I was lucky enough to make it back to Taiwan, as per my annual trip plans. This time, I decided to explore a bit of the northeastern coast area. While I didn’t get to all of the usual local tourist spots, I did quite a bit of hiking, and I was able to check off the places on my list.

While researching places to visit, I came across a place called “Teapot Mountain.” It is a hiking area located behind the Gold Museum (Gold Ecological Park). At the top, there is a rock formation that resembles a teapot of sorts. However, when I got to the museum and went toward the back, as was suggested when reading up about this hike, I later realized that I hadn’t gone far enough back, and I ended up on a different trail. I still saw the teapot rock formation from a distance, but I wasn’t on the main trail toward it.

I had arrived rather late in the day, and the hike took me about two hours. Along the way, there were plenty of steps.

While there, I could hear some thunder in the distance. The weather forecast stated there might be some rain later in the evening, but since this is summer in Taiwan, you can pretty much expect the forecast to not be accurate, even when you are checking it that very day. It also started to sprinkle a bit. This wouldn’t be an issue, but I also saw several flashes (but not streaks) of lightning in the distance. This encouraged me to try to hurry along, despite how tired I was getting from the heat and humidity.

And some more stairs…

Along the way, there were some areas where rope was secured into the rocks themselves to help hikers along the boulders.

With continual sprinkles and fog rolling up along the hills in the distance, I again decided to hurry along in hopes that I might actually be able to connect to the trail that would lead me to the teapot rock.

After seeing that the sky was a bit darker than I would have preferred and realizing that I would not be able to make it to the teapot rock from where I was, I decided to turn back. Of course, not long after I did that, the sky started to brighten up a bit. Oh well, at least I got to see it in the distance.

On the way back I decided to take a quick look at the ruins site that was listed on the trail signs.

The last thing that I saw that made a major impression on me was the snake that was slithering along the wall that was roughly eight feet or so away from me as I was walking back down the stairs. After seeing something out of the corner of my eye and hearing movement on my left side, I turned and saw it moving through the mossy grass on the wall. It freaked me out a lot because I noticed how long it was (it looked like it was between 1 and 1.5 meters long). After taking a few seconds to process what I was seeing, I quickly lurched forward, down some more steps, and around the corner. After stopping for a moment to get over my shock, I thought about going back to try to get a photo, but by then it was heading back up into the grass and leaves. I didn’t know what kind of snake it was, but I remember vividly seeing lots of green and brown with some black patches and how slick and shiny it seemed.

I was too exhausted to try to find someone who worked there about what kind of snake it might be, so after I returned home I looked up snakes of Taiwan and I found what it was.

*No, these photos were not taken by me, but I needed to show what kind of snake it was so people would believe me. According to the website I searched, the snake is called the “Taiwan Beauty Snake” or 黑眉錦蛇 (black-browed snake).

The next day, I opted to do some more relaxed exploring to allow my legs to rest. So I headed to the coastline area, starting at Fulong Beach. From there, I took a shuttle bus to the Nanya Rock Formations site. Or, at least, that’s where I was planning to go, but the stop came up so quickly without any announcement from the driver that I ended up getting off two stops later at the Golden Waterfall. I didn’t intend to go there, but since I ended up there, I decided to take a photo. That is really all that you do here, as this is just a quick stop to get out of the car to take photos and then quickly drive off.

It’s called “Golden Waterfall” because, in certain light, the water has a gold tint to it from the nearby heavy metals deposited in the riverbed. Maybe this is the case when the sun is out, but the water didn’t look gold while I was there. Perhaps this was due to the clouds.

After waiting around impatiently for a taxi and then being told that the taxis coming through here were already organized for private trips, I waited until I saw another taxi heading in the opposite direction. He initially said that he doesn’t go to the Nanya Rocks site, but then said he would if I paid $200 TWD. I figured it was probably a fair amount (or maybe not) and that I just wanted to head back and not wait another 45 minutes for the shuttle bus.

When I arrived, he quickly took out some laminated photos of the famous rock formations here. The site was definitely smaller than I thought it would be, and I wondered if it was really worth stopping by here. But I decided to look around for a bit anyway. I noticed that in the water there were hundreds and hundreds of these little water bugs (or roaches, or beetles?) scattering around whenever people walked near them.

When I was finished, I tried heading back toward where the main bus area would be, but I got confused while using Google Maps. Eventually, I started walking along the highway, and the same taxi driver was now heading the other way back to where I wanted to go. He stopped to ask me where I was going this time, and I told him to take me back to Fulong Beach. Another $600 TWD later, and I was finally back. I was glad that I took his taxi, as it would have been an extremely long walk back.

When I arrived, I headed over to the beach area. It was sprinkling again, but at that point I didn’t care; I just wanted to get in the water. As I walked over the bridge between the river and ocean water areas, I noticed that there were sandcastles and sculptures all over the beach. I thought the sand sculpture festival was over, but they were still showcasing the pieces. It was an unexpected surprise.

I was happy to see that the rain hadn’t washed them away yet. The artists who made these came from all over the world.

Before moving on to my last venture, I need to post some of the food I ate. Beef noodle soup has appeared in my life numerous times because it’s simple but good, and I love dishes with a rich beef broth.

The final leg of my trip involved going on another hike, but this time it would be even longer and more intense than Teapot Mountain. This time I decided to go to the Caoling Historic Trail further down the coast and hike along the area known as the Taoyuan Valley Trail. I had read that you can hike from the Fulong entrance all the way to where I was starting, but that perhaps it wasn’t as picturesque as this area. I also read that if you want to hike from Dali to Daxi, it could take six hours or more. In hindsight, I realized that I overestimated my stamina and didn’t take adequate snacks—only a bottle of water—and I needed more than that. I had forgotten to pack the extra Snickers bars that I bought earlier (I had left them in my hotel room fridge). The one smart thing I did was to apply sunscreen and bug repellent beforehand.

