Goodbye Taiwan! (We'll miss you!!!)

The two of us on the plane, heading home... Very tired, but very happy.
Dinner our last night in Taipei: We had indian food (a ton of it) at a Taiwanese shopping mall.
Brian skipping stones at the seashore, Chingzhou cliffs, Taroko Gorge National Park.
Cat throwing stones and looking a little transcendental.
"Cat, give me a pose!"
"Where's my motivation?"

The Chinzhou cliffs and heading home...

The pagoda attached to a Buddhist temple in Taroko Gorge, we climbed to the top of this building and had a great view of the river valley and the boddhisatva below.

The roof of the Buddhist temple in Taroko; this entire building is made of concrete.

Boddhisatva statue, Taroko Gorge.

Taroko Gorge

The inner gorge of a river at Taroko Gorge


Catherine and Teresa on the swing bridge; behind them, one of the two waterfalls from this section of the hike, falls down many feet to the riverbed.

Homeward Bound

We woke up to buffet breakfast in the hotel Grand Formosa, and packed our things for hiking in the park. We planned on going to a trail called the Baiyang Waterfall trail, however as we drove out of the little crossroads where our hotel was located, we quickly realized that the route would be more difficult than we had thought. A rockfall had collapsed part of the roadway and there was a crew working to clear the rubble. Cat and I asked the road worker, whose teeth were stained red with beteljuice, if the way was clear. "Five!" he said, then, counting on his fingers, "One, two, three, four, five." (Hours, minutes? It was anyone's guess). The man pointed to Catherine's mom, pointed at me and asked: "Mother?" I pointed at Catherine. He smiled and pointed at the two of us: "You are married?" We grinned and shook our heads. "Kids?" Nope, but thanks for asking.

We decided to see the buddhist temple in the little town below while we waited for the road to clear. The temple is located on an escarpment overlooking the river and the top of it shrouded in fog. We climbed the inside of a pagoda and looked out over the river and now we have to board our plane!!! SORRY to lead you on! Talk to you in the USA!!!

Cat and Brian

Brian and Cat

Ni HAO!

Taroko Gorge

After returning to Taichung City we slept and woke early to drive across the island to Taroko Gorge. Dan drove the entire way, through many tunnels (including a 12.9Km tunnel) and onto the narrow winding coastal highway that passes along many steep bluffs on the way to Taroko Gorge national park. 

Taroko Gorge is made of incredibly deep slot canyons carved from granite. The water is a pearly blue. The old highway runs along the river, and was carved by hand during the occupation by Japan. We did some walking along the trail and ended up at the Hotel Formosa for the evening. 

Now we are packing to hike and head back to Taipei, where tomorrow Cat and I have to take our leave of Taiwan and return to NYC. *Sigh*

The narrow gauge train to Alishan

DSCF2910, originally uploaded by nycteacherbrian.

This is the locomotive of the train we rode up the mountain. It actually PUSHED the train up the mountain, or as the sign read "this train is propelled by the power of push". (Translations always good for a chuckle)