Exploring some stunning scenery just around the corner

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Time do go hiking while I still can. I leave the house a little too late in the morning, take the MRT to Xindian, the last stop on the Green Line, which takes me already a good 45 minutes. Then outside the station to wait for the bus to Wulai with a lot of old Taiwanese people, who seem to be constantly hiking everywhere. When the bus comes, they try to do the idiot Chinese thing of pushing in before everybody gets off, but I stand my ground, hop on and secure the last seat. No point in being overly polite and offering my seat to rude, old people who are still fit enough to hike all over the island anyway.

40 minutes later, I'm in Wulai. Lonely Planet describes it as 'rural, bucolic splendour', a perfect example of the usual tired, old clichés that seem to prevail in their guidebooks, especially as of late. But scenic it surely is around there. Nanshih River winds its way through sharply rising, green mountains, forming a spectacular divide that can easily compete with Taroko Gorge. Lucky for me, not many people know about this place, so no other foreigners and no busloads of mainland Chinese.

I grab a quick lunch of fried rice noodles and some grilled rice cake on a stick, wash it down with a watery grass jelly drink, and off I am towards Wulai Waterfall. After touristy Wulai Street with its restaurants, souvenir shops and streetfood vendors, I cross a bridge, turn left, and walk along a narrow road, competing with cars, buses and scooters. After about 15 minutes I can already see a thin white veil of water sheerdropping down the mountain. At a height of around 80 metres, Wulai Waterfall is one of Taiwan's highest. Fortunately, this time I get a great view of the whole waterfall, unlike in Luoshan Scenic Area a few weeks ago.

There are a few young Atayal folks dressed up in traditional garment to pose for tourist photos. One bloke comes up to me to ask about my tattoos. He examines them closely and with interest, smiling broadly while doing so. The Atayal people are no strangers to tattoos: they used to receive superb facial tattoos, possibly for thousands of years, as a sign of maturity and dexterity in craftsmanship. During Japanese occupation, the practice was all but eradicated, thus it suffered the fate of most body modification traditions in too many tribal cultures on all continents. Lucky there are still some exceptions.

About 2km past the waterfall I cross a pretty suspension bridge (I can't help it, I just adore them) and continue walking on the other side of the river, away from the traffic. I pass several other smaller waterfalls and find myself at the entrance of Neidong Forest Recreation Area a few kilometres after. Neidong features the most gorgeous waterfall I get to see today, Xinxian Waterfall. Wulai Waterfall may be a lot higher, but Xinxian is a sublime work of art with its three tiers, deep pools and picturesque setting in the forest, making its way through lush vegetation.

Precisely what I'm about to do as well. I follow a relatively steep trail uphill through the dense forest. What I like about this tropical type of jungle is that they always brim with life and leafage. Everything is overgrown with greenness. I start hearing a mixture of grunt and bark. There's a rustling up in the canopy. I look up to see a few small monkeys monkeying around. In that case, I find it hard getting excited. I've simply seen too many monkeys in too many countries already.

After another 1-2km, I reach the end of the trail and have to turn back. I find it a tad disappointing that so many trails are closed off, but there appear to be frequent landslides, especially after heavy rainfall, so the decision is understandable. I power walk the 8 or so km back to Wulai. At a small restaurant, I eat some good fried noodles with spicy silken tofu, almost Sichuan-style. When I see the platefuls of greens and other veggies that three older ladies ordered, I get an acute case of food envy. They didn't list those on the English menu.

There are many more hiking trails in Wulai, but I'm not sure if I'm able to make it back before I fly out. But it's good to know that such a vast area of overwhelming natural beauty exists a mere 25km south of Taipei.

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