Trip to Wanli and Yangmingshan

Thanks to Paul’s recent complaints of loneliness, we took a wonderful trip to the northern coast of Taipei this weekend. The weather was warm but breezy, just perfect for the activities we had. Saw the pretty-and-yet-garbage-strewn rocky beach, played on the sandy beach by the Howard Hotel/Resort where we stayed, enjoyed the amazing array of snack food at the famous Miaokou Night Market in downtown Keelung, and best of all, took two great hikes in the north-eastern part of Yangminshan.

The beaches on the northern coast are famous for strange rock formations, most famous of them being Yeliu. All growing up, I remember it being a prototypical example of how the Taiwanese didn’t care about the environment. The renowned rock, “Queen’s Head”, named after its shape, had been repeatedly damaged by cutting and sawing, and covered with words like “XXX was here”. I remember feeling outraged by these thoughtless and bored people, and ashamed of my people for the garbage they have left in nature. Well, revisiting one of the beaches brought back these feelings of upset and helplessness. So obviously I was distracted. The kids, though, enjoyed climbing on the rocks and catching baby fish and hermit crabs and releasing them back to the ocean. Noah and Paul, however, each slipped on the algae covered rocks twice. No big worries but a slightly hurt (Paul’s) wrist.

We stayed at the biggest hotel/resort in Wanli. While we were disappointed to find out that all the outdoor facilities were still closed for the low season, the room was fine and the sandy beach fun for shell-finding and water play. Children can spend hours on the beach. I guess it’s like a gigantic sand box with easy access to water. If you were to vote the #1 happiness factor for a four-year-old, I think “building a huge sandcastle with daddy” must rank in the top 3.

The hotel is next to this abandoned resort park made up of space-age pod vacation homes. How shall I described them? Well, the best way is through pictures. See a separate entry later on this strange discovery. I am fascinated by it.

While we could have stayed on the beach all afternoon, Paul and I were both tempted by our “guide” Tony’s descriptions of great ancient paths near Wanli/Yangminshan. We decided to rinse off everyone and head up into the mountains while there was still light. The trip turned out to be, as always when we headed towards the mountains, splendid.

As usual, we wound through country roads, passing a few abandoned homes and an elementary school and a bus stop, ending up at a nondescript area that is the trailhead. Following a stream on a tree- and fern-lined dirt path, we ended up at a small concrete bridge where we could access the stream. I figure rather than getting their clothes all wet, we might as well take off their shoes and shorts. There starts the “routine”: Noah catching little shrimp in the water and Ben throwing leaves (which are “boats”) and rocks into the water, “splat...splat….splat....” This guys is obsessed with this motion. So I sent Paul for an extra hike up the hill to the waterfalls. I read him Tony’s description, which is something like, “After the bridge, following the path which looked like it’s not a path, you’ll see a sweet potato field and an abandoned farmhouse, go up further and into the thick, dark forest, it’s so quiet that it was spooky… after 15 minutes you’ll come out of the forest pass and see the waterfall and finally, sun light.” So Paul did, and enjoyed the half an hour of solo hike while we continued to throw leaves and rocks into the water.

The night market was the absolute opposite of the afternoon hike: extremely crowdeed and bustling, you’ll find everything you’d ever want to eat in a Taiwanese night market. We had shrimp rice dumplings, traditional veggie “burritos”, seafood soup, shaved pickled mango ice, bean noodle soup, and drank bitter melon juice (Paul’s favorite) and avocado milk. I could have continued, but it was just too crowded and we were quite tired after a long day and plenty of getting lost.

On the way back from Keelung, we got lost yet again, and found ourselves in the dark mountains. Luckily, we asked some night walkers and found that we could just take this mountain road on for another 20 minutes until we reach the coastal road. While on the road, we found this café in the middle of nowhere overlooking the valley with city lights down the mountain. It was already 9:30, but Paul suddenly had a romantic thought and suggested that we took an impromptu stop for some teas and “hang out”. So, there we found ourselves amidst many pairs of cuddly young couples and student groups, all gazing down to the lights and enjoying the fresh mountain breeze. The two pots of teas cost more than all of the night market delicacies combined, but, what a special and romantic moment! Plus someone was setting off fireworks in the parking lot, which the boys thought was great. We sang our way back to the hotel to prevent Ben from falling asleep. It’s the first time the four of us went to bed together—all at 10:30!

The next morning, after a big and decent breakfast buffet (though Ben liked the fruit loops best), we headed south into Yangminshan, the big group of mountains/National Park north of Taipei. There we took a long hike up and down near the famous Qingtiangang pasture. Noah and Ben must have walked at least 2km of steep ups and downs. Well, at times Ben was a little scared and put off by the rocky steps so we held him some. Thanks to the lizards (three kinds: striped, big brown, and blue-tailed ones!), the stream, the cows, and the cookies we brought, the kids were quite cooperative. At the end we all enjoyed rolling up and down the pasture.

Finally, the two-day trip came to an exciting finale, a visit with Yipopo!!! Yes, my aunt, whom the boys have been yearning to see, came from the US to visit for 10 days. We had dinner with her in Taipei. The boys were overjoyed to see her and we look forward to taking her on a hike later this week near Hsinchu.

Okay for now, thanks for putting up with this long travel journal. Time for bed for a tired me.