Day1
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Day6
Day7
Day 7. Kuan Yun -> HOME!
It's all downhill from here! We just had to make it over the nearby highway summit.
The mountain scenery was impressive! (sorry if I sound like a broken record)
The snow was scattered, but it was definitely getting colder.
More and more snow, until we hit a road block with a frustrated police officer telling us that we could not pass because there was just too much darn snow (and likely no snow plowers in the country!). I wanted to call for a helicopter to rescue me by that point, and Mark was also mentioning the fact that we might not be making it to work the next day, but we found some people who spoke English who told us a very long detour that we could take. It was only noon by this point (we had an early start that day) so we pressed on. We went through a very long tunnel and came out to see even more snow (VERY rare in Taiwan, and everyone tells us how lucky we were, though I don't look at it that way)
After that we kept driving and driving. It snowed, and even hailed. My pants were frosted over, and we were wearing garbage bags to protect ourselves from the wind (not the easiest thing, since they make you slide around on your seat). We went down random roads, and we were too cold to stop to talk to eachother to talk about the directions. We just drove and drove. The fog was so thick that I usually couldn't see anything in front of or behind me and I couldn't take pictures most of the time. We followed a sign scratched in the mildew on a post, and ended up going down a very steep road. There was no way we were going back up this road because it was so steep. There were hairpin turns, and funny signs such as this one to warn you of your fate:
After the descent, we finally exited the huge national park. Check out our outfits!
It was significantly warmer after that quick descent. I could finally stop to take pictures. I had to take a picture of what had become my life saver on the road- the mirrors. Every corner on the highway was insane and we absolutely had to look at these mirrors before taking a turn.
We were sort of in the area of Lishan, but a few hours past it by this time. The towns we went through were very different looking from any other towns I've seen in Taiwan.
Dogs chased our scooters... and huge turkeys roamed the streets!
Even though we were surrounded what looked like cliffs to me, this didn't stop the Taiwanese from farming on it.
We were in such a rural part of Taiwan, that I guess they don't have garbage service and so there are sections of the highway where people can dump their garbage (even a pulley system for you to send your garbage to the middle of the pile- not just on the edge of the highway). I was surprised to see it, perhaps it is cleared every once in a while because it actually wasn't that big in size.
We were in and out of the fog again at this point (notice the size of our 'highway' we were following- no idea where we were at this point).
But we were much happier because it was much warmer. We stopped to look at another suspension bridge.
And if the rarity of snow wasn't enough, we were also lucky to run into some rare 'Formosan Rock Monkeys' feasting on some pig food along the highway! They were ugly.
Here is a reservoir just past the town of Wushe, called Wanda Reservoir.
After stopping for lunch in Puli, we were finally HOME! The helmet heads made it!
Thanks for looking. Now get off your butt and come to Taiwan!