OK -one more blog update -Taiwan!

11/7/14

Taiwan is so beautiful I just have to do one more blog update - no Earthcruiser here, but "Formosa"= "beautiful" and we can vouch that it s so! 

First Taipei. We didn't want to spend too much time in the city, but "Taipei 101" was a "must see". It was once the tallest building in the world, but now is number three. It boasts the fastest elevator in the world. The view from the top is certainly breathtaking! 

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But another aspect fascinated me more than the view. That was the jade carvings and the red coral carvings. 

Jade is mined in Taiwan, and the red coral comes from the waters around here. The beauty is astounding, as are the prices! Some of the carvings were for sale at millions of dollars! But it staggers belief that some of these red corals which are obviously very old, are still traded despite being endangered! But the carving skill is also astounding! 

 ~AU $ 1,000,000 (6+kgs red coral). 

  ~AU$7,000,000! (Yes 7million!) (11 kgs red coral) 

I'm sure red coral jewellery is available in Australia for a fraction of the cost, but I also understand that there are fake red coral pieces..... To think that I have seen red corals washed up on beaches and didn't keep them for polishing! 

On day 2 we caught a train out of the city to the Marble Gorge (Toroko Gorge) where Taiwan Jade is found. This jade is multicoloured. In fact the colours are so bright that you would be excused for thinking it was dyed! But pieces such as urns were selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Whew!

We booked in to Taroko Lodge. What we didn't  realise was that this lodge specialises in bike tours of the gorge. "It's all downhill" I was told. "Boy are you in for a treat"! "Must do". So I who have not been on a bike for 20+ years was convinced to try it! 

 I actually was not sorry, despite a sore bum by the end of the 25kms, and walking a further ~10km.

Toroko gorge is to be seen to be believed! There are HUGE cliffs above DEEP gorges (hundreds of meters high). There is a river flowing through MARBLE boulders. Mountains are clothed in clouds. Budhist and Confucian temples appear on the cliffs, with narrow walkways and suspension bridges as access. 

The owner of Taroko lodge supplies the bikes and the transport to the top of the gorge, and pickup in the afternoon. We spent about 8 hours exploring the gorge. It was very hot. In the late afternoon tourist buses were coming back down the gorge making the bike trip very hair-raising! But it was certainly a great experience and certainly memorable. It was a treat for sure! 

Next day we hired a car from Hualien town. This was far less stressful for Joe (driving) than hiring in Taipei would have been (did I mention the taxi driver travelling at 137kmph on the freeway in Taipei?)

So up into the mountains we went on the cross island highway.

   This is our track. Those wriggly lines really were that wriggly - and narrow, with lots of backing up when we encountered vehicles coming the other way! 

We finally stopped at a hotel at over 3150m elevation (Song Syue Lodge-Taiwan's highest hotel)! We all imagined we had mild symptoms of altitude sickness, but it was probably just suggestibility, given that the hotel had oxygen cylinders about the corridors! However by bed time we were convinced that it was real -albeit mild. 

Next day we toured the mountain roads, including a pass at 3284m. The windy roads became familiar, and Joe was driving like a native Taiwanese. 

We returned via the Marble Gorge again and it was just as spectacular as before. 

We are off to KL tomorrow enroute to Cambodia to visit my brother and sister-in-law and their extended family. We are looking forward to seeing them all again! 

So no more blogging until we restart our Earthcruiser adventures in about September.