You better not cry, I’m telling you why, Santa Claus is comin’ to Taiwan
They say “windows of opportunity tend to slam shut quickly”, so I acted immediately when I saw a 4-day window of opportunity to climb Mount Yushan (Snow Mountain) in Taiwan during Christmas 2011. I was going to do this with Vivien Ringuede – an avid hiker friend who also believes in celebrating Christmas 4000m above sea-level. Besides, this would give us closer access to Santa Claus, as he flies down from heaven on his reindeer-driven sleigh. In fact, Santa wouldn’t even have to bother doing his usual US-Navy-Seal style HALO jump into a chimney (I hear that the US military is reducing budget for these kind of jumps anyway). Instead, he can simply come visit us on top of Jade Mountain bearing all his gifts. (Dear Santa: please can you bring a BMW motorbike with ABS control for me? Don’t ride it though. I need it to be 1st hand)
Smile for the mountains :)
The groundwork was straightforward. I contacted Richard Foster of Barking Deer and he said he would arrange the permits for us. All he wanted was our names and -get this- a “picture of us taken on top of a high mountain”. No, he wasn’t interested in how cool we look; instead, he explained that this was required by the Taiwanese authorities as solid proof of our hiking abilities. Huh?! In this day and age where Photoshop, Photosynth, Picasa, etc, rule our lives, I could have very easily produced a photo of mine supposedly taken on the summit of Mt. Everest!
Flyin’ ain’t for kitties!
The flights were easy. We booked Eva Air through Zuji.com at a cost of HKD 2,500 to Taipei and back. However, once the flights were booked, I got a big scare from my colleague when I told him the name of the airline I was going to fly. He gave me a startling piece of information about Eva Air which made me highly nervous about flying them. No, this wasn’t anything to do with their safety record, it was EVEN WORSE! In fact, what he told me had the potential of permanently scarring me for life! There was even the chance that I could end up losing my manhood! He told me (my voice is shaking out of embarrassment, fear and anger even as I type this) that ALL their flights are newly decorated in a HELLO KITTY theme!!! He then painted a pretty disgusting picture in my mind: “flight attendants would be wearing Hello Kitty uniforms, the body of the plane would have the Hello Kitty logo painted all over it, even napkins, toilets, and all sundry items would have Hello Kitty stickers stuck all over them!”
My second colleague, who evidently has no consideration for my well being, partook in the conversation by rubbing more salt into my already deep wound: “Hey Vince, maybe when you are seated in the airplane, the Hello Kitty ears will stick out from the headrest!” she commented with a big smirk on her face. (I had to go puke just after hearing that).
A quick Google search revealed that they even have a name for this ugly eyesore – they call it the “Eva Kitty Jet!“. (God, please help!) As I grimly heard all this information, I felt like someone had just sent a 10,000 volt shock down my body! I was lamenting to myself that the cost of the ticket may have only been HKD 2,500 but the “hidden charges” were insurmountable! Who can put a price on mental anguish, loss of manhood, loss of ego and loss of self-esteem? How would I ever be able to explain to all my friends that a macho man like me once flew a Hello Kitty plane? Just thinking about it sent shivers down my spine.
Anyway, after visiting a psychiatrist and attending several stress-busting classes, I recovered from this Hello Kitty-induced trauma and continued to make arrangements to reach the top of Jade mountain.
The plan
The gist was this:
2011-12-24: Fly to Taipei and hope against hopes that Eva Air has planes other than that friggin’ Kitty plane (Mr. Eva Air CEO, if you are reading this, please note that you have alienated roughly 50% of the world’s population -i.e. males- with this stupid Kitty idea).
Once in Taipei international airport, get to Taipei High Speed Railway Station and take the next train to Chiayi. Spend the night there.
2011-12-25: Take a bus to Alishan followed by a cab or a hitchhike to Tatajia (aka Tataka). Check in into Shangdong Pu hostel and do some hiking during the day.
2011-12-26: Climb Yu Shan and see Santa Claus! (I am excited! BMW – here I come!)
2011-12-27: More hiking and trail running or simply chilling in Tatajia(woohoo!) followed by a return trip to Taipei
2011-12-28: Back to Hong Kong on Eva Air :(
And.. the execution 2011-12-24, Hong Kong to Chiayi I got a ticket to ride but they don’t care
Christmas Eve celebrations started with a notice from the Hong Kong cops aka Hong Kong’s “finest” as they posted a huge traffic blockage notice by the area where my motorbike was parked. Hong Kong’s “finest” beat Santa Claus hands down in their generosity. No question about that. They are known for their charitable nature in handing out white tickets whether you want it or not! In fact, just yesterday, I received another one of their Christmas presents! It was a very thoughtful and specially wrapped white ticket just for me. It was also strategically placed right on top my motorbike’s handlebar to doubly ensure that it wouldn’t be missed. The white ticket demanded that I pay HKD 320 for parking my motorbike about 0.000000000000001mm shy of the actual parking zone. (Thanks guys! :) You’re the best!) The notice in front of my motorbike today demanded that I move it because of a road closure or else “it would be towed away!” (Guys, your gifts just keep getting better and better! What would I do without you?)
I figured it was Christmas so I would return the favor to my “finest” friends by honoring their move-your-bike-or-else request. I then decided to ride my bike straight to the airport. During the ride, I was contemplating two different contrasting scenes. Scene 1: Me, the macho man riding my motorbike to the airport. Scene 2: Me, (the macho man?) flying a HELLO KITTY aircraft!!! (Thank you Eva Air).
I got to the airport in heroic fashion, completed the usual check-in formalities and proceeded straight to Gate 60 to board. I breathed my biggest sigh of relief to date when I saw a normal looking plane parked at Gate 60. There was no cat-like monstrosity anywhere. This alone became my first Christmas present from Santa.
Normal looking plane at Gate 60
I boarded the aircraft and took a quick look around. Thankfully, it appeared to be neat and trendy looking. The flight attendants seemed to be very strategically chosen (know what I mean?) and there was even a first class entertainment system installed on all seats. I was going to say “keep it that way Mr. CEO, no need for feline features in the plane” until I opened their inflight magazine. This is when I realized that my first Christmas present from Santa was short-lived!
WARNING: the passage below may upset men of all races and ethnicities.
Here’s the opening page of their inflight magazine which is bound to set any real man running for the barf bag.
Revolting magazine cover complete with a “reader’s experience” (Pg 1)
This is what an “experienced” reader has said about the Kitty jet – “Since my last flight on the Hello Kitty jet three years ago, I have been wanting to travel with the Hello Kitty characters again. Now my dream has finally come true. The magical journey on the Hello Kitty Jet relieves stress and brings out the child in me. What a wonderful journey in the air”.
(Oh pleeeeeeeeese!!! That ain’t a dream lady, that’s a nightmare!)
And, here’s a lesson for all you boys and girls about Eva Air’s strategically chosen flight attendants. (courtesy: page 138 of their inflight magazine).
Zoe, the generous soul!
“Zoe, the deputy purser is a generous soul and passionate about her work. Reliable and attentive to details, she is the team’s No. 2 and is responsible for service procedures and schedules. She enthusiastically helps passengers solve their problems.”
(Hey Zoe, can you please solve my problem? I can’t take this torture anymore!)
Abby, the one with the beautiful smile
“Known for her beautiful smile, Abby is an assistant purser and is responsible for making sure that everything goes smoothly during meal time. During the flight, she ensures that each and every passenger is satisfied with their delicious inflight cuisine.”
(Looks like Abby will make a good wife!)
Nicole, the young and graceful one
“Young and graceful, cabin attendant Nicole assists passengers in purchasing duty free goods and helps out in many other ways around the cabin. She treats passengers as if they were family, bringing warmth and happiness to all around her.”
(Yup, always good to be kind to the one who pays ya!)
Liz, the tall and beautiful one
“Tall, beautiful and full of energy, chief purser Liz keeps a close eye on everything that goes on in the cabins to ensure that all passengers are safe and enjoy the flight. Liz has a clear, soothing voice and is responsible for making inflight announcements.”
(Looks like Liz is being sold on her sexy voice.)
And, ladies and gentlemen, here’s the biggest scare of them all. Here’s Eva Air’s very own teddy bear pilot!!
Hope this guy ain’t flying this plane!
“Eva Bear-Pilot dress up as a outstanding captain, he leads the crew fly to safety and amenity journey with the friendly professional services.”
(A pilot dressed up as a bear offering professional services???)
I couldn’t wait to get to Taipei!!
Upon reaching Taipei airport, we took a shuttle bus to the High Speed Railway station and boarded a super fast train to Chiayi. The train’s average speed was 250kmh! In less than an hour, we reached Chiayi and took our first breath of cold Chiayi air!
First breath of Chiayi air!
Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it’s a friendly Taiwanese guy!
How often do you come across someone who volunteers to help tourists and be their guide? Yes, I mean for free! Imagine two backpackers land in Hong Kong with their big bags and cameras. They ask you for directions. Would you (a) give them directions and continue with your own business (b) volunteer to help them find hotels, take them to dinner and then go home after they are well settled (c) tell them to bugger off. If you choose (c), you are no longer my friend.
Well, we met a guy in Chiayi who chose (b). His name was Allan. We asked him how we could get to Chiayi main station from Chiayi High Speed Station and he not only gave us directions but volunteered to be our tour guide! He took us on a free shuttle bus to the main station and then the three of us roamed the streets of Chiayi trying to find a hotel for the two of us! We did see plenty of hotels but what we also saw were huge buses parked near every hotel we went to. It looked like the entire tourist population of the world had descended upon Chiayi. This also meant that we couldn’t get a room anywhere except in one place which offered us the only room they had – a “VIP” room! Initially, I thought that the term “VIP” in Taiwan was used in the same way that Hong Kong uses the word “mansion”. (In Hong Kong, every dilapidated, stinky, rickety old shanty building is called a mansion – like Chung King “mansion” in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui). However, we were in for a surprise. This VIP room which came at a cost of NT$4000 per night (the only available room in the city) was the most luxury we had ever seen in the longest time! My “luxury” usually means finding a proper toilet on a hiking trail. This one took it a world apart. 3000 square foot of decorated living area, sofas, multiple televisions, jacuzzi, saunas, king sized beds – it had it all!
Here, take a look:
The bathroom – 5 times bigger than my HK apartment!
The bedroom!
The living area
Having dinner with Allan
After the feeling of luxury sank in, we reluctantly left the room and took Allan out to dinner to thank him for all his help. Our plan for the following day was to take a bus to Alishan but, as riding motorbikes has always been a passion for me, I managed to convince Vivien that hiring a scooter was the way to go! (there were no motorbike rentals, only scooters). So, we ended up renting a scooter at a cost of NT$ 1500 for 3 days. After a sumptuous dinner filled with Taiwanese favorites, we bid good bye to Allan and returned to our luxurious room. Coming from Hong Kong, we still couldn’t get over the fact that we had so much of living space in a hotel room! We got delirious and even shot a video. Here it is.
Video of the VIP room at Yoyo hotel, Chiayi, Taiwan
2011-11-25: Merry Christmas and time to go to Alishan
Luxury meant laziness. Laziness meant a late start! We left our palace at about 10am in the morning after making full of use their “complimentary” breakfast. Then came the task of fitting me, Vivien, his bags and my bag in a 150cc scooter. We didn’t exactly look like the best advertisement for that scooter but it worked. The scooter sputtered to a start and off we went.
