Taiwan’s INCREDIBLE Taroko National Park (before the earthquake)

Good morning and welcome to the beautiful Taroko National Park here on the east coast of Taiwan. We arrived here yesterday from Jufen by train. It cost us 350 NTD and we're staying in the town of Hualien. The weather is a little bit rainy and cloudy today which seems to be a theme with us here in Taiwan but we have our raincoats and we have lots of layers so let's get started on today. So it's now just 7 30 a.m and it's very quiet. Our first stop here is the entrance. I believe it's called the archway of Taroko. Very beautiful start. I love all the mountains and the clouds coming in. Hopefully the weather cooperates with us today. I know we're like so windswept. The drive in so windy I can barely put the 360 out. My arm was like shaking but now that we're in the gorge like it's definitely the wind has it's quieted down but my hair is like a knot. We are super psyched to get out in nature today though. It's gonna be a great day right? It is. All right our first stop. Look how beautiful this looks. Wow so we just arrived to Changchun temple. It is so stunning like the waterfall coming down the green and then the temple so colorful. It's really pretty like just literally sitting on this like sheer cliff. It's so awesome. Wow such a mystical setting here with the clouds rolling in on top of these cliffs. The waterfall is flowing down and all the greenery. So we're gonna walk to the shrine now. Looks like you go over this bridge and then up along that cliff ridge all the way to the shrine. So this shrine was built as a memorial for all of the workers who died during the construction of the highway. So I think that's really beautiful that they built a memorial here and then the water coming through is called like the eternal spring shrine. These caves are pretty cool aren't they? Yeah they are like the walkways just like built into the side of the cliff here. It's really fun. Wow what a fantastic first stop. So magical. Not our smoothest exit huh? Not our smoothest. We'll get better. So we just ran into our first hiccup of the day. We read online that there could be road closures throughout the entire park. Looks like we have a half an hour wait. I'm not going to complain though the views are outstanding. That was so sweet. That was a whole photo shoot. That was so fun right? That was so fun. Before we head on to our next spot this is Unbound Merino. They make simple and stylish clothing made from merino wool and they sent us a few pieces to try out. Merino wool really is such a miracle fabric because it's naturally antibacterial, odor resistant, and moisture wicking. That means we can wear our pieces multiple times without washing them and they still look and smell fresh. It's just really nice because that means we can pack lighter with more versatile clothing. I've been loving this Unbound Merino shirt. I tend to sweat a lot while traveling and having a fabric that pulls moisture away from my body is perfect for me. I've also been using merino boxers and socks for years now and I couldn't travel without them. Both the boxers and socks dry so quickly and are odor resistant making them perfect for traveling. And I've been wearing this shirt and sweater combo throughout Taiwan and I really have been so impressed. Whenever I first received it I thought this material was like a little bit too lightweight but it really does regulate temperature so well so that means it keeps you warm whenever it's cold out and cool whenever it's too hot out. Which has been really nice because as we know the springtime weather here in Taiwan can be a little unpredictable. So thanks again to Unbound Merino for supporting our content. We really are huge fans of the product and if you guys want to shop any of these pieces we're going to leave a link to Unbound Merino in the description box below. All right we just made it to our next stop. We're at Buluwan Suspension Bridge and I believe it's a trail to get up there too. Buluwan Terrace is one of the only places suited for human habitation in Taroko Gorge and has been inhabited by different ethnic groups since ancient times. All right this is kind of a bummer. It is closed today. It's closed on every first Monday and third Monday every month and it's the third Monday. But anyway we're supposed to be here to see the bridge which is the tallest and longest bridge in the park but not today. Not today. Not proud. Awesome you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next stop is supposed to be another suspension bridge. Google Maps does say that it's closed but fingers crossed not all the bridges are closed on Mondays because that would be such a bummer but that's our route so let's go see. So we just made it to the second suspension bridge and unfortunately it's also closed on Monday. So no walking the bridges today which is kind of a bummer. Yeah so this bridge is also the start of the old historic trail here in the park which is one of the most like I think popular hikes that people want to do here. You guys it looks so epic. You walk across like along this cliff edge with these crazy views down below. Yeah but you do have to get a permit to hike it and unfortunately I looked a month ago and all the permits for the month of March were completely gone so we didn't get a permit but I think they only allow like 69 people per day so you have to do it like way beforehand but it looks worth it. For sure don't fact check me but I think this area is called Swallow Grotto because they have all of these holes in the cliff face and I think swallows make their homes in there. Over time like this number of swallows has like lessened but I do think I just saw a couple birds. I'm gonna just say that they're swallows. Do