Taiwan 2011 trip, Day 6, Feb 19th: Taroko Gorge & Hualian

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11:33pm, Hero House hotel, Hualian

Up at 7am, and down at the breakfast buffet at 7:30am. Cloudy out today, with sparse drizzle. The buffet is not as gourmet as the Hero House in Taipei, but there's an interesting turnip sticky rice cake, and it's fun to stir up the chocholate and strawberry spreads in the soy milk. We pack up, and hit road ~8:30am.


Breakfast plate from the Tianxiang Youth Activity Center hostel. A look from the parking lot...

Our 1st stop is a visit to the temple in town, now that it's open. Lots of stairs lead to tall red temple. Further up is a larger temple, which I explored while looking for the bathrooms. Quite scenic.


A cool statue near the temple in Tianxiang...


Wide view of the tower and Tianxiang...


A couple pics around and inside the tower...


The bathroom at the temple had a pic of Abe Lincoln, who is apparantly the universal face of "men"...


Wow, an impressive temple here, that I would have missed if I hadn't been looking for a bathroom...


A peak inside, and around the temple.

Next we hike a 2km trail up above the highway, along the old route. There is a long tunnel dug through the cliff, and we use a headlamp. Cool views. With ~600m left til the end of this one-way trail, I give my pack to Wendy, and run down to the road and back up for the car, then drive down to end of trail to pick up the gang.


Entering the narrow tunnel. This trail was part of the original route across Taiwan in the old days...


This trail is literally carved into the mountain side...


The trail is above the road tunnel. You can see the railing if you look closely...


When we stopped at a suspension bridge just down the road, a member of a Chinese tour group asked if i'd pose with a kid who wants a photo with me, because I "look cool, like a movie star". The lady also says I look "handsome" I'm happy to oblige. I guess I do look pretty cool, and exotic, from an Asian point of view… I think the kid saw me running down the hill, and thought I was some action hero. :-)

We walked out on a narrow suspension bridge. Betsy stayed back, happy to keep to more solid ground.


I pose for a photo with one of my "fans". Betsy takes a pic of us on the suspension bridge...


Next we check out a bridge across a marble gorge, and then drive to 9 turns tunnel, where only 200m of the trail is open due to rock slides. Hard hats are available for the short walk. There's cool arches carved into the cliffs.


Look at all the marble in this river bed. No wonder the bridge is practically made entirely of marble...


Donning hard hats for "9 turn tunnel". However, almost the entire area was closed due to recent rockfall...


Double Betsy's!


Cool arches...

Next I drop off the Changs at Swallow Grotto, park the car ahead in the tunnel, and meet up halfway. There's more swiss cheese tunnels carved into the rock. The rain intensifies, and we open our umbrellas. We wear hard hats again.


We returned to Swallow Grotto (where we stopped briefly yesterday)...


Notice all the holes from water erosion. Certainly a tricky place to build a road...


This particular section of road is one-way...


14er cards makes an appearance at Swallow Grotto...


Hard to believe this was all carved by hand... The Taiwanese gov't need a road that spanned East-West across the island, and this Gorge was the most accessable point. Tells you how mountainous and wild Taiwan must be...

Next, we drive down to the Temple of Eternity, which has a waterfall flowing below it. I remember the park ranger's advice to park at far end and do the loop in the opposite direction to avoid most of the uphill. We park at the white gate and walk up wet slippery pavement to a large temple, and find out we could have parked up there. Dreamy vistas from 3rd floor patio of the temple.


Wow, the Temple of Eternity is quite idyllic...


A look inside the a temple at the far parking lot...


Quite a mammoth temple, with dreamy views. We would be hiking up to the tower in the 1st pic, on our way to the Temple of Eternity...

We convince Betsy (with help of local Buddhist nun) that the hike across the suspension bridge is worth it. She gets across no prob, and we ascend up many tiring stairs to reach the Bell Tower, climbing to the top where great 360 degree vistas display the grand terrain of the steep forested mountains punctuated by a few temples.


Some views from the suspension bridge...


Betsy checks out the tower, after a long climb. A look back down at the temple where we started...

The rest of the hike is downhill on slippery rocky steps, or ramps. The path cuts into the rock several times, including some tunnels, before we reach the Temple of Eternity, which has a waterfall tumbling down below it. The drizzle continues to persist, keeping our umbrellas out, as we make the final descent back to the road. Wendy and I walk back to the car, and drive to pick up Betsy and Irene.