Off scooters, a mountain road climb and freezing butts
Reaching Alishan involved a 2500m climb on a mountain road. The scooter surprisingly behaved well despite all the load, but nature didn’t quite seem to like the idea of two dudes riding on a scooter loaded with all their bags.
Two dudes, three bags and one scooter
As I learnt in my geography class back in the day: as the altitude increases, the temperature decreases. Well, it decreased and it decreased big time. The oncoming wind brought the temperature down even further. And, before I knew it, my hands had trouble hitting the brakes because my fingers went numb from the cold. Soon, I discovered, as I was attempting to speak to Vivien, that my mouth was partially frozen as well. I then remembered my ill-advised sales pitch to Vivien the previous day. “We will be able to return the scooter whenever we want to and it is way more convenient”, I pitched to him the previous day and threw in more punchlines as well to make my case for the scooter hire. Today, I was thinking to myself: “convenient? My ass. My butt is freezing, my fingers are numb and all I can say is gibberish”. Vivien was equally cold. He was trying everything in his capacity to stay warm. Soon, we made an emergency pit stop and wore all items of clothing we had brought with us. We looked like we had just come from Antarctica BUT we still felt cold!
Freezing on the scooter!
In our desperate attempt to reach our final destination (Tatajia), we somehow bypassed Alishan! That meant shaving some time off and freezing a little less but it also meant that we had no food on us for the climb to Yushan as we were supposed to do our food shopping at Alishan.
We eventually arrived at a small place which seemed to only have three buildings – a visitor’s center, a police station and a hostel. Further inspection revealed this place to be Tatajia and the hostel (quite contrasting to Yoyo hotel the previous night) was our very own Shandang Pu Hostel. We “checked in” (involved telling an old lady that we were gonna crash at her place for two nights) and immediately gobbled up several packets of instant noodles in a last resort attempt at heating our internal organs which were on the verge of shutting down from the cold bike ride.
Shangdong Pu Hostel
The beds
After we were sort of warmed up, we headed over to the visitor’s center to register our names for the climb up to Mt. Yushan the following day. For the remainder of the afternoon, we decided to go trail running on nearby hiking trails. Vivien, the better navigator of the two us, led us to Mt. Lulin and a couple of other trails. The views were, let’s just say, white! All we saw were clouds cluttering up the sky and our views. The trails were fantastic though.
Mount Lulin
Admiring the clouds in Lulin Observatory
As they say, “man has no greater fury, then his stomach scorned” (ok, I say that) but after feasting on three packets on instant noodles when we arrived in the afternoon, I wanted anything else BUT instant noodles for dinner(even grass would have done). Luckily, the lady-in-charge of this fine hostel, agreed to cook us something special. With proper food entering the stomach once again, we were revitalized and energized to make plans for the next day. The plan called for waking up at 2.30am, leaving by 3am and making it to the summit of Yu Shan in time for the sunrise. The trail to the summit is 10.8km long with about 1500m of elevation gain. I boasted to a Belgian family that was also staying in Shangdong Pu hostel that given our past experience and superior hiking skills, we could easily cover the whole distance in less than three hours. After I said that, I did feel butterflies in my stomach (probably caused by the undeserved boasting) but I did the right thing and chose to ignore it (evil always triumphs).
We then hit the sack at about 8pm in order to get up very early in the morning on the following day for the summit climb.
2011-12-26: Yushan summit The blind leading the blind in darkness
We got up nice and early at 2.30am and left the hostel by 3.10am. We started off with a gentle jog to an intersection where it looked like we had two choices. The first choice had something in Chinese written on it and seemed to be a continuation of the road we were on. The second choice read “Mt. Linglun” (or something like that). My sense of direction isn’t quite the best so we followed Vivien’s decision to go with Choice 1. His explanation was that it couldn’t have been Choice 2 as it was in a different direction, so it had to be Choice 1. WRONG. We ran for about 15-20 minutes when Vivien murmured “this can’t be right”. He pointed out that we were losing elevation quite rapidly while we were supposed to be climbing instead. Following this startling discovery, we retraced our steps back to the junction and took the second choice. The map was confusing. It looked like the same mountain had different names. All in all, Choice 1 cost us about 8km and 40 minutes.
Choice 2 took us to an elevation of about 2800m when we saw another startling sign. The sign indicated that the way to Yu Shan was actually back at the junction. We were confused for a moment. Vivien brought out his secret weapon – a 3rd map which was given to us at the visitor’s center while I decided to turn off my headlamp and look skywards for an explanation. We were in pitch darkness in every direction other than skywards. The sky was beautifully decorated with more stars than I had ever seen in my life. It felt as though as I was in a Hong Kong indoor planetarium gazing at a man-made roof illuminated with artificial stars. This was real. As I was admiring the stars, Vivien made the decision to return to the junction hoping to find what seemed to be an invisible Choice C. Apparently, the new map he referred to had indicated that the trail to Yushan was marked with stones.
We returned to the junction losing about 1 hour in the process. Then we really saw a Choice C! Under the darkness, it looked like a dead end earlier but upon careful examination, there actually was a stone marker with something in Chinese written on it. We took this trail and verification that this indeed was the right trail came immediately as we began to climb quite rapidly.
After all these navigation errors, we were sure to miss the sunrise. But that didn’t dampen our spirits one bit. We were proud that we had actually climbed an appetizer mountain during the early hours of the day. (Or that’s what we told ourselves to feel better).
Setting off at 3am for the summit climb
Viven explains our mistakes!
The higher you go the harder it gets (corporate ladder AND hiking)
The trail wasn’t particularly hard but we were like injured soldiers on a battlefield. We had little food (thanks to bypassing Alishan), we hadn’t slept well the previous night and we had just spent our energy and time doing a needlessly extra 12km or so. We were both fine until we reached Panyu lodge (3300m, 8km from the junction) but subsequently, both of us felt the effect of high altitude. Each step was followed by heavy breathing and the wind was quite strong as we were nearing the summit.
On the way to the summit
Near the summit
It took us a strenuous 1 hour to reach the summit from the lodge but when we did, all the pain of climbing about 2000m in elevation and 20km in distance sunk away in the beauty of what we witnessed. A crystal clear azure sky and a strong sun revealed the majestic beauty of nature’s creations. It was a picture perfect scene: rolling mountain ranges with unique features, a sea of clouds dangling beautifully above the valley, boulders carved by the forces of nature over several million years and a dense green forest in the backdrop. It looked like nature had her masterpiece registered in Taiwan.
Views from the summit
Mesmerized by the summit views
Jade Mountain Summit – 3952m above sea-level
I can stay here forever!
On Cloud 9!
Chicks come and go but memories remain
We had the summit to ourselves until a lady friend flew by and took special interest in us (yes, we can’t help our charming looks). She was particularly interested in our food. They say that “the best way to enter a man’s heart is through his stomach”. It looked like this friend was practising reverse psychology. She played around with us for some time and then flew away, never to be seen again. (Don’t they all?)
Our lady friend
She loves me (and my food)
Toilet is a man’s best friend
Vivien and I were particularly sleepy from the high altitude and lack of food so we decided to head down. After a couple of hours we returned to our beloved hostel where the lady-in-charge had some special food for us. I took a much needed hot shower and gobbled up whatever she had made for us. This is when Vivien pointed out that in life, one just needs three things to live comfortably: a shower, a clean bed and good food. I concurred but being the greedy bloke that I am, I’d say that one also needs a clean, western toilet and that’s priority my friend. This hostel had one of those squat toilets which is a cheap way of practising hardcore yoga executed in strict military fashion where there is absolutely no room for error. (And there literally is little room in a typical squat toilet but maybe more room than you’d find in a Hong Kong apartment). Anyway, so after doing one’s business, standing up again on one’s own two legs requires massive effort and several thousand calories. So, I say that each and every mountain hut and hostel in this world has to have toilets that aren’t just there to satisfy urgent human needs but also go one step further in actually MAKING you want to go! They say that great ideas that change the world are conceived in toilets, so imagine the kind of ideas that the world could benefit from by combining the ease and comfort of good toilets with the peace and creativity of nature. (In fact, this very idea was conceived in one such fashion – more details only for those who really want it).
The rest of the evening was spent partially sleeping and recovering from the Yushan hike. I had a productive section as well. You can very easily guess what it was from that little blurb on toilets above. (Nope, there is nothing like ‘Too Much Information’).
We decided over dinner to return to worldly pleasures the following day. Meaning returning to Taipei sooner and having a beer or two in the main city.
2011-12-27, return to city life
We had close to 9 hours of sleep and got up at a leisurely 8am. We bid goodbye to the lady-in-charge at about 9am and set for Alishan on our mighty scooter. Getting back on the scooter definitely brought back very cold memories from before. So, this time we were prepared – or so we thought. I was wearing so many layers of clothing that even a high speed bullet couldn’t have penetrated me. BUT, I was still freezing. The outside temperature was about 6 degrees centigrade but the wind effect on the scooter felt like it was minus something. Luckily, the sun was shining quite brightly so when we reached Alishan, we decided to have breakfast there and warm up in the sun. As I was rubbing my hands vigorously to revive them from the numbness, I saw several busload of mainland tourists sluggishly getting out of their Volvo buses and attempting to follow their flag wielding tour leader. It was an amusing sight. Old tourists were slouched forward under the weight of heavy cameras hanging around their necks and seemed to struggle to get out of the bus. They seemed to be taking photos of everything under the sun – rocks and stones and concrete platforms and stairs. They needed a break every couple of seconds. The tour leader seemed to have an impossible job. She was carrying a megaphone around and coaxing these slow moving sightseers to form a straight line. It reminded me of a mountain herdsman grazing his herd of cattle. It made me realize that health and fitness is the most important thing in life!
A herd of tourists being grazed around by the tour leader
We left Alishan after breakfast and made the trip back to Chiayi where we returned our beloved scooter. We then took the high speed rail back to Taipei. It was then time to indulge in the pleasures of the city. We went to a hotel called Shabu Shabu in Taipei where I discovered the hidden Gordon Ramsey in me. It was a hot pot restaurant and they had the best collection of food that I had ever seen in my life. I concocted my own special soup base which pretty much involved monkeying around with all options available. I added ginger paste, spicy sauce, peanut paste, onions, red chili and a secret ingredient to my soup base (you have to watch the movie Kung Fu Panda to know what the secret ingredient is). As they say, “serendipity is the mother of all inventions” and today, I think I accidentally came up with the most perfect vegetarian soup base. I was eating like a madman until the lady asked us to vacate the premises. The cost of the buffet was only NT$ 450 but I am sure I had eaten food worth at least two times that!
After that sumptuous dinner, we hunted for a bar with live rock music but couldn’t find one! (our navigation skills seemed to be equally bad on city roads). We eventually settled for 7-11 beers to celebrate a successful end to the trip!
2011-12-28
It was time to get up early again. We got up at 4.30am to make it to the airport in time for our 7am flight. I was back on my motorbike at 9am and rode straight to work to begin the start of a productive work day. Thankfully, Hong Kong’s “finest” had no more Christmas presents waiting for me.
Summary
Yet another fantastic mountain climb in Taiwan. Taiwan is topping my list as my most favorite place for travel. It gets my top vote for being the most friendly place for tourists and a paradise for hiking and biking.
