A Sanxia video

This is my first attempt at video on this platform, it's a bit rough around the edges and lacking in quality but you have to start somewhere right! Hopefully once my editing is better I'll start adding these into my regular written guides. Anyways feedback is much appreciated as always, cheers

Sy

Bit of a test video for future videos to accompany guides on syedbrookephotography.com, I know its fairly rough and amateurish but hopefully that will improve over time! music by:

前進樂團 Transition check them out at: https://www.youtube.com/user/transitionofficial

A Chinese New Year Hiatus

After dealing with 3 weeks of non stop rain in Taipei, it has been a bit of a test of patience for myself. Being stuck in the city constantly can be quite annoying, so with the arrival of the Chinese New Year holidays I decided it was time to get out in nature again. 

I decided to hike a trail from Shilin over the mountain ridge to Miramar in Niehu. It was a nice enough day, although  tad crowded for my liking. I guess thats the drawback of hiking during CNY is that the world and his wife are out and about. Hopefully once things calm down and everyone goes back to regular schedules I might think about a trip somewhere! 

While the views were nice along the various peaks, the heavy smog put somewhat of a damper on the chance to get quality photos from the hike. It's kind of frustrating in Taiwan over the last couple of years where the air quality has gotten far worse. When it isn't raining constantly theres a heavy blanket of pollution and smog hanging over Taipei it feels like. Anyways with that said if you are looking for very manageable hike with minimal obstacles along the way I would recommend this one to most beginners or those with lower cardio levels. Hopefully everyone enjoys the rest of Chinese New Year holidays if you celebrating it at the moment! 

A snowy adventure.

I started out with the idea of simply blogging series of photos, but that has quickly morphed into something a little more specific in the form of detailed guides. In that case my plan is to use this tab as more an informal space to blog the odd travel story or whatever I happen to be doing or thinking lately! 

I normally end up with a bunch of photos that I never get to use from most photo trips. I'll probably end up posting some decent but not great photos here so they don't simply get lost in the depths of my photo catalog. Since coming back from the UK over Christmas, Taiwan has been surprisingly cold for once! For the most part of the 5 winters I've been here, there's barely been any real winter. It seems like ever year winter gets progressively shorter each year almost. Sadly most of the cold weather is accompanied by endless rain here, so when you do get one of those dry cold days you have to make the most of the day! 

It started out as most other days, I rolled out of bed and sipped on a coffee doing my best to wake up etc. I tend to follow my own personal routines here and I was about to set off to the gym, until I spied a glimpse of A snow capped YangMingShan. Given that the only snow I've seen here in 5 years is from one giant mountain in the centre Taiwan, I couldn't pass up this opportunity. I ran back down stairs, changed out of my gym gear, threw on hiking boots and was out the door with the camera bag in tow! 

I just about managed to catch the bus to Xiaoyukeng in time! (I also purchased some last minute gloves that turned out the be the best 500nt I've spent in a while) and headed up the mountain. The drop in temperature at the top of YangMingShan was pretty crazy, I was glad I picked up that pair of gloves as an afterthought otherwise my hands would have fallen off! The wind was howling and the normally easy trail up the mountain had be turned into a snow tunnel. The weight of the snow on the giant long grass meant that a lot of the path was covered overhead and you were forced to crouch walk under all the snow covered plantation. Getting to the top was fairly easy but coming down again on fully iced over steps was a bit gnarly. I did end up sliding down quite a few different sets of stairs! 

all in all it was good to grab the free time and get out of the big smokey city here. Being able to clear your head with cool mountain air is priceless :)