A TOUGH HIKING TRIP - SKY LADDER(天梯)

Hiking is one of may favorite activities. I visited a location in Nantou county(南投縣), Taiwan which is famous of the special ladder suspension bridge(梯子吊橋). This ladder style suspension bridge is very special. It is the first one in Taiwan and the second in the world, with a total length of 136m and 208 steps; the height difference between the 2 sides is a staggering 20m.

To walk across this bridge is not a difficult job, but reaching it and returning to the entrance is defiantly a tough challenge. I consider myself as an experienced hiker, but this time it really gave me a hard time. The distance between entrance and the bridge is about 1Km, and between entrance and the end of this area is about 2Km. Due to the steep trail, I took about 3 hours to complete 4Km hiking.

During the 3 hour hiking, I did not only experience Sky Ladder, but also see the beautiful Green Dragon Waterfall and other scenery. Those wonderful views made the hard works worthy. But be honest, this place is not good for family with kids and senior people. Also, if you are not a person capable handling tough hiking, please do not try it. It is better just enjoy watching my photos.

HOME OF PERSIMMON CAKE - XINPU 新埔

Xinpu(新埔) is a small township of Hsinchu county (新竹縣). During October to December, it is the high season to produce persimmon. The farmers will make the persimmon cake (dry persimmon) with the over produced persimmons.
I am not a fan of persimmon cake, but I am attracted by the beautiful color and atmosphere of making persimmon cakes.

more photos...

MEMORIAL OF 911

Today is the 10th anniversary of 911. I uploaded this photo which I took in 1992 to remember this tragedy and wish no more terrorist attack happened any more.

MODEL GUN COLLECTIONS(8) - BERETTA PX4 BY WEI E

Not a long time ago, there was a movie "Inception" was popular in the world. The story talks about how to get information by entering people's subconscious. In that movie, the actor Leonardo DiCaprio used a compact size pistol, and it was one of the new pistol from Beretta, the PX4.

I bought a PX4 BB pistol about one month ago. It is made by a Taiwanese company named Wei E. The produce a lot inexpensive BB guns and quite popular among BB gun and survival game enthusiasts. This pistol comes with a metal slides, a metal barrel and 3 different sizes of back straps for grip, just like for real pistol.

Though the logo and mark on this BB is not exactly same as real one due to license issue, it is still a nice piece to play with. Not to mention such a good deal at the price of NTD2500(USD83).

CRUISE IN THE PAINTING

Vietnam was always a part of Vietnam War history to me; most people were Charlie (nick name of Viet Con by Americans or Hollywood movies). But the world is changing, so is Vietnam. For a better development of country and a better life of people, now Vietnam is much opener than ever.

Had a chance having a 5 day trip to Vietnam, main purpose was visiting Ha Long Bay(下龍灣). Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It includes almost 2,000 island, and most are limestone. Because the huge area on the sea, the only way is to take a cruise to have a glace of it. If you have time, taking 2 day 1 night cruise is the best arrangement. Now there are 500 regular touring boats and about 60 cruisers which provides accommodation service.

We took Syrena Cruise this time and the boat started operation just in early 2011. The room is not big but cozy. Besides off boat activities for visiting 2 islands, there were also some interesting on boat activities, such as Tai Chi and cooking class. It was really a relaxing tour for us.

And talking about Ha Long Bay, looking at photos is always better than reading thousand words.