Our Trip to Taiwan - Day 6

Want to know what heaven is?

It's this!

I eventually determined that Abby had a pretty consistent sleeping schedule while we were in Taiwan. One night she'd pass out hard without hardly stirring, which meant the next night would be a night of wiggles, bed hopping, and exhaustion for everyone. This night happened to be one of the exhausting nights where Abby went to bed in her own little bed, crept into our bed sometime in the wee hours, Nate crept into her bed, and then she woke up again and crept back into her bed with Daddy. I happened to catch this one while both of them were sleeping. I tried to get a non-nose angle for Nate while still catching Abby with her mouth open but wasn't successful. :-) So he gets this posted for the world to see!

After breakfast and packing up our gear, we met up with our tour guide for the day, Paula. It turned out that we were going to be taking a driving tour through one of the National Parks. There were a bunch of stops along the way, which I was thankful for as Abby is in a stage where long car drives don't always turn out well, and I've developed car sickness at times. Yay!

First up: a really, really long ride through the Hsuehshan Tunnel, which is the 5th longest tunnel in the world at 8.041 miles from end to end. While in the tunnel we kept seeing signs painted on the walls of a distance number (ex: 142 m) and a painted person that was running in the direction that the sign pointed. We found out that this meant that there were so many meters until an emergency exit. In case of an emergency you would know whether it was faster to run to a door in front of you or behind you. I'm so happy we didn't need to take use of these signs while on our excursion.

Once again we were "those" crazy, unsafe parents with our toddler in a car without a carseat. Once she understand that Mommy and Daddy were very serious about her remaining seated when her seatbelt was on (the very first time she slithered out of her buckle our driver braked slightly and Abby fell down and hit her head on the seat in front of her and got a nice bruise) she sat very nicely and either played with games on my phone or looked out the window.

A view of the tunnel. It just kept going and going and going.

Our second stop: Shakadang Bridge (AKA: Bridge of a Thousand Lions) and the Shakadang Hiking Tail. When we first got out of the car I thought "neat bridge...okay, what's next?". It wasn't that I didn't appreciate the architecture but more that I wasn't yet sure how the day was going to go. Then Paula explained that there was a pretty nice hiking trail that started just under the bridge and went up into the hillside for a few miles. This was a trail that eventually connected to a very remote village of people that were original inhabitants of Taiwan (they are known as aboriginals here) before former Chinese citizens began their pilgrimage. We began the hike by going down a very steep staircase, then stepping onto a path that was made of crushed rock with occasional boards nailed into the ground. A nearby sign mentioned how only commercial vehicles were allowed on the path. What?! Vehicles were allowed at all?! Yep. The people in the remote village have their supplies delivered every few weeks and the car/truck that heads up that way has just enough room on either side (one side being a very steep cliff, the other side a wall of rock) to make their way up. Should two cars meet up coming from opposite directions, one car then backs up to the starting point as there is NO way to pass.

Our guide was very concerned about us getting wet so she made us bring on umbrella on our trip. Little did she know that being from Portland, OR and Seattle, WA we know what rain is and were not bothered by the misting that was occurring  Truthfully, it felt really good. We left 40 degree weather at home and were in Taiwan's 70+ degree weather with a huge increase in humidity. The rain made the heat and humidity much easier to bear.

Here is the Bridge of a Thousand Lions due to the many four-faced lions that line the bridge. If you count up all the faces on all the lions there are a thousand lions, but not if you count only the individual statues. The mesh cage on the left (next to where we're standing) is the stairwell down to the path.

Our first "Holy Hannah a car comes through here" moment. Nate had to walk on the outside of the path as his head hit the rocks on the inside. 

Even my short family looked tall with these lower ceilings!

Here's how they keep the path from being washed away. Boards are nailed into the ground then reinforced with re-bar.  Crushed rock is poured over the top and the cars and pedestrians push the gravel further into the path. To help prevent landslides (which we still saw plenty evidence of) they do dig out a small hole underneath the path to place a pipe in so that water can run down the mountain and then go under the walking path to pour out freely down the cliff.

