Three Generations at Taroko National Park

Day 20 con't I have really enjoyed the companies of Huangs and Shihs. The Shihs were kind to drop me off at the visitor's center to meet up with my relatives who were all waiting for me on a hired bus. There were three generations of us. The last time we traveled like this was when I was small enough to be carried on someone's shoulders. I have been looking forward to this leg of the trip. We stopped at an aboriginal restaurant for lunch and lessons on tradtional tribal dance.

I love old school cooking and utensils. Anything cooked in bamboo buckets and lotus leaves tastes really good. Mom somehow manged to turn lunch into an ordeal. First she insisted on serving me food with fish in it and telling me to just pick out the fish. Ya you try sitting on the toilet for the entire night and feel like all your inside gut is going to flush out into the toilet and then come back and tell me to just pick out the fish or meat from the dish. Then she made a fuss to have new dishes additional to the package lunch set made for me. All of it was unnecessay and turned into a big drama show, yes hand it to my mom make that happen, you can count on it. I really don't like all this fuss. I ate a big breakfast in preparation for a nonvegetarian day. I was happy with just the rice. I really don't like people staring at me this way, causing additional work for others.

My cousin entertaining kids on the bus with hand games.

This is my mother's older brother Masa and his wife. They are sweetest people in the world. I really enjoy being with them, there just is a sense of ease and comfort and safety.

All the parents with cameras capturing things on technology. And when will we ever see the products of their artwork?.....

Both women complained of close up shots saying their wrinkles will show on record. I had to keep a distance of a few feet in order to have permission to photograph.

A game of eagle catching the chickens during a popcile break.

I think it's cute my cousin and his wife wears matching outfits.

This is the bus we hired.

We stopped to check out motorcycle riders and their gear setup with camers.

Sections of trails here require hard hats for falling rocks. I put my headlamps on incase we planned on going through caves.

This is what fallen rocks did to the cememt ground, just think without hard hat, it could be someone's skull.

Swallow birds nests in the walls of these mountain cliffs.

For dinner we stopped by uncle Masa's best friend's farm in HuaLien with RailRoad Obento. RailRoad Obento is a specific type of food with classic flavors very famous in this area.

He had homegrown organic corn boiled with sugar cane waiting for us.

He's a super kind person.

HuaLien Train Station is famous for mochi goodies to buy for gifts. It if full of gift shops all on snacks.

This is us taking up an entire escalater at the train station.

I love hand made classic brown sugar mochi. It's perfect.

The girls are going homework on the train for their summer homework.

Lots of ways to pass time. I stood the whole ride to give my mom a chance to sleep on the train.

Everyone is so good with kids, they must have been born to be parents. What a blessing to be their children.

Taroko Hostel

Day 20 I had a roomate who snored in a way that scared me. I had a choice last night to put ear plugs on and block out all the sound or not. What I would also be blocking out is the beautiful sound of running water of the river. I opted to listen to the river and put up with the scary snores. Breakfast buffet was amazing. I am getting a day’s worth of nutrient in this one meal: daikon cakes, porridge, soymilk, redbean buns, toast with spread, pickled cucmbers, mutligrain etc… I ate and chatted for an hour and half. I hung out with the moped couple Huangs and then the Shih’s joined us. Conversations were all about trails, parks places to sleep, how to drive to the destination, when to stop for a scenic shot, what to see, how to beyond red tags, skip patrol etc… Mr. Huang says moped travel gives you 360 view better than the car. Mr.s Huang said when she was young she never knew what it is to have dreams. Now she has and she is realizing them too, traveling in Taiwan seeing beautiful nature, hiking unbeaten paths via the moped.

This trail is like this, very nice to walk on.

The water is this amazing beautiful blue. There is something very peaceful to my eye with this color.

This man is making native tribal tinkets.

This vegetable is called "Shan Shu", it's crispy and tender, totally delicious.

The Shih’s are into healing through stretching, yoga. They invited me to join them for their hike and offered to give me a ride out in their car to meet up with my family. They packed hot water for the hike and I packed high mountain tea for us to make tea by the river. It taste divine.

Check out the toad, a big one.

I saoked in the river twice. The water is very prestine here. I can feel the minerals and healing elements in the water. The rocks below was slimy and there was fish swimming below me. The water was cold and felt really good. This totally made up for the disappointment in missing out on the hotspring I missed yesterday, redemption!

I met up with the Shihs at the second spot of soaking in the river. I found a nice spot to lay sheltered by the rushing river and it had a bedrock perfect for my head to rest on.

We both stopped to admire rocks. We both like to collect rocks.