Author Archives: steel city scribe

‌I’ve yet to try stinky tofu*

My Taiwan posts lack the personal touch, I know. Accounts of Chiang Kai Shek’s White Terror and the geology and history of Taroko could have been written without chalking up the carbon footprint – though my views on reducing capitalist … Read More »

Saturday, 06:40, on Highway 11. I’m hitching north to Hualien, 125 kilometres away. Two short lifts have brung me to Donghe, all of nineteen klicks up the coast from my 05:45 startpoint at Travel Bug Bistro Inn in Dulan, surfer … Read More »

On Monday’s 09:30 ferry from Taitung to Ludao, aka Green Island, I saw for the first time a flying fish. Several actually but one put on a show. It cleared the surface ten metres from where I stood near the … Read More »

The ferry for Green Island sails from Taitung in the southeast of Taiwan. To be precise, it sails from Fugong Fish Harbour, a half hour bus ride from the train station. I arrived at eight am to secure a ticket … Read More »

       Below. The highly erudite author, warped by wide angle lens. Earth is 4.7 billion years old. Six million years ago the collision of two tectonic plates, Philippine and Eurasian, thrust Taiwan clean out of the Pacific Ocean, … Read More »

I’d intended to take a scooter and camping gear into Taroko today but will defer a day as rain is forecast, to be followed by sunnier weather in the Gorge from Tuesday on, below 2000 metres at any rate. I had … Read More »

I couldn’t resist. Today I returned: going deeper into Taroko, higher into those incredible mountains. You can traverse Taiwan, east to west, on this road. There aren’t many such passes. Other than at the island’s northern and southern tips, paths … Read More »