Little Liu Chiu Island

Little Liu Chiu Island (小琉球) is South-West of Kaohsiung in the Taiwan straits. The very small island is easily reached by passenger ferry from Dong-Gang (東港 - East Harbor) . See Google Map.

Freeway 3 is the easiest way to get down there. Just drive to the end and turn right. Turn left just before the big red bridge and park in one of the lots there next to the boats. We arrived just in time from central Taiwan and caught the boat at 12:35 on the Saturday after Christmas. Our friends Andrew and Sarah were there waiting for us, saying "Come on! We're going to miss the boat!" ... So, we got on the crowded little ferry boat and made the quick 25 minute trip to the island. Our helpful hotel manager met us at the dock with a sign and the keys to 3 scooters. She led us up the narrow winding streets to the hotel just near the harbor.

Life is slower on Liu Chiu and almost nobody wears a motorcycle helmet.

The harbor was completely full of fishing boats crewed by Indonesians, Filipinos and Taiwanese.

We took a wonderful trip on the under-sea boat.

An urn for burning incense near the best beach on the east side of Liu Chiu.

A hermit crab crawling out of his shell.

Liu Chiu Island is completely made out of coral. There are all kinds of interesting coral.

The view from the "Black Ghost Cave" temple.

Sunset on Little Liu Chiu island as seen from the Black Ghost Cave temple.

A beach completely made of busted up coral.

The Famous "Liu Chiu Rock" . "Held Up" by a beautiful model.

All in all, we only spent about 26 hours on Little Liu Chiu Island It was totally worth it. We barely made the ferry back with seconds to spare and again it was totally full on a Sunday. Thanks to Andrew and Sarah for the great idea. We are already planning our next trip to this pretty little island for some more beach combing on the coral sands.

Taroko Gorge 太魯 閣 - A five Day Trip

Since I first took a motorcycle trip around the island in 1998 and saw this place for the first time, it has always stood out as probably the most fantastic natural place in Taiwan. The Taroko Gorge (太魯閣) would be amazing enough, but the addition of the highway threaded through the vertical walls with many tunnels and cutouts just makes it all the more incredible. When I first rode through on my old 150cc, there weren't so many bypass tunnels. Now the "Swallow Grotto" and the "Nine Turns" area are bypassed by wide new tunnels and you can walk the old road which turns out to very pleasant without the traffic. However, something in me missed the sight of all those tour busses trying to navigate the tiny twisting road. There are still several choke points in the road though where it narrows down to one lane providing some tight squeezes.

On the way, passing the Suao Port. We decided this time instead of driving over the Central Cross Island Highway, we'd go around on the freeway through Taipei and go through the new tunnel to Ilan. It looked close on the map.... The first day, in about 5 hours from Yuanlin, we emerged at the Jiau-Shi Hot Springs where we rented a deluxe room with a big soaker tub.


On the second day, after leaving Ilan we came to the Suao Cliffs. The turquoise blue water and white cliffs are striking. I like this shot because it shows the highway and also the railroad tracks on the right side.

Trucks, Trucks and more Trucks. The road was crawling with big trucks. I passed countless numbers of them even though we're only driving a Nissan Cefiro with a weak 2 liter engine. They all seem to be hauling rocks to and from the big cement plant there in the distance. The road around the cliffs is slow and winding, so we didn't really save that much time compared with driving over the mountain pass.


Ah, we finally made it to the gorge in the afternoon of the second day. This was the Thanksgiving Holiday back in America, so after finding our cabin we made our way to the Grand Formosa to enjoy a fine dinner. The hotel was strangely very empty though, and instead of the usual buffet, they were offering entre's instead.

My boy was thoughtful enough to take this shot of the cabin we stayed in for the second night.


Meanwhile I was busy snapping shots of the bugs. These cabins are up the road from Tian-shang and in a scenic area where there are some fields tucked into a plateau. The bugs were intense.


On the third day, we took the trail of the nine turns. This section of the highway is now bypassed by a new tunnel and offers a spectacular meandering walk. I wouldn't want to be there during an earthquake or heavy rainstorm though - a lot of rocks overhead.

Me, your author, sporting my camera. My six year old son took this shot with my old camera I gave to him. He is starting to catch the photographer bug and is excited to have his own equipment.

The eternal springs shrine 長春祠 . It seems to get dark even earlier in the gorge. This picture was taken from the railing of the coffee shop across the way near the parking lot.

A close up of the shrine. The tripod was sitting in the trunk of our car back at the parking lot, so I had to take this shot by pressing the camera down on the little bridge over the stream. I felt a little silly and poor when a bunch of Japanese tourists came behind me fully laden with gear, tripods lenses and camera bags. The shot came out ok at a special "low angle".


On the third night we stayed at the "Leader Village". I believe this place has taken over from the Grand Formosa the nicest place to stay in the gorge and could explain why the hotel was so quiet the night before.. The duplex cabins offer heated blankets which were most appreciated due to the cold weather. The food was great - I ordered a huge tasty meal called "When Wild Boar Meets Eiffel Tower" for dinner. On this fourth day of our trip was the first time the sun finallly came out. It was a beautiful blue sky morning in a beautiful place to wake up.


After spending the fourth night in Taipei, it was time to conclude our long trip and head back home to Yuanlin. It was a great 5 day trip during a very quiet time of the year. Its amazing that such a small island as Taiwan can offer so many fantastic places to see and how long it takes to drive around the island due to the rugged terrain of the east coast.

Back from Japan

Well, we're back from Japan for a quick vacation in January for one week. We had an absolutely fabulous time! It's amazing to know that Japan is supposedly not experiencing the best economy now. Everything seemed to be fine, and it is a great country. There were so many well dressed Japanese running around in their suits so busy - it's hard to imagine they've been in a pro-longed economic slump over the past 17 years and were experiencing the lowest stock market in several years while we were there... Tokyo was so busy, and the countryside around Hakone was absolutely beautiful. We lucked out on the weather as it was raining when we arrived, and raining when we left, but sunny in between. Even though we only caught a misty view of Mt. Fuji, we had a great time especially while we were not shopping in Tokyo, and instead were enjoying the country-side and hot springs around Hakone.