In Kenting, by way of Taroko Gorge and Sun Moon Lake

And, in a hotel that has a computer connected, more or less, with the internet. HiNet’s DNS works here maybe 1 in 3.

Anyway, from Suao, we went down old Neakahnie Mountain. With lots of log trucks.

Really.

The road down the coast there was high above the ocean on the side of a mountain. It was also relatively narrow and pretty twisty. And, instead of log trucks there were gravel trucks. Lots of cement plants around. These trucks are well known. Everyone warned us about them. They behaved essentially like log trucks for the same reasons that log trucks act like log trucks. So there was no problem at all.

The weather that day was overcast and quite grey. It was still pretty nice.

We got to the entrance of Taroko Gorge late. And had the first of a streak of 4 bad meals. Bring your own food to Taroko Gorge. Otherwise, you’re in for hot-watered dehydrated food.

But we lucked out, as usual. It was dark and we drove up the gorge to the next stop – which had a Catholic Hostel. Cheap digs!

The gorge – and we’re talking narrow and deep – was dark and cold. No sweat. The blanket was warm.

Next morning we backtracked a few clicks to shoot some of the postcard area of the park. Then, up the hill. Long, long road that featured little traffic (weekday), mostly 1 and 1.5 lanes, mirrors for every 3rd or 4th corner, and lots of construction. This is a road that is carved out of very steep mountains. We drove for quite a while, for instance, and found ourselves back above where we spent the night. At the top of a 1.9 kilometer hiking trail dropping 450 meters to where we spent the night, that is. The trail was closed.

Kept driving and spent the whole day going through the clouds and back down to a town called Lushan. Lushan is a town of 50 hotel/hot-spring spas. 100% tourist. Driving in to town there were several people on the road flagging down entering motorists and touting their hotels. One snagged us. English spoken and a nice picture of the spa. So, we got in really hot water. After that – time to eat. Same guy steered us to a restaurant that definitely broke the bad-food streak. Tasty. And, we got the hotel to give us a budget traveller price. So it was a good town. Not even “in the book!” (No inet connection or compter parts or working international ATM. All middle aged Taiwanese visitors.)

Today, Sun Moon Lake – a lake behind a dam. Lots of resort type stuff, again. Also, some shrines and such. Pictures, videos and audio are snagged of it all.

What to do next? We’ve seen mountains. So, hi-ball it to the south end of the island. Freeway (with toll booths) to Kenting – the town associated with the national park that covers the southern tip of the island.

We’ve no idea what this will be like. It started raining the moment we entered the town – which was alive with street fair-ish activity. Saw a “Hotel” sign that looked promising. Stopped. Saw 3 more inside a 100 feet. Got the first one. They have a computer sorta connected to the internet that I’m typing this on now. Some pictures will be uploaded. But the connection is 20 kbytes and the 256 card is maxed out. I got a gig card in Puli today. Usual method of finding things. We stopped at a 7-Eleven (or Happy Family or whatever). Asked the girl behind the counter by showing her a camera and flash memory card. She was having a heck of a time understanding, but a women who had come in to get a package said that she would show us where we could get a memory card. She led us in to town in her car and got me set up to get card from a camera store. Gig card, so inet uploads aren’t needed.

Anyway, it’s late and others want the computer.

One Response to “In Kenting, by way of Taroko Gorge and Sun Moon Lake”

  1. Mom says:

    The trouble with your coming home is that we won’t be getting any more of these nifty travelogues. I really appreciate your sharing it all with us. You’ll have to teach me how before I go someplace again.
    It’ll be good to see you – have a safe healthy trip. Love, Mom