We have visitors coming so it's time to do some reconnaissance. We keep thinking that a hike on Monkey Mountain during the week is a good idea - exercise mid-week, a little less crowded than the weekend, a good excuse to leave week on the earlier side. Son #3 will be here for a short visit and we'll be away for the weekend he's here, so we have to show him our favorite haunts in Kaohsiung midweek.

So on Wednesday we left school right at 3:30, hopped on our bikes and headed to the trail head. We learned quickly that it's not less crowded mid-week. It's not that it's wall-to-wall people, it's just that there is no solitude in the woods. If you've done much hiking on the trails around Simsbury then you know how quiet it can be. Here, there's almost never a time that you are alone on the path. Often people are carrying small radios so you also get the sound of Chinese music or talk radio mixed in with the bird calls and insects buzzing.

We hiked about a half hour up the trail before we turned around and had only seen a couple of monkeys. It's pretty disappointing to go to Monkey Mountain and not be rewarded with lots of monkeys. Maybe it was that we saw more dogs wandering the trail and they were keeping the monkeys hidden. Or maybe it was the storm brewing and the sound of thunder. But, as it turned out, the monkeys were just waiting for us near the bottom. In the last fifteen minutes of our hike the trail was covered with monkeys. They were sitting on the branches chewing leaves, lounging in the middle of the path grooming each other, sprawled on the railings of the wooden steps. Success! You can go for a hike after school, get exercise, see monkeys and still be home in time to make dinner.

The thunder and storm clouds never developed into anything of interest. It's so disappointing to have the humidity and heat build in the afternoon and then get no release with a thunderstorm. That's just not how the weather goes here. Even if there is rain, the humidity doesn't drop after the shower passes.