Bai-Yu Waterfall: surprise detour in Chihpen Valley

Climbing steeply up the eastern wall of the valley, you will soon notice tree branches shaking violently; you may even espy some gray fur hoping from branch to branch –you have entered yet another stronghold of the Formosan Macaque.

Cutting the engine on my scooter, I got reached for my camera but was too late. Though I could not get a clear look at them, there seemed to be a fairly large troupe of monkeys moving about in the foliage all around, grunting and shaking branches in an effort to scare me away.

Just then a fluorescent green set of wildly flapping wings careened past me and stopped on a branch in a nearby tree –Muller's Barbet, a beautiful and awkwardly-flying bird endemic to Taiwan and common in this area. Monkeys and the song of birds all around, a coolish breeze blowing up through the valley and rustling the trees –with places like this here in Taiwan there is almost no reason to seek adventure and nature in other far-off places in Southeast Asia.

Epiphany waning, I got back on my scooter and headed up towards whatever that brown-and-white sign was sending me to. Just as I began to feel the tiny drops of a distant waterfall, I laid eyes on a macaque walking casually on the road –and then another, and another.

They were so at home in this semi-developed landscape I almost thought I was in Ubud, Bali. Reaching once again for my camera, they scurried off over the guard rail. There seemed to be such an abundance of primates in this area I that I decided to go check out the waterfall and hunt for the monkeys later.

The attraction up here is Bai-Yu Waterfall (白玉瀑布), a 50-meter, multi-stage plunger that comes down from who knows where? The sign informs, “You will definitely feel relaxed and recharged” when you visit this waterfall, and I can't disagree. The information sign also educated me about 'phytoncides' –antimicrobial allelochemic volatile organic compounds derived from plants- that fill your lungs with the refreshing green spirit of the forest. Phytoncides are have reputed health benefits and are sought after by walkers in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.

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