MaoKong Mountain

I'm already getting bad at this, so will have to play catchup for a bit.

A few weeks ago, Adam and I went on a hiking adventure up the Maokong Mountain. The plan was to ride the gondola up, enjoy some of the tea they're famous for, and hike down the mountain.

It was a rainy day so it wasn't too crowded. We only had to wait a little while for a glass bottom gondola.

It was cool, but you're so busy looking at the view I think I'll take the regular one next time.  It freaked me out a little since I'm not great with heights (especially when it's so windy the whole gondola is swaying back and forth!)

As you can tell, I was a little scared

So was Adam...

But then, I started looking out instead of down and took in the amazing views.

The MaoKong area is known for their tea and tea houses. Here's a tea field we saw on the way up.

When we made it to the top we were greeted by a small village. There weren't many things going on, just a couple stalls. The further we walked the more tea houses we found. 

But the views were amazing. 

It was so beautiful and peaceful. 

After wandering around for a bit, we came across the Tea Museum. When we walked in we were given a cup of free tea, then watched a movie about how tea is made and why the area is so great for growing tea. 

 Then we walked in on a tea demonstration.

These men were the owners of a famous tea farm and let us try a few of their teas.

This man insisted we stay and drink the tea, then took us around to explain the tea making process to us.

After sampling some great tea we were ready for the hike down! There were thousands of steps; wet, slippery, and full of moss...

beautiful views...

a couple temples...

and more stairs!

But it all paid off. We made it to the top right at sunset. 

This is my favorite picture, because even though it didn't come out great you can see how far we went. We started well before that building in the top left, went all the way down and all the way up again. 

After taking it all in, we took the gondola back down the rest of the mountain...

and went to bed!

You can check out more pictures here.

<3