Elephant Mountain

Today, Nareesa and I went to the heart of Taipei's business district to go... hiking. Yes, just a short 15 minute walk from the world's tallest building- the Taipei 101- is Elephant Mountain, an easily-accessible quick hike that offers a stunning view of the city. The last time we went hiking we found ourselves being chased by wild dogs and climbing moss-covered steps up the wrong mountain. I'm happy to report that today was a bit more successful!


Yours truly at the start of the hiking trail.


A sign advised that there was to be absolutely no love on the trail. Good thing I didn't bring Mel!


There were a bunch of rocks with crap carved on them. This one says "Elephant Mountain".


It only took about 15-20 minutes to get to the top, and look at the view! It was awesome. Although the hike up was steep and the million stairs that we climbed were really uneven, it wasn't too difficult- though my legs were definitely burning by the time we got there. At the top there are a few boulders to climb on and enjoy the view.


Check out the lush green mountainside. Awesome.


Can we talk about the amenities this trail offers? Well, first of all there was a hula hoop available to use.


As we continued along an additional trail there were several different exercise areas. As if hiking up the mountain wasn't enough exercise!! In the above picture, the woman on the table is easily in her seventies and she's doing the splits! And the man was doing flip after flip on those bars and he was just as old as she was. Actually, just about every hiker we saw today was very, very old- it was nice to see olds being so active. You'd never see seniors on a trail like this at home, but it's just a way of life here.


Back to the amenities- there were many (Chinese) books and (Chinese) cassettes left at one of the pavilions. Someone was even so kind as to leave their glasses there for me to use.


A stamp maker! Collect all... 17? That's going to involve a lot of hiking.


The responsible hiker sweeps unsightly leaves from the trail.


The responsible hiker tries to figure out how to put the damn broom back.


We stopped at this boulder with convenient steps carved into it to chat, have a drink and enjoy a "Guts" brand chocolate bar.


We went down the trail a different way then we'd gone up (why do I always do that?) and we came out right into the middle of some temple that stunk so strongly of incense that my eyes burned most of the way back to the 101, where we searched for hummus (no luck) and I couldn't stop myself from buying some salsa con queso and Tostitos. Speaking of which, I need to go eat those and undo any possible exercise I might have done on Elephant Mountain... later!