Ok, so I had done various mini-vacations before (hiking and biking in Taiwan, climbing Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia, rustic hikes in China, etc, etc) but what I hadn’t done before was a long camping + hiking trip in true wilderness. And a family reunion in Melbourne, Australia presented the perfect opportunity to do just that. The idea was to spend enough “reunion time” in Melbourne and then disappear into the Tasmanian wilderness for about a week. Some Googling revealed The Overland Track in Tasmania as the place to go to. I started doing a bit of ground work and spoke to a friend of mine from Hobart called Keith. He told me three things during my first meeting with him which pretty much made me reconsider my plans:
a) Tasmania is home to some of Australia’s deadliest snakes and spiders
b) Doing a walk in true wilderness requires adequate preparation – carrying a tent, stove and all kinds of gear is a must. Tasmania is notorious for its weather and if you aren’t prepared, it’s goodbye baby! (Well, he didn’t say “goodbye baby” but you get the picture..)
c) People who attempt this walk without adequate preparation can potentially die of hypothermia, etc, etc. The track covers a large area and there is a good chance of not bumping into anyone else for a lengthy period of time
Actually, (a) on its own was enough to convince me to abort my first solo attempt at camping and hiking in true wilderness. The part about Tasmania being home to some of Australia’s deadliest snakes and spiders?? I like watching those creatures on Animal Planet but not in real life, thank you very much! I am no death-defying, snake-loving Austin Stevens or Jeff Corwin of Animal Planet. In fact, truth be told, I am ever scared of lizards! Also, the very idea of packing a huge rucksack, shopping around for gear, putting up a tent, etc was less than appealing to me. So, my decision was made. I was going to abort.
Then I called China Southern airways (I was supposed to be flying with them from Hong Kong to Melbourne via Guangzhou – the cheapest possible option). I wanted to check if I could return to Hong Kong earlier and do some trail running in China instead of spending two whole weeks in Australia. “No, this is a non-refundable, non-endorsable, non blah-blah-blah ticket” , came the swift response. So, there went my hopes of returning sooner to Hong Kong. So, destiny (and China Southern Airways) had decided that I was going to have another crack at organizing this trip in the Tasmanian wilderness.
I started reading up on the Overland Track online. The gist was this:
- I had to fly to Launceston
- I had to find transportation from Launceston to Cradle Mountain
- I had to book my walk with TAS (Australian Parks) and start on a particular day
- I had to find transportation from the finish (Lake St. Claire) to Hobart
- I had to fly from Hobart to Melbourne
The above steps sound simple BUT TRY IT!! I challenge you to try getting all this sorted out from Hong Kong in less than half a day! These steps sound so simple but that’s like saying that sending a man to the moon is very easy. You need a rocket, you need a man, you need some fuel and voila – you’re on the moon!
Anyway, somehow I got all this done in about 3-4 days! (Trust me, it does take that long for various logistics to align!) The next step was to come up with an itinerary for 6 days. I had plenty of help from these guys who helped me come up with a perfect itinerary.
And the hiking + camping gear… well, Keith Gelling and Dominic Rigby came to the rescue! Therefore, this trip report is brought to you by Gelling and Rigby productions! Dominic lent me his tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat and gave me a much needed how-to-pitch-a-tent 101 lesson at his place. And Keith lent me his winter gear, rucksack, stove and gave me a much needed how-to-pack-a-rucksack 101 lesson.
In fact, I have a diagram. Here, take a look at what I call ‘Backpacking – the Gelling way’.
Backpacking – the Gelling way
Essentially, the sleeping mat and bag go at the bottom, dry set of clothes go immediately above, food stove, gas canisters go right above that and then finally the warm clothes, wet weather gear, coat and over trousers go at the top.
And here’s a schematic diagram of a fit hiker hiking in the cold.
Thermals, jumpers, wind stoppers and an overcoat keep the doctor away!
So, the modern (and warm) hiker has to wear polypropylene thermals, a light jumper, a wind stopper and an overcoat to stay a happy hiker in cold weather. The happy hiker also has to use the toilet adequately, so tissue rolls have to be kept dry and well within timely reach of the happy hiker; ideally, somewhere near the top of the rucksack. You just can’t have accidents when it comes to the bowels!
At first glance, the rucksack Keith had lent me looked like I could pretty much fit all my worldly possessions inside it. It seemed to have more space than my apartment here in Hong Kong! But, packing a rucksack has since taught me a very important lesson. I even made up my own saying based on it: “He who judges a rucksack by its space will never have enough!” Ok, that might be a little hard to grasp (I am still working on refining it) but you get the point! My advice to first time rucksack packers is this: pack well, practice packing and your rucksack will have enough space!
November 28th 2011, Hong Kong to Melbourne
I flew China Southern Airways to Guangzhou in the evening. It was the shortest flight I had ever taken in my life! Basically, the plane took off and I was looking through the window and admiring all the beautiful Hong Kong city lights below, and before I was done admiring, the plane made its descent into Guangzhou airport! In fact, within ten minutes of the flight, I started to smell the Guangzhou air pollution inside the plane!
Upon reaching Guangzhou, I had an overpriced, rip-off 150 RMB noodles before boarding the next plane to Melbourne. Big rip-off but a hungry man can’t eat his money!
November 29th 2011 to November 30th 2011
Family reunion time! Basically, it involved teaching my sister’s two young kids two important principles of life (a) don’t call your mom’s brother an “uncle” because it makes him feel real old (b) “Uncle” does not know much about Thomas the train or an Octonaut (?!) -the latest action figure for kids, I think!-
Me and my 17Kg rucksack landed in Launceston, Tasmania at about 8.20am in the morning. Paul Griggs of Outdoor Tasmania (a company that specializes in Transporting hikers to and from various remote destinations) was supposed to pick me up at 10.30am from the airport. I had two hours to kill, so I had some breakfast at the airport and received some very useful advice from the bottled water manufacturer called “Cool Ridge”. Here, take a look:
Advice from the bottle manufacturer
“It’s good to GET THINGS OUT OF YOUR SYSTEM, emotionally and physically. So, don’t keep a lid on your feelings, or your Cool Ridge Spring Water. Open up and let it all out. You’ll feel a whole lot better”
Maybe the CEO of that company watches a lot of Oprah Winfrey.
I exchanged pleasantries with other backpackers and walked around the airport until I eventually got picked up by Paul. He was like a walking or rather “driving” encyclopedia on bushwhacking in Tasmania. Three hours later, we reached Cradle Valley.
I was at the Visitor’s Center at about 2.30pm in the afternoon and the ranger there was a bit hesitant to let me start that late. However, Paul and I managed to convince him that I was indeed fit enough to be able to get to the first hut (Waterfall Valley hut) before sunset.
Paul then drove me to Dove Lake (starting point of the track). I was immediately captivated by the beauty of the lake. The water was crystal clear, the skies were blue and many mighty mountains rose in the backdrop. It was serene.
Paul’s Outdoor Tasmania
Dove Lake, Cradle Valley
It was supposed to be summer in Tasmania but it certainly did not feel that way. My watch said the the temperature was two degrees. The wind in my face said it was even lower.
The first stop for the day was Marion’s lookout. The terrain completely changed by the time I got there. There were now pockets of bright white snow everywhere. The views of the mountains and the lake were even more breathtaking. I felt like a little kid in a playground. I hadn’t seen that much snow in a long time.
Snow, snow and snow!
After walking for about an hour from Marion’s lookout, I reached a small hut called Kitchen Hut at about 4.30pm and met an elderly couple there. They looked like they were in their 70s. They seemed to be walking slowly and I mean very, very, very slowly but I was in admiration of their effort. They showed me their guidebook which mentioned a sidetrack to Cradle Summit from Kitchen Hut. It said 2.5hrs return (or something similar) but I decided to do it at full speed. I left my rucksack at Kitchen Hut and made a dash for the summit.
The ascent wasn’t much but the ever increasing thick snow cover made matters quite slippery. Soon, I lost the markings on the track as the signs were probably buried under the snow. My foot sank so much deeper into the snow with each passing step that my gaiters proved useless. I was alone and I took extra precautions. I took a photo of Kitchen hut and the “landmark” nearby to maintain my bearing (basically, the landmark was a small lake to the right of Kitchen hut which was visible from a much higher altitude). I kept climbing and then it struck me, it doesn’t just get “lonelier at the top” but it also gets “lonelier, snowier, scarier and slippery-ier” at the top! At one point, I decided that it was going to be too risky to find the official summit, so I stopped at “a summit” instead of “the summit” and named this summit after me.
Views from the “Natteri” summit
This is the way to the Cradle Mountain Summit and Natteri Summit (the white snow covered track)
Coming back down the snow covered track reminded me of kindergarten. Back in the day, I used to be a big fan of sliding down on my butt on those man-made slides in the playgrounds for kids. Today, the slides were all mountain-made. My butt was transformed into an instant ski (no, not because it is that big) and I slid down all the way from the top of my summit to the bottom while maneuvering my way around big boulders and jagged rocks.
Reaching Kitchen Hut again after that little sidetrack to Natteri Summit brought a big sense of relief. I was happy to see people again. And then, I continued my way along the track to the first “proper” hut for the day – The Waterfall Valley hut. The path was simply spectacular. This section of the track alone made all the effort of organizing this trip worthwhile.
The way from Kitchen Hut to The Waterfall Valley hut
The Waterfall Valley hut
Given my charming personality, I made friends instantly after reaching the hut. There were Brad and Hannah from Tasmania, Mitzy and friends from Japan, Frederick from Sweden, Scott from New Castle and Cyril from France. And there was also a very friendly and polite couple from South Korea who looked like they couldn’t harm a fly EXCEPT WHEN THEY SLEEP! More about that later.
It was about 7pm when I got to the hut and even by 9pm, there was no trace of that elderly couple I saw back at Kitchen Hut. Brad, Hannah and I decided to go look for them. We backtracked for about 30 minutes and met a ranger who was also trying to find them, albeit unsuccessfully. The four of us came to a conclusion that the elderly couple were well equipped and probably had all important survival gear. In the worst case scenario, they would have had to pitch a tent somewhere along the track, that is, if they were not able to get to the Waterfall Valley hut before darkness.
My first night in the wilderness seemed to be going great until the bed suddenly seemed to shake violently. I got startled. I thought we were experiencing an earthquake. I panicked and opened my eyes as fast as I could and I instantly heard the equivalent of a Boeing 747 jet taking off. That noise was followed by a sharp shrill and then there was silence – pin drop silence. And a few seconds later, this episode repeated. Bed shook violently, 747 took off and a sharp shrill accompanied the noise. One look at the source of disturbance below revealed that it came from my lower berth bunk bed partner – the guy from South Korea. He was snoring. And this was no ordinary snoring, it sounded like GODZILLA was snoring. Brad and Hannah were kept awake as well. I slept intermittently during the lulls before the storm, i.e. when the plane was simply taxiing instead of taking off!
The sun was shining bright at about 6am. It was a clear blue sky. It turned from winter and snow to summer and sun overnight! I was repacking my rucksack and desperately trying to get my sleeping mat and sleeping bag back inside their original cases. I tried, tried and tried again but eventually resorted to violence. I put the sleeping bag inside my rucksack and gave it some nice Rambo-style punches (sorry Dominic) to get it to go in. Mitzy (the girl from Japan) who was also my bunk bed neighbor, probably thought I was crazy. I realized that those campers who really manage to repack their sleeping bags, mats and tents into their original cases every single day deserve my deepest respect. I think the manufacturers use some kind of ultra-high vacuum method to make them extra-compact before selling them.
