I promise this is my last post about mountains because... I'm done!! Zhongyong at 325m and Qixing at 1120m brings the grand total to 8893m, exceeding Everest by a mere 45 meters. Whew!

Now before I talk about that and other stuff, I'm kind of sad, in a way. I had this goal, and now it's over. At the moment I don't really have any idea for what I should do next. I'm a little concerned that now my blogs will become less frequent, as I always had the latest hike to talk about. I'm hoping to come up with some other regular thing to fix that. I'm also concerned that my legs will go back to being not as great as they are now. Seriously, I think I could kick through a block of cement with all the hiking I've been doing.

Anyway backing up this picture heavy blog, recently we had Dragon Boat Festival. What is Dragon Boat Festival, you ask? Actually you probably didn't ask that. But basically it's where a bunch of people race boats shaped like dragons. Cool in theory, but it's really just an excuse to go have a picnic with friends, probably drink... it's kind of like a football game. You're there for hours, but the cumulative time where something happens is measured in minutes. I missed the one in China, so I made it a point to go to this one - even though I didn't really stick around all that long. I couldn't find anyone to go with me, and honestly this place was just filled with foreigners. Taiwanese were the minority, by far. It felt really weird. I don't mean it as a racist thing. Imagine it like this - you live in English-speaking America, and go to see a baseball game. For some reason, the entire stadium is filled with, I dunno, Swedes. I like Swedes. Swedes are cool. But everywhere you look, suddenly there are blonde haired tall people speaking Swedish. It makes you go "Where the hell am I?"


Right so, dragon boats out of the way I had the rest of the afternoon to kill. Still knowing Qixing Mountain would be short a few hundred meters, I set off to one of the last easily accessible places I knew how to get to, in Neihu District. Zhongyang Mountian was pretty cool, and getting to it was a snap. There was a very impressive temple just about 50 meters short of the summit. I pointed out a few blogs ago that I ran into a temple up in the mountains with heavily subsidized juice boxes. This one was equally awesome - the monk invited me inside to show me their fancy reverse osmosis water fountain to refill my water. He also pointed me over to a balcony to get a good photo. He was right.

The summit actually didn't have that great of a view due to all the trees, so I backtracked a little bit to see the dragon bridge. Supposedly it's a dragon's spine because it spans two different mountain ranges. I will admit it's a cool bridge, but there's nothing on the other side aside from more houses. So for me... that's kind of cool, I guess?

Anyway I know what you're thinking, and the temple fun does not stop here. Tiffany and I went up to Maokong for the day, and we stopped by Zhinan Temple. They had a cool looking bell at their donation box. I asked Tiffany that if I put in money, that means I can ring the bell. She gave a "sure, whatever you want" answer. Anyway I rang the bell, and it was everything I could have ever hoped for. The worker there invited us in the back to find our respective "gods", based on what year you were born. She didn't want us taking photos, but for all you 1984 folk, our god has two extra hands coming out where his eyes should be. We give the best high fives EVER!

We stopped at a restaurant up there, which had draft beer - something I have yet to see with any frequency. I also noticed on the menu they had Belgian beer. A little more expensive, but I thought why not - I haven't had a good beer in a while. I went up to the bar to let the bartender know. He responded with "What kind?" I was a bit confused because there was only one listed in the menu. I said "Well... what kinds do you have?" He said he would check and bring them over to the table.

So I sit down, he comes back with some bottles. He says "Okay, I have cherry, strawberry, and banana." I am quite confused at this point. I look at Tiffany to see if I am understanding his Chinese correctly. I ask "This is beer?" he said yes and put the bottles on the table. It turns out it is some 1.5% ABV beer made in Taiwan, by the glorious Belgian Beer Company. You've gotta be kidding me - anyway he went to all that trouble so I got the cherry. It tasted like soda.

Right so onto Qixing. Qixing is the tallest mountain for quite a distance, until you get up into the range that runs through the middle of the island. It's also a dormant volcano so, that's fun. I took the bus out to the base and poked into the visitor center. It was pretty dead at 10am on a Tuesday, and the one guy working there started speaking to me in English. He was all too eager to tell me about the mountain, and all the other stuff nearby. He seemed so excited, I didn't have the heart to tell him I was just going to the summit and then leaving, as I had to get to Chinese class. That's when I learned it was a dormant volcano. I asked when it was going to erupt. He said he was not sure, but he has a pretty good feeling it wouldn't be today. Good enough for me!

Joking aside Qixing is damn tough. The trail is about 3km. The height of the mountain is 1.1km. You do the math. This was a really steep trail. I had to stop and rest much more often than I needed to in the past. However, it was completely in the shade up until the last 100m or so, so that made the sun and heat less of a factor. It actually got a little chilly near the top with the wind blowing. There was a school trip going up as well, and I passed them near the end. It was a pretty long line though, so "passing" them took a few minutes. I said "Excuse me" in Chinese and they thought it was hilarious. They wanted to practice their English, but honestly I was so tired I didn't want to talk. I double timed to make it out of the impromptu lesson.










Anyway, I finally made it to the summit and just about died. As you can see from the photos it just opens up for a great view of the area. A lot of green, which looked very strange. Up there I met a couple from LA who are ethnically Taiwanese, back to visit the family. We traded photo taking privileges, and I think the one here exemplifies just how frakking tired I was.

Looking at the time though, my rest was short lived - my Chinese teacher would kill me if I was late for my lesson!

Double timing it down the mountain, it was predictably much easier. I went down the other side which is home to a bunch of sulfur vents. When the trail passed through them, the temperature jumped about 10 degrees C, and the place smelt of the 4th of July and rotten eggs. While the first one was cool... and the 2nd... by about the 10th sulfur vent I was sick of their stupid faces. The trail ended in one giant one, which was also next to the bus station. That poor driver.




This bus was a small one, going to the next big area where I could take another back to the MRT. I had about 15 minutes before it left, so I walked around the area. Turns out there are cows there. The signs warn you not to go near the cows. So the first thing I did was go near the cows.

Pfft, signs aren't the boss of me.

So I hurried back to the bus, which was about a 40 minute ride. Unfortunately it was a 40 minute ride through back mountain roads. And it was crowded. And I was standing. And I was exhausted. By the end of the baaaack and fooooorth, baaaaack and foooorth motion of the bus, I was either going to throw up or kick grandma out of her seat. When I got to the MRT, I pushed the stop button with quite a bit of vigor.

Whew! That brings us to now. My next entry may be a big trip a month from now - we have a week off for summer vacation, and I'm planning to circle the island. Well, except the island really isn't circular... let's say I'm going to potato the island.

Probably with fewer cattle, also.