Hemei Mountain Trail
Steve knew I was disappointed because I couldn’t do a hike in Yangmingshan so he found another hike closer to Taipei that is to the peak of Mt Hemei.
We decided to wake up and decide if we would go as it was supposed to rain. The clouds were hovering but the rain hadn’t come so we caught the MRT to the end of the green line to Xindian.
When we arrived we crossed a red suspension bridge and found the entrance to the walk to the peak of Mt Hemei.
Mt Hemei peak
After about 20-30 minutes and a few flights of stairs we arrived at the peak. Although it was cloudy we could see Taipei 101 in the distance and a beautiful view of city and mountain ranges. The walk didn’t have many people so it was very peaceful and not touristy.
💍 Proposal!
There were a couple of other tourists at the top and we had a nice little chat and took photos for each other but they soon left and we had the summit to ourselves. I took this opportunity to hug Bec and stare out at the city in the distance and reminisce about our travels so far and then to her surprise I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me! She did not see that coming at all but I got an overwhelming “yes” and it was a very special moment.
Both of us enjoy traveling around the world, having time away from the crowds and being in nature so this was the perfect spot!
Celebratory food at Ximending
After making our way back down the mountain and to the MRT, we went to Ximending for some lunch. It’s very busy around here, the complete opposite of the mountain we were just on but still nice to see. There were lots of food stalls and little shops, some of which had crazy queues, especially one of the bubble tea places!
We walked around for a bit and tried to think of some Taiwanese food that we haven’t had yet. We ended up having the famous Hot Star fried chicken which originated here and then after we digested a bit found a scallion pancake, which was the first meal I had last time I was here. Both of these were really good, the chicken was huge and the pancake was so tasty! We got ours with egg, ham and cheese.
Last meal in Taiwan
After going back to the hotel, dropping off our bags and freshening up after a big day of walking we started packing up a little and getting ready to go to Vietnam the next day.
For our last meal we just wanted something near the hotel and Bec had been craving some Japanese food. Luckily for us one of the Japanese chain restaurants that Bec liked in Japan, called Ootoya, were right around the corner so we walked over got some sukiyaki and katsu-don.
The rain has finally kicked in after being so lucky with the weather all day and it came down fairly heavy. We were wearing raincoats but we didn’t have an umbrella and didn’t fancy having wet shoes and pants on our last night before a flight so we caught an uber back to the hotel and set an alarm to catch our 5:30am taxi to the airport.