Abby did so well walking but on our way back her little legs got tired.

Then my arms got tired, so into the carrier she went.

Mom with our guide, Paula.

Next we went through the Tunnel of Nine Turns.This time we walked along the pedestrian path of the tunnels while our driver drove to the end point. I'm so glad we were able to see these sights at a slower pace instead of whipping by in the car. The scenery was so pretty. The cliffs eventually landed at the base of a small river that twisted and winded through the mountains. Abby was gently rocked to sleep in her carrier and the rest of us got a good stretch to our legs.

Here's a view from the beginning of this leg of our journey. We weren't required to wear the hardhats, as in they weren't going to kick us off the tour if we didn't, but Paula was so concerned about us not getting hit by any short ceilings or falling rocks (no matter how unlikely) that we decided to get into the spirit of the journey and have fun with it. Abby was not impressed with the helmet at all.

Almost directly behind my head you can see a dark spot that's another opening in the tunnels that we would eventually end up walking through. 

A view of how the road twists and turns. Here you twist left before eventually turning back towards the right (as seen by the dark spot in the center of the picture).

A view of the cliffs and river below.

This moment was hilarious. There was a tour car parked on the side of the road at the beginning of the tunnels. However, they were parked "just" enough away from the curb that the buses behind the car weren't able to get passed. See right after the car was a tunnel whose roof was lower on one end than the other. For the buses to be able to go under the tunnel they had to be on the far right side of the road, which the car was effectively blocking. The bus (and eventually other buses and cars as no one could move until the front bus could) honked and honked and honked, but no one came. It was probably twenty minutes later that we saw a tour guide running back towards the entrance. We figured someone had eventually caught up with him letting him know about the car issues because another ten or so minutes after he ran by there was a sudden influx of buses and cars driving through the tunnels.

At various points in the tunnels there wasn't enough room for two lanes of traffic. There were stop lights that indicated who could go and who needed to wait. In other spots the single lane portions weren't very long so it was a game of chicken to see who would go first.

I feel terrible but I cannot remember for the life of me what the next stop was called. Ugh. I must admit that I relied so much on Mom taking pictures and remembering places because I was typically dealing with Abby that I didn't write a single location's name down or commit to memory anything, well, memorable about the name. What I do know is that this spot gave a great view of the thousands upon thousands of marble rocks and slabs. The marble industry would make bank off of this place if they were allowed to use it as a quarry. Thankfully they're not and so the natural beauty of this location still shines through. There were also two temples across the bridge from each other. Very simple in decoration and their intent was to honor Chiang Kai-shek (founding father of Taiwan) and his third and final wife Soong May-ling, also known as Madame Chiang.

A view of the marble. Pretty much every rock you see was marble. 

In front of the "marble falls".

Mom and Dad taking a great picture of the countryside.

Nate walking down from one of the memorial temples.

At this point we were all hungry but a quick rest area was just ahead. It was neat because on the first floor there was a topographical map of the national park with lights that lit up to indicate the various places we'd visit and would soon be visiting. Downstairs was a small eatery which had pretty decent food. It was a little spicy but the teriyaki chicken I got was the perfect "spice heat" for Abby (there was none) so she fortunately got a good amount to eat. We also discovered that she's not a fan of orange juice with pulp. She took one big gulp and promptly opened her mouth and let the orange juice run out, then kept trying to rub the pulp off her tongue. :-)

Our last big stop was at the Hsiang-te Temple. Wow. This place was pretty darn impressive. While there was technically only one temple there were many, many things to see. Add in a great staircase workout and this place was a big bang to end on.

Here we at at the bridge that takes you across the river to the temple. At this point I had no clue what type of workout I was in for.

Nate and Abby taking a breather while Nate begins the process of getting the carrier ready. We'd seen the stairs. We were scared.

