Mountains and Beaches and Gorges...Oh My!

July 21

Today was the second day of the four day tour of Taiwan. The first thing that we did was continue or path north towards Taipei. The first stop of the day was at the Taroko National Park. The main attraction of the park is the Taroko Gorge, a big chasm (thank you Microsoft Word dictionary) that has a river running through it. The path that people hike on could be an all day event, but we only had a couple of hours to spend. Walking the trail was fun because of how narrow it is. The trail was about 5 feet across, with the only protection from falling off being a guard rail that was too low to do much good. After walking for 20-30 minutes, we reached a section of the trail where we could go get in the water. Everybody hiked down and we spent about 45 minutes getting our feet wet. It was fun, but I would have still preferred to have been back at the waterfall again.

For lunch, we had a nice box filled with nothing but pastries and a juice box. It would not have been my first choice for a boxed lunch, but I guess it did get the job done. While we were driving along the road, the scenery was incredible. Since Taiwan is a volcanic island, there are many steep mountains. On the eastern side, the mountains extend right to the sea. The location of the road was basically right on these cliffs from the mountains where you could look down a few hundred feet and see the beaches below you. It was another spectacular sight. The only problem was my fear that the bus was going to tip over and fall down the mountain. Luckily, that never ended up happening.

After looking at many empty beaches on the journey, we pulled off into a small town and went to a beach where we basically had the whole thing to ourselves. It would have been great, but it was the middle of the day and we still had another seven or so hours before we would be able to go to our hotel and take a shower. Therefore, I did not want to get into the water because it would mean that the rest of the day I would be travelling in clothing covered in salt water and sand. I may love beaches, but I hate the feeling of sand once it dries and gets everywhere. At the beginning, only the Brits decided to get into the water. Slowly but surely, more and more people started to get in. Soon, people were teaming up against others and throwing them into the sea. I knew that I eventually I would be the target of one of those attacks. Soon, it was my turn.

When I am either about to get into a fight or forced to do something I don’t want to do, I have just one strategy: run. When people started to come after me I used my speed to my advantage. They tried to get me on about five different occasions, but each time I was able to outrun the mob. However, it was still not a total victory for me. By running along the beach quickly I had tracked ocean water and sand up my shorts. So even though I never went into the ocean there, I still had to deal with the sand that had gotten on me for the rest of the day.

After we had gotten back on the road, the next part of the drive was even better than the previous. We went even higher into the mountains. At one point I looked out and saw a few clouds hanging on the side of the mountains. A few minutes later, we were at that point that I had seen and actually drove through the clouds. That was a first for me. Soon we reached our destination for the evening, Yi-Lan. Yi-Lan county is southeast of Taipei county.

For dinner we went to another night market. As some people I was with were waiting for food, I noticed a stand that had some fried foods. She had these things that looked kind of like real hash browns when they all stick together. I decided to get one of those, which ended up being a good decision. It tasted sort of like a funnel cake, except with potato and cinnamon flavors with it. Eating with some other people, I also had part of some sort of baozi, which was also pretty good. After looking at the food stands there, it offered better food than any of the other night markets I had visited.

When we reached our hotel, for the second straight night I was in a room that housed eight people. The room was great. There was a lounge area that had a big flat-panel television and a speaker set-up. When we got in the room, I walked into the first bedroom I happened to see, which turned out to be the master. I was able to claim the king-sized bed that was in there. It was gloriously large and comfortable. I shared it with Jake, but there was so much room on the bed that it felt like I still had the whole thing to myself. I slept well that night.

Thanks to Grace for the pictures. My camera was dead again.