January 1, 2014 ---- Happy New Year 2014!!! The first thing we wanted to do in 2014 was hike in the mountains. Before New Year, I flipped through my Lonely Planet book about Taiwan and found an interesting trail in Wulai called Jia Jiu Liao Trail 加九寮溪步道. It isn't far from Xindian and we could take a bus from Xindian MRT Station straight to Wulai. Soon I made the decision that I was going to go hiking on New Year Day. Nathan agreed to the plan, and then we asked our dear friend if he wanted to join in and he said YES! It was probably his first time in Taiwan, if not in life, going hiking.
Hiking on Jia Jiu Liao Trail 加九寮溪步道
Jia Jiu Liao Trail is a 20km trail running up the valley of the Jia Jiu Liao Steam. The beginning of the trail is at Chenggong Village in Wulai, and the end of the trail is at Manyueyuan Forest Recreation Area in Sanxia. To get there, we took a public bus (#849) from Xindian MRT Station and about half an hour later we got off at Chenggong stop 成功站. From the bus stop, we walked toward the red bridge, crossed the bridge and kept walking following the road till we saw the trail head sign on the left hand side and long concrete steps up on the mountain.
The trail runs along the stream for a while before turning into the beautiful forest. There are many bamboo bridges crossing steams and small waterfalls. While we were hiking, we saw someone was working on cleaning and managing the trail and met some other hikers who seemed to start from the other end of the trail in Sanxia. We planned to hike till we saw the resting hut, about 2 hours from the trail head, and then turn around to Wulai to soak our feet in the free hot spring.
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| Old suspension bridge |
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| At the Trail Head |
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| The resting hut (1.5-2 hours from the trail head) |
Wulai 烏來
Nathan and I have been to Wulai a few times. This time we just came for a late lunch after our hike and wanted to soak our sore feet in the hot spring afterward. I don't remember the restaurant we went to, but the food was quite tasty, or else we were extremely hungry. There were a lot of aboriginal dishes on the menu, such as Wild Mountain Boar (山豬) and Bamboo Tube Rice (竹筒飯). Our friend seemed to know best because he had lived in Taiwan longer, so he ordered the meal for us.
After getting our stomachs stuffed, we walked straight to the steam where we could soak our feet in the hot spring. There were many small man-made pools and a ton of people gathering around. We couldn't find a spot that we three could fit in together, so we had to separate and sit in different pools. It was quite relaxing. When the water got too hot, someone would make a new water way to let in the cool water from the steam. Very interesting experience!
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| Bamboo Tube Rice (竹筒飯) |
