Saturday mountain trip

This morning we woke up earlier than usual on a Saturday (well, Alexander anyways) had French toast for breakfast, showered and headed into the mountains.

People often complain about how much city there is in Taiwan and how little nature. But on the contrary, in pretty much any city in this country you are always less than half an hour from mountains with incredible forest greenery and clean fresh air. All you need to do is get onto your bike and head in the right direction.

It was Alexander's first time into the eastern mountains of Hsinchu and Miaoli county (I think we were in bordering Miaoli...) and luckily he brought his camera with to capture some of the scenery, like this tree covered in white egrets...

... and farmers working their rural rice paddies viewed through verdant bamboo. We stopped at a cafe along the way, an old favorite where I used to stop for coffee and cheesecake on mountain trips years ago. We enjoyed light sandwiches for lunch and a river view.

On the way home we stopped by this friendly lady to buy a big bag of passion fruit. She spoke no English, but I understand enough Chinese to know that she was explaining that her spot was just gorgeous and loads of people stop there to take pictures of the scenery.

Of course, we took Japie with for the ride. He has to ride in the basket otherwise he moves around too much. Don't worry, he enjoys the basket and viewing the world go by from it. And yes, he is giving us all a side-eye in the picture on the left.