Stories of me and myself

5/12/06

You know, the last time when I was in Taiwan, somebody didn't allow me to go to Taroko Gorge as he deemed it boring. However, I knew it was a must-see this time round. Henceforth, Taroko Gorge had the chance to welcome us into its embrace this time round. =)

One memorable thing from this day was that I had pee-d a total of 10 times even before it was noon!! (Oops, did I wash my dirty linen in public again?? Haha!)

I was pestered by this cab driver even since I arrived at Hualien. (Taroko Gorge is in the town of Hualien.) He persistently tried to source out my plans for the day, and to introduce his best offer. I was skeptical. But several issues ensued. Why? Firstly, it was winter and the sun sets before 6pm, and it was already noon when we arrived. We had to head to Tien Hsiang in order to carry out my plan to trek to Wen Shan hot springs (a rugged, mysterious adventure in nature, and it's free!) and Paiyang Waterfall (another exciting trek). Visitors to Taroko Gorge required transport as it was mainly a road. The other alternative was to walk the entire 20km. But it was already late, there was no preparation, and YP would have murdered me on the spot! Hahaha! So finally, I bargained with the cab driver, who gave me a great offer, as he was promoting his hotel, and he had 2 other passengers with him, not that we minded, as long as the cost was low!

His offer included transporting us to a dumpling shop for lunch. Dumplings are supposedly famous in Hualien, as stated in Lonely Planet, which I have studied so hard I could easily take an exam on it!


Next he took us to some temple, because the other passengers (also Taiwanese, but from Taipei), had seen it on a variety show and wanted to visit it. So we tagged along...
I found a tree to meditate under. Hee.


Then he FINALLY took us to Taroko Gorge, the ONLY place we had wanted to visit! Heh. Lucky there was still time before the sun set on us. Hee. I was wow-ed by the gorge when I first encountered it. But I was further shocked by the cab driver who insisted on taking photos for us, at specific seemingly significant sites! (heh. Alliteration leh...) And we didn't know how to reject him nicely. Heh.



My my... such mass tourists we were!! He continued insisting on taking a photo of me with the waterfall at the background. His kind intentions and the "momento-sake" photography... Heh. I guess it's ok with normal tourists... but we are geographers, and hence more keen to observe how nature forms itself and its features, and not hyped up over touristy traits.


But I did give in and take a touristy picture. One which was later found on a postcard! Hahaha!


I think he later got our idea... thinking that we are probably insane from taking photos of the river and the rocks instead, and acting uncomfortably over his enthusaism to snap momento shots for us. Heh. Oh, did I mention that he thought I was a guy, and kept touching my arm as he spoke to me?? I think he realised it after some point, and stopped touching me. Haha!

Anyway, we finally had the freedom to let our cameras do the talking, and get inspired by nature, which would in turn inspire our teaching! =) I guess as Geographers, the natural, somewhat untouched environment is more appealing. That is where we can apply our contextual knowledge. Erosion and deposition of the river, different rock types, figuring where each boulder orignated from, how it affects the river flow, types of river features, the joints and bedding places, mass movement type, etc. It's really rather exhilarating. =)

Let's start with the oxbow lake which almost everyone who took Geography at Sec school level would know! Heh.


Erosion of the marble...



And human intervention. If you notice the left side of the photo, there's actually a tunnel for vehicles to pass through. A silly thing is that they argue that vehicular carbon monoxide emission is polluting the gorge, so they created another tunnel even deeper into the rock for vehicles, while leaving the old road for visitors to walk through. Have they thought of how the second tunnel is gonna destabilize the rocks?!! Sigh. Tourism. And conservation as an after-thought.


This is one of the tunnels which allowed visitors to walk through. But I have to say that I like the feel of walking through a tunnel. Maybe it reminds me of the thrill I had the day before at Bitou Cape. Heh. Apparently it makes YP feel claustrophobic.


Here are some snapshots for you to drool over the gorge. Well, if it makes you drool or go "Wowww" in the first place! Heh.




Do you find the gorge just so magnificent and awe-inspiring?! Hee.

Now comes the 'momento' photos. Heh. Our kind of 'momento' photo! Haha!




We reached the end of the gorge, Tien Hsiang. There was nothing there except for a huge carpark, but we did create our own fun, with a big marble ball! Hee.



Before long, we zoomed off to the beach (Pacific Ocean). Wasn't in our itinerary but we went along anyway. Not that we had a choice! Haha! Quite nice lah... since we were there already... (But I think we had seen more impressive stuff at Bitou the day before, so this didn't excite us much. Heh.)



After the cab driver got rid of us at the town centre of Hualien, we wandered around searching for food as we hadn't eaten the whole day. We decided on a small shop and ordered pork rib noodles and a big bak-chang (glutinous rice dumpling).


Then we went for fen yuan dou hua (beancurd with glutinous yam balls), which YP didn't enjoy, but I loved. Haha!


As we were walking around, navigating our way to the train station as we weaned in and out of streets which looked interesting, we came upon this shop.

We went in and ordered 4 xiao long bao. The skin resembled the normal pau (bread-like), but chewy. There was soup in it and tasty meat. Lovely! Heh.


We followed obvious signs, which were great for people who were short-sighted. You could have spotted a "Hua Lien Train Station" signboard from afar! Not that I'm complaining... since I don't usually put on my extra 2-eyes... We stumbled upon this pretty, arty-farty Jaapanese-cultured street which vaguely reminded me of SoHo and Greenwich Village in New York.

Through careful observation, I noticed that it was a pink landscape, with lesbians and gays hanging out either on the street or at the nice cafes. Interesting huh?

We walked on and on for several hours I think, and poor YP buay tahan anymore. She complained that I refused to let her take the bus! Haha! We did end up buying a cold strawberry muachi to perk her up. But when I posed with it, "blow wind blow" and the pretty muachi packaging landed on the ground, while I juggled the muachi, which fortunately didn't suffer the same fate as its clothes. I did end up in a laughing fit though! Hahaha!

Tiring and rather un-exciting day as compared to Bitou Cape. I attribute that to the fact that we didn't have the freedom to explore things by ourselves, and were consistently rushed into the cab to proceed onto the next stop. I think that's why I really dislike mass tourism, or organized tours.