5:40pm, Hero House, Taipei
Back to the good ol' Hero House in Taipei (arrived ~3:45pm), home to the 1st 4 days of my stay in Taiwan. The girls are all out at their favorite beef noodle soup place (I realized I don't like noodle soup anymore, so passing), while I'm relaxing here and writing this journal... I was awake well before the 6:20am alarm this morning, so it was easy to get up. Outside I saw clear skies with some pink clouds above the mountains to the east. We packed the car and were first at the cafeteria when breakfast opened at 7am. The food was a disappointment, and the soy milk tasted funky.
We checked out of the hostel, and started our drive to the skywalk, but were surprised to find a barrier blocking the road. We drove around more of the park, but couldn't find any good parking spaces. When we tried to return to the Youth Activity Center, the road was blocked! We were stuck without a place to park, without leaving the nature reserve. We called the hostel, and they came out to open the gate. Turns out there is no parking inside the reserve, and the gates to the hostel are closed 8-4pm. We thought we'd be able to drive around the whole park, giving us plenty of time to explore and still leave early enough to drive back to Taipei, but now we were faced with a 2.5km hike to skywalk alone.
We still had to visit skywalk, the 70' tall elevated walkway through the trees, which was the main attraction here, so we parked at the hostel, and made the walk along roads and trail. The morning sun broke over the ridge tops, casting intricate shadows on the forest floor. We hiked the scenic trail up and over a small pass, down to the meadow, and took the road up to skywalk. Skywalk didn't disappoint.
...arriving at the Skywalk...
The 70' elevated sky walk gave unique perspective of the Sitou Forest trees...
There were tons of kids here, as part of field trips, complete with personal loud speakers on the guides, creating a lot of noise. Certainly a contrast to the empty trails in Ruili yesterday.
We then continued up the road to the "Giant Tree". Sitou is kind of like Yellowstone with mini attractions just a short ways off the road (but you have to walk up the roads too). Giant Tree looked like a large dead tree. Not quite as impressive as it sounded.
Then we speed hiked down the road, and took the Queit Trail, which bypassed the hump in the valley, and walked back to the hostel. We were pushing hard to get back ASAP to leave as much time as possible for Taipei, and a stop at the ceramics stores in Yingge.
We managed to drive out of the park ~11am, not bad considering how much of the park we fit in. The drive out to the highway went by fast, and the 200km on the freeway went super fast. It helps when you can go 120km/hr. Had to pay a bunch of 40NT tolls on the way. The haze set in again, reducing the views. I wonder if there are ever non-hazy days on the west coast?
Google maps said it would take 4hr 45min to Taipei, but in just over 2hrs, we were 21km outside of the city, at ~1:30pm, so we stopped at Yingge, since Wendy and Betsy wanted to check out the famous Ceramics shops. Parking was a pain to find, but eventually we found a pay lot, and spent 1.5hrs shopping for tea kettles and cups. Actually, I laid down on a bench resting most of the time. Too bad I didn't bring the macbook with me to write the journal then. Eventually, Wendy and Betsy both found good deals on some tea hardware, and left very happy.
Back on the road, we quickly reached our exit for Taipei, but entering the city turned out to be just as confusing as leaving the city was a week ago, and we soon were off our google route. Fortunately, we were able to head in the general direction, and with the help of everyone in the car, found the right streets to follow, leading us to the Hero House Hotel without much further delay. Parking was a problem though, so I ended up hanging out in the car in a standing area for ~30 minutes while everyone got cash from the ATM (as we spent all our cash reserves on ceramics) to pay for the hotel. Eventually I circled around a bit and found a spot in front of the hotel.
After unloading the car of all our bags, garbage, and loose ends, we picked up our luggage left at the hotel a week ago, and started re-assembling our baggage. Unfortunately, our Lonely Planet book was not found, and is presumed lost for ever (bummer, it's a library book!). That brings us to now, when the Changs went out to eat at their favorite beef noodle soup place. I took a shower, and am saving my appetite for the night market later tonight. 2:04am, Hero House, Taipei Up late one LAST time, packing for our final bit of travel… Shortly after the Changs returned (they had a quick meal), we set out for a final night walk in Taiwan. We started with a walk across the mammoth intersection to Xinminding Square, where Irene used to hang out in her high school days. Of course it's much more built up these days…
Irene stands next to an old high school uniform from her day, which is now a popular retro item at the thrift store...
More scenes from Xinminding Square in Taipei...
Then we took the MRT to the Ximlin night market, a new one for us, and mentioned as the "one night market you must visit" in Taipei by our guide book. It was entirely covered by an elevated parking lot, which would have been helpful last week when it rained everyday, but today was cool and nice out. We weaved around the bustling market, checking out all the vendors. I bought several fares, all in the $1-$2 range. Highlights: bubble tea, octopus kebab, oyster, cabbage, & egg thing, red chili sauce dumplings, peanut shaved ice sorbet (WOW, amazing!), guava milk (Wendy had 2), Taiwanese pork meat sauce on rice (Wendy). There was a ridiculously long line for a place selling large pieces of fried chicken. Made me curious if it was really good, or just popular cause it was the only fried chicken place in the market.
More food on a stick, and a super fun peanut shaved ice sorbet...
Wendy once again demonstrated what the sign says not to do...
Despite a few new offerings, we weren't too impressed with this night market, and took the MRT back to the Shiza night market, which we had visited often the first 4 days we were here. I cashed out my easypass MRT card as we planned to take a taxi back to the hotel later. As we entered the first street, I noticed these huge crepes wrapped like a waffle cone, with ice cream and fruit, and knew I had to get one. Wendy was up for sharing some, and we waited in line to order the massive ultimate fruit crepe, with peaches, kiwi, and banana. And all for 75NT ($2.50)!
This market had much more clothing shops too, which Wendy and Betsy spent a long time perusing. I was on the lookout for the egg tart place we visited before, and finally found it after searching up and down. Wendy and I bought 6 for 150NT. I ate 2 right away (best warm). Also paid my parking fees at the 7-11 nearby. I wanted to try a different flavor bubble tea, and went with an Almond Milk one (40NT). Not bad, but I think I prefer the regular. Wendy bought some cheap pants.
Finally, ~10:50pm, we took a taxi back to the Hero House. It was time to get serious packing our bags. Betsy and Irene planned to stay up all night, since they were catching a 3am taxi for their 6am flights. We're dropping the car off at the airport at 7:45am tomorrow, and plan to leave just after breakfast opens at 6:30am here.
Bags are packed. 3 big ones are already in the car. Said good-bye to Irene and Betsy. Time for 3 hours of sleep if I'm lucky.
Also activated the www.14ercards.com. I'll be home in a couple days, and ready to ship out orders! Will have to wait until tomorrow to reflect on the whole sabbatical experience. As for Taiwan, there is no way I'd ever be here, or survive here, without the Changs. Taiwan is a beautiful country, with great food and nature. It was also special to bond with my new family as they visited their "native land".