Day #120: Wulai and Neidong waterfalls

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Wulai is a mountainous region a short, winding bus ride away from Taipei, famous for its waterfalls. The most famous waterfall in the area has a small tourist village built up around it, so you can get a gondola high up into the mountains and when you arrive there is an adventure park (several rope bridges and zip wires), cafes, and, most surprisingly, a Ghost Train (it was more funny than scary). It is tastefully done insofar as you can't see the tourist park from the village below, so it doesn't ruin the view. Everywhere there are people (mostly Australian) milling around in climbing gear, as it is a popular area for river tracing.

There is then a 5km or so walk you can do to nearby Neidong Recreational Area, passing seven or eight smaller waterfalls on the way, and then arriving at the most spectacular fall in the park itself, which is really beautiful. Wulai and Neidong were both fairly busy but the walk in between the two was very quiet. I had planned to walk back but was foiled by the weather again, which changed from sunny to stormy in the space of about 20 minutes. It was the most dramatic thunderstorm I had ever witnessed: the thunder and lightening were simultaneous and there were perhaps two or three flashes a second, followed by the inevitable torrential rain. I got a taxi back to Wulai; when I arrived back in Taipei, they had had no rain there at all. At least I saw the falls before the rain arrived.

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