Friday- Camp Taiwan & Taipei 101

7/9-While the rest of the Islandwood crew took the trip up to Yangmingshan National Park, I took a solo trip out to the Northeast portion of the same mountain range. I went out there to visit a residential camp called Camp Taiwan. I took a bus to Wanli, a coastal town, where I checked out the sandy beaches. I then took a 20 minute taxi up into the mountains to the camp. One of the Directors, Nara McDonald, gave me a tour of the facility. The camp is a traditional English residential camp with activities like archery, high ropes, kayaking, nature study, and farming. They also run an outdoor education program in the spring and fall. It was interesting to see a program like that in a different country.

In the afternoon I took the bus back to Taipei city. I went to Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world, to check out the observation deck. The view from the observation decks (89^th and 91st floor out of 101) was hazy but beautiful. It was amazing being able to see the vastness of the city from that high up.

In the evening the Islandwood crew reunited to go to a BBQ at Gene’s house. Like always, there was an amazing variety of food. There was BBQ chicken and pork, tempura fish, rice noodles, squash and mushrooms, tofu, okra, bamboo shoots, lotus bulb and seed, watermelon, cheese cake, green bean soup, tea, Taiwan beer, and probably something else. After an epic feasting of food, we ended the evening on his roof top garden.