Faries in the forest

Taiwan Yi lan is a beautiful place, situated at the near the South China Sea, the entire continent is flushed with fresh sea breeze and cool north winds from Japan. Needless to say, Yi lan is also place full of greenery and sleepy hills. Words are hard to describe such a place, therefore photos need to do justify in this story.

I was with good friends (Max, Numlee and James) during my Taiwan trip, after a long massage at a local spa, we decided to head to a waterfall called “the five holy spring” situated up in the hills. It was a 55mins walk from our spa to the waterfall. Along the way we stumbled upon many other elderly Japanese tourists who were likewise excited to be there. Small temporary eateries were erected there as well, therefore we got to eat some of the unique desserts such as the mountain ice cream.
It took us about 20mins hike from the base of the hill to the waterfall, when I first saw the waterfall with my sharingan I was absolutely delighted! Such a beautiful place! The air felt extremely fresh and the thundering waters drew adrenaline in my heart.

The many tourists were happily bruising themselves taking photos and posting vainly infront of the waterfall, while my friends (Orange shirt guy is James) and I, being truly Singaporeans boys, we, without hesitation took off our clothes and step into that “holy” waterfall. So that we can experience it fully =D
Perhaps the tourists were amused on what we were doing or about to do, perhaps some were annoyed by our actions, but as the freezing water hit our skin, the experience was extremely pleasurable.
We took about 40mins or so to enjoy the waterfall “thoroughly", it was 5.30 in the evening and the tourists that were initially there, disappeared back down into the forest all so sliently. Yet being young singaporeans once again, we had not enough fun. All four of us decided to climb the hill even higher, to see what adventures await us. After 15mins of climbing, we stumbled onto a church sentry.

Peace was evidently present in that place; the area was calm, gentle and sort of a happy area to be in. Because of the constant mountain breeze, our clothes that were soaked with the “holy” water began to dry, and this made us really “chilling” at that church and relaxed one corner. Another 20mins have passed as we explore the sentry with excited eyes,the time is already 6.15pm and the sky of Yi lan started to dim in the cloudy sky.

My intention was to head down the hill and go back to our hotel, until I saw this small up-ward path behind the church that lead higher into the hill. With a little urging and encouragement from James and me, both Max and Numlee ended up climbing the small path as well. Now some of you readers might be wondering, hi Akat, isn’t this an investment blog? Why tell us about this personal trip of yours? Yes yes, I know, I’m getting to my investment point soon.

Coming back to the story, James, Max and me were joyfully climbing up that path and into the forest. Along the way we met some Taiwanese locals coming down, we asked them how long it took to reach the top of the hill? The locals said that it took them about 40mins to reach the resting bay and another 2 hours to reach the top, they even mentioned something about fairies in the forest if we were lucky to be in the right area. Feeling even more excited, we quicken our pace up the hill. Now it was about 6.30pm already, 15mins into our walk, Numlee one of my closest uni friends was feeling abit tired walking because of the cheap sandals that he bought in CCK. He requested to rest a while under a small wooden hut after weaving our way up around the hill. While he rested, I reasoned with my other two friends that it was getting abit late, and it was time we headed back down the hill before we get trapped in the darkness. I was worried because we do not have a torch light and there wasn’t a lamp post on sight.

Apparently Max and James were abit displeased with this decision and wanted to continue hiking up the hill, Numlee had already made up his mind to head down, as for me I was on the fence. Half of me wanted to join my other two friends, while the other half wanted to head down. Therefore I did abit of mental analysis.

I listed down the reasons why I needed to head down instead of continuing the hike.
1)There was no torch light, no lamp post, absence of the moon, which basically mean, once it was 6.50 or so, the entire place will be very dark and we will be walking blind

2)The path towards the top, was not straight forward , rather there were other paths leading to other areas, the chances of getting lost in the forest were also heightened

3)The reception was bad, despite having Singtel or Starhub auto roaming coverage over Taiwan Yi Lan’s hill would not suffice, so if anything were to happen; it will be very hard to call for help.

So to avoid conflict, in the end both Numlee and Me decided to headed down , while Max and James continued the climb.
While hiking down, I felt abit of regret not counting the climb, I had that lingering feeling that I wasn’t brave enough or perhaps feeling abit to cowardly not taking risks. I kept wondering what it would be like if I had continued? What would I had experience? Will I see the so called “fairies” mentioned by the locals?

To cut the long story short, Max and James actually came back to the hotel at 10.45pm while Numlee and me were worried sick about them. They told us they were initially lost but luckily they saw two locals (a mother and son) along the way with a torch light. Moreover they saw the so called “fairies” deep in the hills and it was one of the most beautiful scenes they ever seen. Ohh the Regret!! I felt super envious. But with all said and done, I was happy with my decision to come down the hill. Because to me, heading down the hill might not be the most optimal decision but it was the right decision.

Why is it right? It was right because I deemed it “right”. If I were to continue hiking, I wouldn’t have enjoyed it, because of all the worries of not getting downhill or something might just happen. Moreover I was absolutely certain I would not want to stay overnight up top of a freezing hill deep in the cold forest.

So the reason why I wrote this event, was because, just like investing (especially) value investing , some decision you make, might not be optimal , as in, they might not give you the best return over a year or over 5 or 10 years time. As value investors, some of us tend to compare with other people from other school of thought such as trading, which also has its merits, do not get me wrong. By comparing we sometimes feel bitter and envious inside about how some people can get over 300-400% returns in a year, but like I said, it might not be optimal but it is the right choice, made and deemed by yourself so that you can sleep peacefully at night =)