More trail carved into the side of the mountain, and a shrine along the way. (I was starting to feel like I was inside a Legend of Zelda world)...


The trail cut through tunnels, and down slippery wet rock. The Temple of Eternity can be seen below (through the trees) in the 3rd pic...


Marble floors and buildings, guess I could have predicted that in Taroko Gorge...


Temple of Eternity, from the front....


You can see the trail slicing through the mountain side...


And finally, a "fairy fountain" (if this were Zelda), before the exit back to the road...

We're all pretty pooped after that hike, and drive back to the visitor's center cafe to relax, look at the museum, and have some tea, before making the 40 minute drive to Hualian. We find the sign for our targeted B&B for the night, but there is no free parking, and no elevator for our potential 3rd floor room, so Wendy and Irene walk up the block to check out the local Hero House hotel, while Betsy and I hang out, parked on the side of the road. I pop in the LOTR soundtrack, which I never got to listen to in NZ, since we didn't have a CD player in the car, and work on some of this journal. Wendy returns with good news! A 4 person room is only NT1800 ($60), which also includes breakfast! NT1000 cheaper than the other place we were considering. And they have an elevator and free parking…

We drive a couple blocks up the street and haul in our bags to the room, which is like a dorm room with 4 beds. I take the lone bunk bed. There are numbered cubbies for each person. Free wi-fi too!


The view out to Hualian. Our 4 bunk room, complete with numbered cubbies...

We are hungry, and ready to check out the markets, but first need to decide on plans for tomorrow's lodging. We decide on Meishan Youth Center, half way across the south central highway, and Irene calls them up. Surprise! The highway is closed do to a recent rock slide! Good thing we find out now, so we can make alternate plans. We walk to town, thinking of other alternatives, but quickly get distracted with all the snack/food vendors we encounter in the next few blocks.


Night market in Hualian. Dumplings...

We sit down to eat at a dumpling place, then buy some squid balls, and deep fried soft shell crab, which you eat shell and all. I loved the crab! Odd to crunch the shell at first, but oil softens shell, and makes it very easy to eat crab, shell and all. After a round of (CHEAP! ~70 cents) bubble tea, I bought another couple crabs. Betsy found a place to get an eye exam and glasses for $100US, which had long been on her to-do list for Taiwan. Wendy and Irene did a bunch of clothes shopping, finding good deals. I bought an apple to wash out the crab oil.


A food vendor fries me up some crab, which I ate whole, shell and all...


The bubble tea employees smile for the camera. More food vendors...


I bought more crab! We had soft tofu with ginger water and peanuts at a sit down place, but we were expecting it to be sweeter.


Wendy shows the shoes she bought. Betsy models the new prescription glasses she just bought...

Then we stopped at a tea place, which turned into quite an event. The server sat with us, gave us a personal "tour" of the tea, explaining the method and how to taste the tea. I was reminded of the beer tasting in Fort Collins. Tea is the fine crafted beverage here… I missed most of the long discussion, which was in Chinese. Then everyone started buying lots of tea to bring back to the US.

In the meantime, I was offered some peanuts, and found them to be quite excellent. They had purple skins, and came in 3 chambers standard. I even found a 4 chambered peanut! The owner said she once had a 5 chambered peanut! I liked them so much, they gave me the rest of their bag to take. Meanwhile, Wendy was in deep concentration, figuring out what tea set to buy. At long last, she bought a bunch of small cups, and we were set to go, when she noticed another cup, and bought that one too. Finally we left ~9:15pm.

Garbage trucks here have ice cream truck chimes. Odd to hear the sweet melodies coming from a bulky heavy-duty truck with a man standing in the back waving to people on the street. The dog at the tea house howls to the tune of the truck...


We spent some quality time at this tea house, learning about the history and technique of tea tasting. I also discovered some great tasting purple peanuts that can 3 or 4 nuts in a chamber...

We walked back to the hotel, and prepped for bed. Lots of sore legs today. The restaurant in the hotel below us is pumping some loud karaoke music (it is Saturday night I guess). The bass is resonating through the walls quite well. Doesn't seem to bother anyone else in the room, as I hear plenty of steady sleepers.


Marble furniture in the lobby! Wendy shows off a fun pair of underwear, purchased at the night market tonight for $2...

Planning for 7am wake-up tomorrow. Big day of driving planned. Might make it to Kenting National Park (new plan)! Gonna blitz through the east coast to escape the rain…


A happy pic of Wendy, taken by Betsy today...

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