The initial trail itself was a long one and certainly tired me out, but overall it was a decent hike. It was quite humid, and the sun was out behind the clouds for a while. I also finally managed to see some water buffalo that, until now, had eluded me on previous trips to Taiwan. Occasionally I could smell the scent of buffalo, but the other evidence of them was the constant piles of poop along the trail area filled with holes from all the flies feeding on them.

More water buffalo…

Finally, the sun started to disappear, and I no longer had to worry about potential sunburn. After a solid 2+ hours of hiking through the trail, along with passing by more buffalo poop piles, dragonflies, butterflies, and Asian hornets, I started to get a bit tired of the landscape. I was trying to find the entrance or exit of the Stone Garden Temple Trail that would take me back down toward the highway. On the way down, there were, of course, more stairs.

The afternoon was filled with ups and downs (literally and figuratively). What I thought was going to be a relief (simply because I was heading back down the mountain) turned out to be more aggravating than the main trail. By this point, I was very tired and very thirsty (I was carefully rationing my water). I thought I had dripped out every bit of sweat that my body could possibly produce, but to my surprise, there seemed to be an endless supply. While going down, my left knee was acting up while trying to traverse some of the stone steps. As I got further down, some of the steps were quite slippery, and I decided to just try to step in the grassy or dirty parts of the trail whenever there was enough space. I was wearing sandals (no, not flip-flops), which exposed my ankles and feet. I was slightly worried about being exposed to tics or mites, and I wondered if I had sweated off all the bug repellent I had on earlier.

To make matters worse, my cell phone signal stopped working at times, and the damned trail just kept winding up, down, and around, and it was quite difficult to determine how far along I was. By this point, I was also extremely tired and irritated. It didn’t help that I continually walked through spider web strands that stuck to my face and hands. At one point, I was walking along a narrow part of the trail with a steep drop, and my left foot slipped and I fell down, hurting my right knee with several small cuts. This startled me, and it didn’t help that my left leg had slid closer to the dropoff with small rocks falling down the side. I had already passed by a group of local kids, so I was alone again. This aggravation went on, despite my continuous rest stops. At one point, I felt a bit light-headed and hoped that I wasn’t going to pass out. I started to think that perhaps it would have been better to just finish the main trail, as it probably would have taken the same amount of time to finish as this other trail, maybe a bit longer.

Eventually, the group of local kids caught up to me, and I decided from then on to just trail behind them and let their leader swat away the spider webs with his stick (another handy use for a hiking stick). Finally, we could see and hear the highway cars passing by in the distance, so we knew we were making progress. When we finally got back to the road, the bus schedule showed that the last bus had already passed earlier (it was now 17:20). I tried looking for a ride on Uber, but no cars showed up. It looked like the others also had no luck with whoever they were calling. I knew it was going to be a long walk to the next train station, but all of us seemed to realize that that was the only option left.

As we were moving along, a tow truck pulled over ahead of us. I didn’t know why, as he then started up again after we passed by. Soon after, he did this again, only this time he got out and asked if we wanted a ride. We all smiled and said yes. Altogether, there were eight or nine of us piled on the back. We were all laughing and enjoying the breeze. I was also huddled in the corner, holding onto both sides and leaning forward slightly. At one point, we slowly passed by a police station, where one of the girls jokingly waved at it. The ride itself was only 5–10 minutes.

We arrived at the train station, but there was no ticket attendant, only the e-card reader machine. My friend back in Taipei sent me a train schedule and told me which train to take.

When a train finally pulled up, it arrived earlier than the train I was expecting, and all of the other people were getting on it. I asked the train attendant if it was going back to where I needed to go, and he said “yes,” so I got on. After several stops in the other direction, I figured something might be wrong, so I got out and asked another attendant if I was going the right way. Sure enough, he said “no” and said I needed to take another train back on the opposite platform. The next train wasn’t for another hour. Soon after, he came back to ask me if the wallet he had in his hand belonged to me. I looked at it and was shocked to realize that yes, it was mine and that I had left it on the seat when I got up to get off the train. I was very thankful to him and whoever retrieved it, and I was irritated at myself for being so absent-minded. I was so happy that this had happened in Taiwan rather than back in China, where the wallet would have been scooped up immediately and no attempt would be made to return it. I learned this firsthand when I lost my phone while living in Guangzhou.

I decided to kill time by going to a nearby Family Mart across the way to get a Snickers bar and some plain yogurt, and I downed both instantly. I decided to buy a new ticket with cash rather than deal with not having enough on my e-card and having to explain upon arrival.

I finally made it back after an hour and forty-minute ride. I was able to shower off (I had never been so happy to bathe) and then strolled on over to the nearby night market one last time. I ended my evening with some local “boeuf bourguignon” at a food stall (which was just beef cheek and some broccoli) and then went on to order more beef noodle soup nearby. After the day I had, I needed all the meat sustenance that I could get.

The next morning, before check-out, I went out for some breakfast at an American-style place called “The Diner,” followed by a massage. It’s not a bad way to end a trip.

I certainly look forward to returning for more adventures. Maybe I’ll explore the southern tip of the beaches in Kenting again and perhaps finally figure out how to get to Hehuanshan in central Taiwan. Wish me luck!