Taroko Gorge

So we woke up early and headed out to Taroko Gorge.  I had been looking forward to going there for ages, because on all the pictures I had seen of it, looked truly amazing.  We had to leave bright and early to make sure that we could catch the bus, and make it in time for a full 6 hour trek of the best parts of the Gorge.  The nice lady in the hostel told us which route to take, and that if we could make it in time, we would see all the best parts.  


First we had to take the bus to the final stop, from Hualien Train Station.  Then we would walk for 2 - 3 hours, then take another bus, to another point of the Gorge, and walk for another 3 hours.  Then catch the bus back to Hualien Train Station.  We could only make it for the 8.30am bus because the lady in the hostel was taking back our bicycles.  We were really happy that she helped us with this, and we tried our best to show her our happiness...I am not sure it came across in our very English way, as it could of.


The hostel we were staying in offered breakfast. They had a small selection of sandwiches.  Being the carnivore that I am, I managed to select the only vegetarian sandwich there, and Steve being a vegetarian managed to select a one with meat inside.  This seemed to set the tone for the beginning of our trip to Taroko Gorge. 


We got our now customary dan bing on the way to get the bus.  It was actually one of the worst Dan Bings I have had since I came to Taiwan to live here, but I ate it all the same.  It wasn't that it was totally bad, in that I had to throw it away, its just that most of the others are superior to the one we went to.


We then got to the train station, and bought our ticket.  I asked the guy where we take the bus from, and he told us you just have to wait here. I asked him if he would tell us when the bus was here, he told us it was no problem and just to wait right there.  We were supposed to be getting the bus at 8.30am, and we kept checking the watch.  It was getting closer and closer to 8.30, and we kept asking the guy is the bus here?  He just kept saying wait, wait wait.....


Then disaster struck!  The guy told us the bus had already left, and we have missed it.  I was raging.  Now we would not be able to see all of Taroko Gorge!  Steve kept telling me I had to calm down, and it was clearly a matter of miscommunication, and misunderstanding.  I was still raging, because I said everything correctly in Chinese, and the lady in the hostel confirmed what I said was correct.  Maybe he just didn't like us foreigners, or maybe it simply was just a misunderstanding but, anyway I was raging for ages!!!  As we trudged back to the hostel, Steve mentioned how embarrassing it would be if we seen the lady from the hostel pushing the bikes back to the Giant Shop.  


Imagine what she would of thought, there she is pushing our bikes back to the Giant Shop, so that we can get to Taroko Gorge and have a great time.  I'm sure she wouldn't be impressed at all if she seen us two morons trudging back to the hostel with our tail between our legs.


So we had an hour wait, sitting around and deciding what to do.  We decided we had 2 options.  Either wait for the bus we were going to take that would arrive in 2 hours time, or take the bus that dropped us to a different point in 1 hour.  We decided we had no choice but to just leave, regardless of what happened at least we were closer to where we needed to be.  So we went back 1 hour later, and the guy who messed up our plans was really apologetic.  I thought he bloody well should be!  It was a calamity worse than calamity James would ever make!


We then managed to get the bus to a part of Taroko Gorge that we didn't want, or need to be at but we had no choice really.  When I was on the bus, after all the bother I realised I only had a few coins.  Steve didn't have too many either, and it turned out I didn't have enough money for my bus fare.  The driver was taking no shit, and there was no way I was giving him 100NT.  

So we kind of had a stand off, with him telling me in Chinese to pay him what I had to pay him, and me telling him, I don't have any coins man, give me change for this and you have yourself a deal!  He wasn't budging, he wanted my money....coins or notes.  The problem is in Taiwan you have to give the correct money on the bus, because you get no change from the driver.  There was no way I was paying 100 dollars, for a 20 dollars bus journey, or whatever it was.  


Then some American Taiwanese women decided just to add the other coins.  I tried to pay her back when I got of the bus, but she was having none of it.  I thought sod it then, I can't spend 3 hours here trying to give you 30 bloody pence!


Then we took the other bus to a point in Taroko Gorge where most people walk from, to the bus stop we were supposedly getting picked up from.  When we got of the bus, some American girl tagged a long with us, her name was Paris Lilly.  Apart from the normal American over the topness (which is to be expected) she was ok.  


