Finally, Typhoon Pearl has finished its course. Good news is the not many ppl in Taiwan and China were injured. Deario and I were also happy for another reason: at last we can go out and soak in the glorious sunlight! Destination: Taroko Gorge.
After dodging our ridiculously long-winded landlady (she had previously made us stand and listen to her speech about the poor service of her competitors for 30 mins) , we went to have breakfast before heading towards Taroko Gorge in a tour bus. One thing good about Taiwan is the price of its food. Check out the lunch box I am holding in the photo below: for a nifty price of S$2.00, you get egg, pork, chicken, plus four vegetables. Pretty neat eh.
Time flies when you're chatting/suanning/poking/fighting each other in the bus; we reached the entrance to Taroko Gorge after what seems like a while. Seeing the rolling hills and gushing river, our excitment mounted and we couldn't wait to see what else the gorge has to offer. We got off the bus at the visitor centre and ran around snapping photos.
After fifteen mins, it was time for our bus to move on to the next check-point in Taroko Gorge. Throughout the journey, sheer marble cliffs, deep gorges and crystalline pools surrounded us and awed us. The lyrics of a hymn came to my mind,
"Hills and vales, and trees and flowers ..over and around us lies the Lord of all.."
Indeed, nature itself proclaims the magnificence of its creator. I couldn't help but raise a song of praise to God.
Soon, the bus arrived somewhere at the top of Taroko Gorge. We got off the bus and wandered around. This part of Taroko Gorge is pretty commercialised, with restaurants, a high class hotel, and souvenir shops selling tribal crafts. There is a small community living here too, they are tribal people who now live in brick houses just like city people. I was amazed to discover that they are now Christians and attend either a Catholic church or a Presbyterian church in their small town. As we walked around, we caught a funny sight: a gang of middle-aged uncles dressed in full-body biker leather trying very hard to be cool.
When we're bored of the small town, Deario and I decided to trek higher up Taroko Gorge. Enduring an arduous climb, we came to a small park near the peak of the hill we were at. The view here was spectacular and we quickly fished out our camera to exercise our photography skills.
(Deario's best shot)
(My best shot)
We took a short nap in the park before returning to our bus. The next check-point was at the Tunnel of Nine Turns. This is truly an amazing place; somehow, man had managed to bore a tunnel five metres wide and a kilometres long through the resistant marble. As we strolled inside the tunnel, we could see waterfalls and cliffs through the "windows" at the side of the tunnel. The waterfalls weren't very big, but they had a mysterious beauty to them as their cascading waters sparkle and dance in the sunlight.
Caught up with admiring the scenary, we lingered in the timeless tunnel for too long and had to run to catch our bus. At last, it was time to go on to our final check-point, which was a small park on the top of one of the mountains. It was really a simple little place, just a grassland with a single willow tree and a stone table. Surrounding this park were taller mountains, giving it a secluded-paradise-kind of feel.
Finally, it was time for us to depart. It was truly a wonderful and complete day, one of the best we had so far in Taiwan. Oh yar, one more thing, there was a very pretty Japanese girl who was sharing the same tour bus with us. As she kept asking us to take a photo with her, we finally obliged:
She asked me for my number too, but I thought that was too much.
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