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.