On Saturday morning we got up at around noon, grabbed some breakfast at Starbucks, and took a taxi to Chaishan Park AKA Monkey Mountain. I’d been intrigued by this place ever since I first read about it at least 6 months ago, so I was really looking forward to our hike. First of all, I have to say that I’m so glad we took a taxi. We were going to just take a bus, but for the sake of saving time we took the cab- I honestly believe we’d never have found the place otherwise. The hike started by climbing some narrow stairs uphill through some small shops, all of which looked like they should be offering us our next clue on “The Amazing Race”.
The trail officially started with a flock of wild chickens just chillin’ at the entrance. HAWT.
After hiking for about 10 minutes, I stopped in my tracks as I saw a wild monkey just sitting in the grass on the side of the trail, eating a nut. Should we walk past him? Should we wait? I had no idea until some guy and his dog marched past as though it was an everyday thing to come across wild monkeys during your walk. The monkeys were so tame- they didn’t care about the hikers at all. We soon approached a little sitting area where monkeys climbed over our heads, playing and jumping around. There were well over a dozen of them strutting around. I couldn’t believe they weren’t in a cage!!
Mel with her new friend.
There were a lot of funny warnings regarding the monkeys. I was really hoping none of these things happened to us!
When you’re walking on a trail and someone barges out in front of you and cuts you off, you get annoyed. When a monkey does this, it’s fine.
After another couple of minutes of hiking we stopped seeing monkeys and started seeing more and more stairs. The trail itself was amazing- lush with green tropical plants and palm trees. Once we got to a look-out, the view of the city was awesome.
I spotted this little deer in the woods on our way down. I was starting to wonder what animals DIDN'T live on this mountain.
I like this picture from our trip back down the hill. People on the left; monkeys on the right.
When we got to the bottom of the trail we had to walk a few blocks to a busier area so we could hail a taxi to the Dream Mall. The Dream Mall is the largest mall in Taipei and it features a HELLO KITTY FERRIS WHEEL on its roof! Obviously, we headed directly to this amazing ferris wheel as soon as we arrived.
Once again, just like at the 85 building, there was no line and we got right on the ride. We didn’t get the Hello Kitty car… it was some anime puppy/bunny friend instead. Womp womp.
Recently, Mel has been getting more and more nervous of rides like this which wasn’t helped by the fact that when we got to the top of the ferris wheel the whole thing suddenly squeeked, squeeled, stopped and then an announcement was made in Chinese. Of course, it started up again seconds later but I have to admit I was a little nervous too when that happened!!
We got some sucky Korean food for lunch and some amazing Charmy brand shaved ice for dessert. I hope there’s a Charmy shop in Taipei because it was so good. We looked around the mall for awhile, but neither of us saw anything that we wanted to buy. I think we’ve been spoiled by the cheap price of goods at the night markets… suddenly $10 for a t-shirt seems pricey, even if it does reference Kate Moss. So, we took a cab to our next destination: the Love River.
How beautiful is the Love River? It was such a nice area. The air was so warm and comfortable, the scenery was amazing and the company was second to none.
We finished off the evening with supper and beer at possibly my favorite restaurant- Outback Steakhouse. There are only 3 or 4 Outbacks in Taiwan so I was actually surprised when our taxi let us off right in front of one. It was meant to be! And what tastes better after a day of hiking and shopping than a big steak and loaded baked potato?
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