The flight from Fukuoka Airport to Taipei was scheduled at 9:30 am. The airport is so close to the downtown Fukuoka... 20 min. or so. I got there around 7:00. and the ticket counter was not open yet.The ticket costed me 32800 yen this time(about 300 USD), and I forgot to add check in baggage when on reservation so I had to pay extra 5000 yen(about 50USD) for 21kg.
The plane arrived on time and was around 11:00 and it was RAIN.... "Oh, no..." was my first response.
From the airport, a train took me to the main station for about 40 min or so, and then walked the underground, I get to the bus station to 1812 and 1811, I was about to catch.The destination was only in Kanji(Chinese character) and the instruction I was given was in English, so I had to come up with matching the right Kanji and the name of the bus stop that I'm supposed to get off.
An older man who was waiting for his bus helped me to find out the bus station. It was 鼻頭角. I thanked him. Then I felt alright.
The bus came without much of waiting so I showed the driver the photo the man pointing the bus stop and made sure the bus was going there. Also asked the driver to get me off the stop. I was not sure if he got it.
In the bus I slept a bit so the bus ride felt a much shorter than an hour and a half.
I got off from the bus at the right stop. Started off trying to find out the guesthouse that I am staying from tonight, for 7 days, the Bivy.
I saw a white car pulled to the road side and from the car, I heard someone calling my name. It was David and his family, a wife and 1 year old toddler. We are going to climb together. I was so delighted to see them. We've met in Laos, Green Climber's home, this year.
They were looking for my guesthouse to see me, which was so nice of them.
So we all, started off to find the place but it was so hard to find. We even asked the local police but of course no one understand Chinese.So after all, what we used was google... I think the iPhone is a must item for the trip like this.
Anyway, we finally found the place and there were no sign.
The next was the opening the door. The key was in a key box and was easy enough to unlock but the door was kind of hard... to open. I was lucky that QX came back while I was struggling the door to open.
We all entered the house then, Chong chong the dog, welcomed us. The dog was sort of a mascot of the house, everyone pat him and love him. So she is a pretty good dog.
QX showed me the house, bathroom, bedroom, the washer and the kitchen... we asked general information on the crag and I bought the guide book. I had one from my Japanese friend but I wanted my own.
We had a cup of tea or something then we headed off for a dinner together.
It was raining, a bit stormy, and local vendor was almost closing... we were their last customers. We had whatever they can offer to us. I think it was a rather tasty good dinner but so stormy that time.I was so impressed that my friends said that they were going to camp in the parking lot this night again... camping in stormy weather must be hard and especially cold at night...
The weather is the no.1 worry but also, my friends will be tired by camping a night like this, I thought.