Remember the Singaporean auntie I met on bus 260? After talking to her, a Taiwanese auntie started talking to me too. I told her that I came to Taiwan especially to trek Xueshan and Yushan.
Turns out, she is a Taiwan mountain veteran. Her maiden trek was Yushan back in 1988. Since then, she's been trekking. Out of the 200 over peaks in Taiwan, she's done 48. Very impressive. She looks like she's in the 50's and she certainly is not stopping at 48 peaks.
She also shared her Mount Fuji experience. Actually, she didn't enjoy it. Taiwan mountains view beats Fuji anytime, she said. She said Fuji was so ugly that at 1 point, she ask herself why did she come to this ugly place when she have beautiful mountains back home. I agree with her wholehearted. Beside Gunung Rinjani in Lombok, Indonesia, Xueshan is the 2nd most beautiful trek I've been to in Asia, outside the Himalayas range.
After hearing her story, I feel so tempted to climb more Taiwan mountains. Not all Taiwan mountain have lodges(Shan Zhuang) to stay. There are many that required trekkers to bring their own tent, food and water. Sounds more like trekking to me. Despite of the weight, I prefer self sufficient trek. Like I mention earlier, I am quite turned off by the cramped lodge in Xueshan and Yushan. It's worst than Pasar Malam. There's no privacy nor peace. Getting away from crowd is one of the beauty of trekking, you certainly don't have this privilege in the lodge. I look forward to self sufficient treks in Taiwan.
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