My daughter was on summer break, so I took a few days off, brought her back to my hometown, and then went with my parents to the Xitou Nature Education Area and Sun Link Sea.

This was also the first trip where I brought the DOD PERRY WAGON, which I bought from Amazon Japan. I had originally been considering a wagon from OWL CAMP, but after comparing the two, I liked the DOD one better. It looked nicer, was lighter, and folded a little smaller. OWL CAMP was more expensive at list price, but once I imported the DOD wagon through Amazon Japan and paid customs duties, the difference was not that big.

Day 1: Back to Changhua

On Sunday, after getting the housework out of the way, eating lunch, and taking a nap to recharge, I loaded the luggage and my daughter into the DOD wagon, said goodbye to my wife, and headed to the parking lot to drive back to my hometown.

The drive went smoothly. My daughter listened to Detective Pig, an audio drama series, in the car, fell asleep halfway, and woke up only after we arrived.

At around four, she wanted to go to the fields with Grandma. She insisted on not wearing long pants, and once we got there, the grass was too tall and prickly for her. She refused to get down and walk, so I took her for a ride along the farm road in the wagon instead.

She kept telling me there was trash everywhere. She was not especially interested in this kind of walk, and at her height, trash really was most of what she saw. We made a quick loop and went back. I really wish farmers would stop dumping trash like this. It hurts food safety and ruins the landscape. Would anyone actually be happy living in a pile of garbage? The whole way back, I kept fantasizing that if I won NT$1 billion in the lottery, I would start a company to build trash-picking robots.

Day 2: A Very Long March in Xitou

I was worried my daughter might get carsick and throw up on the mountain road, so I arranged with my parents to leave at 7 a.m. I carried her from bed straight into the car and let her keep sleeping. Luckily, she woke up only when we were driving into the parking lot at Xitou.

After parking, I took out the DOD PERRY WAGON, loaded it with my backpack and my daughter, and headed toward the entrance. We got quite a few looks along the way.

We entered through the Scenic View Gate. Our target was the Giant Tree area.

The route started with a steep slope. My daughter sat in the wagon eating snacks, and people passing by kept saying how comfortable she looked. For safety, I had prepared two buckle straps to connect the wagon to my body. On uphill sections, I could pull it through the straps, which made it much easier. After finishing her snacks, she also got out and walked for a while.

We stopped briefly at the Meadow, the lawn beside the castle-like pavilion, where two Formosan macaques wandered into the crowd looking for food. My daughter got scared and asked us to keep going.

Next was the Sky Walk. Walking on it felt scarier than looking at it from below because it swayed slightly. I thought my daughter might be afraid to go up, but she loved it and walked across with Grandma three times.

Our last planned stop was the Giant Tree area. The tree itself had already fallen in 2016, and visitors were injured at the time (news from that year), so what remains now is a rest area that kept the name but no longer has the tree. There are toilets, a water dispenser, and a small shop. We refilled our bottles there and bought lunch from the shop. The food was surprisingly affordable; a plate of fried noodles was only NT$60.

After lunch, I still wanted to walk a little more. My mom said we could take the nearby Phoenix Logging Road, which leads up to the Xitou Astronomical Observatory. My daughter had never seen an observatory before, so I thought it would be a good chance and set off with the wagon. After a few hundred meters of uphill walking, I saw a roadside map saying the observatory was 450 m away. I thought, “Only 450 m? Of course we should go.” So we kept walking. But we walked for a long time and still did not see it. It was only when we reached a roadside rest area and saw a sign saying “Observatory 2.5 km” that I realized I had missed a zero on the first sign.

By then we had already gone halfway, and even though I was exhausted, I decided we should finish it. With 1.5 km left, the trail started getting foggy. I happily pointed it out to my daughter, which turned out to be a mistake. She is afraid of fog because of Frozen 2, and she kept saying she wanted to go back. I really did not want to give up at that point, so we argued our way to the end. The road ended at the stairs to the observatory. My daughter said she wanted to climb the stairs, so we went up, and only then could we see the small observatory.

There were quite a few people brewing tea beside the observatory. Honestly, I was impressed. They had walked all that way just to sit there, brew tea, and chat.

My daughter wanted to leave as soon as she had seen it, and I barely managed to take one photo. On the way back, she said she wanted to walk by herself, then slipped and fell. Luckily, I had waterproof hydrocolloid bandages with me and could patch her up right away.

The walk back was rough, especially because we had already finished all our water on the way up. Then it started raining. My parents met us at the 3.1 km mark, but we did not stop to rest because all I wanted was water. By the time we reached the Giant Tree area, the rain had become heavier. I bought a Pocari Sweat from the shop, refilled our bottles at the water dispenser, rested briefly, and then, at my daughter’s insistence, hurried back to the car in the rain. Going downhill with a wagon was trickier, and I had also given the umbrella to my daughter, so I just walked on in the rain.

