When Kristi and I got to Hualien, we walked to our hostel, Colorful Taiwan. I was very impressed. the interior decorating of the place was very cute. The rooms were spacious and very clean. There was even a fresh flower in a vase on the table in our room. Sunny, the hostel owner, was very helpful as well. She helped us get a tour booked to see Taroko Gorge. We shared a taxi with two girls from Korea. It was great. The taxi driver picked us up at our hostel and knew all the key locations. He also offered to take our pictures in several locations. I also really enjoyed that we were touring with a small group. We drove along the Central Cross Island Highway, and stopped at a few hiking trails, including Shakadong Trail, Eternal Spring (Changchun) Shrine, Swallow Grotto, and Tunnel of Nine Turns.
I can't even describe the beauty of Taroko Gorge to do it justice. Taiwan has such lush vegetation. The rock faces were of marble stone. The rivers had crystal clear sparkling blue waters. I wish my eyes were cameras so that I could capture the picture-perfect scenes as they were.
Here's a little history. It took nearly 450 deaths before the Central Cross Island Highway was completed in 1960. Most of the road is very narrow with hardly enough room for two cars to pass. It is set on cliffs overlooking the Liwu River.
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| Entrance to Taroko Gorge |
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| Liwu River |
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| Shakadong Trail |
We hiked up to the Eternal Spring (Changchun) Shrine. The view from the road was similar to that of a Classical Chinese painting with a mountainous backdrop. So pretty! There is a 45 foot waterfall in front of the shrine with very pure waters. Kristi and I drank from a pool of these eternal waters. It tasted good, if you were wondering.
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| Refreshing! |
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| Can you find the Indian chief? |
There were two interesting humongous rocks. The Yindianren Rock resembled the profile of a Native American chief. Another very large rock looked like a sitting frog. Our taxi driver was so great for pointing things out.
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| Where is he? |
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| Frog rock |
We went to the Tunnel of Nine Turns (Jiuqudong) where helmets were required to protect from falling rocks. Only one turn was open due to hazardous conditions.
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| Wasn't supposed to do that! |
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| Protective headgear |
Our last stop before heading back was Tianxiang, Taroko's largest settlement. (It wasn't very big.) We walked to the Xiangde Temple and took pictures with a 36-foot Avalokitesvara bodhisattva (I don't even know what that means.) We climbed to the top of the Heavenly Summit Pagoda (six levels of winding staircases.) The countryside in Taiwan is spectacular.
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| Avalokitesvara bodhisattva |
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| Heavenly Summit Pagoda |
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| At the top |
On the way back to Hualien, we stopped at the beach. It was very rocky, with lots of pebbles. We spent about 1/2 an hour looking for pebbles to keep. I could have done that all day. It was very therapeutic. It reminds me of searching for agates on the Oregon coast on a Young Womens retreat.
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| Kristi found some cool rocks. |
I forgot to mention, on one of the hiking trails, we saw a monkey about 5 feet in front of us. Cool! This was Friday.
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| Monkey!!!!!! |
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On Saturday, the plan was to rent a scooter. We went to about 5 different rental places before we found somewhere that would let us hire a scooter without an International License. Once we got situated, we headed towards Highway 11 to drive along the East Coast National Scenic Area. Most of the ride, we could see the Pacific Ocean. We stopped a few places along the way to walk around and take pictures, lots and lots of pictures (2 GB the whole trip!). The scootering made everything even better and it was a beautiful day for it. Besides the dirt and grime that covered our faces and clothes. Now I know why a car's windshield gets so dirty. For some reason Kristi got a lot dirtier than I did. Haha!
It was just perfect with the blue ocean waves on one side, and the green mountain peaks on the other. I love the way water looks when it crashes against large rocks. We drove about 3 hours out.
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| Scooter Madness! |
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| I love this picture, because she is laughing. |
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| Partners in crime. |
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| Spent hours on this road. Gorgeous. |
On the way back, I convinced Kristi to drive the scooter. She was just a little scared that we would fall over or something. This was only her third time driving a scooter, and her first time with a passenger. I am so proud of my little scooter student. It was fun to relax and take more notice of the scenery around us. When we got close to Hualien, I took over again for the city traffic, and got us very lost. Not a proud moment. We made it back in time for our dinner date with Randy, Whitney's boyfriend.
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| Kristi trying to look cool. |
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| Looking cool. |
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| Kristi's driving! Ah! |
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| My clean face. Her dirty face. Haha! |
He took us to a place called Three Koalas. A restaurant in Taiwan, owned by Australians, that serves Italian food. Haha! (Pizza and spaghetti.) I had honey cheese pizza for the first time. That was an interesting taste sensation. Randy was very funny with some of his word choices when talking to us. He wanted to look through some of our pictures and was surprised by some of the things we did, like stand in the middle of the road for pictures and drive at speeds upwards of 70 km/hour. He called it "dangerous" and "naughty". Haha!
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