Taiwan day 3

Taiwan day 3

For our last full day in Taiwan, we all went on a family day out. We fought the MRT train to the zoo, which is located at the bottom of a mountain. From here, instead of going into the zoo, we got on a gondola that goes for just over 4km, over the mountain forest. It has a few stops along the way, but the whole trip to the top of “cat mountain” takes about half an hour. The views were spectacular, even if it was a bit hot.

At the top, there are tea houses and lots of statues of cats. We saw a sign that was for a walk to a waterfall, so decided to head that way. My interpretation of Chinese characters was on point. We just had to find the path with the “helicopter landing on a hospital and a strider man” symbols. You’ll see what I mean in the pictures (I hope!)

Anyway, we found the path, and walked for about an hour, down a lot of stairs carrying the pram. We eventually arrived at a rope bridge, that tools us to a little clearing with a small waterfall and “potholes” which are divots in the rocks caused by the water erosion. It was very humid and hot, so Robin and I tried to splash around in the water a bit before heading on.

The next path took us to “rainbow bridge” via a 30 minute walk, again down stairs, carting our little prince in the pram. We were not well prepared today, and hadn’t brought the baby carrier. Doh! It made it a lot harder.

We had reached the bottom of the valley, and to another large waterfall that looked amazing in the jungle. There was a man sitting under the waterfall getting a natural massage from the water pressure. If we hadn’t had Robin with us, I would have jumped in as well.

We realised we had to get to the gondola station, unfortunately located on the top of the next mountain. Shit. We found the path, then struggled up a kilometre of steep stairs. It was one of the hardest things either myself or Peter had ever had to do. We had a backpack, a pram, a baby and two umbrellas. It was a lot to carry up the thousands of stairs, through a mosquito infested, hot, humid jungle. I almost fainted at one point but luckily we had plenty of water with us. Eventually we emerged on a road, and it was seriously the most relieved I have ever felt. We made it to the gondola station, where Robin made friends with some

kids who were making him laugh. Peter had to make a business phone call, I had a can of coke and recovered.

We caught to gondola back, and only just missed the last entry time to to zoo. Oh well, we had an adventure instead! Once back at the hotel, we all went to the pool for a much deserved swim. The view was fantastic, with the sun coming through the clouds and making golden light.

For dinner, we went to a local restaurant, where a Chines family were loving Robin. They held him and played with him and we made jokes that he had a new family. He’s so popular here! Everyone comments on his blue eyes. Tomorrow we head home.