The first stop was Cingshui Cliff.
I think i love this spot the most for we're overlooking at the Pacific Ocean!!!!
As you can see the mountains here were very steep. Almost like a wall.
I love this picture where you can see the cliff and the ocean:
陈叔叔 also likes to help us take jump shots. haha!
Then we walked down to the beach there and i left my name on the sand:
And Tom also left his:
(He more kiasu. Draw until so big. kekeke~)
It was already drizzling by then. Then the next stop we just went to the entrance of the Taroko Gorge National Park (太鲁阁国家公园). And let the journey begins...
First official destination: 长春祠 Chang Chun Ci
Here's some pictures:
Can u spot the pavilion on top?
A zoomed-in one
Words inscribed on the mountain wall below the pavilion
We're gg to climb all the way following this path on top and then exit by another side. Yes, u heard it correctly - CLIMB. Cos the path is all steps. and when we went to the entrance there written on the board says the trail will take around one hr plus. haha...and we kinda wanted to skip it but then since we're here might as well give it a try.
The entrance of the trail
and the journey begins
inside the cave...
and we reached the pavilion!
But then it still was a long way. The path is mostly all steps, not to mention some very steep steps, and we hadto be extra careful on our way down. We had to stop now and then for our muscles were aching. Oh! and when we're up there we shouted and we could hear our own echoes very clearly =)
And Tom almost wanted to give up. haha~
Look at the steps...
And when we reached some flatground, Tom could not believe that he actually made it. But then again...we're not even halfway of the journey. haha!
Some of the sights as we continue to climb:
As we saw this temple, we knew that we're reaching the end and by this time or a little before this we're already descending the steps.
But a more challenging task awaited us..
The suspension bridge.
At the other end of the suspension bridge is the temple. It's not as scary for the bridge was pretty stable.
But tom was a bit scared. Probably he just pretended to be afraid to make some effect. haha~ I took a video while we're crossing the bridge but it was too big to be uploaded.
After crossing the bridge, and walking further down the road, we reached the end of the trail! Yipee!!! By then it was lunch time. 陈叔叔 drove us to this restaurant owned by the tribal pple (原住民) for a detoxification lunch. haha. The vegetables are organic vegetables and they're function is to help us detox. We had a steamboat actually. And cos of 陈叔叔's relations we had one whole kampong chicken for free! The meat is really juicy and smooth. Damn nice. There's also steam fish, braised vegetables, braised pork, tofu and fried vegetable egg. Those vegetables inside the egg are the organic vegetables. The steamboat has 2 kinds of soup. We finished the whole basket of vegetables. And dessert was plum juice and purple-colored sweet potato which i love. Not to mention there was this free flow (was it?) of taro fragrant tea which rocks! Tom loved it so much that even when we're leaving he was standing up and pouring another cup for himself and 陈叔叔 also laughed at him. Plus he was lamenting why the tea was not available for sale. haha. But i must say the tea is really very unique, for i'm a taro fan as well. haha!
Pictures of the restaurant:
the 3 diff types of organic vege
and we left our names on the tatami-look-alike board. Some business pple even left their namecards dere. lol.
The exterior of the restaurant:
With our stomachs full, we began the phase 2 of our Taroko Gorge tour. Fisrt stop is 燕子口 (Swallow Trail).
It's very hard to capture the swallows that were flying in the air. Managed to take a video of it but then again the file was too big to be uploaded. Here's some sights along the trail. Again we had to travel on foot.
There's some holes inside the mountain walls. Not sure if the swallows rest dere. And also 陈叔叔 told us that there's no edible bird nest there.
The next stop we went to see Indiana people where 陈叔叔 said we could dig his nose and poke his eyes or even kissed it. We also encountered Tiger, Fox, Rat, Cat in the mountains! Exciting rite? haha...here's wat i'm referring to la. Actually, they're rock formations which the locals managed to see that the shapes resembled these animals or humans:
The Indiana Head Rock:
Can u see? It's as though it is drinking water and the nose is jutting out.
A zoomed-in version of it
We travelled further on and saw two more heads:
Me poking the eys of it
Tom digging its nose
And me kissing it. Haha..interesting? Can u see its eyes now?
There's another head rock above the previous one as well =)
Us trying to fly like the swallows =)
We moved on to see other animal rock formations:
Can u see a fox's face? The eyes are pretty obvious!
And this, there's a cat beside the fox's face.
This is a half-face of a tiger.
Can u spot a rat scurrying down the mountain?
If u can't spot them, ur not imaginative enough. kekeke! Kidding =p
We stayed at this place for quite some time for we're busy trying to figure out the animals that 陈叔叔 was pointing out to us using our cameras to zoom in.
Next stop we went to 九曲洞(Tunnel of the Nine Turns Trail). It was named cos along the 1.2km walk, there's a total of 9 turns i think, though the turns are not very obvious, cos its just like a winding road.
There's a lot of tourists here, especially from China. In order to enter the trail, we had to put on safety helmets cos apparently this place there is high ocurrences of rocks falling and we're advised to walk underneath the sheltered parts of the mountain. It was funny to see ourselves in the safety helmets and i was singing "Bob, the builder, here we fixed it!" kekeke~
Inside the tunnel
A pity my camera went flat and so the rest of the photos were with my frens. Have to get from them next wk then update u guys =) But here's what i can describe. At the beginning of the trail we saw marble (大理石). They're actually mountains and one can tell if it is a marble by looking at the color and texture, which is whiter and smoother and there's fine lines/patterns on it. The marbles here could not be extracted for this is a nature reserve. then there was this rock formation called the "carp leaping across the dragon gate" where u can see the rock formation of a carp with its head facing towards the gap in between the mountains. And then furtherdown there was this rock formation of a toad with a real pavilion like sitting on its head and also another rock formation of a snake.
With that, we marked the end of our Taroko Gorge tour!
To be continued in Day 3 part 2...