Experience some cultural differences in Wulai

Wulai is place near Taipei and really famous for the waterfalls located there. Despite the strange travelling experience I had made two days before, I decided to visit this highly recommended place to do a hiking trail there and watch the waterfalls.

Getting to Wulai from Nangang is easy and due that you can use the MRT it is convenient again. So I had to take the MRT to get to a station called Xindian and finally take bus from there to Wulai. Usually taking a bus is easy, as long as you know the number and color of the bus (here they use different colored numbers to mark the busses, that does not mean that the hole bus is painted in only that one color). You even do not need to know where you have to get out of the bus, as long as you bring something written in Mandarin which makes clear where you want to go, the bus drivers will let you know when you have to get out of the bus. The bus to Wulai is one of these extremely easy buses. You find the description where it starts at the tourist information which is located in front of the MRT Station and the destination is written in English on the bus, for that it is nearly impossible to miss it. Than just exit at the final station and follow the crowed, which will definitely be there at the weekends.

I did not follow the crowd, I took a look at my map and asked a Taiwanese who arrived with the same bus and had some foreigner as accompany, which made me sure they could help me with some English at least. Beside that they described me where to go and which places I should not miss, they asked me if I would like to join them. When I say them, I mean an international male who had two Taiwanese ladies to show him the amazing sides of Wulai. I expect that you start asking yourself why I name him international and not say that he is Scottish, for he was born in Scotland. In fact he was born in Scotland, moved to the US where he lived near the Grand Canyon for several years, before he moved to California for the time he studied at a University and finally he came to Taiwan in last august. Beside the high number of different countries he had lived in, he had travelled to an even higher number of countries and has his family spread all over the globe. This makes him an international man to me. For all this experiences we had a lot to talk about, and this was what we did during our walk to the hiking trail. While the two of us decided to walk there, the Taiwanese said that the distance is too far and they preferred to go by taxi. This is one of the main cultural differences that I had experienced during the last two month here in Taiwan – the Taiwanese like to stay outside, as long as it is shadow and they do not have to worry about getting tanned and as long as they do not have to walk too much.

When we arrived at the Nature Park we found the two ladies sitting under a pavilion enjoying some green tea. We did a small hike with the distance of nearly two kilometers together and finished the whole trail with two additional kilometers as the group of two people. Beside the fact that the trail consisted only of stairs the Nature Park we were walking through, offered a lot of nice things, flowers and small animals to see. The best part was this natural swing I found next to the trail.

And of course the waterfalls are really something you should not miss, when you stay in Taiwan and plan to do a daytrip by only using public transportation.

After the hiking and a nice dinner with rise, made inside a bamboo, the others went to a hot spring place and I went back home – the weather for hot springs was already too hot for me.

But in the end, this weekend turned out as a good and enjoyable one for me.

(Pictures will follow later the day)