Formosan Rock Macaque (Kaohsiung Monkeys) | 台灣高雄獼猴

Formosan Rock Macaque are the only native primates living in Taiwan. This species of monkey is only found in Taiwan. They are often found in Kaohsiung, Taiwan at Chai Mountain (柴山), which is commonly refereed to as "Monkey Mountain by local forefingers who don't speak Chinese).

台灣獼猴是外台灣唯一的靈長類動物，這隻動物只在台灣找到的，高雄市鼓山區柴山上是常常看到的地點，不會說國語的外國人常常叫這個地方猴子山。

This is definitely one of the coolest places to visit in Kaohsiung. I will be enjoying myself taking pictures of the monkeys in one area, take my eye away from my camera and notice two or three sitting at my feet.

對我來說這是高雄一定要去的地方，我正在拍照的時候往往有一些猴子來坐在我的腳旁邊，讓我嚇一跳。

Often you will see many infant monkeys nursing or playing wildly with the other young monkeys in the trees.

也常常看到小猴子跟著媽媽在一起，母乳喂養的孩子，或是在樹上玩。

This is one of my favorite places to go because you're in the city one moment and the next your on a mountain full of monkeys looking at the ocean.

這是很特別的地方，有一刻你在城裡然後在山上一邊看猴子一邊看海邊的那一刻。





How to Get There? 怎麼去?



If you plan on visiting, I would suggest going to the park next to the Kaohsiung City Zoo, laid out in the map above. You can enter at the first location marked, then start hiking up the trail where the red marker on the map is located. Within a couple minutes into this trail you will often see many monkeys.

怎麼去呢? 我推薦你去高雄市壽山動物園旁邊的公園，看上面的地圖，第一個標記是公園的入口，第二個標記是小道入口，那裏常常看到很多猴子。

Things to Look Out For. 注意!

The monkeys in general will not bother you unless they think you have a tasty treat, then they will fight you for it. I suggest if you go to visit them not to bring any drinks, food or plastic bags.

去的話要小心，不要帶飲食或塑料袋，牠們無疑偷你的東西。

There is a zoo near this location, and you can often see the monkeys sneaking into the cages of the other animals and stealing their food.

猴子常常進去附近的動物園偷動物的食物。

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formosan_rock_macaque
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoushan_%28Kaohsiung%29

來源:
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A3%BD%E5%B1%B1_(%E9%AB%98%E9%9B%84%E5%B8%82)#%E5%8B%95%E7%89%A9%E5%88%86%E4%BD%88
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3%E7%8D%BC%E7%8C%B4

Hocking Hills Camping

My wife and I - photo by Larissa Ley

Anne Marie and I took a three day weekend camping trip to Hocking Hills with three other married couples. We were lucky enough to be able to borrow all our camping equipment. The first night we arrived we mostly just set up camp and sat around the fire. Putting up the tents wasn't as easy as it usually seems to be. The construction of my tent was different then the usual. After we got about 5 different people to help us we managed to put it together. That night we spent some time fishing and hanging out by the lake, then of course sitting around the camp fire talking.

Photo by Larissa Lay

The next day we headed out to go for a hike. We started at the visitors center and just followed the trail to Old Man's Cave. Old Man's Cave is apparently a location, that looks more like a natural rock over hang, where a man once lived by himself.

There was a designated path but we chose to stray off it a bit.

Many tourists here besides us.

This is part of Old Man's Cave. It was actually hard to get a good picture of it without standing on the other side of the valley. It is a really big natural structure of rock creating a roof for the man that lived here.

Trying to catch Craw Fish

It wasn't long into our hike that we arrive at this waterfall. First Josiah went for a swim and before we knew it most of us were in the water swimming in our clothes too.

Anne Marie and I on the far left - Photo by Josiah Ley

Myself crossing the log - photo by my wife

Eventually we made it all the way to this waterfall. In pictures it looks cool but I assume those pictures where taken in the spring when there is more water flowing. By this time most of us were ready to get home. I would have been fine with hiking more but my wife's knee was bothering her. We headed back to the camp sight then enjoyed the rest of the day at the camp sight and swimming the campground's pool till dinner.

After dinner we headed out to get ice cream and to just drive around. We ended up stopping by Angel Falls which was my favorite sight in Hocking Hills. It has a tiny 100ft water fall and was once  known to be occupied by Indians.

The next day we headed home and spent the day relaxing.

Zodiac - Mouse (aliah) Mountain

Little Temple along the path

We kinda missed a month out of our Zodiac mountain a month thing because of conflicting schedules but plan to hit two next time. We headed up to Mouse Mountain. It was a long drive up.  We stopped at a house for some help, the lady let us park our car in her driveway, she also excitedly showed us picture of a snow fall there some years back.

The top of the mountain is covered in tea farms. Lots of the tea that is drank everyday come from here.

(picture below) Not sure why, but back in the small town was a lot of idol worship happening today.

Dakeng, Taiwan Monkeys

Today we canceled the English classes and went for a hike in Dakeng. The stairs were horrendous trying to climb. The whole trail you were walking on small logs hoping you won't twist your ankle. I don't think there was one section of the climb where I could step on dirt.

The photo above is where most people decided to give up and turn around. Only 4 of us ended up going to the end. On the way back down we ran into a bunch of monks. On TV they seem all holy and spiritual, but its hard not to laugh when you see them do cute poses for a picture.

Towards the bottom of the hill we ran into a bunch of monkeys making there way across the path. I was able to get so close to them I could touch them if I wanted too. But chose not to out of lack of knowledge of what their reaction might be.

Hu Tou Mountain 虎口山 (12-12-12 Challenge)

The first section for my 12-12-12 challenge was in Hu Tou Mountain (虎口山). Hu Tou means Tiger Mouth. It is one of our easiest hikes. It was only about 97 meters most of which we drove up in a car, then the rest was just a few stair cases up.

In the distance you can see the ocean that separates us from China. According to the plaque  below, Japan sank a Russian ship off the coast.

On the top of the plaque is a Chinese song. We asked some of the other hikers to sing it for us. In the end we ended up reading the chinese to them out of their fear of foreigners.

12 Mountains in 12 Months (12-12-12 Challenge)

For 2012, I will be hiking the 12 different mountain ranges in 12 months. I will do 1 a month, along with Marc and Jacob. Some days will be only hiking 1 mountain other days we will be hiking multiple ones in a single day.

New Years Eve - Taipei 101 Fireworks (Part 4)

It was a cloudy, cold, rainy day. We arrived at Taipei 101 around time for dinner. After spending some time to eat we walked the rest of the way to Tiger Mountain (Hu Shan). We walked up the mountain around 5:30pm trying to arrive early to get a good spot. Sadly it was already loaded with cameras (Photo below). As I scattered around I finally had to settle with a spot below the deck. I had to pull down some branches and tall grass to keep it out of my photos.

This was one of my test shots for preparing for the New Years Eve excitement. While waiting a long cold 6 hours. We chatted with the other photographers there, took naps and watched different people come and go.

You can view more photos on my flickr page

After the night was over and everyone left, we spent the night in a tent overlooking the city.  I slept very horribly from 1am - 5am being woken up by the chatter of some hikers who wanted to watch the sunrise.

Jake at 5:30 in the morning waiting for a bus