Weekend 7

Hualien and TAROKO!!!!!!

This trip had been in the plans for the better part of the summer. Given how popular Taroko is, I was pretty pessimistic about the entire outlook of the trip. Luckily, my friend came through and he managed to score train tickets to Hualien. This is also why we ended up leaving Taipei in the dead of the night one Friday.

Our train was one of the more "vintage" models (left). Look how shiny the new models (right) are ! They even have the words "Taroko" on the side! Beggars can't be choosers.

 

We arrived in Hualien a little after 1AM and promptly checked into the youth hostel and went straight to bed. Checking out the place next morning (when I was much more lucid,) it had a pretty cool vibe. The lobby is a combination of a bar and a library. You could tell it used to be someone's home once because they still had wedding photos and knick-knacks in the cabinets. It is definitely a departure from my perception for youth hostels.

Waking up in a room with nine other people was "interesting," let's just put it that way.

Up bright and early to grab the bus from Hualien to Taroko.

Two hours later... we're finally here. Taroko National Park.

This is where we started. If all went to plan, we should have arrived at our final destination a little before dinner, just in time to grab the bus back to Hualien. But you know what they say about plans right?

We went down to the water's edge. It was so cool standing at the bottom of the valley and just looking up around you, taking everything in.

Just look at that water. It was unbelievably clear.

During our walk, we went through three or four tunnels. Not my favourite thing walking in the dark with cars whooshing by, but it had to be done. Kudos to my travel buddies who made walking in those dark dark tunnels a semi-enjoyable experience.

The "Beware of Falling Rocks" sign was everywhere. We probably should have worn protective gear. Instead, we just walked extra fast through the most "dangerous" areas while keeping our eyes upwards for any "loose-looking" rock.

Lushui Trail

Great view from the trail.

One of the suspension bridges we encountered.

Purrrty. There's also river-rafting at Taroko but we didn't have enough people. It should be a pretty neat experience. Something to definitely consider next time I'm at Taroko.

Tunnel of Nine Turns (九曲洞)

Unfortunately, the path was closed off for repair due to recent heavy rain. This particular path has one of the best views in the park but it's also extremely prone to falling rock. If it's not meant to be, it's not meant to be.

Swallow Grotto (燕子口)

With all the traffic, the swallows have all but deserted this place now. Hopefully with better conservation, they'll come back again. A lot of tourists, many of which were wearing helmets. Surprisingly, none of the native visitors were wearing helmets.

Gah! My camera ran out of battery after this point. Anyways, it took us about six hours to walk a little over 7km (three times longer than anticipated.) I found out afterwards that the distances marked on the map is that of direct distance from A to B and not the actual road distance inbetween. So we prob. walked A LOT more than just 7km. We gave up about half-way to our final destination and took the bus back to Hualien. Just as well, since  we prob. would have had to camp in Taroko for the night had we persisted, something we were definitely not prepared to do.
We actually did a bunch more stuff that day: we went to the coast; watched the Pacific Ocean; lit a sky lantern; watched the fireworks; and hung around the night market. No pictures unfortunately. You'll just have to take my word for it. It was an exciting night!

On the way back to Taipei, we finally got to ride the newer Taroko train! Shiny! 

We enjoyed some "seeded" tapioca in Luodong. There's a bean inside every tapioca. Really chewy and utterly delicious.