My second day in Taipei

What a day! And I mean it.

We went hiking in the mountains. Two of our Taiwanese friends took us to the Yang Ming Mountain, introducing the upcoming day program as: “We will hike on a mountain trail”, followed with the side comment, “which is not so popular.” At this point I should have asked myself, “why?”. Hiking for 6 hours in the mountains is probably not a good idea, when you have not done any sports for over three months, and are not used to the heat and humidity. I like to call it “green hell”. We had to climb two mountain tops, the trail going up and down like a rollercoaster. But hell, were we rewarded! The view over the mountains, the nature surrounding us, and the experience of mastering two mountain tops is overwhelming! Not only was hiking in the mountains a totally new and thrilling (also in the sense of a pulse of 180 bpm) experience for me. Also the breathtaking greatness of the mountains and the amazing diversity of the nature made the effort totally worth it. I fear that the pictures do not really represent the feeling of the hike. I LOVE Yang Ming Mountain!

Big thanks to my co-traveller Fabian, who carried the backpack for us! Without him I seriously would have broken down.

After the hike in the mountains we went to the hot springs. It is a hot bath of natural sulphur water, supposed to be good for your skin and health. (Everybody is naked there, so I did not take any pictures.)

I had thought that we were going to a restaurant imagining all the good food I would order, until my Taiwanese friend told me, “Ok, Quinni, when we are inside you will be alone and you will have to strip off your clothes.” What?!

Bathing in the hot springs requires you to follow certain rules – which I did not know. As men and women bathe separately, there I stood in the middle of the place, naked women hanging around several pools, not knowing where to take my clothes off, where to shower and in which pool to go. I did not want to do something inappropriate. So I tried not to arouse any attention. Having dumped my clothes on some bench, I just slid into the next pool I saw. Gosh, it was like jumping into a deep frier! HOT! But I did not say a peep. It was all pins and needles in my whole body. I told myself, “you will get used to the heat, just give it a minute”. But it did not get better. At least, another woman slid into my pool, which means that I had not done anything repulsive (yet). I felt unconsciousness coming up, so I crept out, getting into the next pool. Oh my God, it was like jumping into ice water! Clever me chose the hottest and the coldest pool in a row… But to the cold pool I got used to, and after (secretly) watching other women, I chose the next pool according to where most of them went. Ahhh, this pool was exactly the right temperature! It was like lying in a huge bathtub relaxing the whole body. This was not so bad after all. (Later at dinner I saw that my arms and legs had developed a red color, spotted with little white dots, maybe the deep frier and the ice water were not really healthy.)