Tag Keelung
Last year I found out about an interesting hiking trail at Teapot Mountain (茶壺山) in north east Taiwan. I tried to do it back then but due to bad planning I had to turn around before I was able to finish the whole thing. Last weekend I decided to give it another try and this time I would plan it better. Teapot mountain is near Jiufen which is a nice place but it easily gets crowded in the weekends. In order not to spend too much time searching for a parking spot and then having to walk a long distance … Read the rest
The trail is close to vertical, a narrow trench of bare gray rock leading up towards the summit, the sides of the cliff forming a sharp V-shape against the sky. The bottom of the trench is uneven, forming footholds here and there, and two thick, knotted ropes run down the sides for you to hold on to. I'm standing halfway up, waiting for the person in front of me to get around a particularly difficult section, thinking to take a photo but I realize this is not the time. My position is too precarious, swinging the pack off my back to retrieve the camera might throw me off balance, and besides I have people waiting below me. Instead I spend a few moments just taking in the strange feeling of standing here: the urge to continue moving upward, to keep pushing towards the end of the trail, mixed with the very real sense of danger in standing at this very spot, and the thrill that it brings. Normally I would wax poetic about the beauty of the surrounding landscape, but right here and now, that's it, nothing more.
Whenever I’ve been out at the north-east coast of Taiwan, I’ve thought that the road along the coast is really nice for riding a motorbike. However, the times I’ve been there have always coincided with the time that plenty of other people have been there as well, that is, traffic has been too heavy for me to really enjoy the road. I figured the best remedy for this problem would be to go there in the early morning, probably around sunrise or so.
Now, I do enjoy going out together with my wife, and taking a ride through some beautiful … Read the rest
The place looks like a normal temple from the outside, the facade covered in typical temple decorations with the name above the door. Once you get inside you realize it’s actually a cave, a wide tunnel burrowing some 10 or 20 meters into the rock, divided into two sections by a concrete wall. Each section has an altar against the back wall, as well as all the other paraphernalia that belong to a temple. The walls are bare rock, with carvings and niches for statues here and there, and then, in the corner next to one of the altars is … Read the rest
There is lots to see around keelung, but I had set my sights on an island close to the harbor opening called Peace Island. It is densely populated and not much different from the city, but a park out by the sea is famous for it’s beautiful landscape. We went there the first thing we did in the morning, and although the landscape was indeed beautiful, it was a little too small and too touristic for my taste. There was a walkway leading off towards some more secluded cliffs but sadly it had been damaged and was closed. I think … Read the rest
Some years ago me and a few others went to an abandoned copper refinery in Jinguashi near Keelung. That time we were ill prepared so we didn’t see all of it, but I promised myself I would come back one day. This weekend Renegade Wife needed to work but I didn’t feel like staying inside all Saturday. Since she is not all that into urban exploration, I decided this would be the weekend I went back.
On Friday morning I took the motorbike to work instead of the train like normal, and as soon as I got off work Friday … Read the rest
I have driven up to the north coast of Taiwan several times the last few months, each time thinking to myself “wow, the coast road her is nice, I must drive it one day”. That one day turned into this weekend, and drive became ride a scooter. Starting Friday afternoon, I picked Yini up at Taoyuan train station. We rode through Taoyuan county, passing Anders street in the outskirts of Taipei and up into the mountains. Normally, it is pretty stressful to ride on the mountain road in the dark, but these were surprisingly easy. We stopped by in the … Read the rest