With breakfast out of the way, I quickly hopped the subway and after 30 minutes on the tube followed by another 30 minutes on the bus I had made it to my destination: Wulai. Now, I knew how in the middle of nowhere Wulai was supposed to be from my book, but I didn't realize just how true that was until I got there. I mean, the place is only 1 hour from Taipei and only 30 minutes from the end of the subway and Taipei's suburbs, so it can't be that isolated...can it? Well, all I can say is that mountains and trees and wildlife greatly outnumber the people. Which means its my kind of place.
As you can see, very very quiet town.
The town itself didn't seem to have anything going on outside of tourists heading in from Taipei to hike around and stay in the hot springs/spa establishments. As I had no interest in this particular type of relaxation, I moved quickly out of town towards the waterfall and hiking trails outside of town. Not too much to say about the hiking that can't be told much, much better with some pictures.
As you can see from the last pic, they actually have a little tram that runs from downtown Wulai to the waterfall outside of town. Damn it. 20 whole minutes I wasted walking, on flat ground, to get to that waterfall. Grrrr. I probably wouldn't have fit inside those little cabs, though.
At the waterfall, a mini town had sprung up to accomodate all the tourist money flowing in, from hotels and little resorts to all manner of restaurant and store. As much as I like my nature untouched by civilization, I can't complain about having lunch at a local diner and having this for a view out the window:
From here I headed on even further out of town towards what my book said was a nature reserve well worth seeing. Along the way, I met 2 ladies who told me that the preserve was closed due to landslides and other damage caused by the typhoon (damn you typhoon!!!), but there was another place to head to. Now, I know that English is the world language and all, but I still get quite a shock when I'm walking all by myself in a far away country and I happen to pass 2 old ladies who turn to me and say "Excuse me, but how far is it to the waterfall?" in perfect English. Just a little jarring. But really cool. So I can kinda understand why Koreans cream their jeans every time they hear someone (not Korean) speak their language. It is pretty cool.
After a bit more walking, I made it to the, ummm, well I'm not sure what it was. Other than a trail along the side of the river. As for chance encounters with English speakers, a Taiwanese guy with his family happened to see the Badger shirt I was rocking and inquired as to whether I was a Badger. Turns out he got his Master's at the UW. And that wasn't even the first Badger I met so far, as somebody on the plane the day before had seen my shirt and had begun discussing the utter disappointment that was Badgers football (the near loss to UNLV or somebody, not the loss to Mich St). I guess the moral of the story is that Badgers are everywhere and one shouldn't ever slag them, as it will cause an international incident.
As for this particular trail, here are some pics:
After finishing up the trail, I headed back towards town to catch another trail on the opposite side of town. This is where my day got very interesting. The trail itself was gorgeous, but not super eventful. Except for that piping running through the middle of the trail. That was new.
Not in the way at all.
The trail was, according to my maps, going to eventually lead me to some streams or ponds or something that you can swim in. And given I had been carrying all of my things on my back all day and had done a little bit of sweating while at it, I was really looking forward to the swim.
Then the trail disappeared. Or so it looked like it did. In fact, it actually went 3 different ways. But none of them looked like an actual trail. One direction had stairs leading to god knows where...but it was roped off. That's probably not it. Another direction also had stairs but the trail appeared to end not too far past the stairs. Again, no go. Which leaves straight ahead. Only that direction appears to turn into somebody's porch. I kid you not. Directly ahead was a paved patio/entryway to someone's house where folks happened to be grilling out at that particular moment. Hmmmmm.
While contemplating what to do, a nice old couple wandered up to me and asked me if I needed help figuring out where to go. Again, they spoke in very passable English and again I was a more than a bit surprised. After they talked to the folks grilling on their patio, we were able to learn that the trail were were looking for was indeed straight ahead, so we continued. I say "we" because the couple invited me to travel with them, and as they had helped me out and seemed like good company, I agreed. Turned out to be a good decision.
