Yun-hsien park and resort

True to its name, the trail is chocked full of all types of ferns and you really get the feeling of treking through a rainforest. Again, the air was so refreshing, cool and clean, I really didn't want to head back home. But, alas, we couldn't stay up in the forest trails forever and the rain was starting to come down harder, so after resting at a snackbar area, we made our way back down from the waterfall and took the cablecar back down.

Wulai from afar

A path in the resort area

There are a ton of hotspring houses lining the river that let you soak in huge basins filled with water piped in from hotsprings and we chose one that gave you a private room with a TV for one hour for NT$200, which is a very reasonable rate. When I was undressing, I noticed that I had a leech attached to my left leg above my ankle. The little guy was about the size of the upper half of my little pinky. Before I noticed it, I didn't feel a thing.

A zebra-giraffe

Pipes pumping hotspring water into hotspring houses

I was a bit grossed out that this little slimy slug-like looking creature was merrily sucking away at my blood and I wasn't quite sure how to remove it.

I tried pushing it off with my fingernail, but I could feel it suck down harder. I eventually covered it with liquid soap and it immediately let go and started streching out and squirming trying to get away, at which time blood started running out from where it was sucking me.

Watching that leech stretch it's long thin neck out and drag it's fat little blood-gorged body along freaked me out a bit. I felt like I had been infected by some sort of weird alien lifeform. I'll be more wary the next time I go treking in a forest with lush vegetation.

Leech on me!

Yuck!