Every year in Taiwan is the Moon Festival. Due to this was this year the Tuesday off. We asked our Boss to take the Monday off as well and he agreed… cool. So we had a 4 day's weekend which we like to spend with Mike, Kate, Elisabeth (Liz) and Curdegn.

On Saturday morning we met at Liz at our place and started to the north. Curdegn was at this time in Taipei and Mike and Kate on the way to the first Pay station on the highway where we like to meet. We had only to wait 5 minutes for the “others”. After that Diego called Curdegn to ask if he is already on the bus to Keelung . But he wasn't… This was the perfect time for Mike to show us where he normally goes for Kite surfing. After this first little brake we continued to drive. As we arrived at the place we like to pick up Curdegn, we had only 5 minutes to wait and we could already drive more to the north. Actually Diego was surprised because he knows Curdegn and he knows that this guy got easily lost when the building getting bigger then 5 m). After another short distance on a winding street we saw the East Coast. In a little fisher village we had a nice lunch, even when 3 of us not really like seafood. These 3 were happy when they saw the fried rice and the chicken. But everybody had in the end a full stomach and we were ready to see the famous rocks which are described in every travel guide about Taiwan . In this park got Diego a kiss from a real Queen. We saw an Elephant and found a nice place to chill and chat for a while at the end of an hook. Oh I almost forgot… Thierry and Curdegn had passed the red line for about 1 meter and an another tourist (Taiwanese guy) shouted with a smoky voice “Hey guys, come back it's to dangerous”. Imagine… Curdegn was climbing in the Andes ( www.senda.ch ) Up to 6000 m.o.sl and he looked really confused as the guy told him something about danger in a flat section 5 m away from the real point where it could be maybe dangerous…. Anyway as we left the park it was already dark and we found the next 7/11 quickly and bought some food a bunch of beer. Then we had to find a place where we could build up our tents… A Parking space next to the beach was our home for the next night. First we had to eat a bit and because Thierry and Curdegn found some tuna in a can in 7/11 which were absolutely disgusting Diego choose a much better Dinner … toast with Oreo cookies. Mhhhhh.

During the night only the rain disturbed the sleep.

The next morning was in the beginning rainy as well, but only for a half an hour and the sport action could start. Curdegn, Liz and Thierry took the bike and went on a 75 km long ride. During this time Mike went to the beach and showed Diego how it looks when a guy can kite surf. He finished his rides over the waves because the wind wasn't that strong anymore. Diego was like a little boy who had to wait for the wind. So Mike tried to distract him by building a sand girl. It worked. And just after we finished the girl, Diego could try for the first time in his life kite surfing. But because he had first got used to the kite he went in the water without the board…. After 5 minutes he had his first accident and a bloody leg, but this was no reason to stop this great experience. When Diego came out off the water he realized that it was a little bit worst than he though so the bandage was needed we had in our cars… good thanks.

The riders arrived and we decided to bring back Curdegn to the train station, because he had to work on Monday. After a good café in Starbucks it was dark outside again and we liked to go a bit in the south to find a motel. The highway to there was after 1 km closed and we had to follow a winding street over a mountain. Diego couldn't see anything, because he was snoring the whole way. As he awake the cars are stopped and had to be filed up and we could discuss what we like to do. Camping or Motel. The decision was easy because the rain didn't stopped at all. After 10 minutes we saw the first sign for a Motel and followed it. It was a nice Motel with love chairs and we got a 3 Queen size bed room for a good price. The beds where perfect and good to sleep (the ones from us with pistachios and the others…) In the next morning we got up early and started to drive south. On a short stop next to a 7/11 we had to take a picture from the Truvativ Team. We followed a beautiful street along the coast down to the Taroko gorge. There we turn to the right into a beautiful scenery. We didn't had to search long for our next place where we liked to overstay the night. There was a nice campground in the gorge and we found a great spot for our tents. After we built up those we went for a short hike in the gorge and Thierry and Diego found a few places where they could get an Idea for climbing and after that both where a bit homesick. But this was fast over, because we went to a hot spring and enjoyed the hot water and the cold river for about 3 hours. At the hot spring we met some foreign guys who hadn't a car and so we press everybody in the car and drove down back to the campground. Liz liked to play dies and all others where really tired but easy. After a while the powerful and hyper active girl couldn't write the numbers we told her. She felt asleep…

The last day showed up with a beautiful sunshine and we hurried up with the breakfast so we could leave. We drove all up in the gorge and had some really beautiful views back down in the gorge. In the middle of the way up Thierry and Liz changed to the bike and Mike, Kate and Diego went for a hike. But there was only 5 minutes to walk and then they had to go back. This was necessary anyway because there was a dog and he looked really hungry. So they had to take the car again and drove up to the top on 3200 m. o. s and hiked there again and fount a trail up t 3600 m. o. s. The view was so nice that Diego got homesick again because it looked so similar to the Swiss Alps. Even Mike had some tears in his eyes because there is an area in the States called little Switzerland and looked self explanatory like there. And Thierry had the same feelings while riding his bike up to the top. We met up there and it was pretty cold and it was one of the single moments here in Taiwan where we had cold. On the way down to Puli we just made a café stop in Starbucks and a bit later in Mc Donald's. Then it was only the short distance of 50 km to drive and a beautiful weekend was finished.

Here you can find the pictures from this cool days