My day began back in Taipei though. After rising early and grabbing my now mandatory 7-Eleven breakfast (my father would be so proud), I was off to train station and soon after, off to Hualien. I really can't express in words just how much I love Asia's trains and infrastructure and ease of access to public transport. Sooooooo easy to get around (especially for a tourist) and sooooooooo cheap (well, not in Japan, but Korea and Taiwan are though).
The trip was uneventful (which is what you hope for when traveling via public transport) but the scenery was lovely. As my travel books had claimed, once you get outside of Taipei, its all nature. They weren't kidding. An the sights ran the whole gamut too. We had small country towns in the hills.
We had streams and rivers running through the countryside.
We had rice paddies and numerous small family farms.
And finally, we had the ocean. All in all, not a bad ride.
2 hours later, I was in Hualien. I could include a picture to show you what Hualien looks like, but there isn't anything to see. It's a small, quiet and spread out town of 100,000 (I think). It certainly didn't feel that big, but that's probably because many of those people don't live in the city limits. With all that traffic and with all those people, it was a wonder that it only took me 15 minutes to find my hostel, given it was so far away from the train station (5 blocks). I'm just that good. Finding the hostel was complicated a bit by the absence of a sign or notification that said building was a hostel, as the typhoon that rolled through the 3 days previous had blown the damn thing to OZ or somewhere far, far away.
The owner was especially friendly, which was good, as I quickly needed to ask her a large favor. It had come to my attention that I had forgotten my Salman Rushdie book on the train. Had it been some other book by some other author, perhaps I could have left it, but as it was written by Rushdie it deserved a better fate then to be discarded into the Lost and Found bin in some non-English speaking country (at least in an English speaking country someone could have picked it up and gotten something out of it).
So I asked the owner to write me a note in Mandarin explaining that my book was lost and that I arrived at this time from this location and sat in this seat. Pretty much all the information I would need for this encounter at the train station (as I was betting their english wasn't so great). Well, I walked back to the train station and found the Lost and Found easy enough, but it wouldn't be so easy. I showed the man at the desk my note, he read it and clearly understood it, then motioned for me to wait while he summoned somebody from the back. Cool, they'll have my book in no time. Well, not really. This man they summoned didn't have my book, he was their English speaker. This new guy then precedes to ask several questions about what I lost, what train I took, and where I was sitting. Normal enough questions except for the fact that all this was already written and clearly understandable to all in the note that I had given them. So I was, ohhh what's the word, confused and annoyed. But finally, after some more redundant questions and deliberating, they did find my book. Hooray!
After some quick lunch, I decided to try my luck (first mistake) and head out to Taroko Gorge Park for a few hours in the afternoon. I mean, by the time I left Hualien it was only 2:30pm, giving me several hours of daylight to work with, as I assumed sunset was at 7 or 7:30pm (second mistake). I never bothered to check when the sun actually would set (third mistake) and just went with my assumption. I jumped on the free shuttle bus to the park and was gone. I haven't been been to too many national parks, but I can't remember any that had a free shuttle bus that runs about 8 times a day to drive people the 1.5 hours to the center of the park. Once at the "center" of the park, I decided I'd work my way back towards the entrance to the park and then catch one of those free shuttles as they work they way back out. Never mind that I didn't check exactly when those ran (mistake number I don't even remember anymore).
They had quite the little set up at the center, with a visitor center, a little mini mart and a hostel or two for travelers. But I couldn't stay and dawdle, as I had nature to see. Thanks to the typhoon, many of the trails were closed due to flooding or the fact that they had been completely swept away. With minimal options for exploration, I decided to just hike along the road. Obviously this wasn't the safest decision, as the road through the park was one of those winding mountain roads with only a single lane for each direction and a measly little steel railing to keep cars from crashing to their deaths a considerable distance below on the riverbed. I was walking between said measly steel railing and those cars. A little sketch, I'll admit, but there really was not other way to move throughout the park without a car.
The one trail I was able to go on had a tunnel that nearly thwarted me. It was only 30 meters long, but at one point you would be in complete darkness, as it made a turn and one couldn't see the literal "light at the end of the tunnel". I very nearly didn't go through. Now before you go and laugh at me over about 30 meters, understand that I was on a trail that had warned me at the entrance to "watch out for poisonous snakes and bees", so I was less than enthused about walking blind in a tunnel. Especially if I would have to run my hand along walls that could possibly house those poisonous snakes. Eventually, I summoned up the courage only to find out that I really only had to take 3 or 4 steps in the complete dark before the tunnel turned and you were back in the light. FAIL, me.
See! They recommend a flashlight, cuz its so scary. It's not just me.
As for the rest of the sightseeing, my camera battery died really early, so I'll just slap down some various pictures from all over the park, then we'll move onto my harrowing escape from the park.
Now, my heroic escape. By 6pm, I head covered a fair distance in the park and was feeling pretty good about shit. However, after going through one of the trails as far as I could go (which consisted of only .2 km of a 2km trail....thanks alot rockslides caused by the typhoon), I exited to realize that "Damn, its pretty dark out right now....and its only 6pm." So maybe my estimation that sunset was at 7 or 7:30pm was way off. And if the park is already dark, then there probably aren't any more buses to drop off tourists are there. Probably no need to bring in tourists when they can't see anything. And I still had another 3.5 Km to walk until the next pick up point for the shuttle bus that probably isn't coming. I stupidly didn't realize that the tunnel I was just at was a bus pick up point, but not like it would have mattered, as there was not shuttle running anymore. As it turns out the last one was at 5pm or something.