This was also the first time in my life that I used a compost toilet. I was expecting some kind of design like the ones I had seen while hiking in villages in China.
Basically, when I was hiking in villages in China, there was a pigsty in the basement and on the immediate upper level, there was a carefully designed, strategic hole in the ground. While doing one’s business, the “human droppings” were meant to fall right through this hole and directly enter the pigsty basement. This was the cue for the pigs to go on a rave eating party. The pigs would have probably been looking up that hole towards “heaven” and would have probably been thanking God for all the gifts from above! Any human spending more than 2 minutes near that hole area would have died an excruciatingly slow death from foul smell.
In comparison, the compost toilets on the overland track were a world apart. Firstly, it didn’t involve squatting. So, getting back up on two feet didn’t involve a
high degree of fitness. Secondly, it did not stink even a fraction as much! There was some compost in a bucket by the side of the toilet. After usage, pouring a little bit of that compost into the toilet actually dried out the waste resulting in less stink.
Also, to keep the Overland Track hikers entertained during such visits to the compost toilet, there were poems written on toilet doors that were surely entertaining but probably didn’t do much to aid the “dumping” process. I’ll tell you why. On the door, there were some nice and rhyming poems about wombat poo. They say that many great ideas are conceived in the toilet. I thought of one such idea – basically, a great one line summary of this Overland Track toileting experience. It even rhymed. Here goes: “If ya want to use the Overland Track loo, you better take a lesson in wombat poo”. Apparently, a wombat suffers big time when pooing; each oblong shaped dump it creates is, in fact, very painful and a nightmare for the poor thing! Now, you tell me, would you really want to read a rhyming poem about a wombat suffering from constipation while you take your 6am dump in a compost toilet in the wilderness?
Speaking of wombats, here’s one I saw in the wild
Anyway, so back to the Overland Track. My morning breakfast was boiling water + instant mashed potatoes powder + oats. It was an instant appetite killer but nonetheless, it was much needed energy for the body.
I left a little late in the morning at about 9am for the best side trip of the day. It was called Barn Bluff. I could see the summit from the Waterfall Valley hut and it looked majestic under the clear blue sky. The views from up there looked very promising.
Barn Bluff
The good thing about leaving so late in the morning was that the ones who had left before me had left footprints in the snow on the way to the summit. I simply had to follow their footprints to reach the summit. But despite all that extra help, I got lost! I could not find the way to the top and so, I started to go back. But luckily, I met Mitzy and her friends a little way down below the summit. Together, (actually mainly Mitzy) we managed to find the right track that lead to the summit.
The views from up there were indeed splendid.
Footprints in the snow
View from the top of Barn Bluff
On the way back down, I met Brad and Hannah who had left Waterfall Valley hut even later than I did and they gave me some rather surprising news on the elderly couple from the previous day. Apparently, the two of them were too tired to reach the Waterfall Valley hut the previous day and had instead resorted to sleeping overnight somewhere on the Overland Track in one sleeping bag. They did not have a tent either as they had jettisoned it at Kitchen hut as it was too heavy to carry! They finally made it to Waterfall Valley hut today morning and were planning to stay there for 2 nights in order to recuperate.
After summiting Barn Bluff, I went back to the Waterfall Valley hut, spoke to the elderly couple and left for the next hut which was called Windemere hut. On the way to Windemere hut, there was a small sidetrack to a lake called Lake Will. I had the privilege of being introduced to a fascinating Overland Track bird en route.
Meet the Currawong
This bird looked just like any other crow but gave the term “bird-brain” a whole new meaning. She was like the Yogi bear of birds! She was capable of finding zips in rucksacks, opening them up and disappearing with any snacks she found! I found my rucksack’s zip opened up and the plastic bag which was inside the zipper bore marks of attack by bird beak! But, I was the one who had the last laugh as that plastic bag only contained my non-recyclable junk!
Lake Will was beaming of a bright sky-blue color and evoked a very soothing feeling.
Lake Will
Finally, before reaching Windemere hut, I passed through Lake Windemere (named after the one in Lake District in the UK). It was so calm and serene there that I felt I could sit there forever and read a book.
Lake Windemere
After reaching Windemere hut, as usual, it was time to unpack the sleeping bag and sleeping mat, have my noodles + oats for dinner and then, try and go to sleep by about 9pm. Brad, Hannah, Mitzy and the South Korean couple arrived much later. About one hour into my sleep, I could hear the South Korean Boeing 747 start his engines again and my sleep was interrupted by frequent and relenless takeoffs.
In two days, I had experienced winter + summer but Tasmania is really known for its rains. Someone told me that there is a one in ten chance of it NOT raining in Tasmania. We had been lucky the past two days but not so today! When I woke up, it was misty and there was plenty of drizzle. I usually like rains but carrying a 17Kg backpack in wet weather was a different story.
The destination for the day was New Pelion Hut. The signboards said it would take us five hours to get there but it always took us an hour or two less than what is said on those signboards.
I had seen snow, rain and sunshine in the past two days but today, I saw a combination of rain and tropical rainforests as I made my way to Pelion hut. And, I discovered that slush was the best friend of tropical rainforests. It continued drizzling and the way to Pelion Hut was adorned with tall trees and plenty of greenery on either side of the track. But, a rather unwelcome result of that combination was plenty of slush on the track. It didn’t matter whether I had worn the best brand of Goretex boots or the best gaiters in the world – it was pretty much guaranteed that I was going to have wet and muddy feet. There was no getting away from this slush!
On the way to Pelion Hut
The rain was heavy at times and my feet turned cold and wet. Walking the track for the most part was still very enjoyable. I could hear birds chirping and the air I was breathing in felt like it was cleansing my soul! About three and a half hours later, I reached Pelion Hut. I had originally planned to do a side trip to Mount Oakley from Pelion Hut, but on a notice board in the hut, we were warned about that route to the summit of Mt. Oakley. It said that the slush on the track to Mt. Oakley was waist deep! And, “waist deep” in Australia was probably more like “neck deep” for us Asians! I already looked like I had just come off working from a coal mine. The combination of not showering for days + rain + slush left me super smelly. I didn’t want to worsen that. So, I was more inclined to just sitting back and chilling in the hut.
Then we heard an epic speech from a tour guide in the afternoon urging us to climb Mt. Oakley. I can’t remember his exact words but his speech was enough to wake up a slumbering Scott and it also rekindled the adventure spirit in me. Scott and I were soon back on the trails and were armed with our gaiters. Unfortunately though, those gaiters weren’t much of a defense against the slush that lay ahead!
The jagged summit to the left is Mount Oakley
The track to Mt. Oakley went through a field covered with button grass and a creek ran through it. The rangers urged us to follow the actual track which had plenty of deep puddles of water. The track frequently felt like it was simply going to suck us in alive like a quicksand. However, one way to avoid being sucked in into this quicksand was to dance around the actual track – something we were discouraged to do as it could end up widening the track and destroying vegetation. So, the choice in front of us was simple. We could either (a) follow the actual track, risk sinking neck deep into slush and risk falling completely inside an unexpectedly deep puddle of muddy water OR (b) dance around the actual track thereby potentially keeping dry but risking destroying vegetation. Any normal human being I knew would have gone for choice (b) (yes, I have BAD friends). But, not Scott! Scott wanted to follow the actual track which, he explained later, was more because of “the enigmatic nature of the puddle” rather than actual care for vegetation. He liked the thrill of not knowing how deep a muddy puddle of water was before he risked putting his foot inside one of them. And, he certainly didn’t know! He reminded me of a determined and wounded soldier taking several hits to himself during a battle, but still gathering every ounce of remaining energy left in his body and marching on!
The deep slush and slush incarnate – Scott
We marched on in our attempt to reach the summit and went through a pristine rainforest. We saw sunshine and rain alternating every five minutes. The weather seemed as unpredictable as a woman’s mind. We were still hopeful of making it to the summit but as they say “hope is the last thing to disappear”. It wasn’t all that bad though because we almost did reach the summit but the views from up there were kind of white! It was cloudy. We retreated a little disappointed but then nature had a surprise for us. It cleared up and we saw a beautiful rainbow in the horizon.
Views of the valley from near the summit of Mount Oakley
Scott explained to me on the way back down that there was yet another reason for his unique desire to fall into slush. He wanted a free mud bath to feel rejuvenated.
We sighted a wild kangaroo on the way back (Scott corrected me and said it was called a wallaby).
Wallaby (not sure of the difference between a wallaby and a kangaroo)
Pelion hut was a newer hut in comparison and had about three rooms filled with bunk beds. Brad, Hannah and the South Korean couple arrived much later than we did. Brad and Hannah strategically switched their beds after they were sure of where the Korean 747 was parked. A Dutch couple, Gert and Caroline, took their place instead in the “danger” room.
The next day morning as Brad and Hannah saw the Dutch couple, Gert looked them in the eye and exclaimed “You rascals, you knew, didn’t you!” Brad and Hannah played dumb. Gert continued, “the whole bed and poles were vibrating!”
By then, the word of the South Korean couple and their snoring talent had spread!
I made the mistake of leaving my shoes outside overnight to try and get them to dry. It was a big mistake. When I woke up in the morning, we were back to winter + cold weather and my shoes were frozen! It took an extraordinary amount of work just to put them on as we were preparing to leave for the next hut – the Kia Ora hut.
The destination for the day was Kia Ora hut. There was also an exciting side trip for the day. It was to summit Mt. Ossa. The track to Kia Ora hut was stunning, most parts of it felt like I was going through an unspoilt tropical rainforest. The only issue was with my feet as they were still frozen from leaving my shoes out in the open the previous night. There was also some fresh snow on the track.
On the way to Kia Ora – snow on the track
Rainforests
I reached the turnoff to Mount Ossa about an hour later. I left my heavy rucksack there and tried running uphill for a little while to “unfreeze” my foot and palm.
Turnoff to Mt. Ossa
Mt. Ossa
As I was climbing, there was heaps of snow and it got much, much colder. I could see Scott and Cyril below and I waited for them. Scott decided to retreat after a certain point as he thought it was too risky to continue in the snow. Cyril and I tried climbing to the summit. There was one exceptionally difficult part on the way to the summit. It was a steep vertical section and the only way to climb that seemed to be to stretch all four limbs to the maximum possible extent.
The snow covered boulders which acted like footholds were very slippery. Cyril, being much taller than I was had less problems. I struggled to get up that vertical section but eventually succeeded. Then a sense of fear overcame me. My right hand was also a little frozen and I did not have full control over my frozen right foot.
Cyril and I were the only ones at the top and the weather seemed as unpredictable as ever. My biggest fear was that the palm of my right hand and the bottom of my right foot would go numb from the snow and the worst part was that I still had to go down that awful vertical section!
On the way to the summit
I decided to stop there and Cyril didn’t want to continue on his own. So, we took a few pictures, barely 300m from the real summit and turned back.
View from the summit of Mt. Ossa (almost)
That hard vertical section we faced while going up felt even harder on the way down. Later, we were told by Mitzy and a few others who had made it to the top that there was a different way around that difficult section.
