In this post I cover Taroko National Park’s Shakadang Trail, a bit on Truku history, millet, weaving and Taroko trip planning. My day trip from Hualien to Taroko Gorge was epic. I went solo and on public transportation. I took 6 buses and hiked on 5 trails. By far my favorite hike was the Shakadang …
Unexpected Delights in Taroko, Taiwan: mountain millet mochi and more Read More »
A couple days after my family joined me in Taiwan, we went swimming in the rural mountains of Miaoli County, where my mom grew up. In the 15 minutes between emerging from the water and putting on insect repellent, my 10-year-old kid racked up over 100 intensely itchy insect bites. “We didn’t see any mosquitoes!” …
This super pod of pantropical spotted dolphins (熱帶點斑原海豚) showed off their acrobatic swimming and played with our boat when we went out with the Jin Ling whale and dolphin watching company in Chenggong Harbor (晉領 賞鯨 台東成功 ) on a rainy morning on June 28, 2023. The captain expertly navigated the turbulent waters to find …
A few days ago I decided to go to Yangmingshan National Park, northeast of Taipei and Beitou, where I was staying. It is a beautiful and lush subtropical volcanic mountain ecosystem with geothermal activity. I visited many years ago as a young adult and wanted to return with my new interest in birds and ecology, …
Unambitious travel: learning how to stop when things are “good enough” Read More »
I arrived in Beitou early on a drizzly Wednesday morning, exhausted and achy from a cramped and sleepless 14-hour flight. Fortunately, the apartment I booked had a hot springs tub and piped the jade green “magical waters” right from the source, flowing from the volcanic Thermal Valley. Hoo boy, was I looking forward to that! …
During the Covid pandemic I built up a many-layered shell. Like the deep sea “volcano snail,” I formed multiple types of protection against my own version of a high pressured, high temperature acidic hellscape. I am a physician specializing in viral illnesses. The pandemic was my war, and at times it was a psychological hell. …
Breaking through my pandemic shell to travel abroad again Read More »
No visit to Taiwan is complete without a visit to a night market. Despite my exhaustion from jet lag and walking around Taipei in sweltering summer heat, last night I made it to the Raohe night market (饒河夜市) next to the Songshan MRT and local train station and was pumped enough by all the activity …
Owls are a good luck symbol in Taiwan. I had the amazing good fortune that my Auntie knows Teacher Zhang of the Saisiyat aboriginal tribe, and she happened to be at her shop the afternoon we stopped by Nanzhuang town in the mountains of Miaoli, my mother’s ancestral home. I saw her handmade owls at …
Making Saisiyat 賽夏 aboriginal good luck owls in Nanzhuang, Miaoli, Taiwan Read More »
