Get back

My 2 months have come to an end. I'm heading back home tomorrow night, with a brief stop in Santa Barbara to visit my brother. Other people keep telling me "I can't believe it's been two months already." But to me it's been a long two months...and that's a very good thing. Months passing by like a blur is not what I want. I think time slows down when you travel, or just experience a bunch of new things, and that's what it's been like for me. So mission accomplished. 1/3 lb actual-beef hamburgers and live NBA playoffs in HD, absence has made the heart grow fonder. See you soon.

Stick around on the blog, by the way. I have a few more posts in me, once I get home and settle in. I went to Hong Kong last weekend which was a blast, and there are some more Taiwanese things that I still want to write about.

Tomatohead at work

I'm the one on the left.

Taroko Gorge

My mother and I visited Taroko Gorge (link to pics) last week, in Hualien County, on the east coast of Taiwan. The National Park enclosing the gorge is perhaps the top tourist destination in Taiwan. It features marble cliffs towering hundreds of feet over crystal blue water. It's quite spectacular. One amazing thing is how fast the place is changing. In Taroko, erosion is not just a theory, it's a daily occurrence. We bought a guide book upon entering the park that was published in 2008. We drove past one trailhead listed in the book on the first day because it was buried in a massive rockslide. I think that's one of the best excuses I've ever had for missing a turnoff. They just built a new road over the pile of rocks. One other trail in the book seemed to have disappeared completely. The trails that were still open were quite enjoyable.

I do have to give myself a little pat on the back for using a few of the fragments of Chinese I know on this trip. People in Hualien weren't as likely to speak English as they are in Hsinchu or Taipei. I rented a car using about half Chinese. The driving was a little sketchy in town but not too bad overall. I've ridden in enough cabs to know that anything goes here, so I didn't stress out too much about following any particular driving etiquette.

Mt. Qixing

My mother was visiting last week and I was busy showing her around Taiwan. I now have a backlog of photos to upload. To start with, here are the pictures from Mt. Qixing, in Yangmingshan national park, near Taipei. We hiked up a short but very steep trail with geothermal vents and strange vegetation. The fog rolled in and out, constantly changing the views.