Taroko Gorge

We actually woke up this morning on the plan to go to Tarako Gorge. About time!! Was ill again last night. It's so annoying and strange as it happens every night and then every morning my head is sore. During the day I am fine but just feel really tired. Anyway, both of us pretty exhausted headed to Ximen station to get to Taipei main station. It was strange seeing everything still shut and not a lot of people around as it was now 8.30ish. We booked a ticket to Taroko gorge. We had to wait until 10 which was a bummer. so we went to get something to munch. Banana and orange juice. I don't think the orange juice was a good idea as it was so sore for my ear and throat. The ticket was in Chinese so it was quite hard understanding which level we had to go too. So we basically got pointed the directions by everyone. Luckily got on the right train. It took 2 and a half hours to get there. The scenery on the way was so bizarre as it was beautiful with huge mountains on the right and a lovely crystal blue sea to the left. But there was masses of waste everywhere and strange power stations. Took the Beatle taxi man to bring us back to Myanmar!! There are still a few occasional men that chew Beatle out here, both Morag and I absolutely hate it. So we had a high taxi man take us around Tarako Gorge for the day! First stop was 'Taloko' which had a cool Chinese drive through bit. The mountains are huge. Lots of them are over 3000ft. And the drop from where we were standing everywhere today was quite high! After this place we went to Eternal spring shine. It was incredible. There was a waterfall and above the waterfall were Chinese buildings. We had to walk through a tunnel at the side of the rocks to get up there. The river is crazy too. There is marbel everywhere and the water is crystal blue but you definitely would not want to swim in it otherwise you would swept away. There were huge white rocks everywhere. Our next stop was Swallows Grotto and we had to wear helmets! There was a huge dangly bridge crossing to the other side of the mountain. Looked so cool. Got told we weren't aloud in a bit by some Chinese people which was slightly awkward. Didn't really need to wear our helmets but Morag did because it was funny. Some 'cool young' Chinese guys walked past and laughed at her and tried to take a picture. We were tempted to take a picture of there silly clothes! The taxi man took us to the place were you could see the biggest cliff in Taroko Gorge. We asked a Chinese person to take a picture of us both and she took one on her camera first before... finally taking one of us! Zeeeee next place was Yin ping cliff, which was really fun. There was a big road bridge in the middle and to the left a big rock with a cool Chinese building on that almost hanged over into the water. It was crazy. Next stop was a really cool place with a long bridge that when you walked on it would bounce up and down which was fun. It was so high. When some Chinese people arrived they didn't appreciate me running along!! After this we went to a different place and took a picture instead of walking up as it was pretty similar. Morag had a strange apple lollipop. The taxi man then pointed to the beach on the map and then the station. We were glad it was going to be our last stop as we were both pretty tired! It was a really long drive over there and when we got there we took a picture before hopping back into the taxi. It was quite cool as there were amazing mountains to the side of it with mist.
Had to wait for the train for rather a long time. We were saying how nice it is waiting for a train and not being freezing as that is how it is back at home! Nice big seats on the train with good foot space. Tried to have a sleep on the way back but it never happened. MRT from T main station to Ximen. On my way back Morag went to get some dumplings and I went to reception of the hostel. Asked them if i could use there printer and the woman told me they didn't have one. I was slightly confused as the other lady said that they had one. Anyway, in the end i managed to print off my bank statement showing I had more than $5000 so I can get into Aus. Going to be poor when I get there as Mother and Father are going to take the money back out they gave me! I felt so so bad again. My tummy was killing me. When I got back to the room I lay on the bed for ages before deciding to have a shower. Most disappointing shower as it was cold... not what I needed. After the shower got changed to go to bed but I wanted to take some medicine for my headache and sore tummy but we hadn't eaten anything for supper. So I got changed and we both went to 7 eleven. Got a small loaf of raisin bread, banana, cereal and a milk drink. Got stared at so much as I still had wet hair and looked a complete mess! Had all the bread and then banana, then took the paracetamols before hitting the pillow. Worst I have felt so far.