So, I’m back home and I can access my photos so I think it’s time to add some details bout the Tainan trip.
The first day was spent on getting to Changhua and then driving south, just to get a good start on Friday. We did however cross Taiwans longest river, and watched the sunset from a bridge.
Friday we headed into the mountains of Yunlin, on small, bumpy roads, some of which were extremely steep, we even had to make a detour because one of them was broken. Along the way we stopped by a small tea farm, mostly just to stretch our legs, but the tea picking ladies took a liking to Yini and even let us pick a few leaves. The boss also treated us to tea in different stages of processing.
Tea picking ladies
Yini and I both had a go
Drying the tea leaves
How to turn the leaves over
After much driving around, getting lost a few times and almost having the engine stall on a steep slope, we finally made it to a place called Ten Thousand Year Valley, a fairly unknown tourist destination. Many travelers in Taiwan have been to Taroko Gorge and this place is, though a bit smaller and less spectacular, is kind of similar, and really awesome.
Hey, this is pretty nice..
..oooh, the water is running up…
…it’s getting even better…
…this is a cool place…
…Woah….
…don’t go too close to the edge…
…let’s just sit here instead
On the way back from the gorge, we got lost among the many winding mountain roads and while finding our way back, we passed by a broken down old Hotel. By now you should know that I love exploring abandoned buildings so I had to go in and check it out, Yini decided to stay outside.
The lobby
Staircase
Boiler room
Bats
Restaurant perhaps
Dank old corridor
From there, we wound our way down from the mountains, stopped by a small cafe for dinner then thinking we would rather wake up in Tainan the next morning, we rode on through the evening, reaching the city around ten. We spent Saturday exploring the city, and saw, among other things, the house overgrown by trees I visited several years ago, and a gigantic temple.
Tree house, or rather tree in a house
Cool piece of art
Enormous temple
Temple roof sunset
I repeat, this temple is enormous
Ended the day with a walk along the river
The last day we ventured out east, on roads of broken concrete, barely wider than a goat path, we climbed up steep inclines, and held on for dear life down even steeper descents, winding our way out into the wilderness. We went to the are known as Caoshan Moon World, a mountainous region full of barren cliffs of crumbling dry mud popping up among the vegetation. It’s kind of similar to the place we visited in Taidong a few years ago, but more space out, with lots of jungle in between the mud cliffs.
Yini climbing a mud mountain
View from the road
Just a cliff on the way
Small viewing platform
Moon landscape overview
I think it’s a pretty good place, but I prefer my barren moon landscapes a bit more barren, slightly less “normal”, the one in Taidong is more concentrated wasteland, which I think is better. At any rate, for anyone feeling like an adventurous ride, the road there is excellent, though I wouldn’t dare try it with a car. After a few hours we reached one of the few restaurants up there and had some lunch, then took a bigger, less adventurous road back to Tainan.
The road back was a bit of a dream road, hilly and twisty enough to keep you excited, but straight and smooth enough to keep your speed up, Yini commented that it is like something from a motorbike PC game. That was almost the best part of the day. Back in Tainan, we had a bit of fika, shipped my motorbike then made the journey back to Hsinchu on the overcrowded high speed rail.