Once we got back to the car, we drove to our hotel for the night, the Meng Zong Villa Hotel.

Our room this time was 509, and it felt nicer than the one we had stayed in before. The room was clean and even had a bidet toilet. I quickly gave my daughter a bath, let her watch TV, and then took my own shower. I felt much better afterward.

We had dinner at the restaurant on the first floor of the hotel. Since there were only three adults and one child, we chose the NT$400 set meal per person. It was better value than ordering family-style dishes, and with a small group, it also let us try more dishes.

My dad said I had walked 18 km that day, with 800 m of elevation gain and loss.

I had originally wanted to go to the FamilyMart in Xitou Monster Village that night, but I was far too tired, and it was still raining. We stayed in the room instead. Fortunately, I had brought plenty of snacks.

Day 3: Fireflies at Sun Link Sea

We woke up at 7:30 a.m. and went downstairs for breakfast. My parents happened to still be there, so we sat together. My daughter refused to sit by herself and insisted on following me around, so I had to ask my mom to help get my breakfast. My daughter ate only half a slice of strawberry toast.

After breakfast, I walked with my daughter to the FamilyMart in Monster Village to buy a few things. My legs were still sore even after a night of rest, so I bought some multivitamins to see if they would help. After we went back, we slowly packed our luggage and also bought the wooden memory game board downstairs that my daughter had loved playing with the night before.

My parents left for Sun Link Sea first. We did not finish packing and leave until 10:30. In the parking lot, we even ran into a man who had seen me pulling the wagon the day before, and we chatted for a bit.

Xitou is about a 45-minute drive from Sun Link Sea. To reduce the chance of carsickness, I let my daughter sit in the front passenger seat. She was delighted and chatted with me the whole way, and we called out the Chinese zodiac markers on the roadside signs together as we passed them.

After arriving at Sun Link Sea, I initially planned to use the wagon again and take her to Songlong Rock Waterfall to meet up with my parents. But I was simply too tired, there were many construction vehicles on the road, and my daughter really wanted to play with the toy we had bought that morning. We turned back after walking only a short distance, got the toy from the car, and went to the café in the Sun Link Sea Hotel. I ordered lunch, and we sat down to play.

After more than an hour, my daughter said she wanted to find Grandma. We packed up and walked outside, only to find that heavy rain had started. We stood under the eaves for half an hour, but the rain did not let up, so we went back into the café, ordered a latte, and kept playing. We finally got our room key at 3 p.m. and could go rest. Since my daughter likes walking barefoot in hotel rooms, I used disposable wet floor wipes to mop the floor several times, then turned on the heater to reduce the dampness.

Dinner was at 5:30. It was a buffet with a good variety of dishes, but my daughter ate only rice and fruit.

I kept looking out the window to see whether the rain had stopped, because the whole point of coming to Sun Link Sea this time was to let my daughter see fireflies. Sun Link Sea has three firefly seasons, each for a different species: Luciola filiformis from June to July, Diaphanes lampyroides from October to November, and Diaphanes nubilus from February to March. By late July, we were already near the end of the season. The viewing window was only about half an hour, and if it rained, that was it.

Fortunately, by 6:50 p.m., the rain had weakened to a drizzle, so my daughter and I went to the plaza for the guided tour. The guide explained that firefly season is their mating season. The healthier, stronger fireflies had already been chosen by females earlier and had completed their mission. The ones we were seeing now were the leftovers, so their light might be weaker. We followed the group through the dim light along the trail to the viewing spot, and at around 7:30, we really did see many fireflies. Compared with fireflies I had seen in lowland areas, though, their light was very faint.

Because I had not set up my camera in advance, I captured absolutely nothing.

On the way back, my daughter said she wanted to sleep in my arms, so I had to hold the umbrella with one hand and carry her with the other all the way back. Of course, the moment she got into bed, she woke up and said she wanted to watch TV.

I had also hoped to join the 8 p.m. stargazing tour, but the clouds and fog had not cleared. Even the moon looked hazy, so there was probably no chance of seeing stars. I will have to find another opportunity to show my daughter the Milky Way.

Day 4: Home

As usual, we woke up at 7:30 a.m. and went to breakfast. Afterward, my parents planned to check out first and then walk one of the trails. We packed up our luggage and prepared to head back to Taipei.

On the way down the mountain, I again let my daughter sit in the front seat, planning to move her back to her child seat once we reached flatter roads. But before we even got to Xitou, she said she wanted to return to her own seat and sleep. I thought that was fine. Unfortunately, not long after passing Xitou, she suddenly said she felt like throwing up. I could not find the vomit bag right away, so I grabbed a random bag and handed it to her. Thankfully, I made it in time, though the child seat belt still got slightly dirty.

On the drive home, my daughter kept asking, “Are we almost there?” After asking it over and over, she finally told me, “I don’t want to go anywhere that far again!” Which was a problem, because we were heading to Alishan the following week.

Note: This article is translated from Traditional Chinese.