Up early and ready for the adventure to Taroko Gorge! We headed off at about 8am from Hualien - after a 45 minute drive we arrived at the starting point of Taroko Gorge. Absolutely breathtaking views of a gigantic gorge with a fast flowing river at the basin - home to the local Truku tribe. 100s of Chinese tourist had also unfortunately decided to visit the park today so it was packed with flashing cameras, luxury buses and noise! We hiked down to the waterbed an...

Today it was a slow start to the day as it was the weekend and after a big night lastnight I definitely needed it. Unfortunately my body clock still has me waking at 5:30am for my morning exercises so it was up for that then back to bed for a little sleep-in. After lunch we headed out to Highway 11 a famous road leading through the mountain range then out along the very scenic East Coast of Taiwan. The beaches were covered in small black rocks (from the past volc...

After my first sleep-in in quite some time I woke to the smiles of my host family. They had gone out and brought me breakfast - a wonderful salad with bacon, egg and sausage - you would think I was royalty. We headed off to a competition which was all about traditional Aboriginal Dance; 13 Indigenous groups from all across Taiwan would compete to represent Taiwan at some even bigger event. The whole thing was quite strange and there were about 2000 people in atte...

This morning I was headed to the east coast of Taiwan which meant catching a bus from Taichung to Taipei, another bus from Taipei to Luodong and a train from Luodong to Hualien - where I would meet my host at 5:30pm. I left with Rebecca and caught the bus to the city, thanked her for her wonderfully hospitality and then waved goodbye. I arrived at station and brought ticket and was straight onto bus and in Taipei within 2.5 hours. Same went for next bus 2 mins a...