Mountainous Taiwan

I don't really know the breakdown of hilly and flat ground in Taiwan, but green mountains were omnipresent in Taipei and its surroundings. And so even though Taipei is very urbanised, scenic spots were also frequently but a stone's throw away. It amused me how houses (and temples too) could just pop up at random spots in the hills. It was also quite common to see cemeteries in the hills when driving past on the highway. City planning can appear to be haphazhard, but yet spontaneous in a way. In comparison S'pore really seems like a well-planned colourful Disneyland...
On my second day, I decided to be healthy and bused to Yangmingshan National Park in the morning. On our way up to a viewing spot, we encountered quite a few butterflies :) It's been a while, really.

Somehow this brown butterfly just stopped in front of me... and stayed on the fern for a long time, as if it knew that I was shooting it :)

I really liked this butterfly, cos I've never seen any with such huge white spots. Unfortunately it was really restless and kept fluttering around. I only managed a quick shot from far when it settled down for a few seconds... There were some orange and blue ones, but didn't manage to get any shot of these fleeting free-spirited creatures :)

An attempt to make fallen petals look artistic haha. This was taken alongside this long bench where you could get a pretty good view of the city after a short walk uphill. Nothing very spectacular, but just felt peaceful. Here, we also saw a loving old couple taking their morning stroll with their dog. It rained rather heavily just after we decided to break for lunch, so felt pretty lucky to have had a pocket of fairly good weather for the morning walk.

Hungry fat koi in a pond outside the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

Evening view from a cafe at the historic gold mining town of Jiufen, abt an hour's drive west of Taipei. It's tucked away in the hills and offered good views of the coast! I realised I really love sitting at some cafe at high altitudes and looking down at everything else below me. This place reminded me of Lijiang, though the latter is still nicer :)

But of course, Jiufen was also pretty touristy. Starbucks in the hills....