Yangmingshan Park ~Taiwan Day 5

Ahhh what a beautiful day it is North of Taipei.  We read about Yangmingshan National Park on Trip Advisor and decided it would be a perfect way to spend our Saturday.

Scott had the whole day off work so Friday night we tracked down some crunchy peanut butter and found some jam and bread at Jasons' Market in the basement of Taipei 101.  This made for a nice packed picnic lunch.

Our taxi ride was about 90 minutes and cost $25.00, so cheap! 

The park is in the "mountains".  Taiwan does have beautiful mountains and this park is elevated above the city. If you look close you can see Taipei 101 in the near center of the picture. 

The elevation of the park provided some great relief from the city heat.

Our family loves to hike and this park proved to be a good place to go.  One problem, we did not understand the trail map but there was a guide at the visitor center who spoke English and after a few glitches, we did find a great trail.

We had to laugh at ourselves as we, hikers, experienced hikers at that, had only flip flops for this adventure!

 This is not advisable as there are plenty of opportunity for snake bites.  We were grateful that the trail was well maintained giving us clear sight of both sides allowing us to see any wild life that may come our way.  Only this little guy made an appearance, not too scary.

The Miles Family needed to be out on this trail!  We miss hiking! To be fair, Singapore does have some beautiful parks with great trails, however, the heat of Singapore is a bit overwhelming not making for a nice hike therefore we really don't go.

As soon as we got to the trail head we could hear the orchestra of nature calling out to us!  Take a listen on this video we took.  This sound continued throughout our entire hike.

There are some lovely views on this trail..............

As we hiked along we found a sitting area overlooking the city.  This is where we decided to eat our Oreo cookies we had packed along.

There is a shelter along the trail.

and a beautiful rock wall with some flowers growing out of the rocks.

We really were not sure exactly where we were but knew that we were on a well marked trail, even if we could not really read all of the markers, Caleb thinks the character top middle says North...

Some signs along the trail are in English

Just as we were really starting to wonder where we were and where we were going to end up and how were we going to get back into the city we came across this sign (click on the picture if you want to read it).

OK, so no worries right.....just enjoy the journey.

The hike continued on and on but we were loving every minute,

 eventually the trail brought us to a road.

When we arrived at the road there was a bus stop with a schedule all in Chinese characters!  We could not read it, had no idea where the bus would go IF one came.

So there we stood in the middle of the sidewalk trying to figure out what to do when this couple came along and asked if we needed help.  They were so kind!  They read the schedule for us and figured out that the bus would come but it will be a long wait.  How about a taxi?  They called a taxi and were told that no a taxi will not come up the mountain to get us so they said they would wait with us until the bus came.

We were standing at the end of a driveway and the occupant came home at this moment.  Our friendly couple spoke to him and he called a friend who knew a taxi driver that would come and so we waited, ALL of us. 

This lovely couple waited for over 30 minutes with us to make sure we got the taxi, the taxi driver knew where to take us AND they negotiated the price for us!

 By the way they lived in Singapore for a year and a half, he works for an airline and they hike to the top of the mountain every Saturday that it is not raining.

We found that the people in Taiwan are very helpful, there were several times during our trip that we were helped from random people without our asking for help.

 Yes, we did like Taiwan and are so thankful to have been able to go with Scott on this business trip.

Yangmingshan park is worth your time if you can go.

Taiwan Day 4~

We are really enjoying our time here in Taiwan.  Today is Friday so Scott will be home around 4:00.  The boys and I decided to go out and about to do some exploring today while we wait for him to join us tonight.

This blog is going to mainly consist of picture as they say, each one is worth a thousand words......

Right near our hotel there is an outdoor temple.  These temples are seen all over Taiwan, every few blocks there is an outdoor temple, anyone can come in.  We decided to take a look and walk around.  Here are some pictures from the temple.

 The streets in Asia are always interesting.  I will say that Taiwan is beautiful with surrounding mountains, the traffic is somewhat calm and the people are very polite. 

Moped seems to be the transportation of choice, they all rush to the front of the traffic and the car drivers really don't seem to mind, all of our taxi drivers have been very aware of the motorbikes and have allowed them to get in front.

When we met up with Scott we headed back into Taipei.  Our plan was to eat dinner at Taipei 101 and then head to "snake alley" also known as The Huaxi Street Tourist Night Market.

Taipei 101 is visible from many areas of the city as it towers over all else.

So we just kept taking pictures of it....

and here is the view if you are looking up as you stand at the base of this towering building.

Din Tai Fung is a very famous dumpling place... there are a few in Singapore and it originated in Taiwan..... here it is.....

The wait was very long and while we like dumplings we do not love them so waiting an hour was not something we were willing to do but one could if they did indeed want to eat Din Tai Fung in Taipei.

The night market was like many markets we have been in now in various parts of the world, they all seem to be the same after awhile but we do enjoy going and checking them out as they give you a good feel for the culture and especially the local food.  Here are some pictures from the "snake alley".

Across the street is the "Longshan Temple"

It was originally built in 1738 and is now one of Taipei's best known temples.  Some will not step foot into temples.  We feel that it is good to see how other people worship what they believe in, living here in Asia it gives us a good understanding of those we are interacting with.