Jonathan Biddle – Made in Taiwan

Tag: Hiking

  • Taipei with Mum & Dad

    The remainder of the time in Taipei was thankfully met with good, if rather humid weather. We stepped out to climb the highest peak in the YangMing Mountain area – 7 Star Mountain. Hiking in the UK is rather different to Taiwan. Here, two hours of climbing steps is rewarded by a similar amount of time trudging down. Again, I can really begin to see why nobody likes the outside here. My legs hurt! It’s hot! I want to go home!


    Qi Xing Shan


    Rather a painful descent was a prelude to aching legs the next day


    Delicious food at Din Tai Feng in the evening – one of Taipei’s most famous restaurants


    And back to the hotel – spot the 4th floor

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Welsh Rarebits

    One half of my family lives in Wales, but don’t hold that against them. The Biddle unit decamped to the South, primarily focussing on good mountains, food and beer. Here are some wee piccies:

    Trecking in The Brecon Beacons

    Mum & Dad at one of the amazing waterfalls of the day


    ‘Now, the GPS says there is one more left to find today…’ – Lady Mio has the last laugh


    The Welsh contingent in force (with exception to newl-wed cousins Huw and Alex … Congratulations!)

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Taroko Trails – Day 2

    We had initially planned an easy Friday, taking in the more touristy trails while it was quiet, and then a harder Saturday when the trail we wanted to do was still likely to be quiet. It worked out to be the same, since the whole place was deserted and the weather reports were poor, falsely.

    The trail we did went up to Bamboo Village via several trails hanging to cliffs and across more suspension bridges. The weather was okay, managing a light, cooling drizzle for much of the day. It gave the hills an atmospheric hue though, which added to the kung fu movie fantasy.

    The early section of the trail gave us the jitters, somewhat. All the railings dividing the walkers from touching the void were bent into bizarre shapes by the intense rock fall from above. Bearing in mind they were made of steel, and the fact that we saw a live land slide the previous day, we kept our heads down and passed the section and reached relative safety (or at least the end of the railings – we just had a big cliff, but less reminders of the rock fall).


    Rock Fall

    Dad and I played monster poo sticks on the way back, but were soundly beaten by Mum when she arrived with a 30 ft bamboo monster. I was asked to remind everyone that it was her poo stick, and not anyone else’s.


    Mum’s Poo Stick

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Taroko Trails – Day 1

    We got up and started the day with an easy but really good fun trail out to the Water Curtain on the Baiyang Trail. It weaves its way through an old route through the gorge – one of many attempts that are now abandoned. Starting with several long tunnels and proceeding to some great suspension bridges it makes its way to a tunnel that allows water to drain through its roof in a fantastic display. Officially closed, you can still enter and experience it for yourself.


    Chasing Waterfalls (Mum, valiantly defeating another bridge!)


    The whole place looked like a Chinese watercolour the whole time (spot us on the bridge)

    After stopping for a bite to eat we ventured for the short Huaran Pavilion Trail in the afternoon, warming up for a larger one the day after. What I did not really realise (lacking a decent map) was that the trail ascended at a constant 45 degrees from the valley floor until reaching the high road pass 1500 vertical feet later.

    It was an amazing ride and the views were astonishing, but boy did we ache after so many steps up! Interestingly, it was built by the Japanese during the First World War to attack the local tribes. And even more interestingly, we saw a landslide occur on the other side of the valley as we made our way back down – the sound was horrific and seeing a whole hillside of trees on the move was quit surreal.


    View at the top! The Huaran Pavilion after a punishing climb

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • YangMing Mountain & Mother’s Day

    On Sunday, we met up with Larsandanke, plus Alex and headed off for the mountains and hot springs. My parents had clearly brought fantastic weather with them from Blighty and we took the bus up to the highest point of the pass. At the top are several acres of grass, and this seems to be very rare in Taiwan, since bus loads of locals went up to look at it. I have to say, as an Englishman and someone who appreciates good grass that this particular turf was not bad, and all the better for being naturally cropped by a fleet of water buffalo.


    The green, green grass of home


    Three grinning Brits abroad

    Over the ridge is the large crater formed by the sulphurous outpourings of my local volcano. Clearly, it smells of eggs, but it was quite an impressive sight. The fumuroles were a deeply acidic green colour and the gas gushing into the atmosphere – an arresting sight in the sun.


    A real stinker

    After that, we descended the few remaining kilometres to the open hot springs. Most in Taiwan have been tapped by viscous, evil hotel chains but this one has been left natural. From the left is fresh spring water from the hills. From the right, hot volcanic water. You select your temperature by moving from pool to pool and apply mud to areas that need mudding. Every quarter of an hour or so stand under the waterfall to cool off. Repeat until sleepy. Apply Thai food liberally. Sleep.


    Hot Springs

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Pigs Might Hike

    I had a very pleasant walk today with Anke, Lars and Alex (Aussie dude). We planned for a 6K hike, which was slightly waylaid due to ignoring the wrong things in the hiking book, but the result was a splendid wee series of random events that made us all laugh over the Pizza in the evening.

    The star of the show was certainly Ah Fu – the Chinese pig that thought he was a dog. He was the coolest thing to be walking with and much calmer than most dogs, and had the amusing habit of eating the plants as he went his oinking way. A definite hit with the other walkers, a source of total bemusement to the other dogs (“hey, you are supposed to be dinner!”) and was truly full of character.



    Ah Fu investigates



    A loyal pig, it really liked walking between its owner’s legs



    We stumbled across a few amusing things. The Taiwanese are masterful at turning public spaces into community spaces. You can see what I mean here – at a break in the path we found a small medicine cabinet with some supplies in it, and alongside it were tethered 3 pots of various balms and lotions – one of which was Tiger Balm.



    Alex and Anke dig the whiffs

    As a hilarious post-script to the walk, we came up against an army check point, complete with guns, guards and bunkers. We wondered how to get past or around it when the station commander came storming out claiming we were on army property, and ‘what were we doing there?!’ Somehow, we had breached the defences of the back door to the base so we actually came to the gate from the wrong direction … Taiwan eh! We gave the guards a quick nod, but on second glance we could see them laughing as well, in on the joke.



    Special Agent Anke cracks the security at the maximum security check point … with a stick

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Counting Sheep

    I had an absolutely fantastic final weekend with my family away in Wales for a weekend. We stayed in the village of Llanwrtyd for a welcome break – hiking by day… eating at the in-house Michelin Star restaurant in the evening. The food was simply exceptional – the finest possible ‘British Cuisine’.

    Llanwrtyd is home of the World Bog Snorkelling Championships and the Man V Horse V Bike race, plus it is Britain’s smallest town. A bizarre little place in the middle of the mountains … with a world-class restaurant.



    Bog Snorkeller in Action

    Stranger still is the World Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling Championship. I think the name explains the concept, but this is the result:



    The wheels are lined with lead, by the way

    Anyway, onto the hiking. We managed to happily side-step the torrential floods effecting much of the rest of the country and enjoyed 2 days of glorious weather. The navigation was more than a little difficult (I blame the Forrestry Commission for insisting on moving the woods every few years) but the scenery was breathtaking; especially so as a result of the astonishing winter light that drowned the hills with beautiful glowing tones all through the day.



    Casting a shadow on the mountainside – and contemplating which of those trees had moved



    View towards the lowlands, over the sheep / dinner



    Me and my old man

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…