Pete had enjoyed trying out Paul's single lens reflex (SLR) camera on the Vietnam cycling tour, so we decided to upgrade our camera. After consulting with friends Nancy and Paul about their SLRs and reading online reviews, on our final night in Taipei he bought a Panasonic Lumix G3!
We traveled south by train to Hualien, the largest city on the east coast of Taiwan. We used Hualien as our base for exploring, traveling many miles by scooter, both during the day and at night.
Hualien is a large port. During one day's explorations, we came across an exhibition sponsored by the Taiwanese Coast Guard. We were probably the only Western visitors that day and were heartily welcomed aboard one of the ships for a tour.
We saw a lot of temples with elaborate roof sculptures.
This temple shows the inclusion of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism together, as the altar has deities from all three religions. This was common amongst the temples we visited.
We found a 24 hour dumpling shop and enjoyed breakfast there most mornings.
The shop was always busy. Our favorite foods were steamed pork buns (in the front) and dumplings. Both were stuffed with seasoned ground pork and served with soy sauce and chili paste.
The highlight of our week was exploring Taroko National Park. The name Taroko means magnificent and beautiful. We were awed by the scenery!
This trail was called Swallows Grottoes where the park recommended helmets, due to the frequency of falling rocks.
We saw swallows nesting inside the caves. They would fly straight up then swooped down, likely chasing insects to eat.
Pete is standing next to a railing that has been bashed by a falling rock.
Taroko is also called Marble Gorge due to the preponderance of marble. We saw black, gray, white, green and tan colored boulders and cliffs of solid marble.
The highest mountain peaks in Taroko are over 12,000 feet, and the gorge is at sea level. In between are sheer cliffs. It was stunning!
Luckily for the park, Pete was able to prevent a rockslide by holding up this boulder!
We hiked the Baiyan Waterfall trail to get to this incredible view.
Along the way we followed the Liwu stream.
We thought we were seeing wasp nests in Taroko, but there was good signage that clarified this was a carton ants’ nest made high up in the tree.
This is the view from Qingshui Cliffs. We scooted up early one morning and enjoyed walking along the beach.
There were a dozen shrines and pagodas in the park. One honored the 212 workers who died building the highway through the gorge in the late 1950’s. Other shrines were religious. This bridge had over 100 marble lions, all of which were unique. Taiwanese temples all have at least two lions guarding the entrance.
The local tribes are growing bird's nest ferns in the park, which is growing on top of the rock. The ferns started as an indigenous people's food only, but spread to Taiwanese cuisine. We enjoyed tasting bird's nest ferns that were cooked with ginger and tiny dried fishes.
Next we head south on bikes for a four day self-supported adventure!
We traveled south by train to Hualien, the largest city on the east coast of Taiwan. We used Hualien as our base for exploring, traveling many miles by scooter, both during the day and at night.
Hualien is a large port. During one day's explorations, we came across an exhibition sponsored by the Taiwanese Coast Guard. We were probably the only Western visitors that day and were heartily welcomed aboard one of the ships for a tour.
We saw a lot of temples with elaborate roof sculptures.
This temple shows the inclusion of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism together, as the altar has deities from all three religions. This was common amongst the temples we visited.
We found a 24 hour dumpling shop and enjoyed breakfast there most mornings.
The shop was always busy. Our favorite foods were steamed pork buns (in the front) and dumplings. Both were stuffed with seasoned ground pork and served with soy sauce and chili paste.
The highlight of our week was exploring Taroko National Park. The name Taroko means magnificent and beautiful. We were awed by the scenery!
This trail was called Swallows Grottoes where the park recommended helmets, due to the frequency of falling rocks.
We saw swallows nesting inside the caves. They would fly straight up then swooped down, likely chasing insects to eat.
Pete is standing next to a railing that has been bashed by a falling rock.
Taroko is also called Marble Gorge due to the preponderance of marble. We saw black, gray, white, green and tan colored boulders and cliffs of solid marble.
The highest mountain peaks in Taroko are over 12,000 feet, and the gorge is at sea level. In between are sheer cliffs. It was stunning!
Luckily for the park, Pete was able to prevent a rockslide by holding up this boulder!
We hiked the Baiyan Waterfall trail to get to this incredible view.
Along the way we followed the Liwu stream.
We thought we were seeing wasp nests in Taroko, but there was good signage that clarified this was a carton ants’ nest made high up in the tree.
This is the view from Qingshui Cliffs. We scooted up early one morning and enjoyed walking along the beach.
There were a dozen shrines and pagodas in the park. One honored the 212 workers who died building the highway through the gorge in the late 1950’s. Other shrines were religious. This bridge had over 100 marble lions, all of which were unique. Taiwanese temples all have at least two lions guarding the entrance.
The local tribes are growing bird's nest ferns in the park, which is growing on top of the rock. The ferns started as an indigenous people's food only, but spread to Taiwanese cuisine. We enjoyed tasting bird's nest ferns that were cooked with ginger and tiny dried fishes.
Next we head south on bikes for a four day self-supported adventure!