So I began my trek to the next destination in a very, very long tunnel, so I couldn't even see the beauty of the park at all. But, i guess since it was completely dark, I wouldn't have seen the park anyways. After a Km or so in the tunnel and while feeling less and less optimistic about finding a ride home, a small pick-up truck pulled up beside me in the tunnel. The driver leaned over and asked where the hell I was going. I told him I didn't really know, but I figured I was heading to the entrance. He, not being a dumbass like myself, knew that on foot that would take forever and that there were no buses coming for me, so he offered to give me a ride to the front of the park. Again, Taiwanese, really nice. So I got a free ride all the way back to the entrance (which took 25 minutes by car, so I would have been walking forever) in the truck bed in the back. Definitely an interesting view of the park, that is while poking one's head out the back with only a leaf blower for company.
The nice man dropped me off at the entrance and then told me some other stuff, but I couldn't understand him very well, but I didn't ask him to clarify (another mistake). From here I had some choices. Go to the visitor center police station and try my luck with explaining to him that I need a cab or walk into the nearby little town and find a cab and or city bus. Thinking that this little town would surely have some cabs or a bus route, as they would certainly have to drive to Hualien for their groceries and whatever things they need, I walked into town (as you can probably guess, this was a mistake). It's not like it was super late at this time, so presumably the buses and cabs would still be up and running. Hell, it was only 7:00pm by now. Well, as I walked through town and saw not a single bus or cab, I began to get a little discouraged, but surely there will be one further on down the road. Again, wrong. This particular little pocket of structures (not even sure if you can call it a town) ended quite quickly, leaving me wandering about quite aimlessly. Still, I stayed positive, quite sure that if I continued on this same road, I would eventually find a taxi and/or bus. But it wasn't going to be easy. The sidewalk path I was walking on was convenient. the downed trees and branches from the typhoon were not. Twisting an ankle while jumping in, around, under, through and betwixt the downed trees would have made things even more fun. Lucky for me, got through with ankles intact.
After about an hour of walking, I reached another "town". By this point I had given up hope of ever finding a bus stop or taxi going through town, so I was gonna have to call back to my hostel to have them send me one. Well, I shouldn't say I didn't see any taxis. I did see several. However, they were all up on jacks in repair shops, so no help. At this point the only thing that appeared to be open was the 7-Eleven, so I headed in to try my luck in asking to use their phone. After several minutes inside trying to summon the courage to ask about the phone and scaring the employees (I imagine a tall, dirty, foreign looking guy wandering around muttering to himself would be a tad unsettling), I realized that I was a dumbass because convenience stores always have pay phones. So I headed outside to find that the payphone only takes prepaid cards...which I don't have. Fuck. Thank god there's another convenience store 10 feet away. And that one had a payphone that took coins.
So I called up the hostel lady (good thing I brought my travel book with me) and we quickly hit a snag. "Ummm, Eric where are you?". Damn good question that. Obviously I couldn't say. All I know is that I walked straight for a good 90 minutes from the entrance of Taroko Park and that's probably not gonna cut it as far as directions go. Being desperate and low on cash for the phone and limited by where I could walk with a phone attached to the wall, I asked for help from the middle aged couple eating at the picnic table outside the convenience store. Actually, "asked" probably isn't the best way to describe it. More like "poked gently to get their attention, then motion repeatedly for them to take the phone". Bless their hearts, they quickly recovered from the fright/confusion of having a phone handed to you by a stranger to pick up the phone and give adequate directions to the hostel lady. With the taxi hailed and 40 minutes to burn before he got there, I went back inside, bought a water and a can of Pringles, and then sat down on the curb to relax. And you know? Sitting on a curb, while eating Pringles and drinking a water outside a Family Mart in the middle of nowhere in Taiwan didn't feel any different than sitting outside a Kwik Trip back in Oshkosh or Wisconsin. The little town was dead quiet, save for an occasional car or scooter that drove by, and the occasional customer that stopped in for drinks and snacks. Occasionally local kids rode by on their bikes or families wandered by while out on walks. It felt like home. I liked it.
Soon enough, the taxi arrived and drove me home. After dinner that night, I tried to find the beach, but failed (noticing a trend here). But it may not have been my fault. I'm told the beach was closed down due to construction being done to fix what was damaged during the typhoon. So perhaps what I thought was a construction sight for a new apartment building or something was actually the beach.
The next day was incredibly uneventful in comparison. I got up really early, caught a 7:50am bus to the park, stayed there all day wandering around with a Canadian guy I met at my hostel, then left on the last free bus at 5:00pm. Not much else to report. We did meet a cool Taiwanese kid who was giving surveys to the foreign tourists to gauge what they liked about the park, so we chatted with him for awhile and he gave us some helpful hints to keep from getting stuck in the park after dark (again). Again, Taiwanese folk are friendly. Very, very friendly.
So here's the pics from the second day at the park.
Now, there used to a trail somewhere in that mess. That is, before the typhoon hit. Now? Not so much. Disappointing, as said trail was supposed to be a good one.
At one point we came upon a very sketch rope bridge. The rope wasn't fraying or anything (wouldn't that have been lovely?), but it did move quite easily and we were quite a distance above the water. Ohhh, and those railings....not very high. They only came up to my hip, so not exactly gonna keep me from falling over. About all they would do is insure that if I fell I dumped over and fell head first, which might actually be the worst way to fall.
Some more pics and then we are done.
Sorry for the glut of pics, but I really liked it there. If that weren't already incredibly obvious. Next up: the day I actually spent in Taipei.
More Photos: See the Facebook albums for Taiwan (2 and 3)
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