Anyway, I felt increasingly relieved and much safer as we started heading downwards. My frozen right hand and right foot were finally warming up once again. I was thinking to myself that Mt. Ossa was only 1600m high. I was imagining what the guys summiting Everest must be going through!
Upon reaching Kia Ora hut, we needed some much needed heat in the hut and Frederick, our residential hut heater expert from Sweden tried to start a fire.
Frederick trying the coal furnace
Possum
The evening was spent playing charades in the hut. By this time, we all knew each other and we all certainly knew about the South Korean couple and their snoring talent! So, as they arrived, a lot of us suddenly wanted to “experience camping in the wild” and started pitching tents!
This was supposed to be a big day. A lot of us wanted to skip a hut called Bert Nichols Hut and hike all the way to Narcissus hut which was the final hut on the Overland Track for us. We had 21km to cover.
On the way to Narcissus hut, we passed through three waterfalls.
Fergy Falls
The second waterfalls
And finally, the Harnett Falls which was the most beautiful.
Harnett waterfalls
Cyril, Frederick and I got lost on the way back from Harnett Waterfalls as we were trying to find our way back to the main Overland Track. We missed the trail we had originally taken. This resulted in one heck of a bushwhack. Cyril kept his ears tuned to the sound of the waterfalls and followed his nose to what he thought was the side track we had originally taken down to the falls. He was right but that little excursion took a toll on his leg muscles and left Frederick with some battle scars.
We reached Bert Nichols hut in the afternoon. It was the best hut we had seen on the Overland Track. It was a shame we were skipping this hut instead of one of the others. Hannah told me later that she had heard that the Park Authorities had spent AUD 1.4M renovating it!
Bert Nichols Hut
Inside the hut. It even had decorative items hanging from the roof
Important message for backpackers!
In the evening, we reached Narcissus hut which was probably the worst hut on the track. Bert Nichols hut, in comparison, was a world apart! On the way to the hut, there was a nice suspension bridge made of wooden planks. This bridge supported only one person at a time.
Suspension bridge
Narcissus Hut
Sophie, Mitzy, Cyril and Scott arrived a little later after I did and spoke about 1m long snakes they had just seen on the way! I was quite relieved that I hadn’t seen any!
We were all familiar with each other by the 5th day and exchanged contact information in order to keep in touch. We were soon going to part ways as four of us had to leave very early the next day morning for the final leg of the walk – the walk from to Cynthia Bay from Narcissus hut which was 17km long. The others on the group were going to take the ferry at 8.30am the next day.
The Group
The South Korean “Boeing 747″ snorer didn’t skip a hut like the rest of us did and spent the night at Bert Nichols hut. However, that, by no means, meant a snore-free night for the rest of us. That original snorer might not have been at Narcissus hut but he sure seemed to have passed on a legacy to many others! There was a snoring orchestra going on at Narcissus hut that night. I think everybody was tired from a long walk, bored from eating the same food everyday and smelly from wearing the same clothes!
Scott was also woken up in the middle of the night from indoor showers. Someone on the upper berth of his bunk bed seemed to have a leaking water bladder. Some three litres of leaking cold water was directly aimed at his sleeping bag!
I woke up at about 4.30am and was ready by 5am. Scott, Cyril, Fred and I left then and had 17km of track to cover to reach our final destination on the Overland Track – Cynthia Bay from Narcissus hut. We walked through more tropical rainforests and plenty of slush. Glimpses of Lake St. Claire appeared beautifully on one side of the track. This section of the track was also beautiful but I had a feeling that we had seen it all already. The previous sections of the Overland Track had set the bar very high and these enchanted forests we were now seeing weren’t anything new. It took us close to four and a half hours to reach Cynthia Bay.
Narcissus hut to Cynthia Bay in Lake St. Claire
Fred was too tired to walk after a while!
Almost at Cynthia Bay
And finally at the Visitor Center at Cynthia Bay
That evening, it was time to get back to proper meals and a proper bed. I was relieved to know that I would be eating something other than oats or noodles for dinner!
December 8th, 9th 2011
In the comfort of my sister’s place back at Melbourne, I was enjoying man-made contraptions and delicious food. The bed was clean, I had sumptuous dinners and kept watching back to back movies on a large screen! Nature was sure beautiful over the past couple of days and, now, I had come to a conclusion that man can also make beautiful things like a PS3!
Summary
The Overland Track was a magnificent and surreal experience. I had never experienced summer, winter, spring and autumn, all in one long trek before. The transition from snow covered tracks and snow-capped mountains to blue lakes and green tropical rainforests was simply incredible! The company of people I met and stayed with in the huts was something that I will remember for a long time to come. This vacation gets an A+.
Stock markets worldwide were crashing. Consumer confidence was diving. The two most boring and overused words in the English language were once again being heard – “Financial Tsunami”. In such situations, there are only two things one can and should do – hike and bike!
The 1st week of August, 2011
And so, I made plans with Romain Riche to once again revisit the beautiful Taroko Gorge. The last time we were there, we took a car up to Wuling (3000m) from our host Jeff’s place near Taroko Station (ground level). We did some high altitude hiking in Wuling but missed summiting Qilai North Peak (3600m) because of physical exhaustion and poor visibility.
This time the plan was to go back up with a vengeance. But slowly. Very slowly. That’s because the plan called for biking up to Wuling (90km distance and 3000m elevation) instead of driving up there in the comfort of a car. And yes, I do mean bicycle, not a motorbike. After reaching Wuling, the plan was to summit Qilai North Peak and other neighbouring peaks the next day before riding back down to Jeff’s house in Taroko station the following day.
The plan
11th August 2011: Reach Taipei and take the train to Taroko Station. Meet Jeff there
12th August 2011: Ride the bike up to Wuling (90km distance and 3000m elevation)
13th August 2011: Summit Qilai North Peak (3600m) and its cousins
14th August 2011: Ride back down to Jeff’s place near Taroko Station
15th August 2011: Do some hiking near Taroko Gorge and return to the world of work, emails and stocks
11th August 2011
As both of us were late in getting to the airport, our biking and hiking trip had to be preceded by some running to the airport gate. Like VIPs, we arrived just slightly late at the boarding gate.
We reached Rihang Su aka Jeff’s house at 1.30am on Friday.
12th August 2011
The big day was finally here. The plan was to do a 90km long bike ride from an elevation of 0m to 3000m in one day.
Contrary to the advice I usually give to fellow backpackers, I was travelling with a HEAVY backpack. I had everything including a Netbook and Garmin equipment in my bag. At that point, it all seemed important enough to warrant the pain of transporting all of it all the way up to 3000m elevation on a bicycle.
We had about 5 hours of sleep and left Jeff’s place at 8.45am.
Getting ready for some serious biking!
Soon enough, I learnt how to use the gears on the bicycle. First stop was Tiansiang which was 25km away from Taroko, at an elevation of 500m. As we were riding our bikes, the gorgeous Taroko Gorge appeared beautifully – sometimes on the left and sometimes on the right – as the mountainous road meandered through dimly lit tunnels. It was a surreal feeling.
The beautiful Taroko Gorge
We stopped for noodles at Tiansiang (400m) and continued pedalling up, up and away. And then I heard a voice. It wasn’t a hidden ghost or a secret inner-voice. But, it was accompanied by pangs of pain. I finally realized what it was. It was my butt. My butt was complaining big time. Carrying 15kilos on my back and pedalling up steep roads on a bicycle had its toll on my butt. I wanted to ask the famous Jennifer Lopez a question: “How do you insure your butt?”
Lunch at Tiansiang
The butt-breaking journey showed no mercy. After every 500m climb or the passage of 30 minutes (whichever came first), there was a signal from my butt to my brain to stop for a butt-break. I heeded the warning signals. Every butt stop was accompanied by the same question: “We have sent men to moon, build kick-ass (pardon the pun) missile defence systems, built ultra-fast super computers, so why in the name of the King of Butts can we NOT build a bicycle seat that doesn’t kill the butt?”
Putting on a brave (and artificial smile) withstanding butt-pain
Unfortunately though, there was no one to answer that question. Just me, myself and the mountains. And also Romain. But, even he shared the same misery. Slowly, steadily and painfully, meter by meter, we pedalled away through the misery and continued our never-ending climb.
By the time we reached 2000m, that’s all my butt could take and my butt could take no more. It demanded an end to the ordeal. And so, we stopped by what seemed like an old Taiwanese restaurant and I asked the lady there in my sympathetic voice and broken Mandarin whether she could please let the two of us stay the night at her place.
“500 bucks per person”, came the reply in a very business-like fashion. My butt would have paid anything for a stop then. I accepted the offer spontaneously and soon enough, the lady’s son escorted us to some basement floor where she had some excellent beds and toilets. Okay, “excellent” might be an exaggeration but anything that didn’t involve the word “ride” and “bicycle” on this day was indeed an excellent choice.
Butt relief for the day
The Taiwanese restaurant/accommodation place
Enjoying “Taiwan beer” hoping it will cure all butt problems
We slept at about 8pm and work up at a leisurely 8am the following day. Our butts needed that sleep to recuperate.
13th August 2011
We left the lady’s place at about 8.30am after having some much needed breakfast to reenergize.
Leaving in the morning
Reluctantly, I gently placed my fragile butt on the bike seat again. It felt like a hot iron rod was making contact with a recent wound that has far from healed. Cussing once again at the lack of man’s imagination in building an injury-proof bike seat, I continued pedalling. The altitude was 2000m and I was overjoyed at the fact that there was only 800m to go. Then Murphy’s law kicked in. “When things appear to be on track, you don’t know what the hell is going on”. How true. We were sweating and huffing and puffing all the way up to 2500m when suddenly, a 10-minute downhill stretch wiped off a cool 200m elevation gain. The downhill stretch felt great but I knew deep inside that this was going to be one of those things that you temporarily enjoy but end up paying for later.
Feeling my ass
Yet another unpleasant surprise for the day was our mistake with the altitude. We realized after we pedalled our way up to 2800m that there was not just 200m left but 400m more to go! That bit of disturbing news made my butt plan a coup on my mind. I was forced to be a wuss, get off the bike and push it upwards on all the hard uphill climbs. I felt like a loser each time tourists passed by in their fancy vehicles yelling “Ga Yau” (“add oil” – sign of encouragement) as I was pushing my bike upwards. All the macho man feeling inside me disappeared with the altitude!
Finally, as the clock ticked by, my perseverance paid off. We were 3100m above sea level at Wuling (Hehuan San). The sense of accomplishment was big, very big! I had never ridden a bike longer than 25km before and never had I pedalled up more than 500m in altitude!
After our high fives and mini celebration, the next stop of the day was Chengkong Cabin which was on the way to Qilai North Peak (3600m). We could see the Qilai North Peak summit from Wuling; it rose majestically high. The sharp ridge leading to the summit looked quite scary from where we were.
Celebrating after covering over 3000m in altitude on a bicycle
This is Qilai North Peak (3605m)
We started the hike to Chengkong cabin at about 2.30pm and reached a first no-name cabin, 4km away, in about an hour. Chengkong Cabin was about 2.5km further from this cabin. This was where climbers to Qilai North Peak were supposed to spend the night before climbing to the summit the next day.
