Two BBQs, Two Mountains, Two Days and a Rubber Factory

Summary of this somewhat long post... sorry guys!

Bravo Burger, Yangmingshan National Park, BBQ at Guo Qing, BBQ at rubber factory, & hiking with a rope in hand

Rachelle and I decided we would try to get food at Bravo Burger off of the Zhongshan High School MRT stop. Last time we went with the group they had actually run out of burger patties for the night at 7:30pm or so. So this time we weren't quite sure if we would make it. We made it and the food was delicious. It is famous around Taipei, but I have noticed that just about everything here is famous on some sort of standard. I am not quite sure how the 'famous scale' works in Taipei, sometimes it seems like so and so's uncle's friend heard about this place. Despite the ambiguity with the famous scale, I have enjoyed many of the places and foods known to be 'famous'. Nonetheless I have the picture to prove that we made to Bravo Burger :).

The first mountain that we climbed was at Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園), it was really more of a hiking trail. The National Park is about an hour outside of Taipei and quite easy to get to. I highly recommend heading to Yangmingshan, because not only do you see nice vistas of the hills around Taipei, bamboo forests, a waterfall, but you also get a breath of fresh air. There are many signs reminding you of attacking cattle and telling you to drive safely on the walking path :). This was an easy half-day trip right before a yummy BBQ.

The first BBQ was one hosted at IYC/Guo Qing. I think the only thing I have to say is that it was the most dangerous BBQ I have ever been to. They would not let us take the grill outside and the security insisted that we do it inside! There were two big fans blowing all of the air outside, so none of the most was left, but I was more worried about the high temperature of the coals over the laminate flooring and wooden ceiling. We managed to safely cook everything and stuff our stomachs with goodies we found at the Taipei Costco. Almost everything in the store was an American import, but was much cheaper. I wish I had a membership in the USA, because I found out it would have been transferable.

BBQ in Taoyuan!

Taoyuan is the city where the main international airport is located and is about an hour out of Taipei. I was invited to a BBQ by my language exchange partner and Professor friend. The NTU Graduate Material Science Department and friends were having a BBQ outside of a rubber factory. The grounds were gorgeous with blossoming cherry trees, raspberries, palm trees and plenty of other lovely plants. The BBQ was very nice and I noticed some definite differences between a BBQ at home and this one. The food came out over a period of nearly three hours, so you had to make sure not to eat too much at one time. Another difference was that everyone was cooking and helping--I would have thought it would be difficult to get everyone to cook together so happily, but it worked. The last difference was cooking sweet potatoes underground. The sweet potatoes were amazing! They started a fire put the tin-foil-wrapped sweet potatoes in the clay soil for a half hour or so and then they were ready to enjoy :).

The next part of the day was a tremendously hard hike up a mountain, it might have been harder because I was so full with delicious eats! I figured since we would be hiking with two couples in their mid-50s (although they look much younger), we would be doing a hike like the one the day before. I was wrong, quite wrong indeed. We climbed a mountain, literally. There was a rope on either side to help us climb up the 45 degree incline. The slick clay soil, bulging tree roots and smooth rocks felt precarious at times, but we made it and only a couple steps, well minutes, behind the two older gentlemen in the group. One was even wearing sandals. I don't believe the difficulty stemmed from being out of shape, but to the fact that I rarely step up so high for so long. At the top of this mountain we were able to see Taipei in the distance and the city's water reservoir. The hike was nice, but after this very long weekend I was quite tired.

An Oolong Tea Garden

Berries and sweet potatoes!

The rubber factory where we had the splendid BBQ.

Taipei's city water resevoir and the two Taiwanese friends plus a stranger we ate and hiked with.

A restaurant we saw along our way up the trail and Rachelle and I after a good butt-kicking hiking. You can see we are holding onto the rope to keep our balance during the photograph.