals says the trail takes 8 hours...as usual we divide the time by 4...to get the real time...
They even carved out stairs in the stone...
And as usual some mountain climbing club prepared the path with stripes..
"the old tree" in the centred of this "8 shaped" trail"...
Some steep part...
It was very entertaining... 
And steep...partwise...
Some times the trail went to the middle of nowhere...
And many times they had maps...
The top...I think...they had many peaks...
Some visitors carved their names into the stone...
Anders using a panorama app...
It was pretty cool...
I sneaked in 2 times...(and it had a small gap...but its pretty usefull...
Ano other map...without telling you where we are...and showing "KG"?!?!? i wonder what that means...how heavy the trail is?
Some steep cliffs had some iron bars pointing up...
We toook the ladder...
Safe!
Later we had a quick snak...some biscuits fomr Göteborgskex...
And we continued to head back...
Just a quick check if there are any geocache in the area...
Yes..not so far from road number 7, where we parked the scooters...
We saw some really steep cliffs on the way back...
And some wierd branches...
And another map, in english..
The lead us to a steep trail...
Wich nice view...
Anders was heading to the top...
Dont fall down!
It was a little bit foggy, but else, it was a perfect afternoon...
But in our mind we only thought about: "dont fall down, dont fall down"...
Time to head back...
After inspecting the cliffs on the ridge...very interesting formation...
Same path...
It was dark by the time we were back at the scooters...
We went back to taipei...Anders using his scooter, where he needs to take out the scooter keys when driving...since he might loos the keys...then he cant turn the scooter off...
We passed by some stores...
...with interesting furnitures...
And my favorite baking store...
To make some impulse purchase...
Before picking apizzeria...
I bought a Hawaii pizza...
They had the dwarfs from the disney movie...everywhere...
More app-discussions...
Later the night I also went to a korean resturant...
With classical "taiwanese icecream"...just many colours...representing some "hard to identify"-flavour...2014 continues...

A visit to north eastern parts of Taipei...

I paid a visit to the north eastern parts of taipei today...
I took the MRT...and saw a girl with a Fjällräven bag...
People were also dancing salsa or soemthing at Dahu MRT station...
They seemed to have many hiking trails here...
And nice bridges...
I met up with Anders and Nils...
And later went up hil...
Anders were filming...some short clips...
It was a nice view...
Many locals were here to exersice...
Not sure why...I guess its the fresh air that is nice...
It was warm...I like...after some weeks of raining...
They seemed to have many hikes in the area...
Omg, somce cool wall...Anders is an expereinces photographer...he saw this was...and had the sense that it will be a cool pic...
He is using both a normal camera and his smartphone...depending on...
Nils fell asleep later on...
German cars...so many in taiwan...
Omg...a fishing store...never seen that before...here in Taiwan...
We later on headed to a dumpling place...
With hot drinks...it was hard to carry the cups...
Nice food...
We later on went for geocaching...its a fun website, if you have nothing to do...to go for a world wide treasure hunt...
One of the Geocach treassures were near this lake...
A guy who doesnt want to get wet on his head...using a plastic bag...thats good...reuse!
We had some problems with finding the coordinates...and to match them with google maps...
Here is the place...
Later we found the place...
We also found a mobile pizzeria...
And some nice park...
Maybe this could be the tressure...
Omg, many bords at this place...
Even Anders were taking pics of the birds...
Omg, Anders are sitting on the priority seats...thats the beneits with having a kid...
Welcome to taiwan...They hae "Anti-spy camera detactors"...not sure how they work...but the Tais surely figured this one out...
Next stop is the ferris wheel in Neihu...
We went to Le ble d´or...
For some honey beer...I can tell that it tastes better with some side dish...but it was still ok...
Another interesting sign...it reminds me of the "area for girls at night"-zone and the pink whistle in the bus...it makes taiwan a more interesting place...