When we started of on the walk, I already started to lag behind Steve and Paris.  This was because I was watching a man eat a chickens foot.  He saw me looking at him, and then thought I wanted to share his chickens feet.  So he offered me one, well it would of been rude if I told him ew no mate that's pretty gross!  So I took the chickens foot from him, and then I had a nibble just to show that I was all into it and that.  Then when he left, I stuffed back in its little bag and walked off.

When I caught up with Steve and Paris, I told Paris I had a present for her!  Ha and then I offered her the chickens foot.  Needless to say English humour didn't get me very far with this one.  I wondered off to piss, and find somewhere to dump the chickens foot.


Then after we had our toilet break, and what have you, we started our trek along Taroko Gorge. I swear the scenery there is absolutely spectacular.  The rocks hanging over the road, and how beautiful it looked.  I think it would be great to go camping there.  

The walk was a good pace.  I kept stopping to take photos and Steve and Paris ended up quite a bit in front of me a lot of the time, which was good in a way.  It made me think about life, and how peaceful everything was there.  Was alone, with all my own thoughts, and the scenery.  It was a great place to be alone with ones self.  Like those TV shows you see, where they send kids out into the country side to find out what they want from life.  I just enjoyed how peaceful it was compared to other places in Taiwan, especially seeing as I live in Taipei.

It felt like a Ray Mears survival adventure at times, with the earlier nibbling on a chickens foot (I wont say eating because I only had a nibble,) and the walk through the gorge.  All the hills and rocks, and the water flowing below us.  I love seeing the hills higher than the clouds.  I think it looks amazing, and I think it feels kind of mystical.  The weather was quite nice to walk in too, it was hot as always in Taiwan, but there was some light rain to cool us down.

There was no real path to walk along so everyone who was walking, just had to walk along the road.  There were signs everywhere telling you to watch out for falling rocks.  Some parts of the roads were closed off too because of falling rocks everywhere.  This made me look up a lot to make sure nothing was heading straight for me, and a killer blow!  

Some of the rocks on the floor were huge, and I really couldn't imagine one of them smashing me in the head.  It would be more than just a knock out blow.


It was great fun walking there.  I didn't think I would be able to manage to walk so far, but it didn't feel like we had walked for as long as we did, the views, treks, trails, scenery, water, and Indiana Jones style bridges really make it great fun, and the time definitely flies!  Although my bad ass chaffing the next day really disagreed with the fact I thought it was an easy walk.

While we were walking, I caught back up to Steve and Paris and they started telling me they had found something.  I was pretty sceptical because I didn't think they would of found anything more amazing than what I was already seeing.  They told me they seen a walk way around the top, which would blow my mind, and be a 'mindblow'.  I didn't think I would get a mindblow, but seeing as I was kind of outvoted to go there or not, I just walked that way anyway.  

When I was walking along the small trek it felt like I was just walking along the Derwent Walk back home.  You couldn't see the Gorge that well from up there because the trees blocked all of the view so that I felt it was a little bit of a waste of time, the best part about walking the small trail, was near the top they had a big rock, and then they had cut a hole right through the middle of it so that you could go straight around instead of having to be at a dead end!  

That's the upside of Taiwanese people really like everything to be convenient.  It was pitch black in there mind you and we had to take small tiny baby steps.


After that my mind was still firmly in the unblown category so we continued following the road downwards to where we needed to be.  Then I seen something that did kind of blow my mind a little bit.  I wouldn't use that terminology normally but, as it happens it got thrust upon me.


We walked right up to a bridge, that was straight out of some kind of jungle survival show, or as previously mentioned Indiana Jones.  It looked awesome, from a few miles up the road.  I could feel my excitement building when I seen it, I couldn't wait to walk across it.  As we started getting closer, it didn't look shitter at all, it just got better and better. 


I have never really been that excited about seeing a bridge.  This one was a little bit special though.  It really did look like something from one of those TV shows in the jungles, or from some movie. 


When we stepped onto the bridge, you could feel the whole bridge moving around when you walked across it.  Some women in front of me went first, but they only managed to go half way across because they were to scared to go any further.  I don't know if that was because I started walking on behind them, they were small and Asian, and then I came along stomping my way across the bridge, shaking them all over.  They just couldn't wait to be back onto land that doesn't move and doesn't have something like a 200ft drop below them.

