Surprise hike at Yangmingshan National Park

Unlike our previous out of the country trips, I wasn’t able to craft an itinerary for Taiwan. I meant a detailed one in Powerpoint format, complete with currency information, accommodation slash restaurant options and transportation schedule. But I did have a list, narrowed down based on proximity and how they match our interests.

Here goes Scenario 2 where the lack of pocket wi-fi played a role on how things turned out for us. We planned for the succeeding days during the first night and the agreement was, we head out to the destinations requiring long bus/train travels first and the ones within the vicinity were to be visited last.

Yehliu Geopark and Yangmingshan National Park were the first two targets since they are located close to each other. Considering the travel time and route, we went for Yangmingshan first. We identified spots we wanted to visit within the park, but upon getting off the bus, we realized that there’s a designated drop-off point for each attraction. So we had to make do of where we were, and started looking around.

The diorama at the viewing center became our guide. We originally wanted to explore the colorful parts of the park but after walking almost 3kms., we figured we had to detour. Besides, the route was getting real mountainous and we weren’t prepped to go for a hike — we were wearing casual sneakers, and no, not in another country, not yet.

Going back to our starting point gave us a peek of the Jingshan Suspension Bridge, so we agreed to head towards it since we also saw from the internet that it’s one of the park’s main attractions. It was very nice, and we’re glad we went for the other direction. We enjoyed it too much that we wanted to look for more spots to see, so walked some more. By this time, we’ve decided pursuing Yehliu would no longer be an option as taking another bus ride would bring us farther from Ximending, and we had plans for the night.

We saw from the signages that there’s a waterfall within the area so we proceeded into chasing it (l o l, no pun intended) but holy guacamole, little did we know that it was going to be a death march a.k.a. hike (which we tried to avoid)!! Keep in mind that we’ve already walked around 3kms. before going back, then walked towards the bridge, and still walking. We haven’t had proper lunch (we only brought snacks to munch on during the bus trip) because we weren’t aware of what’s ahead of us, all thanks to not getting a pocket wi-fi. l o l

The walk to the waterfall was longer than the first two attractions, and there were slopes up and down that we had to endure! We were so close to giving up and just fuck it, but we’re not quitters and we didn’t want the “sacrifice” to be put into waste. I had to have something to share to the world, and here we are — me reliving that experience through this entry, and you reading this.

Man, Yangmingshan ate up our afternoon!! But hell, it isn’t called a national park for nothing. There’s no national park in the PH so we can’t gauge the magnitude of the term national park but now at least we do! I therefore conclude that a day has to be dedicated for it, and that being in full gear is necessary. Damn why didn’t I remember the movie 2012 when I saw this on Google?? More importantly, don’t forget to get a pocket wi-fi!!

Nevertheless, it was an experience one for the books and that hiking in another country is something we can declare we did!