Entry. 02: hiking in Yingge, Taiwan

I really like Taiwan. The people are friendly. The cat distribution system is awesome. It’s convenient. I could go on, but that’s not what this is about. If you didn’t know, majority of Taiwan’s people live in the cities. Taiwan has amazing nature, which I realized is an essential for me. However, if you don’t know how to ride a scooter or have a car, it’s quite an obstacle. On top of that, if you’re not in a major city, you might be even more limited by transportation.

Over the weekend, a recent friend I made asked me to go hiking. I was so excited because otherwise I’d be stuck in my apt with little sunlight. It’s been a while since I had completely been surrounded by trees.

I started the day with a croffle and strawberry milk. A croffle is a croissant and a waffle’s love child. IT WAS SO DELICIOUS. Crispy on the outside. Warm and flaky on the inside. Not to forget the sugary glaze🤩 I wasn’t full from that though, so I got snacks from 7/11. Why is it that 7/11’s abroad are 100000% better?

I ate my snacks while I waited for the train. My friend lives in Taipei, but I don’t so we decided to meet in the middle. There are a lot more accessible nature that way too. Once on the train, I pulled out my book. It’s for a younger audience, but honestly I loved reading it. It touches on the experience of a multiracial girl dealing with trauma from her parents.

I had some spare time life when I got off the train, so I walked around. The New Taipei museum was by but I didn’t have a ton of time to check it out. They had a public area designated for walking. I laid down on one of the benches and was just admiring the open sky and the perfect weather. It was warm enough to make you sweat, but with the gentle breeze blowing, you wouldn’t even know it.

I met my friend at a FamilyMart by the station when she arrived. We exchanged our how are you’s and headed toward the trail. At first, it was flowers. They were super pretty, so I took pictures. As we continued, the trail turned into steps. A lot of steps. Steep too. As soon as there was a rest area, we took it. We talked the whole time about lifestyles, careers, nature, solo traveling, this and that. You get the idea. I really liked this trail. There was a lot of variety. At some point the steps turned into dirt trails which tbh I prefer anyway. The whole entire thing probably was 2 hours but with our talking and resting it was longer hehe. If you walk often, it’s not difficult. If you have knee issues, then tbh I don’t recommend it. We eventually made it to the top. The views at the top will always be breathless. We eventually headed down before the sun could set so we wouldn’t get lost. I ended the day with a strawberry sherbet and some food for otw back. We said our goodbyes and headed for our trains.

#Lemon8Diary #lemon8diarychallenge #hiking #solotravel #taiwan #travel Taiwan

@Captain Lemon8