Change of plans

It rained heavily all night long and was still thunderous when we went out at 8.30am. We talked to the man at Fancylake reception who was watching the news on TV. Images of flooded villages in southern Taiwan were being shown. The receptionist explained that the typhoon and this weather would be here at least for the next 3 or 4 days. So much for hiking in Taiwan. We thought we’d better head back to Taipei. There’s no point being in the countryside when there is foul weather, at least in the city there are lots of indoor things to do. As we checked out, we learned that all the trains and buses out of Fencihu had been cancelled due to landslides and debris blocking the paths. It was like Czesky Crumlov and the washout summer we had in the Czech Republic 2002 all over again. We had a bit of a washout trip in northern Vietnam also back in 2002 come to think of it. 2002 was a bad year for rain. We worried that we wouldn’t get back to the city. Fortunately, we met a taxi driver who would be willing to drive us back to Chiayi where we hoped we could change our train tickets and get back to Taipei as soon as we could.