It's Taroko National Park Day!!
This day I woke up REALLY early and hopped onto the 720am train to Hualien.Pls buy your train tickets earlier - at least 2-3 days earlier- because they can be fully booked and they won't allow standing - and you wouldn't want to stand for 2 hours plus anyway. The view is quite nice along the way - as the track runs along the coast actually.
I had arranged long before I arrived in Taiwan for a driver to take me around. It's not easy to get around here - Hualien although it's the biggest county in Taiwan - it's majority is mountains, and it's a pretty quiet town - the 'city' itself is really just like a town... less built up area... and I frankly speaking did not notice a single bus at all. And getting from one trail to another in this national park is a bit troublesome.
I figured by this time I would be quite tired so I didn't want the hassle of figuring where I was and how I'm gonna get there..but if u r truly hardcore - it's possible to walk....
So I met 古阿姨 at the back of the train station. Got her website from a forum - heard that she was quite nice and she's a lady! good for a female solo traveller. But it's the first time she took a single traveller. hahaha.
The east side of Taiwan has a lot of aboriginal tribes 原住民 and Taroko national Park is no exception. 古阿姨 is also a原住民! But she doesn't look like one more Chinese to me.
She took me to a breakfast place and got me a sandwich after knowing I haven't had anything to eat. Then off we went! It was only maybe 15 min max drive to the national park and along the way she was explaining history etc which u can go read up on if interested. Only fact I came back with was the Japanese spent 18 years fighting the aborigines that hid deep in the mountains (partly because they were hard to get to) And these aborigines would decapitate any stranger... scary.
Anyway, of course in this time of age, they don't do such barbaric things already lah... haha
You'd be seeing me more in this post as I have another person to help me take the pictures! :)
This is the entrance to the national park - don't ask me why the the entrance and the arrow on the road contradict.
First up, the Shakadeng Trail 砂卡砀步道.
It's actually 4.5km long but I was only told to walk 1/2 way and walk back... think it would be too long and monotonous after a while...
The trail started at this bridge
This bridge has a lot of this lion statue - all these lion statues have different expressions...
So trudged and trudged.
The waters are really BEAUTIFUL...
The land belongs to the indigenous anyway....
Meanwhile古阿姨went off to buy lunch for me...
And when we met - I had nice 排骨便当 with soup waiting for me. :)
Next up,
长春司- a 'temple' that commemorates those who lost their lives building roads through the treacherous conditions of 'eating' through the rocks - last time there was technology and workers had to manually chip through the huge rocks - so that we can enjoy the scenery....
and there is a mini waterfall - where the water comes out of the rocks...and yes it was drizzling. Hence my makeshift raincoat
The slab below the Guanyins are the names of those workers who lost their lives.
燕子口Swallow Grotto - it's where the part of the Gorge where there are a lot of 'holes' due to the long term erosion of the water. And when they were going through this place - they found a lot of swallow's living here (of course now they don't cos of the high amt of traffic going through) and hence the name.
Magnificent. This is really very very very overwhelming and unfortunately- my photographic skills suck...you'd just have to come here to experience it yourself
Climbing = suicide.
It's actually quite far down.
I dunno why the left picture is like that. THere's something you should spot - and it's most obvious in the centre picture
This is question no 1 (3 questions altogether) Leave your comment with your guesses to all 3 questions .. and maybe I'd give you a little souvenir. (locals, M'sians only)
We stopped by the roadside.
I don't know how to take the picture that gives you the feel that actually that wall cliff is sort of slanting towards you.. very intimidating sort? As I said, come here la!
The point where the cliffs are the closest to each other - hole behind is where the road is.
Ok question no 2. Super easy one. What do u see?
We went to this place called 九曲洞 - unfortunately they only opened 200m of it because there are a lot falling rocks and it was deemed unsafe to walk all the way- and even in the 200m - you are required to wear engineer helmets! (the white one s you see in construction site)
Not showing the picture of the very ugly me with a white helmet - not meant to be an engineer. My physics sucks anyway.
Question no 3!
This one is a little tricky.
Ok there's a name for it - includes the pavillon on top of that rock. What does it look like? If u can get just half of it correct also considered correct.
The red bridge on the right is 慈母桥 - is named after a mother who always comes down here to pass her son his food - but her son unfortunately passed away - but she still came down everyday... ( I think the story goes somewhat on this line la)
古阿姨 then left me on this 绿水步道 Green water Trail (lyushui) which supposedly u should take an hour - I took 40 min. I didn't walk too fast what.
It's just a normal trail in the forest- the trail's quite narrow and that's about it....
Walked past the supposed green waters -didn't look very green.
Now, I think I was in her record the fastest walker (think mainly because I'm alone - I don't have to wait for another person) so she took me to somewhere else in Hualien (outside of Taroko Gorge)
七星潭 - it's actually the beach/seaside. It was actually because 七星潭 inhabitants (there was really a lake) were relocated to the town next to this seaside by the Japanese who wanted to use this piece of land for as an airbase- which is still there - we drove past a few old F something jet planes.
The wind was mad strong (as usual la but at least not raining) Look at my messy hair. I took A LOT of pictures to try to take the huge waves breaking onto shore but everytime I stop the big ones comes- I start clicking- all small ones. That's the biggest I managed.
The palm trees are really slanted. I didn't purposely tilt my camera.
I was also brought to a nearby Bonito flake factory/museum- ok lah, nothing much.
I think by this time 古阿姨got a bit desperate.
She brought me to this place - think where the Japanese used to use as a place for meetings or something
Now this place is just used for art exhibits.
Ok now for last resort- she left me in town - for an hour - to have my dinner and to shop around. haha.
After all that, she dropped me back to the train station where I headed back to Taipei....
Overall, it's not a tiring day - considering I did a bit of walking. 古阿姨 is a very nice and considerate lady - only thing is she does speak quite softly so when she is explaining things u have to shut up.
She also does tours to 合欢山 and her Husband who is also a driver - will go all the way to 清静Cingjing... u just have to start from Hualien.
Oh before I end, let me tell you coming here is not without risks- from the falling rocks. Apparently, on the day itself when I was walking on one of the trails - there was an accident involving a motorcycle - maybe he was trying to dodge a rock not too sure. And the day after I visited - TV reported a 76 year old lady was hit on a head by a falling rock...at Swallow Grotto somemore. Few years back - one of the coach buses fell down along the road on the way to the national park (that's why now the train is always fully booked - no one wants to use that dangerous road)
Pls don't let that stop you from coming. Everything/everywhere has its risks....this place is REALLY beautiful.
Ok - answer all my 3 questions correctly (all 3 must be correct), remember to leave your email address, and you will get a small souvenir from Taiwan from me. :) First come first serve!
Open to S'poreans and M'sians (located IN S'PORE AND M'SIA)
No comments:
Post a Comment