Trail on the way to Chengkong Cabin
When we reached the Cabin, we were pointed to a small structure shaped like a Mongolian yurt. We weren’t expecting much in the hut – just some mattresses and quilts would have made us very happy. Unfortunately, the cabin didn’t even have that! We gazed at the bare floor as we recollected the surprisingly great accommodation we had the previous day.
The Cabin
Fellow Taiwanese tourists were puzzled when we told them that we didn’t have sleeping bags or yoga mats. They told us we were going to freeze without them and even asked us to head back to Wuling to be on the safe side! Then it struck us – we had heavy backpacks, a Netbook, Garmin equipment and yet we didn’t have the basic necessities needed to survive in the wilderness!
The latest Vivienne Tam high altitude sleeping attire
The Taiwanese tourists couldn’t bare the thought of us dying in their presence. So, they hatched up a plan for us. One of them lent us two yoga mats and the other gave us tent covers which we were told to use instead of blankets. We gladly accepted their offer with gratitude.
Dinner was dry instant noodles as there was no provision for hot water! Although, we did have the opportunity to “cook” instant noodles with natural and very cold stream water. Romain seized that opportunity but I went with the eat-raw-noodles-right-out-of-the-box version. I think both versions were equally terrible.
Our “dinner” – dry noodles
Wearing everything I had and eating dry noodles
The night was cold, very cold! We had to get up every now and then for two main reasons: (1) it was so cold that we had to get up and shake the body around to generate some heat (2) our fellow hikers were keen to impress us with their powerful snoring abilities. In fact, we could hear human “snore” versions of various species of animals sleeping in their natural habitats. For example, we had the “bear” version. This version was a loud snore with some double/triple bass that ended with a high sustained note. Then we had the “wild cat” version. This started off on a very high note, almost like a shrill and did not show any signs of abating.
There was so much loud and constant snoring that sleeping for most part of the night was ruled out. I was thinking to myself that human snoring was as unique as a fingerprint. It felt as though a snoring competition was being held in that cabin that night.
A constant gaze at the watch finally revealed the magic number I wanted to see. “04:00” – that was our cue for let’s-get-the-heck-out-of-here-and-climb-Qilai-North-Peak.
Leaving at 4am
14th August 2011
The snoring in the cabin could have almost started an earthquake! Eager to get away from the noise, we refilled our water bottles with cold stream water and set off on the climb to the summit. The distance seemed short – only 2.7km long but this was no ordinary climb. We had to hurl ourselves up through 700m of high altitude and negotiate very steep ridges that went up and down. Ropes were installed in some of the difficult parts of the climb. We were lucky with the weather – it was a bright, sunny day and the views were simply majestic. We could see the summit of Qilai peak as we headed closer and closer to the top and it looked threateningly scary. The last part was a very, very steep ascent to the summit which reminded me of the final climb to Mt. KK in Malaysia.
We were at the summit in 2 hours – about 6am. The views were among the best I had ever seen before. Simply spectacular. Undulating ridges, greenery, tall peaks, rolling mountains, grasslands – it was like a perfect picture painted by nature.
Finally!
Views from the summit
After enjoying the views from the summit, we headed back to Chengkong Cabin where we said our goodbyes and thank you to the tourists and made our way back to Wuling.
Then came the highlight for the day. Riding back down to 0m elevation from 3100m on a bicycle! That thrill ride started at 9.30am. My butt was wondering why I was back on the bike but at that time, given the thrill of what was coming, my mind took over and all complaints stopped. There was some initial torment as the road went up to 3200m before a rapid drop but I somehow managed to get over that climb in my new not-so-heroic way – I pushed the bike uphill! Romain was a true macho man and didn’t get off the bike at all.
Then came the adrenalin rush. What a feeling that was. The bike accelerated from 0kmh to 45kmh in something like 10 seconds without any effort at all. Pedalling was the last thing on my mind – so I only used the brakes where I really had to. All the effort and butt pain from the previous day paid off. Even my butt was enjoying the thrill of the downhill ride! That adrenalin rush even gave way to some clever thinking. I thought of coining my own proverb then. “Like elevation on a bike ride, money is hard to gain and easy to lose!” (It still needs some fine tuning).
In less than 4 hours of mostly downhill riding, we were at Jeff’s place again. 4 hours – that’s all it took! Riding up took close to 15 hours! This gave us another idea. We had biked up and down on a bicycle but what about doing the whole thing again on a motorbike?
Upon reaching Jeff’s place, that idea took shape. We ended up renting scooters to ride up to Wuling again the next day. I even had a theme for the day – “All altitude gain and no butt pain!”
After we rented the scooters, we did a test drive to the Pacific Ocean and back before returning to Jeff’s house for a fine and truly deserved dinner and beer.
Touching the ocean
15th August 2011
We got up nice and early at 5.30am to begin our ride to Wuling. At 6.15am, we were on our scooters riding away to glory. I was reminiscing the time I had to pedal up that distance. I felt like looking at that steep road and yelling “in your face road!” I saw a couple of other insane bicyclists riding up to Wuling and yelled “Ga Yau”. It was my turn to encourage this time. The riders on the steep climbs could only muster a nod, much like me 2 days back!
Riding back up to Wuling on a scooter
All it took was 2.5 hours to cover the 3200m climb and 90km distance on a scooter! Riding back down took only 1.5 hours! Man has certainly advanced in the field of high-speed transport but is yet to advance in the field of designing proper bicycle seats!
In the afternoon, we said our goodbye to Jeff and left for Taipei. Romain got an upgrade to business class on the flight back to Hong Kong while I remained in the cattle class. I donated all my change to charity hoping I would get lucky with the upgrade the next time around!
Conclusion
Busting my ass in Taiwan was definitely a memorable experience – an experience I am sure to repeat BUT without a heavy backpack and with a custom made seat for the bicycle (with lots of cushion).
The original plan was to climb Mount Kinabalu (4092m) in two days. However, a persuasive argument from ex-Pat Sin Leng/Plover Cove owner Hannes Niggli was enough to convince us that only wussies take two days to climb Mount KK. Here’s the email he wrote to us:
”
hey guys , i saw your conversations regarding KK on FB .
somehow i can hardly believe that you are planning to stay over that stupid hut on the way to top !!!
its less then one hour from laban rata to the top so why for gods sake would you stop there ?
you have to beat the clouds which develop on or before 10am and there is an earliest starting time but if you start at 7am (maybe even earlier possible ) then you can make it before 10 .
i have done this with my fit girlfriend in 1999 and we went up and down in 5 hours or less . we beat the clouds .
if you stay over in this hut , then you may meet people who have never hiked or so…those maybe need to stay over….but not you guys .
are you crazy ?
one month ago some reasonably fit people from my dragonboat team also went up , also in one go…..
in case you have some unfit people with , then you may split up on way up , shoot up to the top and go back down ( maybe 25 minutes ) to laban rata and wait for them. then stay over (with all the idiots and turtles) and make another attempt the next morning .
so you have two climbs (which give you better potision for ownership….)…….
dont be stupid .
as you have to rent a human guide , make sure you request a guide who is fit and has participated in the yearly race .
we have done the same , but he still could hardly follow us ……and to suffer as we made him was not really on his plan….but he made it…on the decent he had no chance follwing us.
if you really need two days for this hill , then i recommend you also introduce this to sharp peak….on first day just hike to ham tin beach , stay over in a bungalow, get up at 3am in the morning and attempt sharp peak , from ham tin to top of sharp peak it will take longer then from laban rata huts to KK .
just my 2 cents .
anyway enjoy it !
rgds hannes
ps : vince , if you really take 2 days for that hill , i will insist that your name to be changed to turtle…..no more express…..
”
Any real man after reading that email would have droped the 2-day plan. We did the same. We didn’t want to lose face and I didn’t want to be called a ‘turtle’. So, we settled on a one day trip. That left one question unanswered: what do we do for the two other days we had at Kinabalu? The plan was to be there from June 2nd to June 6th and climb Kinabalu on June 5th (Sunday).
We came to know of Joanne through Romain who had taken her diving class before. I wrote to her asking for suggestions on what to do. She came back with some touristy walk-in-the-park kind of idea. I resisted and explained that we were super fit trail runners. She then came back with an itinerary for Mount Trusmadi (second highest mountain in Kinabalu – 2640m). The attraction was that it was supposed to be a pristine forest. The city equivalent would be like a Grade A building in Central, Hong Kong. This was supposed to be a ‘Grade A’ forest. And, as several internet sites had warned, it was also supposed to be a much, much tougher climb than the famous climb to Mt. Kinabalu. We were quite easily sold on the idea (although it came at a super steep price – RM 1950 per person!)
June 2nd 2011
The team was supposed to consist of Romain (who was supposed to join us for the Mt Kinabalu climb alone and go diving for 3 days prior to that), Vivien and I, but Maggie, after having learned about the trip 2-3 days before, also wanted in on it. We managed to get the required permits for Mt. Trusmadi done in time for her as well. Actually, they originally said it would take 2 weeks to arrange the permits, but as we all know, “time is money” and therefore, money can buy time! It pretty much took one day to get the permits done for her!
We flew the budget airline Air Asia from HK to KK. After including the cost of food on the plane, cost of breathing oxygen in the cabin, cost of being allowed to fart in the cabin, cost of putting the hand luggage in the overhead compartment, etc, etc, the total bill came up to around HKD 3K per person for a return flight. We reached KK at about 10pm.
Our hostel was a clean and cheap hostel (70 Ringit for a two person room) called Kota Kinbalu backpackers’ lodge.
Kitchen in the lodge
The Room
June 3rd 2011
Get up time was 5.30am! Our guide Alex was supposed to meet us outside the hostel at 6am to take us to Tambulan, a 2-hour drive from KK. Alex greeted us with a nice, big smile and we responded with half the intensity of his smile as we were all still massively sleep-deprived! That trip to Tambulan from KK was a welcome two hour extended sleep in the car.
Tambulan
From Tambulan, we had to change to a 4-wheel drive to get to the start of Mt. Trusmadi.
This is the reason why we needed a 4-wheel drive!
It felt like we were riding a wild horse as the car swerved left and right in the slush!
That ride certainly woke us up and we were ready to begin the 3.5km hike up to Cibon cabin where we were to spend the night and climb to the summit the next day morning for the sunrise.
Our group at the start of the hike. Alex is the bald guy with a big smile! We’re all wearing anti-leech socks!
The forest was beautiful and pristine. The trail was marked every 100m and the trees were covered in rich carpet-like moss. The different shades of green were glimmering under the effect of the sunlight – while it lasted. We are also blessed with heavy rain en route (God also gives you things you didn’t ask for!)
The group – the guys on either end are the guides appointed by the forestry department
Vivien is either enjoying the scenery or thinks he is Jesus Christ!
You find these shelter points every 1km or so
Forest pics
Insect dangling from the canopy
Rich carpet like moss everywhere
Ropes and ladders in the steep areas of the climb
Pitcher plant for which this trail is famous for. Looks like a jug, holds water and unsuspecting insects that go in there are killed and eaten as the water is slightly acidic!
And we finally reached Cibon Cabin! The cabin was full! A bunch of school children were also visiting the same time as us and most of the beds were occupied.
And thanks to the heavy rain + intense sweat, we reached WET! Very wet! Our clothes were full of moisture and on top of that, it was cold at Cibon Cabin and there was no electricity.