Caoling historical trail

I went for a trail today...
Starting at 7-11 to buy things...as usual before a hike...
Full train...omg, i prefer thetrains with unbooked seats...
I had my chocolate from marabou, super nice...
My friend has Kopparbergs polo...thats a nice shirt...
Fulong was the destination...
The main road looks a usual...
Caoling tunnel...thats for bikes...
We had to go north, to get to the train entrance...
Some local lady wanted to sell stuff...she as helpful with the directions...
Finally tha first sign...
My local friends joined as well...
I had a beer...
This guy had 4 beers...
Nice cat house...I wonder who lives here...with all these cats, and a dog...
No collection of bamboo...
Alot of bamboo...panda paradise...
Nice facilities...a toilet on the way to the path, with vending machines...
A 5 minutes break at a park...
More signs...
A big spider...
And a nice creek...
More signs...
I think the trail starts here...
So far it was mixed roads we walked on...
I found this map on internet...from some other blog...
My friends got tired...we were not sure they will join all the way...
After some consolidation they desided to return...to fulong...
We contined...
Some rest at some old rice fields...maybe this is why it is called a "historical trail"...
Some huge rock with chinese characters...
And at the top we met some americans...it was lot of fog...
To bad. were suppose to be able to see alot of things from here...
Reminded me ot when I went to xueshan...
Anyway...time to go down hill...
After some time, the rain started...
So we got some better view...
Time for wine and cheese...
Spanish wine I bought at carrefour yesterday...
Nice djungle...
And crackers...
And more rain...
I brought an extra poncho, which came in use...
It was alot of rain by now...
Flooding down the road...
And waterfalls everywhere...
The trekking crew
It was fun to play in the rain...
Omg, finaly at Dali...
That calls for some beers...
Cool guy with silver teeth...
Heavy traffic...
More beer...
We created a temporary trash can for all the drinks...
Well at the train station in Dali a guy said that all tarins are cancelled due to flood...
Some brave guy waiting anyway...
I spent some time looking for places I wanna visit...
I heard that some company find more gold in taiwan...that must be at this place...
Gathering all the people at the train station, we called for taxi...
Since the rain wouldnt stop...we were told thathere wont be any more trains for the day...
Later in the taxi I saw many waterfalls...
And stones falling on the road...
Finally in Keelung...
Then we went on the train to taipei again...
And some buffet...
My friends favorite BBQ...
With cheese sticks...
A blue shrimp...
And ice cream...
It was nice...i hope it wont rain to much tomorrow...

Searching for the 20cm ridge at Shiding

Today I took bus 666 to Shiding...south of taipei...looking for a 20cm wide ridge...
Bus 666 goes to Shiding form Jingmei MRT station...
Pretty sunny day...
Feels safe...
We followed the river uphill...
7-11 and McDonalds are dosplayed on the bus route...
They also had pink harassment whistles...
More mountains...
Shidind is a nice place...a little alp feeling...
We passed by some local convenient store to buy snacks...
Nice place...looks kind of non-taiwanese...
Big fish in the river...
And some red bricked house...thats common among old houses here in taiwan...
And the "open plaza"...like an italian square...
Maybe I should invest in a house here someday...
Some wedding pictures...
"Huanddi Temple Trail" is the one we were heading for...
Here it starts...
Thousands of stairs...probably...
Time for some refill of the bottles in the 30+ temperature...
I olny brought 1-2liters of water...(and one bottle of kopparbergs elderflower cider)...
More stairs...(like in dabajian shan)...I wonder if they carried the blocks here, from downtown, or went from the top, with helicopter....
Taipei 101 inthe horizon...the city is nearby...
The path continues a little muddy...
And alot of rots...
They made some steps in the rock...
Is this the way up to the 20cm ridge? OSkar had to check...
Hmm...I thought it looked a little steep from the path...but oskar stayed optimistic...
After some half hours walking we were pretty high...and could see taipei, maybe nanjing...(the east part)...
More cliffs...
We had to climb...
I also saw alot of lizzards...
More chains...
It was fun...it felt like we really were out in the wild for once...no stairs of other equipment for lazy climbers...
Is this the 20cm ridge?
Or this?
Or this? It was pretty steep the the left...
Oskar liked the view...
Omg. a temple in the middle of nowhere...
Maybe that is the ridge....
Not that far...but looks pretty steep...
More ladders to climb...
Another ridge...
No...not 20cm...
This was almost 20cm...
Maybe 30 cm here...
More chain climbing...
Some rumors had it that a munk lives here who served tea...
Oskar thought he found the ridge here...
Ye, it was like 20cm...
A 30-40cm fence was there to that we felt safe from falling 30-40 meters down...
More climbing...
We passed the west peak of this temple trail and was heaing for the east peak..
Pretty hot...30+, soon time to open the "summit cider"...
Oskar was looking for other 20cm ridges...
Maybe this one...?
A symbol you seldom see in europe...even illegal in some countries...but here its accossiates with sun, buddha and peace...culture is different...
More exciting places...
Luckily it didnt rain, else it could have been a little slippery...
Oskar wish he had brought his system camera...
Omg, this is like exactly 20 cm...
 or 19.5 cm....that will do...we found it, mission complete...
Suddenly everything was 20 cm...
A small long ridge...
Some locals, who recently went to xueshan...same as oskar...
More chains...
East peak was not far...
Just some climbing...oskar took the tunnel to the peak...
Yippi, east peak...20cm ridge trail - check!
Now we took the stairs down...from the other side...
Some old house...maybe some aboriginal, or japanese occupants built it...
Hmm, some distances seemed to be totally wrong...I wonder who measured it...
Some random store...we were told that alot of people use to walk this trail...so it must have been good business here...
THey even were selling gloves...for the chains...
Nice bridge...over the reiver heading to Shiding...
Back in shiding...it looked a little like wulai and some other cities nearby...
Some locals talking about some trails...
Freeway 5...connecting taipei and yilan...
Oskar was streching..
And later we discuessed the book Catch 22...a great book, reminds alot of the life in taiwan..."no why" society...
 