When I got on it I loved it, I was lying down taking pictures and everything.  Making sure my camera was wrapped around my hand as much as possible.  It was great fun walking over there, I am such a child at times.  I say this because when I was walking across that bridge I was thinking about all the tv shows and games I have seen bridges like this in.  Then I was thinking about how I would be in those shows.  So stupid and silly, but I guess everyone one of us has a childish side to them.  

Then we had to be on our merry way, like the three musketeers, marching on down the Gorge.  We had a tight schedule to keep to if we wanted to make sure we caught the bus back home.  The idea of being stuck there with no way to get home didn't really appeal to me too much, especially when we were leaving for Taitung that night and we had nothing to sleep in.

So we were pretty much marching down the road, and I kept stopping at different points to snap a lot of photos.  At this point, me and Steve looked like we had been swimming through the Gorge never mind walking, the amount of sweat that was pissing out of us was unreal.  I would highly recommend that if you go there, you should take a spare T-shirt, or even a full change of clothes and a towel.


After we went passed the bridge and played on it for a while, the next cool thing that we seen was a part of the Gorge that everyone seems to have taken their pictures from.  I could see why as well.  The reason for this was because the road swings around to the right, and has quite a big turn.  That means when you are walking, you get to a point where you can snap the Gorge, with all the bits of rocks overhanging, and you can get to see the cars, and small amount of people going past.  This was an awesome viewing point on the Gorge for me, and it was just a shame I did not have a better camera to really capture the scene.  

I could of stood there for longer than I did, the view was stunning.  Watching the cars come round the corner, with all that around was a little bit surreal.  When we eventually managed to walk around this corner ourselves, the next thing we had to walk through was a series of tunnels.  Most of them were so dark, you had to walk really slowly making sure you didn't trip up on anything.  This part was slow progress but I liked it.  At this point I seen a whole section of the Gorge sectioned off because of falling rocks.  Some of them were bigger than my head!!!  I wouldn't want any of them landing on me, when I am having a nice peaceful stroll.

Just as we got near the tunnels, it started to absolutely piss it down.  I was completely soaked right through.  So much for the nice sunny day.  When we came out the other end of the first tunnel we went through the rain had stopped.  Typical that, soaked before I went in, then scorching hot when we came out the other side.  By the time we got to the last tunnel, it had rained a lot more for me to forget about the previous complaint.  

Near the end we overshot, and went too far along the route.  This meant we had to double back and look for our bus.  We walked back to where we had came from which was not far, and we met another guy called Roy.  I am certain he was from Holland, I can't quite remember what he done here, but it was to do with electronics.  

Then we waited, and waited, and waited..........but no bus turned up.  So we were stood in the middle of Taroko Gorge with no way of getting back to the train station.  Our new friend Roy called his hotel to let them know he might need a taxi because the bus has not showed up.  I told them all not to worry, I will flag someone down and get us a lift.


So when I seen a small van heading in our direction, I flagged him down.  Told him in Chinese no bus no bus.  I also asked if he could take us back to the train station in Hualien.  He said sure no problem, so we all piled in.  Steve tried to take some credit for supposedly standing behind me and throwing out a big toe, but I think it was all down to me personally.  He drove us all the way back to Hualien, he made a pit stop at his home but I don't remember what for.

Then when we got back we collected our bags, then went and took the train to Taitung, we were no on our way to green Island.

Hualien

We were up early again, to make the trip to Hualien.  We went to the train station around 10am.  The woman in the train station told us, that the train was fully booked up and we would have to wait about 2pm or 3pm for the next train.  As we were booking the train she told us someone just cancelled their tickets on the next train to Hualien.  She then told us, we could make the purchase for the next train heading that way, which would leave very soon.  This was very lucky, as we would of had no real time in Hualien.


When we arrived, we decided to go and find one of the hostels from Steve's Lonely Planet book.  The hostel we went to was spot on.  A bit pricey by hostel standards I have normally stayed in but the quality of there hostel was good.  I have actually forgot the name now, I should of wrote it down, but if you have Lonely Planet Taiwan, the newest edition only has 2 options in there anyway.


We then headed out to try and hire a scooter, to go and see the scenic areas.  It turned out we had no luck in hiring a scooter.  The place that seemed pretty legit wouldn't let us hire a scooter, because I have no license and Steve did not have an international driving license.  In the end we ended up getting push bikes from the Giant shop next to the train station.  This actually turned out to be a brilliant idea in the end.  Was really great flying about on the bikes, we took some time to find the beach, which seemed a lot more difficult than it should of been.  


