An Exciting Trip with the ‘Rents
It’s been a long time since my last post, but that’s because I’ve been extremely busy these last two weeks. On April 30 the ‘Rents flew in from Singapore, and we spent six sweet days driving around the beautiful mountains of Taiwan.
Our trip topped 1,000 kilometers through some incredibly rugged, mountainous terrain. We went from the sea to a peak elevation of nearly 10,000 feet, and enjoyed the narrow, windy mountain roads along the way.
From Fengyuan, Nok and I made the drive up to the international airport just outside of Taipei. We picked up Mom and Dad at the airport, then headed to a small city called Sansia which was just an hour south. After a night in Sansia and a morning spent seeing a big temple and “the Old Street,” we headed east and then south, down a windy mountain road to a place called Wuling Farm.
At Wuling, we spent two nights in a beautiful campground with a spectacular view (and even a few monkeys), before heading to over the mountains again to Taroko Gorge National Park. After a day in Taroko, we headed up the scenic East Coast of Taiwan along some superb cliff-side roads, before spending the night in Suao and enjoying its rather strange “cold springs.”
The next day it was back to the airport, but first we made a quick stop in Taipei to head to the top of the world’s tallest building, Taipei 101. Sadly, the ‘rents left soon after, but it was an excellent trip that we won’t soon forget.
This crude map shows the approximate route we took. I will write in detail later about each of the stops along the way, but since my camera batteries died I’ll need to wait for pictures from Mom and Dad before I can get to everything.
Even with six days and 1,000 kilometers, you can see we only touched a fraction of the island. Guess we’ll have to plan another trip soon. And sadly, no, we didn’t almost die.
May 19, 2008 at 10:15 pm
It was neat to talk to you guys while you were still on your trip. It sounds like a ton of fun, not to mention that is a huge part of Taiwan that you guys got to see. When the ‘rents come to visit us, there will be nothing half as exciting as that going on. We will probably surf once, but I have to work the whole time they are here.
Did scroggins make it the whole trip without any more accidents?
May 20, 2008 at 10:18 am
Yeah that was pretty lucky timing when you called. That’s too bad you’ll have to work when Mom and Dad go to Oregon. Oregon’s a beautiful place and I really wish I could come spend some time there too. In fact, when we were driving on the mountain roads of Taiwan, we remembered that time with the rental car in Oregon on the old fire roads, with you out chucking rocks out of the way.
Scroggins made the trip without any more “accidents.” He’s turning into a great car dog, actually. And he made friends with Mom, since he had to sit in the back seat most of the trip.