Gorgeous Taroko Gorge :)

Hello again,

Today we went a bit for an adventure. After grabbing yet another sweet breakfast at the nearest Seven Eleven we went to the Hualien Tourist Information right next to the TRA station and asked for a map of Taroko Gorge and if they knew where we could rent a scooter. They pointed right ahead, across the plaza and we went there to ask the nice women of the scooter rental if we could rent a scooter for the day.

The answer was yes, provided that we had the international license, our national license and we were allowed to drive a motorcycle. This was all true for me (not for JJ since he has no motorcycle license), so after trying the scooter and some translating using google translate I signed the contract for a one day rental. It cost us 500 NTD for 24 hours (around 13 Euros) of rental. Included are 150 km. If you do more you have to pay extra for each km you do more than that (2 NTD/km). Since we didn't compare prices it could be that there are way cheaper scooters than that. But for us it was a good price and the scooter was pretty new.

Our first stop was the gas station since the tank was somewhat low. We refueled for 60 NTD (2 Euros) thinking that would not last much, however we were surprised. We maybe used up a fourth of the tank filling by driving 100 km...

At first I was a bit nervous about driving. I have never driven a scooter (only real motorcycles ;)) and I had JJ on the back. Also Taiwanese people don't really drive according to western standards... ;) But they drive normal enough, and this is not Taipei. Hualien is a much smaller city with much less traffic compared to Taipei and the bigger streets always have extra bike lanes which makes driving a scooter easier. Although the streets in the gorge can get a little narrow at times and it often happens that a smaller tourist bus is overtaking you. But nothing too serious. All in all it was pretty fun.

And yes, we know that our clothes were not really suited for driving a scooter...

We drove through two cemeteries on our way to Taroko Gorge

 

 

And the gorge is awesome! It is very beautiful. We were stunned by all the views. Just see for yourselves (although the pictures can't do it justice).

Eternal Spring Shrine or Changchun Shrine

 

Changuang Temple

 

If you read my previous blog on Taiwan you might remember this bridge... This time I went over it twice, since the hiking trail between the Eternal Spring Shrine and Changuang Temple was closed, but a small bit between Changuang Temple and Changuang Temple Bell Tower was open (for which you have to cross the bridge)

 

View on Changuang Temple from Changuang Temple Bell Tower

Indian Chief Rock in Swallow Grotto

Our meal at Jinheng Park

The roads in the gorge can be pretty curvy and therefore really fun for a bigger motorcycle (sometimes a little challenging for a scooter with two people on), so we thought it has to be cool to be able to do a motorcycling tour through Taiwan... Maybe next time ;).

If you want to learn a little bit about the taroko natives you can visit Buluowan service center where they have a small exhibit. They also show a little movie, however it is only shown in Chinese.

I also recommend driving a little north on the coast to see Qingshui Cliff.

Although we rented the scooter for 24 hours we decided to return it tonight, since we weren't sure where to park properly. Although, the women at the rental told us it is fine to park anywhere except where there are red or yellow lines.

We ate our dinner, Japanese curry rice with pork and beef noodles with some eggs and tofu as appetizers, at a small restaurant in Hualien.

All in all it was a really fun and exciting day for us.

Hope you enjoyed reading.

See you,

Pia