Tag Hsinchu mountains
The rain is truly torrential now, large drops falling at a rapid pace. The road we’re on has turned into a veritable river; dead leaves and other debris from the surrounding jungle have been washed out onto the road and gotten caught on the edges of the many cracks in the asphalt, forming little islands here and there. The road is steep enough for a current to form, it keeps splitting and reconnecting as it flows around the little islands, even building up swells as it passes around some of the bigger ones. Separate streams flow down the ditches on … 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
A couple of Taiwan’s major country roads (road number marked by a blue shield) go through the mountains. Last year, Renegade Wife and I rode across the island on one of them, number 14 – often referred to as the Central Cross-Island Highway – and despite some rather miserable weather, it was a fun little adventure. There are a few more that look very tempting to a motorcyclist studying a map of the country and as it happens, they are connected in a big loop. With Tomb Sweeping day extending the weekend to four days, and the weather finally becoming … Read the rest
When the wife and I go up in the mountains we often pass through a place called Neiwan. It’s a kind of vacationers paradise with a lively food market, several go cart tracks and a number of hot spring resorts within a short distance. Basically city dwellers can go there to enjoy the mountains without having to forfeit modern amenities.
Every time we drive through the area I see roads that look very inviting but for some reason or other we’ve never really driven on them. Recently however, I’ve been determined to see where they lead and yesterday became the … Read the rest
I should have written this last week but I kind of forgot about it for a few days and after that I’ve been too lazy. Anyway, here goes.
When we woke up on Saturday morning it was freezing cold, it must have been some kind of record for Hsinchu city. We went out for lunch and as we were waiting for our food to arrive the restaurant owner started shouting “It’s snowing, it’s snowing” so we went outside to check it out. It turned out it was indeed snowing, although it melted as soon as it hit the ground. Of … Read the rest
This weekend Yini and I were planing to take the motorbike out, stay over for one night, then ride back the next day. However, Yini had some kind of parents day at her school on Saturday and when she came home she was too tired to go out. So, we turned it into a one day trip instead.
We rode into the moutains outside Hsinchu, and after an hour or so, we came to an abandoned house that we had seen during a trip July but never went into. There was a rather poorly constructed gate across the driveway which … Read the rest
It’s been a while since I’ve written anything because it’s been too cold and wet to really go anywhere. Last weekend however, it was nice and sunny so Yini and I took the opportunity to go out with the motorcycle. We rode east out of the city, passed through the little town of queerly painted houses that we visited last year, and on to the Five Fingers Mountains.
At a small temple we found an fairly steep little walking trail that we followed. It was a bit of a struggle for Yini and I got pretty tired as well but … Read the rest
When I woke up this morning, I felt like going out to do something, but at the same time didn’t really have any plans for where to go. So me and Yini took it easy for a little while, then took the lazy mans option, and drove out in the car instead of with the motorbike. We headed east towards the mountains with a semi clear goal in our minds but no map. We followed road signs in roughly the right direction but took a wrong turn somewhere and ended going more or less the wrong way. Luckily we found … Read the rest
My brother has been studying in Hong Kong for a few months now and, having some time left by, he came to visit last weekend. Naturally me and Yini wanted to show him around a bit, so we went for a couple of rather long drives, both on Saturday and Sunday. During our little outings we kept stopping here and there to check out some interesting sights. We started with a gigantic Buddha statue by a lake in the Hsinchu mountains. The Buddha is part of the temple complex of a Buddhist organisation called Universal Family. We were shown around … Read the rest
Taoyuan is not all that far from Hsinchu, about an hour and a half by country roads. Having ridden the scooter to Hsinchu on Friday afternoon, I had to bring it back on Sunday because I need it for work. Me and Yini decided to do this as a small trip, going eastward through the mountains instead of the straight road. It turned out to be a bit of an adventure that, including several stops, took us most of the day.
Riding along the winding mountain roads, we first came to a mountainside cafe where we stopped for tea. From … Read the rest