A visit to Hsinchu

I went to hsinchu yesterday...

Had a meeting with some old friends...

At a restaurant in Hsinchu downtown...

Its one of these "try to imitate fancy italian/french dishes and service" resturant that is far to expensive...

I had pasta, my friends ordered some more brunch style food..

I had an egg in my food...

We later on went to the beerworks (beer place), that I never been to (there are 4-5 pf them in hsinchu,that sells hsinchu made beer)...

It was a little bit similar to the other beerwork that i have been to...

Kai was there...

I had some burgers...since i started to run regurlary recently, i feel that I need to eat alot...just like in the old days...

We went up at 10, to get to some wild hotsprings...(thats what they are calles here, hotsprings that u dont need to pay for)...
Anders drove the car...

We had GPS, but did barely need it...

Wow..."Dabajianshan"...the place i wanna go to almost "the most" right now in taiwan...

A far up 7-11...a taiwanese way to recognize civilization...

Aboriginal pattern...so nice...

And a nice church, maybe not "top 10" but atleast "top 100" in taiwan...

There are many nice houses far up in the taiwanese moutains roads...

We also used a map that I downloaded, to get the directions of this "wild hotspring"...

It was a small road...

And a bad road, with many warning signs...

We were told to "Follow the main road" to get ther...but many times the road split into two...and both looked like "tha main road":..
 But after a while the descriptin matched with reality...and we chosed to walk the last bit...

Steep down towards a river...

very steep...

And the road was not suitable for "normal city cars"...

Some big stones were found near the river bank...

A guy told us how to find the hotspring...

Wow...a country road car...perfect to find nice hotsprings in taiwan...

Wow...over there we found some people...

Someone had put up some tents...

And used concrete to make some pools...

Anders found a cave...

I found a bigger one...

Bubbles in the water...

It was around 35-28 degrees in the first pool...

There was some pipes that enabled fresh river water to enter...

3or 4 pools, where 1 was outside the "tent" area...

Ander also took a swim in the cold river...

He also took some cold water to make the hotspring more fresh...

Many bubbles...

Bojun went for a walk down hill...

This was really in a djungle...

Most hotsprings are near the river bank in this area...

Far up there, and further some 20-40km, is dabajian shan...

Anders took many pictures....

Then, after some hour, we went back to the car...

Wow...some waterfall at the other side of the valley...

And some broad river...in Hsinchu that looked like a river in yilan...

We later on went to Neiwan...

I wanted to eat wild boar meat...

YEp, wild boar "or mountain pig" as its called in chinese...

They are not as big as in sweden...

I also found amilk store, from Ruishui, which i visited last week at the east coast...

They had a museum for "interesting things"...

I bought an icecream asn some liter of milk...

And went to eat some noodles...

As usual I was watcomng the maps on the wall for a long while...looking for interesting places...

Wow, nice mountains that I want to climb...

And a huge toad...



I thought this was a muffin, but it turned out to be some slime thing...

They had alot of fire crackers left since chinese new year...

