Hiking the three peaks of Pingxi
Yesterday was a big day in the mountains, tomorrow is my last full day here with probably more mountains, so as a rest day, I went and climbed 3 smaller mountains.
The area is called Pingxi, it is easy to get to by subway and bus, and like all Taiwanese towns in the mountains, its 'famous' for its old street. Signs will say 'Famous old street'.
You can actually catch the mountain train line to Pingxi, but it comes from the other side of the island, so you have to catch a train around the top of Taiwan, then transfer and head half way back to Taipei. It doesnt run frequently enough for me to want to do that, but if you were wanting to visit a few towns along the mountain line you can take that train and walk between them. It actually starts from the cat village I went to on my first day here.
My bus was full, I had to stand for the hour journey (in both directions), and it was a rollercoaster ride. If anyone can remember the movie speed, where they all had to move to one side of the bus to prevent it from tipping over going around a corner, thats what I was doing. The tyres were screeching.
I was relieved to get off.
Now the less dangerous part of the day, scaling 3 different peaks using ropes attached by a few old dudes who thought it might be a good idea to install ropes. Alarmingly, I saw lots of old ropes and metal poles that had fallen from the cliffs at various points in time. It was great!
Once again, I highly recommend a trip to Pingxi and climbing the three peaks. If you take it slow, anyone should be able to do it.
And as a sidenote, today is again the day for shops to burn bits of paper in the street and set up a table with fruit on it. This has to stop! The smoke is ridiculous. Ban it! Its not the dark ages anymore, stop burning crap all the time to appease the cloud monsters!
First, a breakfast update. I was very happy with non western breakfast. Tomorrow is something different again.
This is the bus stop at Pingxi, very conveniently it is right next to the trail. There is also a family mart convenience store for drinks.
I took a quick photo of the streets before setting off, knowing I would have time to explore the city when I came back down.
The very start of the trail is actually marked by a waterfall.
To get to the start of the 3 mountain trail area you walk up a very green valley, which is filled with plastic water pipes like all of Taiwan.
The valley becomes slippery moss covered steps, possibly the most dangerous part of the journey.
There are lots of mini shrines all around the place here. I could occasionally hear gongs ringing from the nearby temples, sending out the call to start burning more rubbish.
This spot signals the base area of the 3 trails, there were other people around, so if I did plummet off a cliff someone might inform the authorities.
2 of the 3 sets of rock stairs appear in this photo, now the fun begins.
Here is the third set of stairs. Now I had to choose which one first.
Is that really the way to the top? This looks a bit more dangerous than I was expecting.
I paused my ascent to zoom in and photograph the passing train.
Luckily the above photo (2 up) was not the way to the top, walking around the bottom of the rock revealed a much safer path.
The view from the top of the stairs up another of the peaks made me excited.
And there is peak number 3. So much fun to be had.
Looking back towards Pingxi, which is really just a small village. It seems to exist just for weekend tourists who want to eat a sausage on a stick.
I went back to the bottom along a different path, now it was time for the longest set of stairs, which started mossy.
From the top, I zoomed in on peak number one which I was just up. There are 2 other guys up there now.
And here is the remaining third peak. Time to head down and up again.
A good spot for one of these.
I climbed into a small grotto to show some more religious things that are all over the place here.
They even have little statues at the top, this is the top of peak 3. All peaks now conquered!
The ridge to the left was the long set of steps up peak 2, I came down that other set of steps in the side which was slightly perilous.
Lots of mountains. I wonder if you can climb them all? There is very little info on the 3 peaks park available online, just a couple of random blog posts. Maybe all of Taiwan is just ladders and steps up mountains. That would be great.
It was not very far, but it was very hard work. I was feeling sweaty. The other people were taking it really slowly, 5 steps then rest, 5 steps then rest. I never rest!
Clean shaven today, the white stuff is sunscreen running off my face. I hate sunscreen. Someone invent a once a year injection to replace sunscreen.
Now I just had to get back down. You can only do it by going down backwards. Maintain 3 points of contact at all times.
This cat followed me for quite some distance back towards the town. He lives in the temple.
A guy with a dog came in the other direction, dog and cat passed without even acknowledging each other.
Here is the historic Pingxi railway station. It looks like an ordinary station, but its historic, signs tell me so.
The main tourist activity here is lantern making. I think you stick a candle in them and they float into the sky? Then they crash into the forest and set it on fire.
Final photo, a view of the old street shopping area. Quiet on a week day, I suspect its very busy on weekends. The train line passes straight over the top, I missed the photo of the train going over because my camera memory card chose the worst possible time to advise me it was full! That never happened before.
Taiwan vegetarian buffet is excellent
Due to having a rest day of three mountains today, I needed a light dinner. So I headed to my first ever repeat dinner of my trip, to the excellent vegetarian buffet!
I know a lot of people would rather go hungry and die before they ate at a vegetarian buffet, but I like it a lot. Its also very cheap, I like that a lot too, its also pay by weight of food (not weight of person buying), I like that too. Actually I would also enjoy pay by weight of person but in Australia that would be illegal.
Before heading out to dinner, I had to plan my day for tomorrow, my last full day in Taiwan. It requires the subway, then 2 buses. I am reasonably confident of the timings to get to where I want to go, but I have many doubts that I will be able to get a bus back, which will add another 9km onto what is already going to be a long day!
Because of this detailed plan, tomorrow night I will not be needing to have a light vegetarian dinner due to lack of exercise, but I doubt I will break my all time step record from Puli.
Also, the photo of the kittens drawn on my hotel wall is here, by popular demand. Scroll to the bottom.
This is the local falun gong theatre. Not a lot of customers this evening. Not even one.
Over the road from the Falun Gong protest, we have an unidentifiable protest and or charity collection going, they have selected a spot in front of a brilliant blinding light so no one can see them at all.
And then just down the road, is the Taiwanese parliament, the police are just starting to set up road blocks.
When I was last in Taiwan, the student sunflower protest movement had occupied the parliament. Really, they barricaded themselves inside the place. Eventually school holidays were over and they all left (just like the Hong Kong protests) because good grades are more important than your cause.
I kind of think the whole 'Taiwan is the first place in Asia to allow gay marriage' thing is to stop the students from trying to overthrow the government again.
This is the nearby Museum of Taiwan. I had no idea it was there. It is not the very famous palace museum, its something different entirely.
Enjoy a photo of traffic. So many buses. All running to the worlds most confusing timetables. Most city bus stops have signs telling you when the bus is coming, so at leat you can wander off and do something else for that length of time, but out in the mountains, no idea. Could be 1 minute or 3 hours.
VEGETABLES, $3.
This years hoverboard, a scooter with pedals, and no seat. The sign says - no seat, no problem. I dont see how that could work.
My shoe is too big.
Taipei has a shoe street, nothing but shoe stores. This is part of it, they close early.
A bit more Ximending corner.
A massive crowd has assembled on this corner, and many of them are holding cakes. The group at the front are posing for a photo showing off their cake. Is it national cake appreciation day?
And yes, by popular demand, here is my hotel wall, with paintings of baby leopards. They are hand painted, I can see the pencil marks under the paint.
I recently learnt Taiwan had leopards, but they are now thought to be extinct. I think I saw one on my long lonely walk in Puli.
My room is full of little paintings, all featuring the baby leopards, and sometimes baby aborigines.
Hotels like this are common in Taiwan, I recall on my last trip I stayed somewhere where every room had a different baby art theme in Taichung. The art is always cute like this, cause lets face it, its done to appeal to women not men.