Last day with the group :)

Outside NTU's main gate

At the observatory deck of Taipei 101! 

cuz baby you're a firework

Sitou

Before heading to Sitou, we made a pitstop at Bamboola Taiwan! Although it was a short stop, I thought it was mighty interesting at the bamboo designs.

First bamboo glasses! Must require a ton of skill to manipulate wood into such thin layers!

Chopstick design, the store/office is filled with designs with form, fit & function :)

The table filled with boxes, all with a different method of opening them! The group of us spent a looong time trying to open them, I think in the end all 17 of us managed to open.. maybe 3 boxes? out of the 50+ designs.

After all the running around exploring different parts of Taiwan, we finally made it to Sitou! We spent four nights here, to carry out our experiments. Sitou is an experimental forest of mostly Japanese-cedar (or Japanese fir) [planted] and they have nice hiking trails. This is the gate of Sitou (or Xitou)! It's foggy and humid in Sitou, but the air definitely feels fresher. 

While hiking, spotted a white-tailed blue robin along the trail!

Groupmates working on our experiment!

Very hard at work indeed.

Hiked a few treacherous trails ;) (up gabions)

And made it to the top of the rainbow!

Conservation Education Center to Sitou~!

After Shuili, we headed off to the nearby Conservation Education Center to spend the day :) It was a very fascinating insight to the endemic species of Taiwan and how Taiwan approaches conservation, mainly through research and education.

Stuffed owl! This owl is a specimen from a roadkill apparently and I'm surprised that it's still in such good shape!

The Great Backyard Bird Count: another example of citizen science and how Taiwan plans to develop this for local species. Particularly fascinated by this because I once participated in GBBC and had a few classes on citizen science!

At the Wildlife Rescue Center and this is a REAL owl! It looks so fake, I know! I took a video to prove that it's real. Never seen an owl up close before.

Had a lecture on diversity of bats in Taiwan and I loved how the lecturers are so passionate about their subject! We even got to touch live bats (Asian Particolored Bat, which is especially rare with only ONE colony found) and the little batlings(?)

Also at the Conservation Education Center about the feather counts of birds.. it's crazy! Just the upper head alone has 792 feathers? I admire the person who did this research.. must've taken a long time.

More feathers... and at the corner you can see the size of the bird!! But overall, I found the Conservation Education Center to be very interesting and I learnt a lot of new facts about flora&fauna.

We stopped by the Temple Remains from an earthquake before heading to Phoenix Tea Farm. It's a spectacular sight but I was trying to find out the exact reason for leaving these ruins to no avail.

Phoenix Tea Farm where we spent the night and learnt a lot about tea leaves and teas, from identifying them to their history and the economics of tea agriculture. I like tea and the sampling between the lecture was very welcomed, but a heads up to anyone who is ever going to Phoenix Tea Farm: wear a mosquito net around your body. 

Shuili Wood Factory

We stopped by Chun Yang, the subfarm of Meifeng where they have the ethneobotany garden, but didn't get a chance to see it during our tour around the farm.

First stop to pick cherry tomatoes! Typically, the tomatoes are ripe around this time of the year but because of cooler summer weather these aren't ripe yet. We were only allowed to pick TWO cherry tomatoes each.

Kylee and I with our two precious cherry tomatoes. They were really sweet!

 

Even littlefoot likes our cherry tomatoes! :p

We then had a tour around Chun Yang to see the aborigines housing and also to learn about the flora in this region, which was especially fun because our guides showed us what the aborigines used the plants for. I tried a water bubble from a fern (which can be eaten when you're thirsty) and here's Jimmy using buds as darts on Ken's shirt!

Our guides A-Lu and Walis! I got up early that morning and they brought me out birdwatching again, so interesting! We saw a lot more birds compared to the group tour, I guess because groups get really noisy. Saw the scaly thrush, which apparently even most guides hardly get to see, especially in summer!

After Meifeng, we drove to Shuili's wood factory, and our first activity was assembling this Rubin's (Luban) Lock. It was really confusing at first but you get the hang of it :)

Next day when we made our own tissue box covers! Putting some elbow grease in to get my box cover sanded smooth (I kid. I got someone to help me do it because it was too much effort hahaha)

Meifeng Farm

After Taroko, our next stop was Meifeng Farm! In my opinion, this was the best accomodation because Meifeng Farm is situated in the mountains and the rooms were really spacious :)

This is the first morning at Meifeng when we hiked up Hehuan Mountain! I love mountains and coasts (who doesn't?) and the view was gorgeous.

Rose of Hehuan Mountain: alpine roses!!

Me & Ruby at a pitstop on the way up. It's so peaceful going up facing the rolling mountains and the clear blue sky :) we were lucky to have such a gorgeous day for hiking up Hehuan Mountain.

Top of the mountain @ 3416m above sea level :)

A lot of the taiwanese bring their dogs out for walks and most of them are little puppies but we met this cute goldie on the way! He doesn't want a kiss from me :(

aopi represent!

