Tuesday - January 21, 2003
We started our day
with the breakfast buffet included with the package deal. There was rare bacon,
odd tasting sausages, good ham, french toast, very runny eggs and some pretty
good rolls and butter. There was a lot of other stuff, too, like rice porridge
but that was not for me. The all-you-can-eat buffet was a good way to start the
day.
The two boys from yesterday were back and spent their breakfast
trying to play with Michelle.
Yesterday we arranged for an all day bus
tour through the gorge, our original choice was a trip to
Houhuanshan, a "nearby" mountain, to see the cherry blossoms; however,
there were insufficient people to make the trip so we had to take our second
choice, the tour of the gorge. Our schedule was designed to allow us all
day tomorrow to make our way along the gorge, which we'll have to re-think
our plans tonight.
The weather didn't
cooperate with us and it had rained all night. It continued to rain as we set
out to the easternmost portion of the park, which ends at the Pacific
ocean.
We hiked down a short, but steep trail to the ocean. This proved
to be a real challenge for Chu-Wan, who was carrying the baby. Michelle did her
best to try to help hold the umbrella, but, in all honesty, she wasn't very
good at it.
The cliffs were shrouded in clouds and the tops of the
mountains disappeared from sight giving no clue as to how high they really
were.
Next we travelled to a place called the Skadang
trail, also sometimes referred to as "The Mysterious Valley".
Here they
gave us 2 hours to hike the trail before the bus would continue on the way. We
decided to break out the stoller and try that as the guide said the trail was
flat most of the way. The guide warned everyone that the trail was built by the
Japanese, so watach your head, since they're short. I found that particularly
amusing since I never conked my head on a door in Japan, but it happens all too
often in Taiwan. (But not yet, this trip.)
The trail was indeed quite
flat and passed through a very scenic valley. The only thing that spoiled it
was a group of tourists in yellow rain coats from a another bus tour that
somehow managed to stand everywhere I wanted to take a picture.
We expected to only walk 40-45 minutes,
then turn back, but we ended up walking the entire 1 hour out and 1 hour back.
Most of the time it was easy going for the stroller, but there were times when
Chu-Wan carried the baby. There were other times when the guide and other
people on the tour carried the baby, as they also exhibited the
over-enthusiastic reaction to Michelle and just had to hold her.
Our
next stop was the main visitors center where we stopped for an hour or so for
lunch, which was provided on the tour, a Taiwanese boxed lunch or bien
dan. Mine was... chicken, I think, with some rice and a can of "Pro Sweat" to
drink.
After eating, we walked around the grounds of the visitor
center and saw foreigner totally get the man/women bathroom thing wrong. He
walked right into the ladies room and got run out immediately.
Woman
walks into a mens room around here, nobody bats an eye, man walks into the
ladies room and he's chased out. Where's the justice?
Our next stop was
the Eternal Spring Shrine, a beautiful shrine built over the top of a
waterfall. From the distance, you can see a precarious trail (thankfully sided
by guardrails) that seemingly switchbacks back and forth up the side of the
cliff over the shrine.
Shortly thereafter the guide came to tell us
that, those who wanted to go could take the trail, the others would remain
behind and wait. Chu-Wan and Michelle stayed behind and the rest of us took the
bus to the trailhead.
The trail starts on an unbelievable narrow, scary
suspension bridge 200 feet above the river. I couldn't get any video on the
bridge because it was impossible to let go of the railing. Even the guide who
has done this many times before wouldn't walk without holding both sides. I
planed ahead for the way back when I'd get video of the others crossing the
bridge ahead of me.
Unfortunately, the trail turned out to be a loop and
we never saw the bridge again.
The trail was just a steep and narrow as
it looked from a distance, and the first 15 minutes was a constant climb up
steps cut into the mountain. Once at the top, the trip down was gentle in
comparison, eventually passing two more shrines along the way. Apparently the
shrines (or at least one of them) were dedicated to the workers killed building
the highway through the gorge.
Meanwhile a crowd of college students
arrived at the parking area and mobbed Michelle.
Our next stop was the Pulowan Recreation Area.
Pulowan is a plateau, 300 meters above the river bottom. One upon a time,
landslides, earthquakes or other geologic activity had formed a natural along
the river below. The natural obstruction was a 300 meter wall of rock and
earth, which eventually the river burst through, leaving behind the Pulowan
area looking down across the river. Because the area is flat, aboriginals lived
there long ago. Now it is the home of a gift shop, cafe and some rental
cottages which were destroyed in a typhoon a few years ago. The cottages are
now being reconstructed and looked near completion.
Next came the Tunnel
of Nine Turns. This was a particularly nasty, narrow part of the road that
tunnels and overhangs have been hacked out of the cliff. In some places there
is a trail for pedestrians, in others, you have to take your chances with the
buses. While these tunnels are really only suitable for small cars, large buses
manage to ply their way through them. At one point on our return trip, as our
bus headed into one of the tunnels , another bus behind us attempted to pass us
inside the tunnel! he was met head on with an even bigger bus coming the other
direction. The resulting logjam ended with all three buses being unable to
move.
Our guide stuck her head out the window on the cliff side and let
our driver know how close we could come to the cliff as we inched our way
forward until the buses cleared each other. The bus we passed was literally
only 1 inch from ours as we passed.
After we got out of the
tunnels we stopped again to look at one of the most impressive cliffs, but the
weather made it impossible to see the top. The photo shown here is with the
camera pointing almost straight up and the cliff disappears into the clouds.
The cliff is perfectly vertical and well over 500 meters high. It's staggering.
Even more staggering, if you look near the top of this picture, you can see a
slight line across the cliff - this is a trail, only 30cm wide! You have to
walk sideways facing the cliff. I wasn't the slightest bit interested in hiking
it!
We returned to the hotel for a rest and dinner. While we enjoyed the
buffet the day before, it was a bit pricey, so Chu-Wan wanted to eat at the
restaurant stalls near the hotel. Last time we ate there a cockroach came
begging at our table, so I wasn't all that thrilled with going back.
But
go back we did and we had some rather dreadful niu riu mien (beef noodle
soup) and went back to the room. The TV had two Japanese television channels,
neither ever had anything worth watching. The chinese channels weren't much
better, so I settled down to read Lonely Planet Taiwan. That's when I
discovered that the Grand Formosan had a Japanese capsule hotel in the
basement. I never got to see one when in Japan, and this one was literally
right under my feet. I couldn't miss the chance! Tomorrow would be the
day.
[Next]
Associated links:
Taroko National Park - English
Version
Picture Gallery for
January 21, 2003
Mysterious Valley
Video (Real Video)
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