On Saturday (with the humidity considered) it was 45 degrees, so naturally we decided to climb a mountain. Yangmingshan National Park is located right in the middle of Taipei and is famous for its cherry blossoms, hot springs, sulfur deposits, fumaroles, venomous snakes and hiking trails right up northern Taiwan's tallest peak, the extinct volcano, Mount Cising. But don't worry, we're not begging for heat stroke... this is how we climbed the mountain:
Taking it easy on the bus! Mount Cising is pretty developed for being in a National Park. There are loads of buildings, roads, restaurants, snack shops, some schools, and even...
...a 7-11. The 7-11 was, of course, our first stop on the trip. We got some water and snacks for our "grueling" hike and then caught a bus up the mountain. That wasn't as easy as it sounds because there weren't any English signs explaining where the bus stops were or which buses to take. This is where our months of Chinese lessons in Canada came in handy (thank you, Rosemary!) because we talked to a park employee who only spoke Chinese but we were able to understand enough of what she was telling us: the bus color and number, up and down (as in the direction to take the bus), and the closing time. It was quite the one-sided conversation, but it did the trick and we were soon on our way.
We drove up 1092m and by the time we got there we were literally in the clouds. As a result, the temperature was a lot cooler at that altitude. If it was 45 degrees at the base of the mountain, it was probably around 30 degrees at the top. Although (besides Saturday) the weather has been a lot less sticky-hot in the last week or so, I would say that this is the most comfortable weather we have experienced in Taiwan! Why didn't we take jobs working on the top of the mountain?
On our first stop we visited an area with a bunch of fumaroles, which is basically an opening on the Earth's crust (usually on a volcano like this) where gases and steam escape.
It's hard to tell from the picture, but the puddles of water were bubbling and boiling. You wouldn't want to trip and fall in one of these.
There were a lot of freaking fumaroles. We'd never seen anything like this- it was pretty cool.
After going to a snack shop and buying a SALTY (why!) popsicle, we hiked up a small stairway to a lookout point where you were supposed to be able to see another mountain but the air was too thick with clouds to see anything. It was neat- usually you have to be in a plane to see clouds this low and because we were in the clouds and they were so moist we gradually became pretty damp from the condensation.
On our next stop we went to an area with natural hot springs. Our guidebook said there was a place where you could just dip your feet in the hot springs, but when we arrived the springs were seperated by gender and when I went in it seemed like people were more interested in bathing their bare asses than their feet. None of us had brought a towel anyway, so we moved on.
We found this nifty suspension bridge, which offered a cool view of the area. A sign warned that no more than 10 people should be on the bridge at once but dozens of people were crowding on it as if there was some sale on snake soup going on... so we proceeded to the next sight.
This is "Milk Lake". The creamy whiteness is caused by sulphur fumes which vent into the lake.
Eating Milk Lake. Mel hates this picture.
By the time we'd gotten to Milk Lake the park was soon closing, so we took a bus back down the mountain and then another long and sleepy bus to the subway station. The Shilin Night Market is right outside that station, and it's Taiwan's biggest night market. Taiwan loves their night markets. We hadn't been to it yet, basically because we want to get paid first, but we decided to go into the food area to get something for supper. It was about the size of an arena at home and it was a complete circus. It was jam-packed with people and food vendors screaming about how they sell the best pigs feet or whatever, and shoving their English menus in your face as you walk by. We walked through once and we so overwhelmed that we had to go outside to re-group before going back in to choose a place to eat!
We wound up going to a great steak place, because an acceptable English menu was shoved in our faces. The chef grilled the food up right in front of us and it all looked good, tasted nice and was priced well. We got satay beef, a rib eye, pineapple lamb, some mushroom stirfry-thing, soup, rice and beer for about $12 all together. Mmmm, savings.
Of course there were many food choices, which made it hard to decide where we should eat. Don't worry, to save us time on our next visit, I went ahead and took pictures of the delicious meals we're going to eat next (probably when Mike and Caroline come to visit) :
Pork Brain Soup
Don't forget to take your meat pills, everyone!
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