Taroko Gorge

June 14

The day was going to be eventful. I already knew it.

Andrew since we arrived has been constantly been going on and on about how Hualien has been hit by so many events. GaoShiuang’s mayor is running for president and Hualien claimed that the recent fire that they had at their night market is a result of GaoShiuang’s mayor’s presidential campaign tour. Last week 6/9-6/14 it has just been pouring, literally all week. On the iPhone weather app it said that it would just rain all week (including the weekend) when we were supposed to go on our CET trip down to Hualien and Taroko Gorge.

I was surprised when it actually wasn’t endlessly pouring. I mean don’t get me wrong, there was rain coming from the sky, but it wasn’t coming down quite as much as it had for the previous few days.

View of Taroko from Train to Hualien

Our first stop was to explore Hualien night market. The night market had really taken a big hit from all of the recent natural disasters. Upon first contact, the night market reminded me of abandoned state fair grounds in the states. Since we arrived before the night market actually opened, Andrew lead us towards the beach so we could see the Taiwanese coast.

Left: CET Summer 2019 cohort at Hualien coast

Right: "Matt" smurf?

Hualien coast

By the time our crew was done looking at the Pacific Ocean, it was time to go onto our next adventure - exploring the night market. As per usual, eating kosher style in Asia means there was a significant lack of options as to what I could and could not eat. However, I managed to make do with my options. My diet here is primarily comprised of fruits, veggies and occasional non-pork meats. So that's what I had at the night market.

One of my all time favorite things to do in Asia is play "Spot the English mistake!"

Finishing at the night market (夜市)，we walked to the train station and we were en route to our hostel for the next two nights. I thought it was a particularly cute little hostel, but like what do I know?

The entire hostel had its walls painted with these particularly cute designs!

June 15

Saturday morning, the one thing that I thought would happen didn't. Throughout the entire week leading up to our trip it looked as if it would just be pouring throughout all of Taiwan. I did not expect there to be clear skies at all.

Before arriving, I had done my research about various locations that I knew I would either be visiting or that I wanted to visit. Google said that Taroko Gorge was known as Taiwan's Grand Canyon. Having been to the Grand Canyon many times because its from my great state of AZ, I have to say, "Taroko was DEFINITELY more cool to visit." This may be the, "I know I will probably never see this place again" talking, but like honestly it was really GORGEous.

Images from my hike (more nature images)

Throughout the hike I felt as if I was always just a bit further behind, partially because I am terrible at walking with a group of people, but also because I wanted to make sure I was able to capture the beauty of the the Gorge!

Some of the CET students that were on the trip with me!

On our second hike (Shakadang) it was an out and back. For the "out" portion of the hike I was focused on taking pictures, but on the "back" portion of the hike I walked back with my intern director at CET (Chunling). I'm not particularly sure how I ended up talking with Chunling about Jewish practices, but that happened.

That evening, after our exciting hikes we had the opportunity to go to an aboriginal restaurant. It was a particularly interesting dinner! Here are a few pics from dinner.

The first picture is particularly funny, because every time that Chunling got up from the table this stray cat came and sat at her seat. One time he nearly began eating her food! Not only did we get to try some aboriginal dishes, we were also able to celebrate Tracy's (a CET student) birthday!

June 16

The most exciting thing of the day occurred at 5:05 on the dot, the activity involved waking up at 4:30 AM. AAAAAHHHHHHH! Thankfully I went back to sleep after. I woke up for sunrise over the Pacific! Something that I can't do from the states.

I was overall very excited about the entire trip. As an added bonus, this was a fantastic way to spend my last free weekend before classes started on the 17th.

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The blog posts are going to continue to come, however, balancing a schedule of class work and interning, and like also mental brain break is exhausting. However, it will be coming soon!