Long Dong

Our last day we spent at Long Dong to do some rock climbing.  Darren had been preparing for this portion for some time and had purchased a guide book many months prior to leaving the States.  He woke up before dawn and took these pictures.

This was our campsite the night prior with a view of our cute van.

Darren willingly hiked back out to the overlook with me so I could see it too

Awe, Nutella for breakfast!

Pokari Sweat at the Climbing Yard.  I was scared to try it.

Darren and I headed out early while Rika and Aaron bought some provisions. Darren first climbed a terrible route and told me it wasn't worth it, so we kept hiking until we found much superior climbing.  Rika and Aaron found us by the time we are almost done climbing up our first good route.  They bore coffee with them that they had lovingly hauled over very difficult and slippery sea terrain to where we were climbing.  It was extremely thoughtful of them (we hadn't even asked for it!).

Everybody climbed some and then bravely got in the freezing water.  I was amazed at all the fish, anemones, and corals we could see just in our tide pool.

Darren and I climbed a couple other routes until we noticed Darren's rope was shot.  Good thing it didn't come completely apart while we were climbing!  We donated it to Aaron and Rika and they later made a beautifully intricate rug out of it.

Hiking back to our van in a semi via ferrata

We had a lovely ocean filled drive back towards Taipei.  We made a stop at some hot springs which are supposedly off limits, but there were hoards of local people in them.  I think they just want to keep away tourists.  There was a waterfall with cold water and hot springs.  People had adapted the area so that there were multiple pools with different temperatures.  In one of these pools we could sit under pipes pouring out hot water with massage intensity.  Another pipe nearby fed out cold water if one wanted to cool off a bit.

Taroko Gorge

Taroko Gorge is gorgeous...and its owners (erm, the government) are extremely scared that rocks will fall on its tourists.  During our day in the National Park we first hiked through a tunnel and along a path to a double plus waterfall.  On our hike out some official people tried to communicate that the trail was closed and that we shouldn't be there.  We had had no idea, but guess that it must have been closed due to the massive mud slide and rock fall that we saw remnants of in front of the first tunnel.  

Aaron is the true outdoor educator.  He kept finding and catching little critters all over the place.

Remnants of the mudslide and rock fall

The park is large and we kept wanting to drive through it all, but alas there was no time because we wanted to do another couple hikes

We grabbed some lunch at another restaurant in the park then put on our provided hard hats to tromp down a road that was shut down.  They wanted people to be able to walk the section slowly in order to see its beauty instead of driving swiftly through it, or look at it while driving off the cliff.

We took another stroll to a little temple

And yet another path through rock that wove us through places where native peoples live.  I don't think we were supposed to get in the amazingly refreshing water, but we did.

Back on the road, 7 Eleven once again saved the day with some packaged pizza

KEW is Coo

Sadly Lara had to work the rest of the time we were in Taipei, but Aaron, Rika, Darren and I rented a van from her friend Red (the same guy that picked her up from the airport) and drove off to Taroko Gorge and Long Dong in the limited days we had.  The night after we explored Taipei, we drove to the outdoor school in the bush where they work.  The multi-million facility is so beautiful and well made.  My friends were able to help plan and design most everything.

The school's own bridge!

Darren and I trying out the low ropes course

Apparently this part of Taiwan is famous for its tea

After almost a day's worth of driving and many stops at 7Elevens ("They are better then the internet!"  You can do your banking, play the lottery, and get food all in this one facility.  They also give you a choice of toilet paper rolls or bottled water with every purchase of gas.) we arrived at Taroko Gorge.  We were so excited to eat yummy Taiwanese food (I wasn't impressed overall with the stuff we tried, but  this was quite good) and find free camping.  Darren also scored some free New Balance shoes that someone had left at the site.

We enjoyed the evening watching, believe it or not, episodes of Friends.  Darren and I had purchased a DVD in the Guam Airport.  They didn't have a lot of selection.

Taipei

Thanks to my parents generous wedding gift, Darren and I were able to visit our good friends who are teaching in Taiwan.  It was a short trip, but we squeezed in a ton of goodness.  One of Lara's friends was able to pick up Darren and I from the airport and take us to Aaron and Rika's high rise apartment outside of Taipei.

The Next morning Aaron, Rika, and Lara took us to their favorite breakfast shop in their town (they had even created a new sandwich for the place.  It was a bagel sandwich with egg, wasabi sauce, and a hashbrown patty inside of it!  Delightful.

As tourists we had to go see Taipei 101.  It is the tallest "office building" in the world (the only taller building is in Kuala Lumpur).  The inside is full of swanky stores and then higher up is a museum with an automated tour.  It taught us about the construction of the building, all the things we could see from the building, and randomly about deep sea coral (kind of sad).

We strolled around Taipei and saw various random activities.

We ate lunch at a scrumptious panini shop.

Then we meandered through some very colorful temples

Lara explained how the locals throw down clay discs and then look on a board to get their fortunes or some such thing

Exploring the night market

In Snake Alley we saw this guy kill the snake and then drain its blood and venom.  People drink the venom with vodka.  Gross!  We could also see the snakes heart beat after it was already dead.