Camping....

We made a trip up north last weekend…. There was this Doraemon exhibition in Taipei. All of us in the family are fan of Doraemon and Xian had been begging us to take him to the exhibition since months ago.

As usual, we had planned for a camping trip. I had called up our usual camping ground in Taipei and was told that a fair is going on this month and there is closed for campers. I did a survey over the net and found a camping ground in XinZhu. Cheap price – NT 600 per night( the Taipei ground was cheaper -NT 500). Hotel room is pretty expensive nowadays, especially for a room for 4…

However the drive was a hazard one, 320km up north. We took off at 4pm (Yun left school at 3pm).

There is 2 options to go north. The no 1 and no 3 highway. The no1 is packed but shorter and the no3 is 30km longer but less crowded. I had opted to do the no3 ->no1 ->no3->no1 route which is shorter but I had a rough time negotiating with the heavy traffic.

We finally reached the camping ground at 9pm. With 2 stops at the service areas and 1 stop at the grocery store , the average cruising speed is around 80km. I sworn that I would never take the no1 highway again.

The ground was empty and we are the only campers. Great atmosphere and the toilet was clean as recommended by other campers. With the light provided by the 2 LED lamp stripe and the Coleman Northstar gas lamp, we were able to cook some supper and enjoying it under the cloudy sky. It was cold and the sweat potato soup and instant noodle were just a perfect match for the night.

The experience is priceless (rather cheap compare to the pricy hotel) and I am glad that I had learnt the skill of camping during my high school days. Taiwan is rather peace and safe compare to Malaysia, in Malaysia, camping in the outdoor means exposing one to a wide range of threat, however here in Taiwan it is a heaven for campers – security is better and there are lots of camping ground.

However camping itself is not cheap, the initial investment is low (RM300-500 for a decent tent). The rest of the purchase would depend on one needs and affordability.

The kids is getting use to the life style and hopefully they would learnt what my knew……