Today we started the day with a visit to Jhihben National Forest Recreation Area. Central Taiwan is all mountains, so we were up in those a little bit. It was just beautiful and the area is known for their hot springs so the hotel had a lovely hot spring spa tub.
I'm an experienced road tripper - I quickly claimed the back row of bus seats and made myself comfortable. When we stopped at the rest stop I was out cold and Nicole took a picture of me.
We ate at a Rainforest Restaurant with food from the Masalu Aboriginal Tribe and it was good, but the best part was absolutely the mango. Mango is in peak season right now in Taiwan so it was just so juicy and sweet. This was honey mango, so even sweeter than regular. I promise you have never had mango like this in the US! We bought it and they peeled it up for us right there, then I ate the whole thing
We then went to the national forest area and did some hiking. It's so green and humid here but I managed a pretty decent little hike!
Walking in to the park, just a taste of what was to come.
This little area is a cold spring. The water is always below 22 celsius and has little bubbles in it, so it was a fantastic place to put our feet in. A group of us sat here for a while and cooled off then I took off up the trail for a little bit.
It may not look super steep but it was a pretty intense grade here, and this was the bottom! On one of the switchbacks I came up the crest and there was a tiny deer but I wasn't quick enough to get a photo.
This is about as high as I made it, I was down at the bottom pretty close to that stream so it shows how far I got. It was about 2.5 miles by the time I was done.
And here's where I stopped. Those stairs were STEEP and the red sign there is a warning sign that it gets steep and dangerous. I can take a hint!
You can actually see the beads of sweat on my face here. I drank so much water all the time on the trip, like 3 times as much as at home, and just sweated it all out every day. And it wasn't even the hot season!
Down by the cool pool they had this really cool spot with a suspension bridge and some raised walking paths.
This might be about the best photo I've ever taken of an animal, this big monkey family was hanging out at the gate as we were leaving the park and the patriarch was just chilling watching us. He made the whole family take off down the road as we came through so we got amazing shots of the mamas and their babies as they went.
Just a little head scratching going on.
Look at the babies!
It was the biggest family, I don't even know how many there were in total.
This is the hotel spa, all the little spouts and seats were like massage spots where the water was designed to relax you. The water started at 40 celsius but we used it so much it dropped to about 36 before we left. It was so relaxing after the busy trip we've been having, kind of the perfect night.
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