Taiwan Road Trip, Day Four

We spent the last night on the road in a picturesque bungalow complex (complete with a huge marble hot springs tub in the bathroom) just outside Puli. The next day, after breakfasting on the most humongous pork sandwiches I've seen in a good while, we sauntered up the hill across from the hotel to check out the hang gliding launch spot on top. Didn't see any gliders that day, but a bunch of other nice stuff:

Hillside betelnut plantation

Chung Chai Temple, an international centre of Buddhist academic research, culture and the arts.

As always, the flora didn't disappoint:

Golden Trumpet Tree, Tabebuia alba

Some kind of Christmas tree...

After that, it was time to hit the highway back to Taipei. In an autobahn rest stop by Hsinchu, we found this wonderfully wacky sign. This is what happens when dictionaries are used without protective gear and in the absence of professional supervision...

Now it's time to prepare for a trip across the Southern Cross-Island Highway - a road even more magnificent than the CCIH!

PS: Many thanks to Andy Wimmer who agreed to take over my camera for almost the entire trip, as my hands were usually glued to the steering wheel.

Taiwan Road Trip, Day Three, Part Two

Above 2500 meters the flora changed drastically. Gone were the jungly taro leaves, the ubiquitous ferns and the flowering trees - this was now the realm of conifers, lichens, moss and general creepiness.

At 2600 meters, we passed the Sacred Tree at Pilu, a 3200-year-old, 40 meter tall fir tree (Cunninghamia konishii). It's an amazing feeling to touch a living creature that was already alive at the start of the Iron Age, around the time when the Romans established their Empire.

Just below the top we stopped for lunch in Dayuling. The restaurant had iron garage-style pull-up doors instead of front walls. These doors were wide open, and DAMN, was it cold in there. But the mountain cuisine helped us forget the arctic climes: wild boar, highland cabbage and tiger lily blossom soup. I'd crawl all the way from Hualien for that sauteed boar with wild onions!

At 3100 meters, the Hehuanshan guest house offers hikers a place to stay overnight for a nominal fee (breakfast included). Check out the hiker-made snowpersons (can't say if they're boys or girls). Sorry about the asinine pose, guess I've been in East Asia for too long.

Then the serious part began: narrow, slippery roads on tundra-like terrain, swept clean just that morning after a fresh snowfall, and fog. Boy, the FOG! If you want to see the view from Wuling Pass, the highest road in East Asia, you need to arrive before 1 pm, because after that the fog will restrict your line of sight down to five feet. Not desirable in combination with the above-mentioned road conditions and the gaping maw of the valley three feet to your left.

The fog stayed with us all the way to ca. 2500 meters and then finally lifted to reveal the lovely slopes of lower Nantou County, aka "Taiwan's Orchard".

More about that and Day Four tomorrow!