Weekend trip to Yilan

Time for another road trip! Gareth joined pals Jialin, Wendy, Angus, Steve, plus Yama and his family on a trip to Yilan last weekend
Cruising through the cool new Snow Mountain Tunnel. This new tunnel is the longest in East Asia, and the fifth longest in the world Without the tunnel, the journey from Taipei to Yilan took 2 hours. Now it takes 40 minutes.
Our destination, the Dongshan church. Yama's friend is the pastor there. We were asked to come down and put on a special music show for the kids who attend
The view from the rooftop dorms where we stayed. The east coast is my favorite part of Taiwan
Wendy and little Buo Chen, Yama's first son
On Saturday the pastor and some church friends took us around the area to enjoy some of the sights
"Wild" water buffaloes grazing by the riverside
The Xinliao Waterfall, a local landmark. Some kids were swimming in the pool at the bottom. We got wet too, because it started pouring rain
Yama and his family pose in front of a gnarly tree stump
Back at the Dongshan Church for our performance on Sunday morning
Before we went home we visited a rustic outdoor hot spring. The water that emerges from the ground here is around 100 degrees C. Can you see it bubbling? Locals placed a big rock on the spring to stop it from spraying occasional blasts of scalding water on bystanders.

A pool around the big rock has developed, which is now used to boil eggs, corn cobs and other edibles, as long as you've got a little net to put them in. Further downstream the hot spring water mixes with cold river water and is pleasant for bathing