Lotus Lantern Festival - Seoul

Thousands of people gathered in downtown Seoul to celebrate Buddha’s birthday towards the end of May - a beautiful get together of people, celebration and colour.

Taroko Gorge and beyond

I decided to go back to Hualien to rent a scooter and drive into the mountains at Taroko gorge. The scooter trip was the highlight of my time spent on the East coast. I left Hualien early Monday morning as I wanted to miss the weekend rush and the tour busses of the day. In Taroko gorge there were already numerous tour busses by the time I arrived and the Taiwanese tourists with their latest digital cameras clogged some of the view points. All of them wearing a helmet in case of a rock fall. I looked at them and thought: you all look like sheep. Then a parks board official told me that I had to wear one too. I joined the sheep with my digital camera and snapped some shots of the beautiful river gorge.







I felt like a small kid who was told what to do, where to walk, what not to touch and when to not linger. Taroko is covered with warning signs saying: walk here, do not linger, do not climb over the fence, do not lean against the fence etc and spoils the beautiful scenery. Too much information and rules... I had to leave the tour groups.





I climbed on my scooter and drove into the mountains. The mountain pass became more and more breathtaking as the climb progressed. I drove through several tunnels, next to sheer cliffs, narrow pathways and overhanging vegetation.
Halfway to the top were Buddhist monks looking out over the valley bellow and I stopped to embrace the view with them. The monks offered me some tea and organic fruit where after I continued my climb.











The skies were clear and the air fresh. A complete opposite to the city and industrialised West coast that I had seen the week before.
If this mountain pass had to be in South Africa then it would be a must cycle route for all cycling enthusiasts. It’s on the level of the Sani Pass in terms of being epic, but not as difficult. I drove 50km into the mountains before turning around at 2700m above sea level. The mist started to pull in and the views disappeared. It started to rain as I got to the bottom and I arrived in Hualien soaked.





I had an enriching one day scooter adventure and want to do similar scooter adventures in the near future.
From Hualien to Kaohsiung was easy. Two train trips of 6 ½ hours and I was back to my base camp with Estienne and Xenia - I had completed my journey around Taiwan by train!