the end is nigh

Well this is it, I fly home tonight and this whole trip will soon be a distant memory. But there's a lot to remember!

Taiwan has been the perfect destination for me. The landscapes are mindblowingly stunning, there's good food everywhere, the people are friendly, costs are far lower than in Japan, and it's very easy to get everywhere because there's a good transport network and distances are small.

So to make things a bit harder for myself, I decided to go to the most distant place there is in Taiwan: Orchid Island, a tiny Pacific island home to the Thao tribe, with just 2 roads, fantastic reefs, semi-underground houses, and an untouched feeling, except that is for the nuclear waste stored at its southern tip. After a 5 hour train journey from Taipei to Taitung, I was hoping to get the ferry, but learned that the next boat was in 3 days time. So instead I took a 19-seater Cessna for the 25 minute flight. At the airport I was met by the hostel owner, a very warm man who thought me and the guys I was with at the time couldn't possibly swim without a guide for safety, and got very worried when we got back late one night because he thought we might not have eaten dinner.

The next stop was Taroko National Park, near Hualien. Shin Yi calls Hualien paradise, and I can see why. Taroko Gorge is made of marble, several hundred metres high and totally stunning. Then there's the Cingshuei cliffs, where the mountains meet the sea, which the single road heading north from Hualien has to make its way across (although mostly in new tunnels now). Further inland are 3500m peaks stretching in all directions.

There's a hot spring deep in the gorge, where scorching sulphurous water flows into little pools on the river's edge. The police have closed it because of rockfall risk, but the locals still get in and the police seem to turn a blind eye. To get there you have to climb over a couple of barriers, open a locked gate in a tunnel, cross a suspension bridge, and use a rope to make your way down some steep, worn steps built in the side of the gorge. But it's definitely worth it!

I've certainly had my share of problems too in Taiwan. I managed to pick up fleas a few days ago, probably from some cat I stroked. By the time I realised I was infested, they were in all my clothes, and I was in Taroko without even any insect repellent (I left most of my stuff in Hualien). With little opportunity to wash my clothes it was hard to get rid of them. Finally I washed nearly all my clothes in the hostel in Hualien, but the washing machine broke down, there was no dryer, and it was raining. So after getting the train the next morning I ended up wearing wet clothes, carrying a big bag full of wet clothes, walking round Taipei desperately looking for nonexistent hostels.

I'd better go now, I'll put up some photos on Facebook soon.