#3 Climbathon Long Dong August 2017

I would say this trip truly marked the Rockers Four's exploration to the world.

Not our first time to Taipei, but my first time climbing in Taipei. Shang picked up rock climbing there two decades ago, making him the perfect guide to show us the beautiful climbing scene at Long Dong.

Mum and UP had a recce a few months before this 3rd episode and have found the best hotel for the nature of our trip: it is very affordable yet nice with good breakfast, self laundry service is available, free car park for our rental car, these are all very important boxes to be ticked for an overseas climbing trip.

Although it was almost 4 years ago, but I still remember the excitement I had when I set my foot on the Long Dong turf. It was almost like bringing me back to my childhood days where Mum used to take us to this place in Hong Kong called Shek O 後山. The coastal rock formation makes it an interesting scramble, turning my body into this light and airy piece of machine hopping and jumping between rocks while wearing a big grin on my face.

I didn't have much experience with outdoor climbing at this stage, so everything felt brand new to me. UP, Mum and Shang were all very patient to walk me through some of the basic but critically important fundamental safety aspects of outdoor climbing before we get up the wall. I remember I was working on my first 6c red point indoor at the time, so the concept of projecting outdoor did not exist. I just tried different 5c 6a and 6b routes, some I made it to the top, some I didn't, but that didn't matter to me at all as I was just enjoying being with my Rockers Family watching how my passion for climbing grew.

One of the downsides of climbing in Long Dong is the unpredictable weather. Though it is a place that is full of activities to do so our disappointment from rained off days were easy to manage.

We would go climbing in their many new boulder gyms; we would go sightseeing visiting the University Shang studied in; we should go shopping; or we would just do nothing and simply hang out.

On the last day, I took the Rockers Family to one of my favourite restaurants in town to wrap up the holiday on a good note. We went to Orange Shabu Shabu (橋色刷刷屋) and enjoyed the fresh clams and veggies with a great pint.

Every day, every moment was enjoyable. It felt like I was living in a dream. Unfortunately however, this dream was occasionally disturbed by a few work calls I have had to take during the holiday. Looking back, this is probably when I started to cook up the thought of working towards complete work-free climbing holidays, and this thought is quite possibly the brewing ground of the founding of "Midlife Wonders".