The bikes we got from the Giant shop were so light, they were like a dream to peddle about on.  While we were hunting for the beach, we came across this place selling some kind of egg pancake thing.  It seemed different to similar types in Taipei, I thought this must be Hualien's version of this.  Their was also a huge que of people waiting to get their food, and like Jen keeps telling me about food here.  If there is a big que for food in Taiwan, then it must be worth checking out!

Then disaster struck, the old woman working on the food stand seemed to have lost her place on the order sheet, and she had no idea of who was next, or who ordered what.  We must of been standing about 15 minutes and people who turned up after us were collecting their orders before us, which was bloody annoying.  They didn't even phone ahead with their order because they put in their order when they turned up.  I am also good with numbers in Chinese so there was no chance I had missed it.

At this moment, I had to get my beer face on, and think I was standing at the bar not getting served.  The new woman who took over bless her, she had some struggle to get some control back into the orders.  I harassed her a bit, and she kept apologising, I felt bad for harassing her but, I was getting pissed off for waiting so long.

Eventually she took command of the order sheet, and managed to get everything under control.  She managed to stop a mutiny so fair play to her.  In the end, what we bought really was worth the wait, it was damn bloody amazing.  To the point I wish I bought two of them, but there was no way I was going to risk that order list again!

Then we pedalled off in the direction of the beach.  We eventually managed to find it, and then we pedalled along the beach.  It was quite nice, and pleasant, but the major problem was the amount of factories and industries there.  I am not sure if we ended up in the wrong place, or if there was some other scenic place we went too, but by the time we found our hostel, ate something and got the bikes, it was nearly 3pm.

So we made do with a peddle around the beach, while stopping to take photos and water breaks!  It was a good ride, really there didn't seem to be many people out on the beach to be honest, maybe we missed the peak time or something, or maybe people are just not that bothered about it.  We pedalled quite far in all honesty, it was interesting and the fact we didn't notice the time meant we were having a great time.

When we headed back into the city, we decided to go and hunt for the night market on the bikes.  This was fun, I still love night markets in Taiwan, even though a lot of the foreigners I met said I would hate them soon enough.  I still love night markets.  I love all the food you can buy there, and just how its a great place to go and hang out.  The one in Hualien however was really small.  When we got there we decided to eat there, we got our self some juice and then we stopped off at a cheap steak place to get something to eat.  I got a big piece of cheap steak, and Steve had himself some noodles.  It was nice, and cheap.  I don't remember the price.  Less than 100NT I think however.  (mental note to self, I should write down place names, and prices in the blog book!)


Then we made haste back to the hostel, it was amusing seeing Steve ping the bell on his bike at the cars, made me laugh while I was pedalling behind him.  At least he was telling them to get out of the bloody way, when we were on the the way to get some beers in!


Then we went back to the hostel, had quite a few drinks and had an early night.  We would have an early kick off the next day because we had to go to Taroko Gorge.  The nice woman in the hostel had told us the best way to see most of Taroko Gorge.  We had to get the 9am bus right the way up to some point on the Gorge, and then hike so far down for 3 hours or so, and catch another bus around 1pm, then we had to hike for another 3 hours, to catch a bus at 4pm back to Hualien.  This she said was the best way to see all/most of Taroko Gorge.  This was our plan for the next day.


As we were going through this plan, there was a small matter of the push bikes!  The Giant shop didn't open until 9.30am, and we had to catch the bus at 9am.  When we told the woman in the hostel this dilemma she told us that she would kindly take the bikes back for us in the morning.  How nice was that, don't you just love it when a plan comes together eh? 


Then off to bed I went, and the lights went out on this part of my story.......

Beitou, and Danshui.

So me and Stephen had intended to wake up early, and spend the day at Beitou in the morning, and then Danshui in the afternoon/evening.


We started the day with a very normal intake of Dan bing for breakfast.  (Dan bing is kind of like an egg pancake, and you get all kinds of different fillings in them.  My favourite is bacon and cheese.)


After our relatively early start, and our breakfast we then proceeded to take the MRT to Beitou for the hot springs.  When we arrived there the weather was scorching hot.  It does not matter however, the hot springs are great in whatever weather.  Even though the locals disagree, and think it is too hot for them.  


