Taiwan Days 4-5

Taroko Gorge.

Don't even know what to say with this one. Picture Grand Canyon in a sub-tropical jungle, complete with monkeys, palm trees and star-filled nights. That's Taroko Gorge in a nutshell.

The morning started off early with a 7am wake up to get ready, check out and make it to the train heading to Hsincheng from Taipei. Taiwanese trains are fairly standard and it was a smooth ride. Upon arriving we went to the map to organise transportation to Bulowan, where we were staying. Me met a guy named Trevor there, who was also an esl teacher in Korea, living in Daejeon. The three of us decided to split a cab to Bulowan where we could check in to the place where we were staying and Trevor could organise a hike.

$500 and we were there. Geoff and I opted for a bit of luxury and stayed at Leader's Hotel. It's run entirely by Taiwanese aborigines. It was a bit less rustic and a bit more yuppy that we had planned, but it was a lot of fun. In fact, it was one of the nicest places I have ever stayed. First stop was a mandatory helmet rental (as roks and branches can fall from ridges higher up. The Park ranger had zero English but since I knew the Chinese character for "person" and "mountain" I was able to fill out the rental form (sort of :P). We then headed off to Tienshang, walking along the highway and cutting through a few trails. Trevor opted to join us for part of the journey, but since he had to get back to Taipei that night he only opted for a shorter trek.

What ensued was a 14km hike through some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever witnessed. Bright blue rivers cutting through a rock canyon covered with sub-tropical trees, plants and animals. My description will not do it justice, nor will my pictures. It's somewhere everyone should go in their lifetime. I'll let the pics, such as they are, tell the rest of the story.

After several hours we reached Tienshan and grabbed some much needed food and beer. Trevor had opted to grab a taxi back at about the 10km mark to get the last train so Geoff and I sat down next to a guy from Italy, named Maolo (I couldn't get my tongue around it so I opted for Marlowe as his name :P). He had been travellling from northern Italy since February, through Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait and now Taiwan. He said he had Japan, Korea, China, Mongolia, India and Pakistan still to do. When we asked him how long he was on the road for he said "oh, not too long, I have to be back for Christmas"...... it was May 9th. Anyway, really cool guy who had been everywhere. I gave him some useful stuff for Korea and if he drops in I'll take him out for Makkeoli.

Geoff and I then grabbed the bus for Bulowan. The driver kept insisting that he didn't go there, but since the road went right by we didn't understand how that could be. He eventually dropped us off at the base of the 2km hill to Bulowan. It was a paved road so it wasn't too bad, but still a slog after the 14k's we had already done. We finally made it to the top around 7 and, after a quick shower and change, went to get our complementary dinner.

Amazing food. Wlild hog, rice cooked in bamboo, the freshest vegetables imagineable. After we ate we watched a Taiwanese aboriginal show put on by locals and then opted to grab a pint and sit under the stars (something I haven't done since the last time I went camping). Living in so many big cities has it's advantages, but nothing man has ever made is as amazing as that sight and it's something you miss in a well lit city. About midnight we opted for sleep.

Next morning we got up for breakfast. There was aboriginal, Chinese and western food. There was real bacon (the magic of this will be lost in translation to my North American readers). We then walked around Bulowan for a bit before hopping the bus to Tienshan and picking up where we left off. This time it was real trails the whole way. So much so that we saw a family of Taiwanese macaques (unique to the island). The trail eventually became impassable due to rain and rocks so we opted to turn around and find more monkeys, which we did. Unfortunately they move so fast that I couldn't get a good photo. I have a whole new respect for Attenborough and his crew.

Once back at Tienshan we grabbed lunch and hopped the bus to Bulowan where we met an American girl and her parents. She was living in Hualien and they were out to visit. They were from small town Wisconsin and I got the impression that this was there first time doing something like this, though both their kids were travellers (their other daughter was in Australia) so they must have been doing something right as parents. We chatted with them for a while until their dinner was ready and our bus was readyto take us back to the train station.

We made it to Hsincheng with two hours to kill so we walked through the street of 1,000,000 moths to a small restaurant and ate more amazing Chinese food for $50. Then it was off to Taipei, where we got in around midnight and opted to head back to our old hotel for our last night in Taiwan.

Anyway, here are the pics:

view from above the river

Bridge over untroubled waters

light blue water

lizards that are everywhere in Taroko