Taroko Gorge National Park

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The central train station in Taipei is a large, rectangular contemporary structure. Inside, airy and light; brown and tan granite finishes and shiny metal. The tall, seven story ticket lobby feels like a Grand Central Station but is quiet and subdued. The action takes place on the levels below - Taiwanese trains and the subway intersect at this hub. Adjacent to the subway level are a series of long (really long) commercial malls selling everything imaginable.

I took the train along the east coast to Hualien, a mid-sized coastal city about 1/3 the way down the coast. It serves as the gateway to Taroko Gorge National Park. Once I arrived in Hualien, I had a couple of hours wait until the bus came. I stopped in a real estate office and asked where I could change money. 'About 3 kms.' I was told, 'I'll take you'. Off we went. This kind gentleman and I traded business cards and he showed me his Kiawanas card - we do live in a global society. After conducting business, I started walking back to the bus/train station, pulling my rolling backpack (more rolling and less backpack so far) through the busy streets. I went over to the next street, to the market. I hadn't eaten in hours so the smells were enticing me to each and every stand. Chicken feet here, bubbling tofu there. A woman behind a counter nodded at me and I stopped. I shrugged, not knowing what I wanted other than a big bowl of noodles. Once we understood that, the big decision was left to be made - what goes with the noodles? She pointed a pot of boiling blackish meat and gave me a thumbs up. So be it. It was the wonderful - by the texture it might have been venison but...

Taroko Gorge is Taiwan's premiere National Park and is world class scenery. I stayed in a little village called Tienschiang, about 18 kms. into the gorge in a little hotel/hostel. Being a Monday, I had the place to myself. Before dawn the next day, I walked about 2 miles to the Wen Shan hot springs. The rushing river on my left and the waning moon overhead guided me there. The sound of the river is omni-present here. As the dawn broke, the steep hills were bathed in clouds and I found myself sitting in a steaming pool several hundred feet below the road level. A yound chinese gentleman spoke to me. Turns out he is the staff architect at the national park and was 'in the field' as we say. The park had just completed some improvements at the springs and, as the project manager, he was there to check it out in operation. Chi Hong and I spent the morning talking. He is now part of my extend email trip family. Welcome Chi-hong ...He'll come to L.A. and say hello when he comes to see his UCLA and SCI-ARC architect friends.

One trail winds through several tunnels (if nothing else, the Taiwanese are great tunnelers). In most, the other end can be glimpsed but in couple, not. Besides the glorious waterfalls, the best thing about this hike was the dark dank tunnels that were, in part, pitch black (I could have activiated the solar-powered lights). Near the end of that trail was a pair of waterfalls dropping several hundred feet. Standing on a deck reached by a suspension bridge I could see (to the left) the waterfalls and, to the right, the narrow opening where water rushed into the confluence of two rather large 'creeks'. Everywhere were giant boulders, some larger than my Echo Park house.

Another trail led up, seeminly straight up. A wonderful trail - step after stone step, ladders made of branches, hand rails of rope, a narrow ridge top where a landslide left only about two feet of width to walk (and where the steepest slope (to the left, upbound) was marked with little red fluttering triangular flags). At the top was a large red wooden deck that surveyed several valleys, oaks similiar to our California live oak, and a single pink bloom on a wild rhodendron. The morning was warm, the sky blue and I was alone at the top - nap time. Coming down I saw squadrons of butterflies - little lemon yellow ones, little brown ones, some with brown and white stipes that turn out to be series of white dots in lines, and a big black one with vivid red and white spots. There were these little white ones whose fluttering wings at times seemed to flash a vivid blue. I saw a flock of grey parrots (?) and several plump orange birds with black markings and long orange tails.

The bus ride home was the most scenic ride I've been on in a long time. North from the park, the road is carved into the steep cliffs that drop into the Pacific Ocean. I chose the windshield seat on the top level of a double decker bus and could see over any roadside vegetation, out to an endless blue ocean. The road wound around ridge after ridge, staying between two and about six hundred feet above the ocean. The view around each curve was better than the last... We would occassionally drop down to sea level to cross mile-wide flood plains that hosted huge sand and gravel works. Then back up along the edge of the world. Nearing Taipei the road passes through a series of fishing villages with brightly painted fishing boats, drying fishing nets, and roadside fish stands within a couple of feet of the bus. Finally Taipei and my hotel...

Tomorrow morning I fly to Delhi...more to come...