Later on i took the bus to Taipei. and found a guy with both Fjällräven bag and ikea bag...thats impressive...

I went to a resturant in ximen later on...to another "italian/french" wannabee resturant...
And had pasta...

And milk tea...
Later on I passed by the red house district for a kiwi tea...but it was more like an acid drink...february 2013 continues...
 
 

in pingdong

I went for a hike around taiwan this week (the light version)...
Starting from Taipei and heading south on the moutian roads...

"tai 3 xian"...(road number 3...

nice fontain at a gas station...

Continuing on road 7 towards yilans mountain...

Strange roundabout with traffic lights...isnt roundabouts a substitute for traffic lights...?

Nice view...I see a lake down there some where...must be tha dame near fuxing...

Mountains showing up...civered with clouds...

Pink bridges...it feels like the alps once in a while...

Buddhist flags...

Another dame...

A dry river...

Road 7 (main road)...many of these roads brake pretty easy...

There are houses far way there...its always so impressive that people lives here in the middle of nowhere...

Smoke on the moutain...maybe a hidden hotspring...

Aboriginal pattern...I find these "diamond shapes" all over the country...

"yilan", I went here with my classmates last year heading to Xueshan (second higest mountain in taiwan)...

The atmosphere here is almost like in sweden...

But the roads are more narrow (and taiwanese moutinas are one of the steepest in the world I was told)...

Cherry blossom (the red flowers)...

Raining (near yilan, as usual)...

An old train...

Locomotive...I like...

Near Tuchang...

Its a pity...its 25 km to the trail start...sun is setting and then waits another 10km to the biggest mountina lae in taiwan...(no camping allowed)...I have to do it another time...

The trip continues south up hills...

A place where the bus to Lishan us to stop (that has no conveinient stores)...but some restaurant and local stores with paintings on how houses use to look like in taiwan...

There are many things to do in yilan county...

I got beef noodles...

Its chinese new year, so many people (rather: all of them)...have vacation, and are taking trips...many buses heading to the mountains...

I was recommended to go to Lishan, in the mountains by the head of chamber of commerce...its like scandinavian atmosphere...I guess its on of the higest villages in taiwan...

Why do they have a weight in the store entrance?

I was looking for an elemantary school, since there u can camp without problem...(people say)...

I there after went to get some food in lishan...many people ate at the "Only place open"...

Some meat screwers...

They also had ginger tea at some other place...

It was maybe 10-15 degrees outside...

The elemantary school was pretty new....even the toilet was barely used...

Next day the weather was nice...

I love pretty chirches in mountain areas...taiwan has some, since the aboriginals are mostly christians...

And many europeans went here (also some ppl from korea etc) to spread the bible message...

Wow...maybe its nanhu mountain...

And there is Hehuanshan, some where...a moutain i climed some years ago...

Nice stairs...I wanna have a house here...in these pitoresque lishan blocks...

On of the only stores open in the morning to sell breakfast...

The guy here, seems to own most big places in lishan, he has a wool sweater...

The higest gamler store in taiwan can be found here...

Omg, a new character...(the one to the left)...means palm tree I was told...

Another nice church...

Xueshan ridge...

Steep moutains roads...leading west...

The weather is often sunny in the morning up here...

I want to see Dabajian shan, a cool mountain in Hsinchu county...but I cannot see it...

Here is hehuanshan, its where im currently am heading...

There are many police stations up here...

Wow, nice cabin, I wonder how much it costs to buy that one...

Road 8 meets up road 7 after a while...

Passing a tunnel on the highest road in taiwan...

The "dark moutain"...

Road 14 meets up road 8...leading east to hualien or west to nantou...(on of the few moutain roads that are crossing taiwan (think there are 2-3 thats not broken)...

I camped at this parkin lot 2 years ago with NCTUs moutains climbing club...

Now Im heading to hehuan shan...

No trees grows there...im at 3000m above sea level now...

Many tai ppl are coming here during vacation to see the view...since cars can drive up here...

The traffic is chaotic...

The top of hehuanshan (centra peak)...3416meters high...

There is my favorite moutain...the pyramid moutains...no snow on any top...there are truly many rumors here...I was told there was alot of snow up here this week...

And xueshan...

And Hsinchu county...

I went on this road up...many houses and hotels up here...

The road continues west...

