On Day 2 I decided to venture out of the city and into the wilderness. I woke up with no real plan, just some ideas. So as I was eating breakfast I read through my guides and materials and decided to go to a town called Wulai, about an hour south of Taipei. The guide I had said it was famous for its hot springs and beautiful scenery, and much more. So I figured out how to get there, hopped on the metro, caught a bus, and arrived in the little town of Wulai at about 10am.
The town was very nondescript, small, nothing exciting, just regular old houses and buildings that have been there for years. There was a beautiful temple nestled in the hillside, and a pristine colored river running through town. When I say town, I mean 1 street, literally. I strolled across the first bridge over a stream and got into the main shopping area of the street. One of the first things I saw was an Atoyal Aborigine museum. Naturally, I decided to go in and check out the history of the area. The museum was pretty small, three quaint floors of mostly reading, pictures, and a few artifacsts. Turns out, there have been people here for many years, and much like other cultures, the more advanced Chinese came in and started killing em, taking over their land. Basically the same way the US did with the Indians, and the British did in Australia. So, this served as a small reminder of that, and told of daily life in aboriginal land. The coolest part was a handmade xylophone that they let you play, with insturctions on what to hit for a traditional song.
As I exited the museum I made my way down the shopping street, enjoying the sights and sounds of pure Taiwanese culture. At the end of the street was a larger bride leading to a hiking path, hot springs, restaurants, and a train station. The path and train tracks went about 2km up the mountain to a tourist resort and cable car station to get across the river and on top of the mountain. I decided to take the train since it was historical (the tracks were old gold mining cart tracks) and only could be done here. Plus, I would do enough walking later on. The train width was literally the width of a gold cart, and only 3 cars long. Very small. A good picture of it on the picasa site. It started to drizzle when I got to the station, but I didn't mind, since it was about 95degrees, and I hate hot, humid weather.
As the train approached the other station, it started pouring, as seen in the picture above. At this point, I decided to get an umbrella, as the raindrops really hurt my head. These were the largest raindrops I'd ever seen. Plus, I was already cooled off and didnt need to continually get soaked. At this point, I decided it was lunchtime and sat on the balcony of a little store/restaurant to watch the raindrops.
My next stop was to get on the cable car and go to the top of the mountain. It had temporarily stopped due to the rain, but was running again by the time I was done with lunch. I got a ticket and hopped on, taking in the site of the beautiful Wulai waterfall and its surroundings. At the top of the mountain was a nice hotel resort and an "amusement park." This amusement park did not have any roller coasters, and barely any working rides, it just provided amusement.
I walked around the grounds of the park and found most things to be closed or run down, but still enjoyed the walk around. The grounds were littered with little waterfalls, bridges and other nice scenery. I found a hiking path called the Fern Walk and decided to take it. The shrubbery and foliage surrounding the trail was immense, and at times it felt like I was hundreds of miles from civilization. I hear noises I have never heard before, some very loud birds or bugs or other creatures. At the end of the trail I stumbled upon what looked to be some kind of obstacle course. There were wooden obstacles with numbers on them from 1-25. I came in at the end, as #25 was the first thing I saw. I decided to do all the obstacles I could, and completed them all, some backwards, some properly. The best was a chair that you sit in and it zips you down about 30 meters. Pretty fun. Pictures of many of them on the site.
At the bottom, I wandered through the rest of the amusement park and found a couple working things, a merry go round, mini-bumper cars, and a swingset. After exploring the rest of the area, I decided it was time to head down the mountain.
After getting back on teh cable car and on the train again, it was now about 3pm, and I was extremely hot. Luckily, the town offers a free hot spring, and swimming in the river. I didnt bring any extra clothes, or a swimsuit, but didnt care. I found the entrance, and simply went into the river wearing my shorts. The water was very clean, had no smell, and looked very blue. Was great to swim in. After cooling down, I decided to go into the hot springs. Wulai means "hot" in Chinese. When the people discovered this town, they came across pockets of natural hot water in the river, so they named the town Wulai. Very clever indeed. So, the town took some of these pockets and rocked them off into mini-hot tubs that were naturally heated. The people here think its great for the skin and body, but who knows. It was refreshing nonetheless, and good to be able to sit in hot water that didnt smell like chlorine. After about an hour of going between the hot spring and the river, I decided it was time to go home.
As I was wating for the bus, I ran into two other foreigners, and we ended up splitting a taxi back to the metro station. I found out they had been living there for 6 years, and were both fluent in Chinese. One was a translator, one a regular teacher, conducting class in Chinese. Very cool, and a good opportunity to see Taiwan from there perspective.
After making it back to the hostel, showeing, and relaxing for about 20 minutes, it was time to hit the Shilin Night market. This is the most famous, and largest, night market in Taipei. I hopped on the metro again, and arrived at the market at about 7pm. My first goal was to find food. Before I even made it to the right streets, I was surrounded by people, scooters, vendors, and other various items. There was no order to the market, just pure chaos and insanity. At least thats how it looked to me. I wandered around for a bit and decided to try a few small things at a couple different places for dinner. I found a weird fried hot dog with chese and potatoes, some authentic spicy noodles, and homemade dumplings. All were very good, and very cheap. I wandered around the streets, loooking at various items, displays, getting lost amongst the crowd, jsut meandering on through the market. I eventually made my way back to the metro station, got myself a fresh-pressed watermelon juice drink, and headed back to the hostel. 2 hours of market wandering was enough. I got back about 10:30 and decided it was time to hit the hay. Monday would be a very busy day for me, so I needed sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment