Taiwan

So finally our long awaited holiday to Taiwan begins, and the forecasts for a typhoon have been downgraded. Mind you it was quite tempestuous at Hong Kong where we had a brief stopover. This sunset photo form the airport lounge doesn't quite reflect what was going on outside.

 We got a late evening flight, and due to the problems in Hong Kong it was further delayed, so we ended up on the very lat flight out of Heathrow on the Friday night. Slightly eerie.

And we arrived finally in Taipei late evening too, so just in time for bed. We were staying at the Novotel airport hotel. Very decent place to stay the night - lots of facilities and nice room.

 But best part was the extremely kitsch hotel lobby with plastic pooches.

We picked up our car-hire in the morning from a somewhat amateurish outfit - not for the last time during the holiday Clarissa and Thibault's knowledge of Mandarin was vital. Our first day aim was really to drive down up into the mountains, which did require a long drive through some very bleak grey suburbs with a backdrop of grey skies.

But our entertainment for the day was meant to be some hiking on the Dakeng Trails. Now these are a series of 10 numbered trails, the high numbers being easier and 1-4 being challenging. So Thibault took us to number 3. Gulp. It turned out to be more than challenging. It hit impossible, or at least impassable.

Let's start with the conditions. 34C and 97% humidity. Essentially we were walking in a hot bath. And when I say walking, I mean climbing. And it started with climbing wooden steps, but soon ended up with a log ladder. See below.

But we only got so far, because the trail was actually being renovated. There was a hole in it. This wasn't evident from the start of the trail, but there was a closed sign as the trail got steep, but we were encouraged to ignore that by an elderly local hiker, and Thibault wasn't going to be beaten by a local old timer. So on we had trooped. However, we were eventually defeated by coming across a group of workmen having lunch and barring our path.

 On the one hand I wasn't too cut up at not having to climb those logs any further. On the other it had been rather a waste of (a lot of) effort. There were really no views on the way up through the forest.

 And the way back down was well, very down. Actually felt more tricky on the way down, like coming down a ladder facing out. As you can see.

So we decided to cut our losses for the morning, get some lunch nearby and try another trail in the afternoon. We headed for an intriguing restaurant called "Poetry Cactus Succulent" (some translations were not perfect, but it was closed. We ended up in a place that was a wedding venue. We just got them to bring us local dishes up to a certain spending limit. This was our worst meal of the holiday. Rubbery squid, a chicken soup with lots of bones, and above all the local delicacy stinky tofu. Called such because it stinks. Unfortunately, it doesn't just stink smell wise. This dish just stinks full stop. Somehow it tastes like it smells. At least we found we didn't like it early in the holiday and it didn't pollute any of our later meals.

But at least the place offered views over the city of Taichung. Albeit not on a clear day. This would be the backdrop to wedding photos.

And so back to try Trail 2, which also promised to be challenging, but at least was open all the way to the top. But we didn't get there. It started raining again and we didn't fancy the idea of climbing logs in the rain.