Blogs from Hualien, Taiwan, Asia - page 4

Yesterday we were worthless and barely made it out of the house. When we did go, Eva walked around the city with us and we bought food to cook for dinner. We made a massive beef-filled squash and some salad and we couldn't eat it all, so we're gonna reheat it tonight. Today we went with Eva to Taruko National Park. It was really beautiful, but the trails we "hiked" were sort of a joke. The first one we did, the Swallow Grotto, was literally next to the main road. The second one, Lushui Trail, was overlooking the road -- not really the experience I'd been expecting, but nonetheless pleasant. Tomorrow we head to Taipei and meet our next CS host! Technical details - The garbage trucks play a tune like ice cream trucks would in ... read more

We took off in a train out to Hualian along the Eastern coast of Taiwan. It was quite the beautiful ride containing amazing views of the Pacific Ocean and the countryside. We got to Hualian at about 2 pm and rented 3 scooters between the 5 of us. Needless to say, I had never driven a moped before and the start of our adventure to Taroko Gorge was terrifying, exhilarating and superb. As soon as we got on the highway I felt much more comfortable. You’d be surprised how much power a 125 cc engine has. Hitting a consitant 60 km/h feels about 3 times as fast on a moped. The adrenaline rush was incredible, as we passed by rice fields with the ocean in sight. We started to head up the gorge after about an ... read more

It was an early morning as the River Trekking company was to pick us up at the hostel at 7:15am. We quickly packed up our things and headed downstairs to the lobby area and waited for about 5 minutes. Then 4 men showed up and we decided they were the River Trekking company there to pick us up. They didn't speak much English and we were thinking how are they going to tell us directions or what to do later in the day. We hadn't eaten breakfast and thought we should get some food before we head out on an all day trekking adventure. We told the men in Chinese that we wanted some food and they quickly pulled over to a little shop along the road that sold baozi, bread with meat inside, very common ... read more

Taroko (meaning magnificent and beautiful in the local Truku native language) is one of the seven national parks of Taiwan and proves to be one of the best ways to spend a weekend here in Taiwan. As I did the best to convey with my pictures, Taroko represents ancient Chinese landscape: tall green mountains, deep valleys with clear rivers at the bottom, all eerily framed with a heavy mist. With a temple or two typically poking out from any viewpoint, one can easily get the sense of the spirit of an older China. While the man made trails and bridges may at first give the impression this is an easy park to get around in, nothing could be further from the truth. Given the steepness of the mountains and sheer drop-offs from narrow trails, this park ... read more

Hi All- Giving you a tour of my teaching hospital. It's a Buddhist hospital which means: -Restaurant is vegetarian, so I eat off-grounds or order in. (I like meat! Not Tofu) -Loving quotes are EVERYWHERE (as you will see, they are even on the toilet stalls) -Buddhist munks are all over the place. -Building have names like, "The Gratitude Building" and "The Great Love Building" I have a funny video of what goes on here, including one of Dr. Ko explaining what Tai Qi is. Bye~ Joni... read more