Taiwaneers

On the fifth day of the fifth month of every year Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated here in Taiwan. Consequently, we had a four day weekend! My sister Megan had the great idea to go camping and so off we went!!! Thanks to the previous residents of our apartment we have inherited a bunch of sleeping bags, a tent, and a proper backpacker’s backpack so we were all set.

Thursday we took the train down to Fulong on Taiwan’s east coast. We went to the beach, set up our tent and started a magnificent vacation. That day we just hung at the beach, went swimming, got some sun, walked around Fulong, had dinner, and then built a campfire of driftwood next to our tent.

Friday morning we woke up and took off to go hiking along the Taoyuan Valley trail. Beginning at Dali, the trail followed the mountain ridge along the coast. It was tiring going up and down with the ridge but beautiful; to our right the mountains of Taiwan, to our left the Pacific Ocean…hopefully Emily will get the pictures up soon! After like 5 hours of strenuous hiking the trail finally led us down into Dasi where we got some seafood for dinner before catching the train back up to our campsite, making another campfire and chilling out.

Saturday the guys (our Taiwanese roommate and one of Emily’s classmates) and I rented a couple of surfboards and had a go: Fun but extremely tiring. The Taiwan currents are strong.

Saturday night we came back to Taipei and as quickly as that the vacation was over. Emily and I started in on our mountains of homework.

We camped right on the beach, had campfires, and it was all free….and legal to the best of our knowledge!!! Hopefully this won’t change anytime soon because I can’t wait for our next Fulong weekend. Hanging out with friends who were coming and going throughout the weekend was fantastic. Back in the States I’ll be the envy of all the teeny-boppers with my magnificent tan. I love Taiwan!