The toilet was at the back of the cabin and it was a very basic squat toilet. A pipe containing water was the only luxury! This is when I missed my apartment in Hong Kong. It made me realize that the toilet is the best invention that man has ever made!
Our clothes soon started to stink. The sweat + slush + rain + unclean environment was a perfect recipe for a stink bomb. This stink bomb felt even more dangerous than any other weapon of mass destruction and the only way to contain it was to use Ziplock bags! And, that’s what we did. We had a load of wet/muddy/sweat and rain drenched stinky clothes compressed inside Ziplock bags. It was sealed airtight!
Cibon Cabin – Maggie and Vivien in their bunk bed
Me chilling in my 1st class bed
Protecting myself from cigarette smoke
We somehow had to sleep and get up at 3.30am the next day to make the 1.5km journey to the summit of Trusmadi!
June 4th 2011
Non-stop school children chitchat from my neighbors in this Taj Mahal woke me up sooner than expected. It was 2.30am. Well, there’s only one thing to do when you wake up early in a place where there’s nothing to do and that’s nothing! So, I was staring at the spider on the bunk bed above me until 3.00am. Soon, Maggie yelled “guys, it’s three thirty” from the neighboring upper bunk bed. Vivien was the last to get up. There was no way I was going to walk in the slushy, pitch dark environment outside to do my morning wee. Luckily for men, natural toilets are abundant in nature. Anyway, before I divulge too much unnecessary information, let me get back to the events that unfolded.
After “freshening up”, we were all set to climb to the summit. The walk to the summit was only supposed to be 1.5km long but it took as a whole two hours! That’s because with each step, our shoes sunk deeper and deeper into the soil. Removing each sunken leg from the slush took an enormous amount of effort!
Putting on a brave and tired face at 3 in the morning before the summit climb!
900m to the summit!
Pitcher, pitcher everywhere!
Slush, slush and more slush!
And we reached the summit!
Now, if I say that the view from the summit was majestic, nothing like I had ever seen, etc, etc, I would be lying! Our view from the summit was very.. let’s say ‘white’. And I mean clouds!
What we did see however, was remnants of a helicopter crash that happened about a month ago. Apparently, someone was trying to land on top of Mt. Trusmadi but the sudden wind crashed the chopper!
Chopper down
Inside the fallen chopper
The fallen chopper somehow sent both my legs and bowels in motion! I was on max speed back to the great Cibon Cabin to use the fine loo there! Anyway, I will spare you the details.
At about 10am, Maggie, Vivien and I (along with our super stinky clothes) made our way back to the start of the trail and eventually to Tambulan on the 4-wheel drive and then to KK.
Goodbye Cibon Cabin
Cleanin’ my shoe with a big broom at the end!
The 4-wheel drive takes as back to Tambulan through the slush!
So, in the evening, after reaching KK and our Backpackers’ lodge, we met Romain who had finished his diving lessons. We also had to arrange permits for the Kinabalu climb the next day but the guy who drove us to Mt. Trusmadi did that for us. He had the equivalent of ‘Guangxi’ in Malaysia.
Romain had rented two scooters for us to ride from the lodge to Kinabalu park the next day. We still had the evening to kill and two scooters on hand. So, we decided to hit the beach. Romain and I were the drivers while Maggie and Vivien were the pillion riders.
Maggie was left with an easy choice – which handsome guy would she pick to drive her to the beach? The answer, of course, was me! (sorry, Romain). Romain had the fine privilege of driving a fellow dude to the beach.
The handsome guy gets the girl
The second handsome guy is stuck with the dude
The beach was fantastic. Glittering water against the backdrop of a gorgeous sunset!
The KK beach!
The group
After a round of drinks at a nearby bar, it was time to end the day and prepare for the Kinabalu climb the following day.
June 5th 2011
Get up time was 5am! Romain and I rode our little bikes to the park while Vivien and Maggie decided to cab it for an extended two hour sleep. Maggie assures me that her decision to take a cab had nothing to do with my driving skills!
What a nice bike ride that was! There are two great pleasures in life. One is running on a mountain trail and the other is riding on a mountain road. Today was filled with both pleasures!
Romain on his bike en route to Kinabalu park
The view of Mt Kinabalu – gorgeous day and majestic look!
There is an event held every year in October which involves running up to the summit of Kinnabalu from the park entrance and back! Needless to say, the participants are definitely crazy (and fast). Some crazy, fast guy actually managed to run from 1900m (park entrance) to 4092m (summit) in 1.5 hours and made the trip back in about 1 hour.
The hall of fame! Romain wants his name on this. I want it too but my approach involves some vandalism and graffiti
Taking a group picture at the start
The weather couldn’t have been better. It made up for the crappy weather we had on the summit of Mt. Trusmadi the previous day. The trail to the summit consisted of two big parts. The first part was a relatively steep trail from 1900m (park entrance) to 3000m (to a lodge called Laban Rata – reminded me of Ratan Tata – Indian billionaire). The second climb was from 3000m to 4092m (this one involved walking on a huge rock in high altitude with a steep climb at the end. It felt like we were walking on the surface of the moon).
Giant squirrel en route
Romain with our guide
A group picture on the way to Laban Rata
The lodge Laban Rata
The lunar like surface after crossing Laban Rata
Walking on that lunar like surface was a struggle for me. I was out of breath. I had to stop every 3 minutes to take deep breaths. The view was quite literally breathtaking!
Breathtaking views of Kinabalu
And finally..
On the summit of Mt. Kinabalu
On the way down, I decided to show off my racing skills to our guide. I wanted to show him what a fast runner I was and how he was going to watch me run in awe. I put my earphones on, started pumping music and hit the engines. Romain was on jet fuel while I was on mere petrol. He dashed down like a rocket. I had no hope of catching him but the “realistic” mission was to scare the guide not Romain. Initially, I managed to create a 15 second gap between him and me but as soon as I reached the Laban Rata lodge, the older guide was just 2 footsteps behind me! I was shocked. I attributed his speed to luck and continued to accelerate. Still, the guide was only 2 footsteps behind and CHOOSING to be there as he was the guide. Not only that, he was wearing crappy footwear and talking on the phone using one hand. He was also exchanging pleasantries with the fellow guides when we were running downhill! Multi-tasking, worse footwear and faster than me!!
All my effort aimed at shaking him off was futile. 1 hour 25 minutes is what it took me to run back to 1900m and the guide finished right behind me with utmost ease as if this was a walk in the park.
Further probing revealed that this guide had actually done that crazy Kinabalu race in 3 hours 15 minutes!! I was humbled.
Nothing is more humbling that getting your ass kicked by an older guide
The beautiful weather we had in the morning changed to heavy downpour while we were on our bikes and riding back to the hostel! My glasses were fogged up, the helmet visor wasn’t working and riding at 60kmh meant that the rain felt like whip lashes on the face and eyes!
We had to stop at a fried rice place for temporary relief from the rain! We had just 11 bucks left between us. We ordered food for 9 bucks to keep a 2 buck stash just in case “shit happened”. The bill came back at 11 bucks!! (service charge!!) Shit happened sooner than expected! We then got back on our bikes and rode nonstop to the hostel, broke and drenched!
In the fried rice place to seek temporary relief from the rain
We reached the hostel at about 6pm. We did a different kind of hiking that night – hiking from one bar to another!
June 6th 2011
For a change, we got up late! Our flight back to Hong Kong was only at 4.20pm.
We headed back to the beach for lunch and then made our way to the airport!
Lunch options – Fried rice and more fried rice
This was yet another fab trip! No greater pleasure that riding a bike in the mountains or running on the mountains with friends!
After reaching my home in Hong Kong, I had to hold my breath for a good 2 minutes for a completely different reason. I was removing the stinky clothes from my bag and dumping them into the washing machine…
The original plan was to visit Mount Yushan in Taiwan and do a couple of kick ass hikes there. Unfortunately though, our last minute planning meant that we weren’t able to secure permits on time. So, Richard Foster of http://barking-deer.com/ aka “the barking deer guy”, who was helping us with the Yushan permits, told us that we could instead visit Taroko Gorge near Hualien. We were initially disappointed to learn that our dream hike in Yushan ended up being reduced to something sounding like “Tomato Gorge” near Hualien but a quick Google on the name lifted our spirits. The images of Taroko Gorge on Google were stunning! Apparently, the place was occupied by the Japanese several years back, hence the Japanese sounding name.
Apr 28th 2011
Armed with a US visa and a sense of adventure, Romain and I set off to Kaohsiung in Taiwan. Well, actually, I was the one who was armed with the US visa, which apparently is a good enough substitute for a Taiwan visa but Romain, who is a French national, didn’t need a visa to visit Taiwan. Anyway, the plan was to land in Kaohsiung, then take the subway to Kaohsiung Main Station in order to find the train time table to Hualien for the next day. We were then supposed to find a place to stay the night in Kaohsiung.
However, China Airlines didn’t quite appreciate the subway timings in Kaohsiung and we ended up arriving 1 hour late at the airport at around 12am. So, we had to instead take a cab to Kaohsiung Main Station. But then again, the Main Station was also shut! Some cabbies outside the station were flocking around, waiting eagerly to drive us to some hotel. Unfortunately though, there was a big barrier between us and the cabbies. Not a physical barrier but a big LANGUAGE barrier! My Putonghua was sadly limited to “Bu Ji Tao Putonghua” (can’t speak Mandarin) which worked great but unfortunately wasn’t a problem-solver by any means. So, the cabbie then called some Taiwan Tourist Translation hotline (can you believe that?!) and bingo! We were communicating! I asked the translator to ask the cabbie when the morning train to Hualien would depart. 0712 came the answer! With that, we decided to go to a hostel to catch some ZZs for a few hours. We ended up choosing the same hostel where Romain stayed the first time he was in Kaohsiung.
This hostel was called Cozy Planet. I called the owner, a guy called Sam who speaks flawless English and he volunteered to pick us up from the station and drive us to his hostel. He even upgraded us to some special room which included a TV, a computer and … a lady who’d make just ANY man do the dishes.
Ok, fine.. a POSTER of the lady.. but it certainly had the same affect!
After sleeping for a mere 4 hours, we were up nice and early the next day, all set to board the 0712 train to Hualien. We took a morning walk to the station at 6am and bought tickets to Hualien City station which cost about 1400 bucks for two.
Apr 29th 2011
Riyang or Jeff?
After a 5-hour long journey, we were all set to meet with The Barking Deer guy’s contact in Hualien station. A guy named Riyang Su who lives in Taroko.
We got off the train and soon saw Riyang waiting in his white van and waving towards us. He seemed like a very friendly guy, more like a long lost friend than just a tour guide. He drove us to his house in Taroko in about 20 minutes.
The house was nice and big! We had two bathrooms and the first floor all to ourselves. I saw Riyang’s name cards everywhere. However, one version of it read “Riyang Su” (the guy we knew) and the other read “Jeff”. We suspected that there could be a fellow guide living in the same house or maybe it was Riyang’s son who was called Jeff. We were inquisitive enough to ask Riyang who Jeff was. “In Taiwan, this guy, that guy, every guy is Jeff” came the response! Ok, so it was a fake English name and quite a popular one in Taiwan! Well, Riyang aka Jeff speaks passable English but you’ve got to speak slowly, very slowly! Otherwise conversations will last longer than you originally intended!
Jeff’s house!