Nice moutain house...

The houses here looks like home...no "container architecture" like in the taiwanese cities...

Wow...Absolute vodka was found...in the the closest 7-11...

Many people came here...thay had a lady with a mic at the entrance...

And the micro waves at a separate corner of the store...

People say this area is famous due to a sheep farm...(think i visited that 2 yearsa ago when I swam cross sunmoonlake)...

The highest 7-11 in taiwan...

9 people working here...is that efficient...?

7 behind the desk, the lady with the mic and the guy at the oven...

More nice houses (pic was taken while making speed)...

Another nice house...

Cherry blossom...

I wonder why taipei dont have these nice houses (atleast I cant find them)...

the "sheep farm"...very toursitic...

Many cars here...

And maybe 10-20km of queue uphill...

the queues never ended...25million people with vacation at the same time...

But the air was fresh...

I been here 2-3 times before...its nice...

More non taiwanese roofs...

A nice yellow house...

A nice church top...

More houses...

Another church...

And more churches...

More traffic...


Hours of queuing up hill...

A seediq aboriginal resturant...sweet...

And Bitan, my favrite lake...

seen it many times before...but its hard to get to...

I was told its a dame thats not "real"...

Well...I wanna see it closer...

After 10-20 mintues(to the other side of the dame)...I reached the bank...

Some boats, and float bridges...no people...

They could have nice swimming competitions here...

The churches and houses I just passed are up on the hill...

More cherry blossom...

Its fun, these yellom reflectors on thecrash barriers...makes vecicles sound funny...the sound reflects differently...

Now heading to next lake...to road 151...how do I find that one?...

Funny jacket...with the "7-11" logo on it...I will look like a staff if i wear that in a store...

Have to pass sunmoonlake to get to road 151...andmore traffic...

Taiwanese hollidays...

Some people now wearing helmet (its like beeing on the east coast or south of taiwan, where helmet is more a recommendation or decoration)...
And a "fjällräven" bag...they are getting more popular here...
Road 21 to sun moon lake...road 21 crosses the island from middle to south...

The cars were still...
Wow, sun moon lake...

A police man trying to arrange the traffic...
FUnny bulding, is that typhoon proof?so high and thin...

Very touristic here as well...

Nice bike path going around the lake...


A ridge that separates the lake from the farms to the right (the lake was created when japanese people occupied taiwan)...

A marathon will go around the lake soon...

"666"



It was less traffic on the south part of the lake...

Taking road 131 up to some mountain village...

More traffic...

Changing to raod 151...towards an old "forrest park":..

never ending... queues...


Here...some 1000-2000 meter up some one had an arcade...

15 degrees...its warm for being home...

An "all you can eat" meal was waiting, only 300nt (70SEK)
 
        The food was soso.

People drive car up here...and take a walk between the houses to  say they been on a hike...


I was heading to a lake that was created by an earthquake...but I prefered to hike near the lights...

And no vehicles allowed near the path, so I had to walk 2km, or wait for a but that leaves in 1 hour...

Locals tolb me it would take 6-7hours to walk there...(to the lake)...

They had ceom nice flowers in the area...


The path was pretty small and steep...

I had to climb ladders some times...

It was very bad infromation, only in chinese some times...and some ribbons of different colours leading to different places...

Nice shape of the mountain...

Hmm, where to go...I got the characted of the destimation...both ways are leading to the destination...

I pickes a steep path, hoping it will be faster...I had to be back at the hotel area before it gets dark...

Nice view...

Omg, a rest place on the top of a mountain...

But chinese information, and to ways to go...hmm, I walked back and forth, trygin to figure out whree to go...

I picked the road to the left...it seemed like more people walked this way...

I also meet some random people who said it was this way (i hope they are right)...

Yep, more ribbons...

Nice forrest, I felt like home for a while...

Omg, the path just ended...where to go...

its a small path heading into the high grass...but barely anyone walked there before...

Hmm...after 10 minutes looking, I found a had written sigh, saying "walk left"...

Omg, a house in the middle of nowhere, who carried these stones here (maybe 2-3 hours walk for normal people, in steep terrain)...

And later on I found another house...

It turned out that the first house was a temple...and this was a hosue for workers, in the area, long time ago...

It seemd pretty nice...

The path became better after a while, I turned out that when the "other" road met up wuth my "fast and steep" path, it was easier to walk...