While we walked and talked, we discussed a great many things. I learned that they had honed their English when the husband had attended the University of Missouri some 20 years ago for his master's degree and through his work with the Taipei Power Company he came into regular foreign contacts (GE, etc) so he certainly knew his stuff when it came to English. And no Maria, I didn't really ever ask their names. But then again, they didn't ask mine until after we had been talking for few hours (and when they sent me a nice email checking to see if I made it back to Korea safely they wrote my name as "Erica", so clearly the names weren't a huge thing). We discussed Korea at length as well as the differences between Seoul and Taipei. All within the realm of normal for folks that have spent some time in both cities. What really struck me was when they started asking me US politics questions about what I think of Obama and his policies. All I could think was: "Wow, I can't even have this type of conversation with most Americans and here I am, across the globe, in the middle of a forest, talking Obama health care. Wow." And for the record, Taiwan has a national health care program too. Get with the program America. Please.
We continued on the trail, chatting as we went, until we finally found the ponds. Sadly, they were really crowded as this particular day was a national holiday, thus so many people out hiking on a Wednesday. As the new friends weren't interested in swimming and I didn't feel like fighting for pond space, we quickly turned back towards the entrance.
At the entrance, they asked me what my plans were from here. When I told them I was just heading back to Taipei, they offered to drive me back to town, as they live in town and were going that way anyways. Wow. I wasn't kidding when I said the Taiwanese are super friendly, even to strangers. As it would be easier than riding a bus the whole way back and because they seemed like really nice folks, I agreed to the ride. I'm sorry mom. All those lessons about never getting into a stranger's car, and here I am riding with strangers in a strange, foreign and scary land. And they didn't even have to offer me candy.
Ohhh, here's some pics from that particular trail:
All along the way back to Taipei, which normally takes about an hour, but with all the holiday traffic it was closer to double that, we continued discussing Korea, life in Korea, Taiwan, life in Taiwan, America, you name it. I did particularly enjoy when the discussion shifted to college. The couple's only daughter had just started college on the other side of country just 2 weeks previous and they (well, mostly the wife) were worried about the atmosphere at colleges, if she would be studying, and other general questions about college life. As you can see people and parents really aren't that different, no matter where on earth you are. I explained about some of the things that took place on colleges nowadays, but made sure to preface that with information about how Madison is more drunk than most and how their daughter would surely study more than I did. Didn't want them to freak out too bad.
The weirdest thing that came up in the conversations all night? This guy:
I shit you not, John Denver honestly came up. They actually made several John Denver themed puns and jokes. Honestly. They definitely name-dropped lyrics from "Sunshine on my shoulders", "Rocky Mountain High" and "Take me home, country roads", which all fit in quite well given all the mountain trekking and hiking and country road traveling we were doing. How did they have all this John Denver knowledge stored up? Well, they had watched a John Denver concert on TV or DVD the day before. Haha. Talk about out of left field for a American pop culture point. All in all, the John Denver stuff was super amusing, and super cute, as the old couple was riffing between each other with the John Denver stuff.
Well, the time came when we arrived back in Taipei, but the couple decided to take me up to the better national park on the north side of town for more sightseeing and some dinner. Hell, what am I supposed to say to that? Jesus, these people are way, way too nice. So we headed up north to Yongmingshan National Park. By the time we got there it was too dark to hike around, but we could still grab dinner and get some solid shots of the sun setting over Taipei.
After climbing all the way up the hill in the car, we found our way to the restaurant. And man, was it a nice one. Large spacious place, with a huge patio overlooking Taipei and the setting sun in the distance, which was where I took these shots.
We ate, we enjoyed the lovely view, we chatted, we talked about the mainland Chinese sitting at the table right next to us (you can definitely get the sense that the Taiwanese look down on the mainlanders a bit). Sadly, after several hours relaxing in the perfect weather (did I mention how much nicer their weather is than Korea's or Wisconsin's?), it was time to go. The couple again was gracious enough to drop me off at a subway station near the mountain. We said our goodbyes, exchanged emails, and I said multiple thank yous for all the trouble they had gone through. Then we parted. Sure, I'll probably never see them and maybe won't even get back to the country ever again (but I'm damn sure gonna try and make it back), but they still made a very strong impression that will surely stick with me long after the individual details of the trip have faded. It's people like these that make me feel much better about the world we live in.
Pics: See Taiwan photos, Album 1
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