Romain and Jeff
We weren’t really sure what kind of adventure was awaiting us in the next couple of days but we soon realized that Riyang had everything set for us! He drove us to the Taroko Information Center on the same afternoon for our first glimpse of the gorge. It was beautiful! Truly, a geographical wonder!
Taroko has many, many beautiful trails. Hard ones and easy ones. At the tourist center, you can get a map of the place with the common trails on it. However, the timings on the trails are written more for grandmas and grandpas. If it says you need 4 hours to complete a trail, simply divide that by two! We did our first little walk/trail run that afternoon. A trail called the Shakadang trail.
Shakadang Trail
Shakadang Trail – along the gorge. Water is in a beautiful green color
We did a little something extra as well. We went up from about 100m to 850m hoping to find something special but only found a bunch of red flags before we ran out of time and had to return.
Gimme a minute – I am off to the Pacific Ocean
Once we were back at Jeff’s house, he gave us some surprising news. “My house only 5 minutes from Pacific Ocean”, he said. That gave us an idea. We knew he had some great bikes, so we rented two of them and off we went riding to the Pacific Ocean!
Gimme 5 minutes – will ride to the Pacific Ocean and back!
Swimming there was not an option though, as the ocean is over 100m deep, even in the parts closest to shore! But, riding a bicycle on a pavement right next to the ocean was an option and we did exactly that! It was truly an awesome feeling!
After riding for a while, we returned to Jeff’s home for a nutritious and sumptuous dinner in the evening, topped with Taiwan Beer. We were looking forward to more adventure in the following day.
Apr 30th 2011
Biking ain’t easy
We weren’t really sure what we were going to do until the very last minute. Not because there wasn’t sufficient planning but because we didn’t quite understand what Jeff was telling us! But, things became crystal clear when he got our bikes out in the morning, took a picture of us and said ‘bye bye’. Our adventure for the day began shortly thereafter! We had two awesome bikes, a map of Toroko Gorge with the names of several trails on it and plenty of energy and a sense of adventure!
Taroko Gorge stretches a long, long way. From Taroko station, the altitude gradually rises from 100m to 3000m (Wu Ling). At the 23km mark from Taroko station, there is a place called Tiansiang which is at about 450m in elevation. Many beautiful tunnels adorn the road to Tiansiang from Taroko town. Biking on this road is a surreal experience! And, I realized soon, that it can also be a very difficult experience!
Getting ready for a 50Km bike ride!
Biking along the road that hugs the coast of the gorge
Not sure how the Tour De France guys do it but my little elevation gain from 100m to 400m was far from easy! Romain was up ahead speeding away and I was struggling a good 100m behind! Also, my use of the bicycle gears weren’t exactly right. I learnt on the trip that the gear controls on the left side of the handle bar are different from the controls on the right!
Riding in the dark tunnels was especially a thrilling experience! Some of the tunnels were dimly lit and we felt like we were riding bicycles in some caves! There was also a section called Swallow Grotto where they were lending free helmets to everyone crossing that area as it was prone to falling rocks! Not sure how a helmet would really help when a boulder makes a hard landing on your head!
After a thrilling experience (and a lot of pain for me), we reached Tiansiang some two hours later after some hardcore pedaling for 23kms. From there the trail running began! Armed with a map, we attacked as many trails as possible in about half the time it said it would take on the map!
Baiyang Trail – we took an extended path to get there
Baiyang Trail – Picture Perfect! On the way to the waterfalls
Chilling on a suspension bridge
By 4pm, we had biked 50km, hiked/ran close to 20km and were still going strong! We returned to Jeff’s place after that for our next mini adventure. This was a van trip to the Pacific Ocean again. It was actually a viewpoint from where we could see a steep cliff precariously dropping straight into the Pacific Ocean.
Steep Cliff descending straight into the ocean
50Km of biking, 20km of hiking/running and now enjoying the Pacific Ocean!
When we were at the Pacific Ocean, we were watching a crane dumping a speedboat onto the water. This speedboat was then driven to a trawler for bringing back the catch of fish for the day.
Crane picking up the boat and placing it near the ocean
Boat bringing back the catch of fish for the day
This fish called Ma Yiu (or something similar) weighed over 50Kgs
The day ended with another great dinner and left us tired but longing for more adventure!
May 1st 2011
Time for the high altitude stuff!
We had covered a lot of the relatively low altitude terrain (<900m) and so it was time to climb! Jeff drove us to a place called Wu Ling in the morning. Wu Ling is over 80km away from Taroko town and about 3000m in height. It took us 3 hours to reach the place. The temperature plummeted from 27 degrees to 6 degrees in a span of two hours. It was also drizzling which made it feel even colder.
Our plan for the day was to summit Hehuan Shan (3158m) and after that to climb Cilan North Peak (3600m). There was one big catch though - we didn't have the required permits to climb either mountain! But then, as they say, "where there's a will, there's a way!"
“Korea First, Hong Kong Next”
Jeff’s plan was to have us sneak behind a group that had the permits! This was a group from Korea and Jeff warned us to maintain radio silence and follow the Koreans. “Korea first, Hong Kong next”, he emphasized. So, if the permit guys were to check the Korean group, we were to pretend to be a part of that group. This group was 100% Korean. Romain and I were clearly the odd ones out! Unless we had a face mask on, there was no real point in maintaining any radio silence!! The Korean guys were dressed in multiple layers of clothing heavy enough to cause a crater in the ground. Contrastingly, Romain and I were wearing shorts!
As we started making our way to Hehuan Shan, we discovered that “Korea first, Hong Kong next” meant we wouldn’t reach the peak for several hours! And this was a climb from 3000m (Wu Ling) to the summit (3158m!) What would have taken Romain and I a mere 45 minutes looked like it would end up taking a couple of hours! So, we decided to shed our temporary Korean looks and return to trail running! In 40 minutes, we were at the summit!
Wu Ling – 3000m
The path to Hehuan Shan – 3158m
The heavily dressed and super slow Korean bunch
On the peak of Hehuan Shan
Luckily, we didn’t have any permit issues. Our plan then was to descend to the start of the trail (near Wu Ling) and take another trail to Cilan North Peak (3600m). On the way back down, we saw the Korean bunch still struggling to climb up to Hehuan Shan. We wished them luck and started heading towards the second trail for Cilan North Peak!
Our initial impression was that it would be an easy climb as we were to start at 3000m and climb up to 3600m (only a 600m difference) but this was far from reality!! What we didn’t know was that we were heading for a mammoth knee-and-calf-busting hike covering close to 1500m in total elevation through all kinds of slippery slopes!
The trail from Wu Ling to Cilan North Peak passed through three cabins (these were tents for temporary stops). The first cabin was at 2500m! So, the trail went down from Wu Ling (3000m) to 2500m (the first cabin). The descent was gradual and easy. This didn’t take us much time to cover.
The trail was also immensely beautiful. The colors on either side of the trail were spectacular and the vegetation and feel were typical of high altitude places. Tall trees, unpredictable weather, mist rising from the clouds and that fragrance of fresh mountain air! I felt couple of years younger by just taking a deep breath and admiring the landscape!
On the way to Cilan North Peak, from Wu Ling to the first cabin
After reaching the first cabin at 2500m, there was a 300m climb to the next cabin which was at 2800m. This was no ordinary climb, there were ropes, ladders and some big boulders in places that we had to negotiate.
At the 2800m cabin, they checked for entry permits that were needed to climb to Cilan North Peak. We didn’t have them! After some innocent pleading and reassurance that we were experienced mountain climbers, they let us continue. We took photos with the permit guys – a family that lived in this cabin. The guy there spoke great English.
Second cabin, these guys live here and check for permits!
Then came a climb that I won’t forget for a long, long time! This was by far the hardest climb I have done in quite some time. The altitude went up from 2800 to 3530 and it was one hell of a steep climb. 90 degree climbs using ropes while battling fatigue generated by a combination of hard exercise and breathlessness caused by the relatively higher altitude. Because of recent rains, the slope at several parts were so wet and slippery that it felt like the legs weren’t moving at all, despite all the effort pumped into making them move. We eventually reached another rocky slope amidst inclement weather and bad visibility. We had to take a break to refuel.
Taking a much needed break at 3500m
We could not see much beyond a certain point and it seemed like we had missed some turn at the 3530m mark which was to lead to the summit of Cilan North Peak. We were supposed to reach 3600m but instead we ended up seeing a huge drop ahead. It looked like we had missed the turn to the summit. Realizing that visibility was low and that we were running out of time (Jeff was waiting for us in Wu Ling), we had to turn back.
The peak to the left is at 3600m, that’s Cilan North Peak
We reached Wu Ling at about 4.30pm. Jeff was worried. The Korean bunch made it down from Hehuan Shan in a couple of hours and told him that we had taken off without them! They asked him to call the police! He breathed a sigh of relief after seeing us and congratulated us on summiting two difficult peaks within a span of a couple of hours!
Returning after summiting Cilan Peak (well, almost!)
In hindsight, we did feel a little bad because, in truth, we were 70m short of the summit! But, we decided that this would count nonetheless!
Wu Ling
After taking more pictures, we headed back to Taroko town. I was freezing as it was raining and my tee shirt was wet from a combination of both sweat and rain. My socks were also wet and the body had taken quite a beating from all that climbing.
The descent to Taroko town took us to a spot at 1500m where we quite literally were just above the clouds!
Above the clouds! Is this Cloud 9?
We returned to Jeff’s place late at night for some much needed rest!
May 2nd 2011
This awesome adventure looked liked it would soon come to an end as it was time to head back to the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong.
However, before that, we had one more 3-hour trail run left in the morning! This one was from a point called Swallow Grotto (before Tiansiang) to almost the start of Taroko Gorge. The beauty of this trail was that it rested precariously at about 700m above the gorge and followed the path of the gorge for the most part. One slip and we would have fallen all the way down to the gorge (and would have broken a couple of bones in the process). This is probably why this trail also required a special permit.
Hi Hamish, Hi Corby
Jeff didn’t know our official names. So, he decided to use some random names for the permits. So, today, I was called Corby Ganesh and Romain was called Hamish Black!
Hamish Black and Corby Ganesh!
Start of the trail
Trail runs at an elevation of about 700m above the gorge
You slip and you faaaaaaaaaaaaaaall!
View of the gorge from the trail
The trail finished at a suspension bridge which connected the mountain to the road.
Suspension bridge
As we were taking photos on this bridge, we saw dozens of tourists walking out of big Volvo buses. It looked like their biggest exercise for the day was to negotiate the steep stairs on their way down from the bus! Romain and I were wishing that we would never end up like them!
Well, all good things eventually come to an end and so did that trail and the trip to Taiwan! We returned to Jeff’s place after this for a shower before boarding the 5-hour train back to Kaohsiung.
In the night, we flew back to Hong Kong.
Summary
This was an A+ trip! 50km of biking, 60km of hiking/running and an altitude climb at 3560m! Couldn’t have asked for more! Riyang Su aka Jeff was a fantastic guide and it felt like we were visiting some friend who knew exactly what we liked and was facilitating that.
Taroko is a place to revisit! We have plans of doing a longish trek from Wu Ling (3000m) to all the way to Toroko Gorge (300m) next time around! Maybe preceded by a nice and long bike ride from Taroko town to Wu Ling (100m to 3000m).
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