Friday
After five days of rolling around Taipei I decided I should probably get on with seeing the rest of the island. I'm taking the train today to Hualien to see the Taroko Gorge, most renowned geologic wonder on the island.
On the way, I saw the ocean here for the first time. A dark blue gray navy-like color with a beach of black rock. Beautiful and rugged.
And the countryside is so green with glimmering rice fields everywhere. It's lovely.
I'm traveling by train again, which I so enjoy. So far Taiwan makes it so easy to get around.
Shirley, a girl who's working at the hostel I'm starting at in Hualien, is giving me a tour of Hualien. Among the way, we saw the garbage truck. Apparently, it plays a Beethoven tune to tell people it's coming and they should bring their garbage out for pickup. They have garbage pickup almost everyday, but you don't know when until you hear the song of the garbage truck. It's the same all over Taiwan and reminds me a lot of the ice cream truck.
Saturday
Today I take a day tour to Taroko Gorge. The guy at the desk at my hostel said it might be in Chinese, but that maybe some other people on the tour could help me out. So these two young Chinese girls get on the bus and the tour guide actually asks them to take care of me, which they find funny but are also happy to translate because the driver doesn't know English. I love Taiwan!
85% or so of all tourists to Taiwan are from mainland China, according to this tour guide. I believe it because there are so few westerners here. Later they changed me over to the English tour with five other westerners. We were the only ones that showed up for the tour that day. The other 40 or so tourists with this company were all Chinese, so that kind of gives you an idea.
Taroko gorge was amazing! Beautiful blue glacial water and gigantic boulders. The pictures really tell the story. I really enjoyed it even though I was quite tired. I haven't been sleeping well here.
On the way home, we stopped at the beach. I bought a baked sweet potato from a street vendor and listened to some music played by a native Taiwanese guy. It was a pretty chill moment.
When I returned to the hostel, I was treated to a lovely dinner with the family. Ginger pork with bamboo asparagus, and rice with scallions and hot pepper. Yum! For dessert, frozen pickled mango, and lemon sugar plums. Very interesting.
Sunday
I'm traveling on to Doulan today, a small town near Taitung.
I've seen an unusual number of sign language speakers here in Taiwan. To see one is unusual, I think, but I've seen three sets so far. Unusual.
Traveling on the train again, I see a lot of huge wide rocky riverbeds that are dried out. I would not think this was the dry season, but maybe. Many only have small creeks running through that are 1/8 the size of the riverbed. (Later I learn these giant riverbeds flood completely during typhoons and other rain events. Wow!)
Taiwan is a bicyclist enthusiasts dream. A whole beautiful green island that is bicycle friendly with mountains and valleys. So much to explore and nothing is too far away.
