lost or what?

The first hike of the trip was to Shihding. It is also where I bought my rain coat. A grey rainy day.
I liked the colorful villages and the view of Taipei 101 from afar.

Here is a photo of Taipei, in the rain. The theme of this trip was rain. I remember some bemused locals looking at me like I was a lunatic for standing up on this overpass in the rain balancing my camera to take a long exposure. More than once on this trip my camera fogged up, internally.

To celebrate the continuing rain, its me, in my rain coat, bought for $2 from 7-eleven. Did you know Taiwan has the highest density of convenience stores of any country in the world? I read that somewhere once.

Every time I go to Taipei I go to YangMingShan. I like it there. Even if it is raining.

This is Taroko Gorge. Everyone that goes to Taiwan goes there. It took me until my 4th trip to go there. It was worth it, it rained. There was however a golden Buddha.

I thought I should include a photo of the actual gorge. It is one of those things where photos do not do the scale justice. Everyone says that so I will also.

Here is a view of Hualien...in the rain. I got more saturated on this day than any other day except the day I got ultra saturated running a lap of Sun Moon Lake. So, second most saturated day.

Taitung was the smallest city I visited. Here it is. As seen from a strange temple complex that appears to be built on an artificial coral reef.

Like a fool, I decided on the first dry day to go to a museum, which is normally a raniny day activity. The path to the strange Museum of Pre History followed an old train track, except the high quality walking path disappeared into a ravine at one point, forcing a detour.

Random Horse.

Random Cow. Taitung delivered all the random animals, there were dogs and monkeys also.

Kaohsiung is a city I enjoyed on a previous visit, and I enjoyed it again this time. I stayed in the same hotel and had the same view, here it is.

One of the better photos I took on this trip was this man with his walking frame in the busy day market. Day markets are like night markets, except they are in the day and sell fresh ingredients rather than prepared meals. Thats the best way I can describe it. Alternatively, day markets are for old people.

An up and coming tourist attraction near Kaohsiung is FoGuangShan Buddha amusement park, complete with Starbucks. It is very spectacular, everything is coated with gold.

Kaohsiung has a city mountain, from where you can see the city. It was a grey polluted day, but squint hard and you can see the city, including the triforce building.

The subway system in Kaohsiung is new. Actually its over 10 years old. But the most touristy or insta-worthy photo you can take in the city is from this spot, so I did.

Here I have moved on to Tainan, and gone to the main tourist attraction, the old Fort Zeelandia. I found it underwhelming.

The nearby fishermens graveyard was however, more interesting.

They call this a fort as well, but I suspect its somewhere that used to be a Dutch fort that got rebuilt. Now its called the Chicken Tower, but has no chicken or tower.

The most bizzarre thing in Taiwan, is the Palace of Versailles Chimei electric fan company museum. It is on old industrial land quite literally in the middle of nowhere. Theres a lot of money to be made making cheap plastic electric fans and light fittings.

Tainan used to be the capital of Taiwan, so they have good temples, this is a Confucius temple. I got chased by a turtle.

On a slightly rainy day I took a side trip up the bullet train to the next town over, Chiayi, and visited their Sun Shooting Tower. I seem to recall that soon after I visited they had a sizeable earthquake.

Taiwan is full of night markets. And day markets. But people mainly talk about the night markets. The best one I have visited is here, in Tainan. I had a good steak on a hot grill plate here.

My last stop before returning to Taiwan was Puli. A tiny town that appears much larger than its population would suggest. I really liked it here. It is a popular spot to stay when visiting Sun Moon Lake which is nearby, as you shall see.

When I arrived in Puli I saw a great sunset and ran up the nearest hill at dusk to peer at the sun. People were hang gliding. It is a great place. They had a terrible earthquake a few years ago that killed a large percentage of the population!

While in Puli, I managed to get lost on a random mountain...it was far...as you shall see.

Puli holds the distinction of the city where I set my all time steps walked / ran in a day record. Thats about 50km. The following day I did another 50k steps running a lap of the lake in the rain.

It rained all day, but damn it, I ran a full lap of the lake, SUN MOON LAKE, in the pouring rain. I got super saturated. It was great. Coming the day after a huge 50km hike up a mountain and back, it was a big effort.

At one point around the lake, I saw the sun, briefly.

One last view near the end of my lap of the lake. I shall have to go again one day, when its not raining.

Here I am, in a cave, on teapot mountain near Jiufen, after being caught in a force 10 hurricane typhonic gale forced blast. I literally got sand blasted.

This is the actual teapot mountain. The best hike of my trip. Excellent views of Jiufen.

Near the top of Teapot mountain is this very strange very green surreal valley, shielded from the terrible wind.

Another one of my favourite shots of this trip was this night pic of the scooters. Taiwan has billions of scooters (fact).

2nd to last hike was 3 peaks, up steeeeep stair cases with questionable hand rails. I survived.

The last hike was to WuLiaoJian, and its often said to be the most dangerous hike in Taiwan. Yeah there are ropes and ladders (next pic) but its really not that bad. Hard to get to though.

The aforementioned ropes and ladders.

And finally, you cant go to Taiwan without enjoying beef noodle soup. I saved the best bowl of my trip until last, here it is. Actually second to last, I managed to sneak in another at the airport!