Climbing the Mountain

To get into Nankan from Taipei you have to climb over a mountain. There is several trails on the mountain that you can go hiking. My first weekend in NanKan two of my new co-workers and I decided to go and hike the mountain... which was not the smartest move on our part. 

I like hiking and going on short day hikes but hiking in the summer in Taiwan is nothing like hiking in the summer in Pennsylvania. Our mistake was that we didn't get out until 9 or 10ish in the morning and by then it was already super hot. It was so hot and humid that you didn't even have to move to get drenched in sweat. Despite the heat we decided to go hiking anyway. On the mountain is a giant shrine that is about half way up. There are also tons of stairs that you climb before you even get to the hiking trail.

Supposedly there is a KTV (karaoke)set up at the top of.the mountain where to locals go to sing on on the weekend. We did not make it that far. We only made it to the look out. It had amazing views of the city.

Yeah after the overlook we headed down the mountain. Unlike going up where the path was paved this was more of a mountain trail. I have to say that I was exhausted and it wasn't even that long a trail. 

Overall it was a nice mountain and I would love to try climbing the mountain again when it is less hot and humid... so I might try again in October. 

BT: Time with my Brother

Today was my last day to spend time with my big brother. Tomorrow he is moving away and since I'll be going to Taiwan next month this will be the last time that we will see each other in probably a year or two. 

We had to think of something that we could do together that we would both enjoy. We were originally going to go on a day canoe trip since we have one and live close to the Delaware River but he was able to get into the summer training program and is leaving much earlier than planned. So we comprised and spent the day hiking. 

Our first stop of the day was to Hickory Run State Park's Bolder Field. It is basically as it sounds. It is a natural field that is filled with rocks that a glacier deposited there hundreds of years ago. Its pretty cool and the last time I was there was when I was 15 so it had been a while. The nicest thing about the visit today was since we were there early we had the whole place to ourselves. 

The second stop today though was not as good as the first. My brother wanted to check out a new trail which basically turned out to be a paved trail along side a river that you couldn't even see because it was blocked with trees. We called it quits on that and headed over to Big Pocono State Park. As children we spent a lot of time there having picnics and flying kites. Unfortunately we didn't bring any kites but we were able to get the nostalgic feeling by eating our lunch there. After lunch we hiked two of the trails around the mountain. Once we had gotten our fill of hiking we headed home so he could finish packing. 

Here is some of the  pictures that I took today: