Monday,
8th November at 0930: the start of the grand tour.
It started out as many great journeys do with a few hiccups, because
of my rusty navigational skills. Not to worry soon we were amongst
scenery like this! |
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Out
of Taipei we headed East and down the coast. If I hadn't tried
to be so intrepid it might have been easier and I might have been
able to provide mum and dad with their lunch earlier than 4pm, still
it was a waffle and a coffee, so well worth the wait as you can tell
by their gleefull expressions. That night's stop was slightly
more exciting at the Leader Lodge within Taroko National Park.
Fortunately it was a 1 storey building as there was a 6.8 earthquake
that night. |
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Tuesday
was spent crossing Taroko gorge which is one of Taiwan's
tourist hotspots and very beautiful. We trekked around pagoda's,
bathed in very very very hot springs and drove and drove and drove
for ages without seeing anywhere to eat, again lunch came at 4pm -
My role as tour guide was leaving us all a bit hungry! |
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Out
of Taroko National Park and having driven across the centre of Taiwan
in a day averaging 20km per hour (yep, it's not that big!) we arrived
in Nantou. The epicentre of a devastating earthquake
in 1999, it is outstandingly beautiful and reminded me of New Zealand.
Except even New Zealand doesn't have furry tomatoes. |
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Wednesday
From the Green Finger B&B we headed down to Sun Moon Lake,
another hot Taiwanese tourist destination. The view above is a 360
from the top of the Tzen Pagoda.
All through the trip I'd been using my most fluent Chinglish and had
bluffed my way through most situations with confidence, until we decided
to take a boat trip and I nodded and smiled my way through at the
captain as usual. At the other side of the lake we were ushered of
the boat and taken to be dressed up as aboriginals. Unfortunately
yellow isn't my colour. |
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The
aboriginal costumes are very reflective of the colours around Sun
Moon lake, and central Taiwan in general. The flowers, temples,
pagoda's, bright green grasshoppers...and just look at that blue sky! |
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Thursday
we left Sun Moon Lake, misty eyed and ready for our next Taiwan beauty
experience. Unfortunately tour guide Bampton got it very wrong
and we ended up in a really dreary town on the West coast called Lukang,
which I've been assured it interesting at the weekend, we didn't take
one photo. We quickly moved on to spend our last night on the
road in Taichung. |
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Friday
in Taichung we were able to see the best of New Taiwan. The
National Taiwan Natural Science Museum (try saying that after a few
rice wines!). An indoor rain forest with loads of beautiful
lilies and orchids, and a giant mosquito on guard duty. Mum
and I were quite taken by the really ugly big fish, but they wouldn't
fit in our backpacks. |