My Family: Day 2 Taiwan Trip

Breakfast is included in our stay. It's absolutely delicious and awesome. Theresa really put in a lot of effort to prepare the breakfast for us.

Our tour guide cum driver for the day is Xiao Ceng. He picked us up at the minsu punctually at 9am. Prior to our trip, I searched online for a reliable driver to bring us around Taroko Gorge. I came to know of Ms Gu who was highly recommended in the net. Booked her service through email and I was very kiasu. Keep sending her email every few mths to make sure that she has not forgotten my booking as I heard that there are instances where other tour guides will fly aeroplace. I was a bit disappointed when Xiao Ceng came to fetch us instead. Even if she's busy or had other booking, she should have the courtesy to inform us. But well, I'm glad that Xiao Ceng was our guide as he's very informative and a safe driver. He's a Taroko tribe(太魯閣族) and thus his knowledge of Taroko Gorge is very good. The tour cost us 3000NT for 4 of us.

The itinerary

七星潭→清水斷崖→砂卡礑步道→ 燕子口步道→天祥(for lunch)→綠水步道→岳王亭→慈母橋→長春祠→太魯閣牌樓 →小太魯閣→送市區夜市後結束行程

The following will be a image heavy post:

1st stop at 七星潭

The pretty pebbled stones on shore were really gorgeous. Videl took 4 home as souvenirs. They represent Daddy, Mummy, Jie Jie and Mei Mei. Big to small. Hehe.

Setting up our tripod stand

Photo and name card of our handsome tour guide.

清水斷崖 Ching-Shui Cliff.

Shakadang Trail 砂卡礑步道

Xiao Ceng dropped us here and told us that he will come and fetch us when I give him a miss call. It will take around an hour to complete the trail. We only walked for about 5 mins and decided to make a U-turn as Veona was not feeling well. She turned pale suddenly and almost blacked out.

The trail is along a cliff with low head rooms for walk

The Iconic Red Bridge of Taroko Gorge, Bridge of a hundred lions. Each carved lion is different.

Veona was not feeling well. Looked so pale

Fallen rocks from rainfall and erosion.

There's a helmet kiosk where Xiao Ceng collected the helmets for us to wear. As Taroko Gorge is a natural place and prone to rainfall and erosion, there might be loose rocks that could drop on us. We had to wear the helmets as a safety precaution against falling rocks

燕子口 Swallow Grotto

We were then told to start walking on the path and he would meet us at the end when we finished this part of the Gorge.

Stress to the max. There's a net holding on to the rocks. It looks like the whole place is going to give way.

Didnt get to see any swallow. Heard that they are only there from Jun to Sept.

Some parts of the trails are marked with signs warning of rocks falls. Not a place to linger too long even with helmet. The helmet would be useless if a huge boulder were to drop on us.

Rock of the Indian Chief’ (Lower right, chin resting on the river bank, nose jutting out with the mountain side as his ‘helmet’). Seriously I cant make it out. Leave it to your imagination ba.

Xiao Ceng was waiting for us at the end of the trail and told us about Jinheng Bridge. The bridge was named after the Chief Engineer Jin Heng as a tribute.

We had our lunch there at Tianxiang (天祥) . Nothing fantastic about the food.

After lunch, we had a takan session at Lyushui-Heliou Trail (綠水步道). This is the one and only time that I sweated in Taiwan. We took around 1 hour to complete the whole trail. Xiao Ceng was enjoying himself. He dropped us at the start of the trail and fetched us at the end point. A point of no return. We wanted to back out but it's too late. Xiao Ceng is gone.

Tiring face. This is just the start of the trail.

Walking in the dark. Luckily the group in front of us had a torchlight.

View from the top

This is the hole that we came out from.

Hot hot day. Umbrella to the rescue.

To commemorate the 4 officers who died while performing their duties

Finally the end of the trail. Sibei shack.

合流岳王亭吊桥 Holiu Suspension Bridge

Cimu Bridge (慈母桥)

Can you spot the frog shape with a ‘crown’ on top of its head? The shelter is the crown.

It's super windy here. Look at our hair.

Eternal Shrine 长春祠

It s a temple sitting on top of a beautiful waterfall, next to what looks like an avalanche of rocks

太魯閣牌樓

Our final stop. Mugu River Valley (Mukumugi) 花蓮小太魯閣. We like this place as there are no other people and we can get close to the water. The water here is very clear and blue green in colour. It used to the playground for Xiao Ceng

That's the end of our day trip through Taroko National Park. Xiao Ceng drove us back to Hualien city and treated us the famous Cong You Bing. He claimed that it's voted no. 2 in the whole of Taiwan.

At 花蓮市中心 Hualien City Center

Hualien is famous for their Muah Chee, so you can find many shops selling Muah Chee there. We are not a Muah Chee lover so we didnt any. The city center isn’t really like a night market. It’s more like a place with many small shops, and some street stalls. Had our dinner there, shopped for a while and took a cab back to our minsu.

Dinner at 公正包子店. It's definitely overrated in our opinon.

Look at Kennie's black black face. She's sad that I bought her to 公正包子 cause she dont really like pork stuff. 公正包子 is actually like our big bao with the xiao long bao filling.