Maokong Hiking

For a person of my age, it requires some courage to engage in an activity described as "a 2.5 hour strenuous hike," especially when it is organized 20-somethings. However, I did it.

First, we rode up the mountain in a gondola..

Maokong Gondola

...getting some great views of Taipei!

View of the City from Gondola

The gondola went amazingly fast. It almost had the feeling of a carnival ride, it was that exciting. We were also really high up! Some of the gondolas have glass floors, but I didn't go in one of those. We didn't go to the top, but got off at the second to last stop.

Formosan Magpie

Next, we hiked until I thought my legs would fall off. The fearless leader of the hike then said, "We have not even gotten to the actual trailhead yet!" I distracted myself from the pain by taking pictures of this exceedingly fine bird. Wow, taking pictures of birds is not easy. They move around a lot. They are really high up. They like to hide behind leaves. And I obviously don't have the right kind of camera. All that said, I think you can at least get a sense of what the bird looked like from these photos, even if they're a long way from being National Geographic quality. This is a Formosan magpie, which is the national bird of Taiwan. Its picture is even featured on my visa, so until this passport expires I'll be carrying around a little picture of one of this guy's cousins everywhere I go.

Climbing with Ropes

We reached the trailhead proper and started up. This is one of the steep sections, to give you an idea. There were some sections that were steeper, but I couldn't really keep my camera out for those. It was great though--everyone was fearless and strong, no one fell or got left behind. It was actually really fun scrambling up with the aid of the knotted ropes. Using arms and shoulders took some of the strain off the poor ol' tired legs.

There were massive butterflies fluttering around everywhere, but it was really hard to get pictures of them. They didn't really stay still. Some other great things included giant fern trees, elegant mushrooms, and a tremendous variety of beetles. Most of the beetles we saw were dead, because the living ones were better at hiding. I also got to go first for a while and so saw two different kinds of lizards and one toad. Unfortunately, the lizards were too fast for me to get my hands on. I caught the toad, but the picture ended up on someone else's camera. The eight other people I was with probably thought I was a freak. They all seemed like relatively normal college students and recent graduates. Even though they were so young, it was fun chatting with them.

Once we got to what seemed like the top, I asked a Chinese guy to take a picture of all of us. I think he did a good job! Taipei 101 is visible in the background.

Group Shot at/near the Top

One of the most picturesque parts of the hike was when the trail led us through a little farming area. Kind of literally through some farms, like, we were walking not only across people's fields but through their backyards.

Trailside Farm

I guess they don't mind too much, or something would be different about the whole set-up. It did feel funny and was thought-provoking. The kind of lifestyle these folks have, living up here on the mountain, pulling weeds by hand, presumably selling their produce in Taipei... and saying "hi" to troops of foreigners like ours--maybe not infrequently, even. As lines of convergence go, it's just kind of an interesting one.

Another farm-type thing we saw was a beautiful little rice field. Rice as it is growing is so gorgeous. I'm sure that actually growing it is terribly back-breaking work, and I wouldn't want to do it for sure. But the intermediate results are so pleasing to the eye.

Rice and Maybe Taro?

Appreciating the Rice Fields

Rice plants close up

Trooping through the Field

There were these four yellow butterflies flitting about like crazy. I was ruefully and hopelessly pointing my camera at them, when all of a sudden they all four settled down into one straight line and I clicked the button. It may not look like much, but it was an amazing lucky coincidence. The instant after, they were all flying around again.

Four Butterflies

By the time we got back to the gondola, we were dead tired. It was more like a four hour hike than a 2.5 hour one. But it was kind of nice in a way to be that tired.

Southeast Asian Dinner Set

I got home and showered (I'm a bit ashamed to say I've been showering twice a day. It's just what the climate demands), then lay around totally inert for a few hours. I knew I had to go out and get dinner but I had a hard time with it, wandering around like a hungry ghost for more than an hour. Then finally I made myself walk into a restaurant. It said Thai food, but what I got I associate more with Indonesian? In any case, it was beef curry with a fried flatbread and a fried egg on rice. Plus some yummy vegetables: broccoli, unidentifiable melon, and some very distant relative of kimchee. Yum!