Here's a view of the FIRST set of THREE MAJOR staircases that we had to climb to get to the top. This doesn't include all the minor staircases where we'd only go up ten or so steps before hitting a landing or a switchback. At first I let Abby go at her own pace because I was trying to let her get her own experience out of this trip. I'd read somewhere that you should let your child lead when you're on a walk and stop to admire whatever stone or bug has caught their attention. I try to do this on our walks at home, so I figured I'd continue that respect and try to do that here. We made it barely a quarter of the way up the first set of stairs before I laughed at my stupidity and picked her up. If we'd continued going at her pace (where every. single. leaf. was. amazing. we'd still be climbing those stairs).

About two-thirds of the way up to the temple we saw the Heaven Summit Pagoda (this picture was taken from when we were at the temple). Mom and I wanted to get a glimpse inside to see how cool it would be.

When we got there we saw a small worship spot/temple and then, to our amazement, a set of staircases that were open to the public!!! The staircases were tiny as they let two people pass by each other only with both sucking in their breath. There were also two sets of stairs, one for going up and one for going down. We climbed up, and up, and up until....

We were at the top! Dad stayed on the ground below and ragged us the whole time about not running up the stairs. Yeah, I don't think so. Mom's pretty afraid of heights (or as she says she's not afraid of heights - just falling) so we quickly took the picture then went back inside as fast as possible. As I was heading inside I ran smack into Nate and Abby. Man, did my heart start pounding then. All I could think of was Abby was going to magically wiggle out of her carrier and fall to her death below. Nate didn't quite understand why I grabbed onto the carrier tightly and gently pushed him away from the edge. :-)

When we finally made it to the temple itself we were greeted by a golden statue called Samanthababhadra Bodhisattva. Say that ten times fast! The statue has ten faces facing ten different directions and each face represents a different vow that SB made in his path to full Buddhahood.

Finally, it was time to see the temple itself. We weren't able to go in the temple itself but the grounds were pretty enough that they made up for it. Abby also enjoyed her moment of freedom and ran around picking up rocks and putting them back in their appropriate rock-bed. My baby is so neat and tidy. :-)

On our way back down the mountain we made a detour to see the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva statue. AB made a vow to assist sentient beings in time of difficulty, and to postpone his own Buddhahood until he had assisted every sentient being in achieving nirvana.

Want to know how small of a world we live in? While on the path down the mountain Mom ran into this lady. It just so happens that she once lived in the Tri-Cities and owned a Chinese shop (with Chinese-style household goods) in our local mall over fifteen years ago. It was weird enough to meet Jen from Seattle but to randomly run into someone that was from our small hometown blew my mind. And this is why you never screw up in our town. Someway, somehow, someone you know will find out about it!

Another set of massive stairs. Just looking at them makes my feet hurt. 

When we got back to the entrance to the temple a Monk was sitting there with pamphlets on the temple. Mom offered up a donation for the pamphlet and the Monk kindly allowed her to take his picture. 

Then we began the long drive back to Hualien to catch our train back to Taipei. Well, I should say we started back in that direction because we did have a few more quick stops to make. 

We took a very quick stop at the Eternal Springs Shrine but as we were so far away (this picture is in major zoom), and were getting tired we loaded back up into the van shortly.

And here's where I made a major marital oops. We stopped at a Jade Shop to view Taiwanese Jade and buy some trinkets. Abby was asleep in my arms so I decided that I'd stay in the car while everyone went in to shop. It'd been a few hours since her last nap and she had been getting the grumpies so I wanted her to have a good nap. After ten or so minutes of everyone being in the shop Nate came back out and asked me to come in the shop because my Mom needed my opinion on a necklace. After much grumbling about waking Abby up and just wanting a few minutes of alone time I grudgingly went into the store all the while muttering about how Mom just couldn't give me twenty fricking minutes with Abby so she could get in a good nap. sigh. Don't you hate it when you set yourself up as the bad guy. As I reached the counter where Mom was Nate turned to me and said "I love you, honey. Pick out whatever necklace you like best." Woah-what? Yep, my wonderful husband wanted to give me an authentic Taiwanese necklace but didn't want to make a mistake in buying me one I wouldn't like so he concocted a story about my Mom needing help. I felt about two inches tall. Thankfully he's a very understanding guy and just shrugged off my grumbles even as I tried to apologize. I got the prettiest necklace Taiwan had to offer. He's so sweet to me!

