Blogs from Taroko Gorge, Taiwan, Asia

There is a place in Taiwan where things are different. There is a place where the grey concrete of Taipei seems so far away. There is a place where the blue is bluer, the green is greener, marble stones shine in all the colours of the rainbow and the clouds hang lower. I am not talking about Neverland and I am not Peter Pan or Michael Jackson for that matter... What I want to talk about in this entry is the wild east of Taiwan, a rough landscape with towering peaks of more than 3.000 meters and crystal clear water meeting the rocky cliffs of the coastline. According to popular belief is is this part of the island that has given birth to its alternative name 'Formosa', i.e. the beautiful island. Portuguese sailors centuries past are ... read more

Siedze sobie w domu nad brzegiem oceanu, kilkanascie km na poludnie od Hualien. Dotarlem tu wczoraj wieczorem, do 3 rano trwala popijawa, przed pojsciem spac zdazylem jeszcze spisac: * Dzien dzisiejszy niezbyt ciekawy, za wyjatkiem wieczoru. Za dnia zwinelo sie z goscinnej kwatery u Mayny w Kaohsiungu, wzielo takse, potem na stojaka pociag ( 3 razy Taiwan pijio dla przyspieszenia podorzy), w koncu, po 6 godzinach, Hualien. Ide do taksiarzy negocjowac przejazd. - 500. - 200. -Nie ma mowy. -250. -250? Chyba doalrow amerykanskich! - wykrzyknal taksiarz- tak wiec podreptalem do autobusu. Tam niezbyt wiedziano, co ze mna zrobic, adres niewiele im mowil. W koncu wzieli mnie na poklad, a po 40 minutach kierowca depnal po hamulcach na srodku autostrady i wykrzyknal- to tutaj! Tak zostalem wysadzony, wiec ide, patrze, cos niby hostel, wchodze- nihao- i ... read more

We took the evening train 2.5 hours to Haulien, a small town on the east coast which would be our base while exploring Taroko Gorgo. Taroko is a national park area with tall, jagged, imposing marble cliffs and mountains with clear rivers running through the valleys. There are many hiking and walking trails throughout the park and some stunning views to be seen. In Haulien, we stayed at Formosa Backpacker’s Hostel, a place recommended to us by others at The Meeting Place. This now being “low season” in Taiwan, we walked into the hostel at 9:30pm to quite a sight: doors unlocked, not a soul inside, no one at the bar, bar fridge chain locked, dorm rooms unlocked and empty (except for one bed). It was weird - almost like we were in the wrong place ... read more

Here are some pictures from a visit Cynthia and I made to Toroko National Park in eastern Taiwan. We were really lucky and had gorgeous weather for the day, and the scenery, as you can see from the photos, was stunning. There was one section of a walk we did where there were falling rocks so we had to wear helmets, although from the size of some of the boulders already fallen into the path I don't think a helmet would have helped us much! ... read more

(Day 524 on the road) A three hour train ride south on one of Taiwan's comfortable and reliable trains brought us to the city of Hualien on Taiwans' east coast, the stepping stone for the magnificent Taroko Gorge. Or shall we call it, as the English translation in the tourist brochure does, "Extreme beauty of the world and a pleasing delight of hills and water"? Catchy! We had missed the last bus for the day to Taroko Gorge and thus spent the night in Hualien. That was not bad actually, as this way we set off the next morning on our own rented scooter, which gave us a lot of flexibility in the remote mountains where we were heading. It was the first time that my mum was riding on the back of a scooter, and ... read more