And some roads were closed...

Not sure where to go...I take right...

Steep hills...

More signs...hmm copnfusing...I sked everyone I met (3-4 people If i was on the right path)...I hope they were right...

Wow...after 3 hours i came to the lake...good, then I have plenty of time, to contines to destination number 2...a cave...

Many people camped at the lake...

Some foreingers....I asked how to walk to the cave...and they gave me directions...

This was a normal forrest 10 years ago...(something)...then suddenly the earthquake created this lake...

I had to walk alon the lake to get to the cave...

And I met more foreinger who were heading to the same direction, they camped at the lake for some days...(all american english teachers, as it seemed)...

The lake was big...

And here the lake goes down, a small creek...I would have been disapointed if it was a stone blocking the creek, but it seem like the earth was pushed up...

A flying lantern had landed on a tree in the middle of nowhere...thats cool...

The path was leading to a dry river...

I had to walk on stones for a while...

I was on the right way (i recognized these character)...

The cave...not as impresive as the lake...

A sign that it was the thousan people cave...

Some people campes here before...

And potts gathered dripping water...

It would be nice to stay here...or continue on the path (That accutlaly leads to alishan)...

11.09, it took me about 4 hours from the hotel area to the cave...

I headed back, n time to waste...seeing nice shaped cliffs on my way back...

After another hours I came back to the lake...

A guy called Tyler said I could use his water filter to refill my water bottle...

Many old taiwanese people were at the camp...

And an american who ben to taiwan only for 2 weeks...and will study chinese for a year while teaching english...

Johan, high on caffein, convinced he can do any hike in taiwan in less than 6-8 hours...

Omg, a Mcdonalds "M" on the ground...can u find it?


I carried my friend luggage back to the hotel area...and we picked an easier way (but longer) back...

Strange sign...the information was facing the forrest, not tha path...

It was showing the distance (finally), so far, no distance was displayed...

But stupid enough itwas not readable for people walking on the path...

Starnge...

The new path was steep in the begining...

But later it was very easy...(2050 meter high)...

Some old map...

This I could run...no wonder so many kids come here...

More chinese maps...

And a hut, for slow hikers...(or who just enjoy spending their time in the rural area)...

And some old, shit house...

I met a guy from Changhua with orange beard...wierd...

A nice water fall...but it was dry...

Wow...here tha cars can drive up....for lazy walkers...

pretty fresh...mabye the people i passed by on my woy down took the car...

It started to rain when I arrived to the hotel area (a little)...

cloudy skies...

And back to the forrest park...


Dinner was eaten at a "famous" place near nantou...chicken place...

It was ok...

They had the soap in a web, that was clever...the it wont be dropped....

Later a visit to exther was made...she is nice...
       She has many white vehicles at her house...

We ate breakfast at a shark place...

I had a strawberry pancake thing...

With coffee...

Heading south from nantou on road 3...passing many hills...and binlang trees...

They never seemed to end...

Road 3, the same I started on, in taipei...

Nice view...

A car was delvering binlang or something...

MIssing kids were announced at a local gas station...

Omg...up here, its rare with gas stations...

Another moutain lake...

Raod 20...its broken...else I would take it, it leads to the east coast...and a place I wanna hike...instead I was heading south, almost to the very south of taiwan to be able to cross the island...

This lady in pingdong was amazing, she acctually knew were to find "allyoucan eat" resturants...and she also knew how to go there...

Omg,,,199nt for all you can eat meat, (50SEK)...

I got it for 170NT...even cheaper at a branch resturant of the first place i found, since it was full, southern taiwan is always so cheap...

There are many aboriginals here in the south (as well as well as at the east coast)...

It was a BBQ meat all you can eat...

My swedish friend told me he planned to open a laundry store in taipei some day, but didnt...now one can find there laundry stores anywhere...

Omg, a character so hard that they had to type the "bopomofo" to the right of it...i like hard characters...

Here in the very south (road 3 and 1 and 17) one can find gas stations every 400-500meters...i wonder why...

A cool guy at a gas staion...

Later, in taidong I was to meet up a friend at Unle Petes pizza...a foreinger who has a pizzeria at road 11...
 
 
 
Heading South.visited Montains and lakes and went to Nantou last night. might go to taidong tomorrow.
 
 

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