Here's a picture of the inside of the Jade shop. They had these fabulously big carvings in front with the jewelry counters in back.

We had one last stop to make before heading to the train station. A Mochi shop! Mochi is basically rice pounded into a paste, flavored, and then shaped into a fluffy cookie shape. While in the mochi shop there were a bunch of different samples of the variety of foods they served. I tried a few mochi flavors then saw a salty, crunchy option that I thought would be good after all the sweet. I was very surprised to find out I'd just crunched into dried fish bones. Yuck! Of course I couldn't spit it out as I didn't want to be rude, so I to eat the whole thing. Bleck. Afterwards I kept swallowing trying to get the taste out of my mouth. That was the last treat I tried as I was afraid what other 'unique' flavors I'd be "enjoying".

On our way to the mochi shop we drove past this cemetery. The Taiwanese bury their dead in the ground but every seven years these bodies are dug up, cleaned, placed in ceremonial containers and then interred in these mausoleums  This saves the land from being run over by graveyards. Whole families going back many generations can be housed in one mausoleum.

Outside of the mochi house there was a goldfish pond. As we walked closer the fish swarmed near us expecting to be fed. Sadly we didn't have any crumbs to throw them as I think Abby would have enjoyed the experience.

Finally, Paula stopped our van at the train station and we said our good-byes. She was a fantastic tour guide! Very willing to move at our pace, tell us all sorts of interesting stories about her countryside, and overall was just pleasant to be around. We were very fortunate to have had Jane book Paula for us.

We arrived about 30 minutes early so we decided to hang out in the waiting area so we could sit with all our luggage as there were no seats out on the track. I remember being tired and asking Nate to buy me a coffee and him coming back with a Coke Zero because he knew I preferred pop over coffee. It was so hard to tell him that I was so tired I really wanted that coffee. :-) Thankfully Abby snagged the pop from me and took it over as her own.

The platform for our train.

Here's an idea of how tired we were. Abby is sleeping on both of us, we're both engrossed in reading our various books, and have zero desire to talk to each other. :-)

A cuter view of Abby passed out on both of us.

And here is where we found out how amazing the train and MRT workers were. As we exited the train station Abby started to cry and then as soon as I passed the turn-style going from the train station to the MRT station Abby looked at me then promptly threw up. Being an old hat at the "holding a baby who's projectile vomiting" I quickly turned her and got her to start throwing up onto the floor instead of her carrier, me, and her clothes. I was able to get her out of the carrier when the MRT attendant began laying down newspaper to cover the vomit and put out the Caution signs. I then began to take her vomit covered shirt off as a cleaning lady with her cart came rolling up. Abby's pants were being pulled down while the lady mopped and sanitized the floor. When Abby was in only her diaper the floor was clean and everyone was going back to their normal business. I kid you not when I say the floor was cleaned and sanitized in less than two minutes. From Abby's first throw up on the floor until traffic flow returned to normal was less than four minutes. These people were amazing!!!

When we got back to our hotel we were still tired (as only Abby had slept on the train ride back) and starving. Fortunately there was a MOS Burger just a few doors down from our hotel. We feasted on cheese burgers and french fries (not quite as good as McDonald's but pretty darn close) then said our good-nights and promptly fell asleep. Our trip to Hulien country had been a fantastic one filled with beautiful sights, lots of historical monuments, and several new experiences. It was a successful day!