The hot springs in Beitou get their heat from the active volcano in Yangmingshan mountain, and when you enter the water in the hot springs you can smell the sulphur.  They have 3 different hot pools and 2 cold ones. The one highest up being the hottest, as the hot spring water runs down the mountain, you see it falling into the hot springs.  


We decided to start from the bottom and work our way up to the hottest one.  The one at the bottom was lukewarm I would say and very very pleasant indeed.  The one in the middle was a little bit hotter, and maybe too hot for some people.  The one at the top was very hot, and you made that ahhh sound when you got into the water.  Once you were inside however, you really felt comfortable for a while.


When we got in the first one, 2 guys started talking to us, asking the usual questions like where are you from?, what are you doing in Taiwan?, how long have you been here for?  One guy then told us the correct procedure for the hot springs was to go into the hot spring, then go into the cold water after it, and keep switching.  Eventually it got to the point where I was sat in the cold water, thinking how pleasant the climate and the weather is back home, yes it rains, and yes it is sometimes cold, but it is not consistently hot and sticky for the majority of the year, and when you go out you are not always drowning in your own sweat!


I kept telling people in the hot springs, "hey man this is my natural climate, I am not made for the temperature here!"


Then I went off to the toilet, and when I came back the gay guy who was talking to us was trying to chat up Steve.  He was completely leering at him, trying to gaze into his eyes.  I was in two minds weather to leave him with the gay boy, or help him out.  Which got me thinking, maybe he thought we were a gay couple.  We did go to the hot springs together, maybe he got the wrong idea and thought Steve was fair game ha!  In the end I did decide to rescue him and said he Steve get in the cold!  It didn't take me twice to tell him to move, and when he got in the cold, I told him "I see you have pulled!"  HA!


When we got into the very hot one, all the people in there were looking at us like we were crazy.  I was wondering what the hell they were staying at, their faces looked like we had got into the hot spring, took a shit and walked back out.  One old woman decided to come over and tell us what the problem was, maybe it was my mean face that made her do it! ha!  So over she came and proceeded to ask "do you want a baby?"  To which I told her, "maybe some point in the future yeah....."  Then she told me, "are you married?"  At this point I thought eh this is odd.  Then she told me the reason.....she blurted out, "this pool is for if you want to have a baby"  I thought gee wonderful, its baby time rock on.  I didn't stay in there for long anyway, one it was boiling hot, and two I was chaffed to bits and the heat didn't help.

View from Beitou MRT

The hot springs in Beitou are totally awesome, and it only costs 40NT dollars I think to go into the public one, which works out at around 80p.


After the hot springs we headed up to the Thermal Valley.  I knew it was not really so far from the hot springs, only problem was the road split and I had to make sure that I got the correct road.  Well if you didn't guess, I didn't get the correct road, I took the wrong one.  We wondered for about five or 10 minutes, and I told Steve, hey I think I have took the wrong road lets head back.


At this point some guy asked me where I was going, I couldn't remember the name of the Thermal Valley, I don't even know what I called it now, I don't remember but I did not tell him Thermal Valley, and he had his Iphone out and everything checking google map, for some random place that I had just made up.  Nevermind.  I told him I know where it is, blah blah, I have just taken the wrong road.  


When we found it and went inside, bloody hell it was awesome.  I have never seen anything like that back home, or any of the places I have been to in Europe.  The heat, and the steam coming from the water was immense.  Safe to say, they didn't need signs up saying hot water to stop me from going in there!  Even standing beside the water looking at it, the steam was burning my eyes and face, it was really that hot!  The smell, the smell was overpowering.  You could smell the sulphur coming from the water and the steam, and thats what was burning your eyes, and face and making you realise you could not stand there for long, we did however try to dry our towels and swim shorts and we tried to take a couple of pictures.  I found it hard to keep my eyes open because of the sulphur, and the immense hot steam!

Me and Steve at the Thermal Valley.

Thermal Valley.

From here we went back to the MRT and took it to Danshui.  When I have mentioned Danshui to Taiwanese collegues and friends they all ask me why I like it there, and they all say it is very boring.  I just think it is a pleasant part of Taiwan, and it is nice to be by the water watching the boats.  We also had a kind of informal appointment with Pallas's mam.  I told Pallas I was going to Danshui, and she told me that I should go to her mothers restaurant, so I said yeah why not.  So she asked me roughly what time would I get there for.

