The hill is covered with vegetation and crisscrossed with trails, and also has a temple near the summit. It's not a difficult hike at all - after about 20 minutes hiking up stone steps, paved paths and boardwalks, you reach the top, where there's a spectacular view of the city. As it was night, I didn't bring my camera along. But we sat at the top for about an hour, chatting, drinking beer and admiring the view.
While sitting there, I saw something moving in the sky - at first I thought it was a plane - three or four lights streaking along the sky together. But then two of the lights separated before the whole thing suddenly vanished. It must have been a meteorite burning up in the atmosphere. It might well have been a Leonid, since it's that time of year.
Then we decided it was getting late, so we began the descent on the south side of the hill. Kitty and I took the fore. The path is lit in parts, but there are still dark areas. Then behind us I heard Robert yell something out. We looked back and his flashlight was pointed at a snake that had crossed the path. Kitty and I had apparently walked right over it! On closer inspection we saw it was a bamboo viper (Trimeresurus stejnegeri), a poisonous species. It was a juvenile. It didn't seem agitated; it just slithered into the bushes.
Here's a picture of an adult bamboo viper I took a couple years ago:
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It's rare to see snakes in November in Taiwan. But so far this month we've seen an adult cobra (a story for another blog entry), a baby cobra, and a juvenile bamboo viper.
