Category Hiking
A couple of weeks ago I was studying the map and found a route just outside Hsinchu that looked like it would be fun to ride on the motorbike. Renegade wife and I attempted to do it that weekend but got caught in some heavy rain and had to turn back. This weekend we decided to try again. For those interested, the rout consists of a series of small roads that connect two of the main mountain roads near Hsinchu, you can can see the map below for details.
The ride out of the city is rather boring but once … Read the rest
Always on the lookout for places to go and things to do my wife recently used her googling skills to find a hiking trail and waterfall in the nearby mountain area that we hadn’t been to yet (good work Honey). It seemed like a fun trail, so today we decided to go there. We took the motorbike up to the mountains and parked at the trail head; from there it was only a few hundred meters to the waterfall. Since it was a pretty hot day, the pool of clear, turquoise water at one the steps of the fall looked … Read the rest
Today we set off towards Taroko Gorge which will be our starting point for the actual crossing.
A few kilometers out from Hualien city we went down to a secluded beach. When I was younger I would have jumped into the water directly but now I didn’t feel like it. I still took off my shoes, rolled up my trousers and just stood in the water’s edge, letting the waves wash over my feet. By now this has become a kind of ritual for me.
After that we headed … Read the rest
A while ago mom told me that the son of her friend was coming to Taiwan. I used to know the kid when I was young, so I suggested the wife and I could take him round to some interesting places. He arrived yesterday afternoon and I met him and his friend up in Taipei. We went to Taipei 101 to take in the view, then met up with my wife in a night market for dinner.
Sunset view from Taipei 101 
The two friends Albin on the left and Oskar on the right 
Having dinner in the night market
When we go on this kind of short trip we usually don’t do much research or planning before hand. This means we’re always taking a bit of a chance with the places we go to, normally it works out just fine but sometimes It doesn’t; today things didn’t go as well as we hoped. We were planning to hike the Spi Spi trail to a place called Titanic Rock. When we got to the trailhead however, a sign informed us it would take two and a half hours to hike there which we felt would demand better preparation, so we … Read the rest
The standard for our business trips is that we get the weekends off but thanks to several delays we had to work during the weekend as well. On Monday however, there was some kind of festival going on and the customer’s factory was closed, so we couldn’t go to work even if we wanted to. Needless to say we didn’t waste the opportunity. Our customer was actually nice enough to let us use the chartered car for sightseeing so we didn’t have to spend any money on transport – the good part of being on a business trip I guess.… Read the rest
A couple of months ago, Renegade wife and I climbed the peak of Hehuanshan, which is roughly half way along the Cross Island Highway. Due to time constraints we were unable to drive all the way to the east coast so we promised ourselves to come back another time. Since the government has given us new years day off, we took the opportunity to go this weekend. On New years eve we drove south to Puli, a small town just on the edge of the central mountains, and celebrated new years eve in our hotel room (sad perhaps but never … Read the rest
Today was the last day of our central Taiwan trip. We started slow, getting up late and having a long breakfast, leaving the hotel around eleven. The evening before we had checked up a few places we wanted to go and the first one was some kind of statue park. When we got there it was closed even though the sign on the gate said it should be open. The next one was a long suspension bridge across a river. It was, in fact, so long that there were two pillars holding it up, basically it was three bridges connected … Read the rest
One of Yinis cousins is getting married this weekend and the wedding is in Sun Moon Lake. It also happens to be a long weekend due to the national day, so Yini and I decided to go play in central Taiwan for the weekend. We would stop by for the wedding banquet Saturday lunch then continue playing on Saturday afternoon and Sunday.
We started after work on Thursday evening driving south to the small town Puli on the edge of Nantou county, just so we could cut down the driving distance today. This morning we got up at a decent … Read the rest
Every time we drive south on the highway we pass a series of cliffs and ridges formed of orange soil, that are commonly called Flame Mountain. Recently Yini found out there is a walking trail there so last weekend we went to check it out. Since my scooter has been feeling tired and slow lately I bought a new one on Friday and to test it out we went there by scooter. It was more or less just a long slog on boring roads but thanks to the new scooter it felt effortless.
The trail itself starts a few paces into the … Read the rest