Spent the day hiking up a trails :) The feeling of conquering different peaks! A nice kind of tired

Got up early the next morning to go birdwatching! No photos because the birds are hard enough to see through the binoculars let alone get a photo of. I found a four-leaved clover along the way! It's my first time seeing clovers so I got really excited when I found a four-leaved one.

We toured around Meifeng farm after and went through the greenhouses where they had a huge variety of plants considering it's a farm. I loved how all the flowers were all in bloom and the variety of orchids in Taiwan! I thought Singapore had a lot of orchids especially because our national flower is an orchid but to see the different varieties in Taiwan is amazing :) 

Eating a begonia! We got to eat so many flowers & leaves. This begonia tastes sour but we also tried stevia which is a natural sweetener and petunias which taste almost like begonias.

The guide showed us how to make jewelry from cat's ears flowers and Hulda started putting on flowers on the guys. Here's Hulda making Baker a ring 

And Hulda trying to make Ben a leng zai. 

We also passed by the lavender fields which were filled with grasshoppers! So picturesque and smelled heavenly too 

Pretty Andria in the lavender fields :)

A plant with a fruiting body in the middle of its leaf! So weird and cool o.o

We also went to the dried flowers exhibition on the farm and it was so perfumed with all the dried flowers. Particularly enamored with this sand dollar which was made by drying the fruits and peeling the skins. I want to try this back home for my own room!

Group of us walked to a nearby village (sort of) after dinner and this is a restaurant on the mountains! SO COOL! each little tent is one table. I love the concept!

Ended the day off with an insect biodiversity course where we learnt a lot about moths and beetles.. I don't like insects very much but I have to admit they can be pretty beautiful. Especially this stag beetle which can look creepy but I like how their bodies are so shiny. 

Taroko!

This is my favorite place in Taiwan- Taroko National Park! I've been looking forward to getting to Taroko since.. forever because it's so unique to have a U-shaped gorge so it's amazing to finally get to see it *_*

We started off at Shakadang Trail which follows a shallower valley area of Taroko. It's so shallow that at some places you can swim in the river.. although that's technically illegal shhh~

On the trail, we saw a dead mountain goat (looks like a deer to me). I think it fell down because there's no other sign of possible causes of death?

This was the part of the gorge we were walking along for the Shakadang Trail! It's not as deep as other areas of the gorge but you can see how pretty it is! Can you imagine such a small river could've carved such a huge gorge? Wonders of nature.

At the water with Andria! Jack said that the water is normally clearer but I think it's gorgeous all the same. Spent some time at this spot playing about in the water :) so lovely having the clear river running beneath our feet and the cliffs of the gorge in the background. 

Picture of all the visitors exploring the gorge. I don't think anyone could ever get sick of this.

Group mates! exploring the Shakadang Trail together. We saw a waterfall but couldn't get to it because it was on the other side of the river and the currents were too strong. 

End of the Shakadang Trail where there was a small dam. Ben says this crooked angle works, I'll listen to my photographer heh. I took the same crooked angle for him. 

Next trail, the Swallow Grotto Trail where we had to wear helmets as there was danger of falling rocks. Can you see the Minion resemblance?

The Swallow Grotto Trail goes through the faster parts of the river i.e. the deeper parts of the gorge. Even though it was raining, the view was breathtaking. Professor Zhong mentioned that there's a Taroko Marathon every year through this area in November. Must be one of the best places to have a marathon, if only I could run....

自拍 with the bottom of the gorge hehe ;)

Baiyang Waterfall Trail also at Taroko. It's an easy trail leading to a water curtain cave at the end i.e. a waterfall through a cave/tunnel sorta thing so it looks like a curtain of water.

The whole bunch of us walking through the caves and looking for bats! Weren't as many as I expected considering how long the tunnel is. Maybe because it's manmade and not natural?

Exited the tunnel to see this! Love the cliffs, it's so breathtaking.

A scenic spot along the way to the water curtain cave! This bridge is only meant to hold 10 people at once but everyone just walked across without looking at the sign. I was paranoid and waited for a space in the 10 before I crossed. Still time to stop and take a picture with the waterfall at the back though!

At the water curtain cave! It's a bad picture but the only picture I have! I ventured in with my shoes on and only realized I would get completely soaked so I took out my handy dandy raincoat. It was so fun to play in the water curtain cave but I hated that my shoes got so wet. It's a horrible feeling hiking with wet socks. 

That's all from Taroko! Best place in Taiwan for sure~~

Stopped by this sacred tree which is apparently 2000 years old and used to be one of the tallest trees in Taiwan. We also tried some peach honey which was AMAZING but it was too expensive for a poor student on a budget. 

Saw so many Ninjas on the way up to Meifeng Farm. nice rides ;)

Another stop on the way to Meifeng! Why is it so beautiful everywhere?!!

This is proof that Shanghainese just do not know how to smile.

Next picture when I tried to imitate Randy and he actually smiled!!! 

Next post: Meifeng Farm~