you have coffee too? Your coffee? Coffee? Iced or hot? Hot please. Hot. $2.80. Thank you. Thank you. Waffle. Are these good? Yes waffle. Delicious. What's in them? Strawberry, blueberry, blueberry, peach inside. Oh they're all different. Nice. Thank you. Thank you. Two coffee. Two coffee. Perfect. Thank you. What was your name sir? Benny. Benny. Nice to meet you. Have a good night. So Benny was a good salesman and we're starving and you can actually smell the waffle from a little bit away. Let's try this. It's a little strawberry filled waffle. That's amazing. I'm gonna eat one more real quick. He's like I'm gonna try one more. I mean it's like sweet waffle bread and a little jam nugget inside of each one. Different flavor. Oh beautiful family. Roku National Park is Taiwan's first national park which is kind of cool and the main draw here obviously is this beautiful gorge and the river that cuts through it is called the Liwu. Liwa? Liwu River. Anyway it's kind of crazy that this little tiny river carved out this entire gorge over time. That blows my mind because some of the river is just like so low in some spots but it's just something so small can be so powerful. So that's so cool. It's been really nice to have a scooter today. We've seen a lot of people on like the Hop One Hop Off buses and on tours and with the scooter we've just been able to pull over at every place that we wanted to stop at whereas if you're on the Hop One Hop Off buses or on the tours they're just bringing you to certain locations so this has been really nice having our own set of wheels. Okay so we're here at the Tunnel of Nine Turns. It's like a short 700 meter trail that lets you get like up close and personal with the gorge. It used to be part of the highway but then they rerouted it and just made this like a scenic trail. So we need about halfway through this tunnel there's a waterfall on your right hand side on the way. Super gorgeous has a few different tiers to look at too. I believe the colors of these rocks. I know the white gold and black all like in layers together like the river just carved it out. I'm trying to remember what I read off the plaque. It looks like a painting. It's nature's painting. Nature's painting. There you go. Did you see my shadow? No I was thinking like I gotta find a spot to hide and scare her. I was gonna stand right here because you can't really see but then I was like oh he's gonna see my shadow so then I went like this. Molded into the rock. I molded my shadow. Oh you did good. All right last stop for the day. For our last stop of the day we decided to hike the Shakadong Trail. It's a nice flat short hike. I think that's why it's one of the most popular trails that you can do in the park. Also you don't need a permit for it. As the signs say watch your head as you're walking by. You might bump your head on some of these rocks. So it's been a super easy path so far. It's pretty cool you're walking under these cliffs. The path has hardly any incline at all. Just tons of people. I just feel so good. It's probably halfway there already because Tong was like go go go get ahead of the people. So we just like we sprinted to the front of the path. I'm like dang this hike's gonna be over before I even know we're on it. So I wouldn't so much call this as a hike as a walk. It is a paved path. Looks like most of the way. The scenery is beautiful and the the river is so blue. Thank you guys so much. I appreciate it. Have a good day. Is it good? Very good. Okay. Delicious. Perfect. And let's choose a drink. Oh what is it? It's from Taiwan. Lemon IJerry. Lemonade? IJerry. We just stopped at the Midway Point where they sell some sausages. Cheers. This is a lemon basil sausage and it is known as the must-try specialty here in the park. This is really good. So delicious. Sausage isn't usually my go-to snack item. Neither one of us to be honest. But we haven't eaten all day and we found out that there was like sausages halfway on this trail and I was like I will walk for a sausage. And this one's actually pretty good. So we had a couple drinks the guy recommended. This was lemon jelly. Let's try him. He was very sweet. They're both really good. And Sammy got melon lemon. It's a little bit tart too. See I love the jelly pieces. So round two of sausages and the vendor just brought us these leaves which are what the area is known for. We got these leaves that are behind me and he said take a bite of sausage and then take a bite of leaf. We were eating those sausages and the guy was so sweet he gave us like the little leaf to eat it with. But then we started talking to this guy that was sitting next to us. Hello Darren. We got very distracted but it was really nice. We talked to Darren for quite a while and such a sweet guy traveling around Southeast Asia. We have to go return our rental scooter soon so we'll have to head back pretty soon. Fantastic day though. Yeah it's been really good and the rain has held out. It's only sprinkled just a little bit on us so that's been pretty nice. Wow this is impressive how long you can hold this camera up for because my arm is on fire. This is why I never do this. Tommy was like oh wow you're gonna hold the camera. I was like I can try. Okay now you're gonna make me nervous. Maybe let's put it down. Okay that rock looks exactly like an oyster. Look at that thing. Are you kidding? Can I get in? And I can say that rock. Is it right here? That rock? Every time I look at the water I say wow Tommy look how blue the water is and he keeps saying it's not blue it's green. No that's blue. Right there was green. Oh you're backtracking. Why could I not think of any color names? Colors. What are the colors? That color is like... Sapphire. Sapphire blue. Thanks for watching. Goodbye.