Last week I found myself walking along the beach with the girlfriend. We’d had a nice dinner and gone for a scooter run around the place and decided we wanted to walk it off some.

With the sun down and the mercury still at a pleasant 28-29, a walk along the beach seemed the perfect way to end the night.

So we thought.

Walking along the boardwalk at a casual pace enjoying the atmosphere, being Taiwan most people were either still working or had family business to attend to. Save for a few lonely teenagers we pretty much had the boardwalk to ourselves.

As we discussed life in general just did the happy couple thing, out of the corner of my eye I suddenly realised we weren’t alone.

Mere meters away from the boardwalk was this guy. Watching us with his hate filled, accusing eyes.

Yes, that’s a fullsized lamppost in the background holding up his massive spider web too.

To give you an indication of size  this guy was about the size of a small tea saucer and about an inch and a half tall or thick.

Here’s a closer shot;

And a closer shot again,

At this point I was trembling and taking photos was kinda useless. I’m one of those arachnophobic people who’s first reaction is to squash it dead any time I see an insect. Getting so close to such a large spider where I could see him moving about his little tendon things around his mouth had me breaking out in a cold sweat.

I felt like he was going to jump onto me at anytime and give me an Aliens face sucking moment.

After picking up our hearts off the pavement and continuing, it wasn’t long before we got to another stretch of the boardwalk that wasn’t too well lit. By this stage I was wide eyed and peering in all directions to make sure I didn’t walk into a giant spiderweb that this time wouldn’t be so thoughtfully placed to the side.

‘we should probably turn back,’ she said.

‘why?’

‘I don’t like the lighting here, it’s too dark.’

‘but there’s nobody around, what’s going to happen?’

‘that’s what I don’t like. There’s nobody around and it’s dark over there.’

‘relax it’ll be fine. This is Taiwan it’s safe to walk anywhere.’

Reluctantly I persuaded her to continue as I felt I needed to wind down a bit after the giant spider ordeal.

As we ventured out into the dark part of the path I started to relax a bit. I mean I’d been here for over six months now and that was the first giant spider I’d seen in Taiwan. Clearly it wasn’t an everyday occurrence and arachnophobia or not… I decided I had nothing to worry about.

The conversation picked up again and we started to discuss our spider histories. You know, ‘so what’s the biggest spider you’ve ever seen’ type stuff.

‘well, the biggest spider I’ve seen was back ho-OMG WHAT WAS THAT?!’

Somewhere over the bushes, amongst the pitch black beyond what either of us could make out came the sudden angry sounding howling of wild dogs, and they seemed way to close for comfort.

Again the howling sounded and although it might have just been a spur of the moment thing, they definitely sounded like they were getting closer.

We took one look at eachother and instinctively turned and ran. Back into the well lit area of the boardwalk , past the giant spider (who was still there) and onto the safety of the scooter.

As we raced away from the horrors of the beach in silence, I made a mental note that Taiwan’s beaches were off my list for places to go for a romantic evening stroll. Permanently.

Between wild dogs hunting us down and arachnophobia inducing giant freaking spiders I think it’ll be a while yet before I return for even a daytime swim.



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