When we got off the MRT, they seemed to be some kind of parade going on through the street, and I didn't know what it was for but they have these things a lot in Taiwan, and when I see them I always take a wonder over and check them out, because they always interest me, even though I have seen a lot of them already.


There was all different kinds of people, performing different kind of acts walking through the street, some people had big weird looking theatre heads on while dancing, others looked a little mean, some were throwing people in the air and catching them, others were just driving floats with stuff sat on the back.  The people who really caught my eye though were people I have never seen on any of these parades before.  They were just walking down the street, and then when the parade stopped for whatever reason, their party piece was bashing them self in the head, with a big spiked club or a metal bar.  That was it, just bashing their self in the head until they bled.  It didn't seem like something I would advice other people to do, but I stood really close watching these maniacs do they stuff, like a small child looking at big jars of sweets!  I was thoroughly intrigued as to why anyone would want to bash their own head in with a spiked club.  It was beyond me!  (I later found out, they believe they have god inside them or something and cannot be harmed)

We watched the parade for a little while, and then we  headed towards the water front in Danshui.  It was pretty full because of the parade I guess.  We went looking for Pallas's mams restaurant, but we couldn't find it at all.  When we asked people in the street they had never heard of the place.  We were looking, and looking and looking, to the point where Steve decided he had to eat!  I said he should try the fishballs there because they are famous.  We went to the place were Jen took me too, but I didn't realise that the set meal come with meat, I thought they were just noodles, so I ended up forcing the noodles down me, didn't want them to go to waste.  Then Steve decided he was still hungry, and he bought a big BBQ squid on a stick, which looked pretty rank to me but I hate sea food so my opinion is a bit biased there.  Steve said it was awesome however.

Steve's food

I was still determined to find Pallas's mams restaurant, because I said I would go. Then some woman who we had asked where it was came and found us in the street and told us that she had found it, and she will show us where it is.  When we found it, I felt a bit stupid, I am pretty certain we must have walked past it about 3 or 4 times!  Then we sat and spoke with Pallas's mam, who proceeded to tell me my Chinese was still shit, compared to her students she gets on the rotary exchange, I tried to explain that our situations are quite different, to which I don't think she gave a shit, and proceeded to tell me I need to get better blah blah blah.  

I ordered some food, I actually don't remember exactly what I had now but it was nice.  It was one of their Curries.  Then Pallas's mam brought us out loads of fruit too, we stayed and chatted for a while but eventually we had to make haste.  They didn't let us pay for what we ate, which was really nice of Palls's mam.


We then headed to take the boat to the wharf.  I like it at the wharf, it is very pleasant there.  I like to watch the sun set there, it is very beautiful.  That sounds a big like I am batting for the other team the way I say that, but it just really chilled out and mellow there.  The sun going down really sets the mood.

Waiting for the boat

The boat ride on the way to the wharf was really rocky and choppy, I loved it.  Last time I went on the boat here it was nothing like that at all.  Was great, a lot of people seemed scared.  I guess it is their unnatural fear of water which makes them scared here.  I like it when the boat is like that though, it feels like a proper journey.

View from the boat.

We managed to make a few friends on the boat, at least I thought so.  We spoke to a young girl travelling from Malaysia she told us that she was a belly dancer, and here with her tour group but decided to stay for an extra couple of days.  When we both added her to facebook it seems she only accepted Steve and not me, I guess I must of not made such a great impression on her, maybe my views on religion were taken the wrong way.  Anyway, she only accepted Steve, so we can safely say she is a cunt! 

Malaysian, belly dancer.

I also met a group of people from Singapore, who were here on there holiday.  They told me they liked it here, and that a lot of people come here from Singapore for the food.  They seemed quite nice, and said they'd add me to facebook too, but I guess they never got around to it. 

People on holiday from Singapore

We stayed on the wharf for a while, walked around the little harbour and bridge, and then we headed back.  When we got back into the boat, Steve and I got cut off from each other, he had to wait for the next boat, while I rocked on to the other side.  I sat at the ticket office and waited for them, chatting to the 2 guys who sold me my ticket.

Fishermans Wharf, Danshui.

So I manned it out and waited there for Steve.  Then when he arrived we headed back home, after a nice day out, even though I was proper chaffed to death.

Sorry it has taken me so long to update my blog, but I have been without internet for a long time now, and have been very busy.  Also I could not take pictures inside the hot spring.