Welcome back!
This was our longest driving day — we left Ken Ting and headed up the East coast of the island. The East coast is much more rugged than the west and was mostly a very curvy 2-lane road. At some points along the trek there were short tunnels to go through; the real challenge is that the tunnels were one lane only! So, we would honk our horn to warn anybody coming the opposite direction and proceed slowly through the tunnels.
There was a lot of lush vegetation and beautiful scenery along the way. Many times the road was perched atop high cliffs that led directly down to the seashore. Weather was still cloudy and rainy and we learned that a Typhoon had hit the island just days before we arrived — so, the weather seemed extreme and would suddenly change from mild to hard rain and wind. At one point we saw a large funnel cloud that had formed a few miles off the coast – luckily we didn’t have to pass too closely to it.
In the afternoon we passed through a small village of aboriginal Taiwanese (in a place called Li De). As a missionary I had heard these people referred to as “mountain people.” They are of different descent than the Chinese people and have different features. As we drove through the village Natalie saw a young girl, dressed in traditional tribal clothes, walking down the street. Natalie wanted to take a picture so we turned around and drove back to try and find the girl. In doing so we found most of the tribe gathered together in a clearing and it appeared they were having some sort of celebration. They were very friendly people and waved and motioned us to come join them. We were hesitant but then decided to park the car and see what they were up to. It was the Kavalan tribe and they were gathering for some sort of annual celebration. They had music playing and a few of them had obviously been drinking! We visited for a while and then they decided to help us get some pictures. One person ran off and appeared a few minutes later with clothing and a staff that he said was for their chief. He helped me put it on and then offered us some whiskey; I tried to politely deny his offer but he was VERY persistent! Finally, after about a dozen “no thank you’s” I finally said, “I can’t drink, I’m the driver” — after that he stopped bothering me but then started hounding Natalie to have a drink. It was a unique experience and we were glad we made the stop.
Our long day of driving ended when we reached Hua Lien at dusk. Hua Lien is a fairly large city located at the mouth of Toroko Gorge, a popular tourist destination. It is a town famous for stone and marble products and the streets were lined with stone shops that sold everything from vases and figurines to full-sized, solid marble dining tables. We looked at a lot of shops and finally found a 7-color jade vase that Natalie liked. It was a 20-minute process to haggle them down on price (but well worth the effort as they cut the price in half before we were done — and they probably still made a nice profit on it 
.
That evening in Hua Lien we stayed at the China Trust which was very nice and had a great pool. The boys and I went for a swim and the pool attendant offered us swim caps when we got in the pool. I politely declined and said we didn’t need them. A few days later, at a different hotel, we found out that most pools require swimmers to wear the caps — so, I’m sure the attendant has a fun story to tell about Americans who refused to wear swim caps.
We had an excellent dinner in Hua Lien at a local restaurant (recommended by the hotel concierge). The service was great and we had a huge spread of food and lots of great Guava juice for dinner. We were literally stuffed by the time we were done and the total bill was about $30US – quite a bargain. We were also greatly entertained by a large party of business men who were eating and drinking heavily at a table near us. They were loud and playing different drinking games. Half-way through our meal we noticed several of them had drunk so much they were passed out in their chairs. I think the boys were particularly amused and fascinated; it was a little different than the typical scene at Bajio in Pleasant Grove.
Posted under Taiwan
This post was written by Paul Pearson on August 2, 2006
