How Did It Get So Late So Soon?: What a Wonderful Weekend: SATURDAY

And then it was...

SATURDAY

It started a bit late.

(I slept in.

Which felt divine.)

But when it finally started!

Oh! What a day!

The Teachers of Berhan had made plans to go to a little town

that offers a rather unique hiking experience.

Luckily for you,

Our trip was [almost] entirely documented

by an [almost] expert photography staff.

Behold.

That's right!
Kendra and I totally rented what I now know is called a tandem bike.
It was so much fun!!
It took a little while to get used to,
but once we got the hang of... it was a blast.

This is where we rented our bikes from.
And yes, I would have to agree.
It is "So funny."

This little puppy was apparently living on the bridge that was next to the trailhead.
He growled at me when I took this picture...
not in a menacing way,
it really said something more like
"I don't know where my mom is so you better stay away til she comes back"

There are tons of stray dogs all over the place,
especially when you get into the more mountainous areas.
Like on this hike of ours.
We saw more stray dogs than anything else!

Can you tell that there are two pipes in this picture?
The first pipe had deteriorated until it was almost completely rotted away.

This is Clue #1 about our hike!

This is clue #2! Have you figured it out yet?

This is not a clue,
but merely a random wonder that we all felt the need to document.
Yes, those are in fact blue flip flops hanging from a tree.

And at the end of this road...
The reason we came!

MONKEYS!!

Not in cages or enclosures of any kind...
Just roaming around!

But actually they really didn't let us get very close.
Especially the mothers.

This guy was so funny!
Everytime I held up my camera to take a picture,
he would look straight at me,
almost as if he were posing.

Huge Slugs!

These comfy-looking stone chair things were next to the path every couple hundred yards.
I have no idea what they were for.
But since there were so many,
I felt they must be significant and so I took a picture.

Don't you love this?
"Their food demands may cause injuries to tourists."

The whole gang on the bridge.

Please just look at this emormous, disgusting spider.
These were ALL OVER THE PLACE.
See below -

Ok so you can't actually see it that well,
but that black speck on the leaf was a GIANT spider.
Like it could have bitten off your hand.
Or at least your finger. Nail.

Dumb dog, barking the monkeys.
They were about to tear his face off, too.
Kinda scary.

So at first we were just coming to see the monkeys.

But then the trail kept going, and we kept following it...

So we ended up seeing a lot more.

Totally fine with me!

Jenny went barefoot!
Only for a little while...
but still!
She's either really brave or insane.
Or maybe both.

The 1st set of stairs!
I definitely ran up these [:

2nd set...
These were definitely taken at a slower run...

And they kept going!!
And that whole running thing?
Done for.

Seeing this tree as we neared the top reminded me so much of Hawaii...
I had a rather sentimental moment, right there on the stairs!

Just look at that.
So worth every single agonizing step!

Another Giant spider.
Do you see it?

So Kendra cam up and took a few pictures of Jessica and I while we were satnding there saoking in the view...
And then an older man came up and basically insisted on taking our picture for us.

He also insisted that we throw out the peace sign in this picture.

And then he wanted us to look off into the distance and point.
It was great, to say the least.

Behind the temple that was at the top,
there was a little market street.
Most of the vendors were selling tea,
so we didn't buy anything
just marveled at the sights.

Yes, that dog does have an apple in his mouth.
I also want to mention that he originally would not let me take a picture,
he ran into the store.
But when I whistled he came out and posed quite nicely.

I bought this on market street.
[It used to be a popsicle]
It was SO good.
Probably my new favorite.
The only problem is,
I have no idea what flavor it is.

The Most Intriguing "Do Not Enter" sign I have ever seen.
Those stairs in the background were literally begging me to climb them.
But seeing as I had just climbed about a thousand,
I was able to ignore the cries.

So right as we were leaving the trail to head back to our bikes,

we ran into a group of four white guys.

The funny part of this?

I didn't realize they were white until they said, "Ni hao!"

Jenny and I were a little ahead of the rest of our group,

and we talked to them for a minute before going on.

They just wanted to know about the monkeys,

but Jenny and I realized something very important from that short conversation.

See, most of the time here,

simply because the people of Taiwan treat us like that.

But, as soon as we see other foreigners,

we are completely aware of how we really look.

[In this case,

seeing as we had been hiking for several hours in the heat,

it wasn't exactly runway-worthy.]

I like to call this "The Foreigner Effect"

The conclusion we came to?

We dislike seeing foreigners here.

Extremely so.

Luckily, in this case,

we soon ran into some friendly Taiwanese people

who lifted our spirits to their usual soaring status!

A rock path that is supposedly supposed to help your feet feel better.
I guess it works.
After walking on this thing, my feet felt great!
But only because this was so painful.