My mom came to visit. So I thought I would take her to the
east coast where there are less people and more mountains. You know, a laid
back trip to see the island and relax.
However, like any travel situation that involves me, a laid
back relaxing trip is not what awaited us.
Mistake number 1- Renting a car. Instead of taking a train
for 5 hours I thought it would be nice to drive to the other coast. This way we
would get to see more of the island and avoid being restricted by taking tour
buses once we were in Taroko Gorge.(our destination) The island is only 80
miles wide, how long could it take?
Mistake number 2- Choosing our route. So we looked at a map
and saw a highway that went directly from Taichung
to Taroko Gorge. Naturally we took that route. (Every guide book says this is
one of the prettiest drives in all of Asia, so
how could we pass it up) Well turns out that highway is closed, but we didn’t
know that until we drove 3 hours out of our way. Oh well, lesson learned right?
Mistake number 3- Not researching this alternate route. This
road was literally hanging off the edge of the mountain, barely wide enough for
a car to make it on. Hairpin turns. Steep switchbacks. Roads going over the
mountain, not around it. Rock slides coming onto the roads. Heavy traffic at
times. Blinding fog. Rain. Sleet. Wind. Snow. Ice. Easily the worst driving
conditions I have ever experienced. Im sure it would have been very pretty, but
we couldn’t see anything due to the fog and darkness.
Mistake number 4- Passing gas stations. This one actually
brings a smile to my face. We had been driving for a looooong time without
seeing any gas stations, so we were realllly low on gas. I stopped at a
roadside resort/restaurant to ask if they had any gas. Lucky for us they did, but
no nozzle to pour it with. So this old Taiwanese man’s plan was to siphon it
through a hose. Well he sucked a little too hard and ended up with a mouth full
of gasoline. As he stood there spitting out the gas and wiping his tongue off
his grandson did the only thing left to do. Laugh, and laugh hard. Tears in his
eyes he was laughing so hard. The taste of gasoline really put some energy back
into the old man.
To answer the question before, “how long could it take?”
10.5 hours. Yep, driving for 10.5 hours straight to make it 80 miles as a crow
flys.
We spent the next couple of days exploring Taroko Gorge,
sightseeing on the East coast, and eating a lot of food. Pictures below.
Mistake number 6- Being a moron. Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me. (I’m not exactly sure how it goes, maybe George
Bush could help me out) So we heard the best way back to Taichung was to go south then across the
mountains, then back up north. So that’s what we did. And guess what? We found
ourselves on identical roads to our previous trip, maybe worse. But whatever,
if it gets us home faster then it’s okay with me.
Mistake number 7- Not listening to the GPS. So the GPS was
really against us taking the route we took. Why? Well, because the road was
closed. Without being able to read Chinese signs we didn’t know this until we
drove 5 hours out of our way on extremely dangerous mountain roads. So we
backtracked all the way back and went all the way down around the southern tip
of the island and back up to Taichung.
This trip took us over 13 hours. I was not very happy. Moral of the story, don't rent a car in Taiwan.
But the Gorge was very pretty. The food was good. I saw
monkeys. The east coast highway was fun to drive on. But best of all, I got to
do it all with my mom!
Mom eating stinky tofu. She liked it!
