I really thought we’d met the nicest and most helpful people in Japan, but I was wrong. They are in Taiwan! We have been approached by countless people trying to help us navigate buses, subways, and trains. Some of the stand outs include: 1) A man in his 60′s insisted on giving me his seat on the subway because I was carrying my huge heavy backpack. 2) A man traveling by scooter on the street pulled over and asked if we needed help getting somewhere. Taiwan definitely feels more like Japan than China, perhaps due to the large Japanese influence in the early 1900s when Japan ruled Taiwan; lots of sushi and mochi, common convenience stores like 7-11 and FamilyMart, and the general friendly attitude of the people.

Our first three nights in Taiwan were blessed with ‘quad’ rooms, with a double bed for each of us and plenty of room to spread out, a nice change from the lodging in Hong Kong. Ryan enjoyed multiple boxed lunches on the trains; huge hot meal boxes containing rice, veggies, pork chop, an egg, and tofu which were surprisingly delicious and about $3. Tasty food in Taiwan is cheap and also very international. While searching for restaurants in Hualien, I was sure my TripAdvisor app had somehow been set back to Austin. The top two restaurants listed were Salt Lick (American BBQ) and Dos Tacos (Mexican). We wound up at a local seafood restaurant, Ju Yan. To order, customers go up to the glass display case and pick out their desired protein and cooking style. There was a slight language barrier, but in the end, we wound up with boiled shrimp with the heads on (Ryan’s favorite, once the heads were removed), sauteed green vegetables with mini fish pieces including the heads, BBQ squid, and abalone (my favorite). A delicious and interesting meal.

The primary reason for traveling to Hualien was to hike in Taroko National Park and visit the Taroko Gorge. We joined a small tour with a young couple from Hawaii, run by a Canadian expat. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and a typhoon two days earlier had resulted in waterfalls throughout the park. We hiked the Lushui and Swallow Grotto trails, along a cliff and through 30 meters of a dark cave. Next up was the Baiyang Waterfall trail, with incredibly picturesque waterfalls. This was followed by the Cave Water Curtain, accurately named. Our guide is very experienced, and had umbrellas available for all of us, which came in very handy.  Can you find Ryan in the waterfall picture below?
       

The last trail for the day, Lianhua Pond, unfortunately got nixed. Rock slides are very common in the gorge, with trails frequently closed due to rock slides. While eating lunch, we saw rocks starting to fall down on the trail, and though it was still open, our guide decided it was not worth the risk. Instead, we headed to the Eternal Spring Shrine, a memorial commemorating veterans who died while building a nearby highway.

Back at the hotel, I napped while Ryan did laundry.
Ryan doing laundry: 4, Nicole doing laundry:1

Dinner was at the Zhiqiang night market, where we enjoyed some local food, including coffin toast and fresh juice. Coffin toast is like a big slice of French toast, cut open and stuffed with savory delights. Ours were stuffed with sweet and sour chicken in one and pork in soy sauce in the second. The fresh juice (mango and pear), while relatively normal drinks, were delicious and very refreshing. On the way back to the hotel, we walked by an outside dance floor underneath the train track overpass, with couples practicing ballroom dancing. We mostly found this entertaining because overpasses like these are usually considered somewhat sketchy areas in the U.S.