Bekah and I have been wanting to take a road trip all year - we do, after all, have our own scooter gang lol. We finally decided on road-tripping it up to Maolin,
one of Taiwan's national scenic areas, about 2 hours northeast of Kaohsiung (closer to one hour by highway with a car). The park area, according to Lonely Planet, has "pristine mountain landscapes, vertiginously high suspension bridges, waterfalls, natural swimming pools and even free outdoor hot springs." Maolin is also world-famous for its Purple Butterfly Valley, the second most important butterfly migratory resting grounds in the world after Mexico City's Monarch Butterfly Valley.
Tragically, much of Maolin was destroyed by Hurricane Morakot last August, and we were saddened to see, the area still lies mostly in ruins. We had heard about the damage last summer, but whether we forgot or just assumed that it would have been restored by now, we were both amazed at the amount of damage everywhere.
When Fonda told us that much of Maolin no longer existed, we did not understand until we got there and saw it for ourselves. Whole mountainsides were washed away, etching ugly scars into the valley walls and leaving the riverbeds coated in mud and boulders. The river does not really exist anymore - instead, the riverbed is mile after mile
of muddied wasteland. Roads and bridges were destroyed everywhere, and only now, do they appear to be beginning the rebuilding with makeshift bridges and a few construction zones to rebuild necessary parts of the road. There is only one main road through the park, so you can imagine what it must have been like
for the people in villages deeper inside the gorge with no road to reach them and to connect them to the outside world. Everywhere you go, there are abandoned buildings, caved in or filled with mud and debris. Most of the hiking trails are completely gone, washed away with the sides of cliffs; and none of the hot springs exist anymore, or at least, they are buried deep underground once again.
Above: (left) trail washed away by landslide; (right) me bemoaning more trail ruins
Below: (left) makeshift road alongside concrete supports of the old bridge; (right) this trail we hiked supposedly once had five bridges crisscrossing the ravine, all of which are now in pieces as evidenced by the pile of bricks you see here
Bekah and I drove up on a Saturday evening, stayed the night at a lovely little hotel run by aboriginals, hiked/scootered around all
day Sunday and then drove back that evening (there is no transportation inside of the park, which is one of the reasons why we took our own scooters - also, I would recommend to any future travelers to bring in all of your own food). We stayed at the De En Gorge Guesthouse, which is a bit outside of
Maolin Village and nestled on the hillside overlooking the valley. I thought of doing taiqi when I woke up early in the morning, but then had more fun watching another Taiwanese lady doing her morning exercise routine. Taiwanese people are so cute when they exercise in the morning - I think that may have been the main reason why I started doing taiqi every day last fall. It is just so entertaining to watch them.
After being invited to morning tea with some other guests, Bekah and I set out on our scooters to find adventure. What we found were a lot of missing trails, broken bridges and ruined buildings. However, we still discovered some beautiful spots, and Bekah was even brave enough to go swimming in a waterfall pool. I thought about it, but decided I did not want to be wet the rest of the day - or at least, for the next hour or so. The pool she took a dip in, though, ate one of my socks, so I do not bear it much goodwill... There were also lots of beautiful dragonflies around the pool which kept me busy for a while.
Above: trail head for the first one we hiked / waterfall Bekah swam inBelow: Bekah swimming in said waterfall pool
Above: fun wildlife on the trailBy early afternoon, we had reached the village of Dona,
a cute little place inhabited by no more than 200 people. It did have an elementary school, though, so we joked that Fulbright could have placed one of us there for the year. Talk about remote. I am not sure I would have survived. On the other had, that is the kind of place where the people would probably benefit most from having a foreign teacher,
since they have so little contact with people from beyond their valley, much less outside of Taiwan. We were happy to see that the village still maintained its Rukai aboriginal roots, with beautiful artwork and shale houses, and NO 7-Elevens. The people were very sweet, and we made friends with a couple of small children, before going in search of the hot springs which no longer exist.
Above: farming valley below Dona
Below: remains of two different hot springs, both nothing but rubble now
Other sites of Maolin which do still exist are the Dragon Head and Snake Head Mountains. They are both hills which pop up out of the middle of the riverbed, looking like - you guessed it - dragon and snake heads. We never made it down to the Snake Head, but we did hike all over the Dragon Head, and got several beautiful shots with it.
My favorite photo shoot, though, came at the end of the day as we were leaving the park. On the side of the road, we passed two very large statues of aboriginal men. Amazing. I claim the tall one as my aboriginal boyfriend now. If only real Taiwanese men came in that size... I would even settle for half that size! :)
Bekah and I had both been to Meinong with our respective families, but we thought it would be fun to take a scooter rode trip out by ourselves. One of the things Meinong is famous for is bike riding, so we decided to rent bikes for the day and go exploring. Meinong roads used to be covered in color-coded bike paths, 
but the old markings were either so old and faded or else paved over that they sadly did not exist anymore. Luckily, the town itself is very small and the surrounding countryside is fairly logical, so we never got too lost. There was one moment, though, where we almost started biking straight up a mountainside, but a local saw us trying to make out a sign, and kindly pointed us in the proper direction (our bikes were far from mountain bikes).
Since living in Kaohsiung, I have done surprisingly little bike riding, considering the amount of bicycles in the country and my love for cycling. This is due to three factors: my scooter is faster and more fun, the heat/humidity makes cycling an unpractical mode of transportation for anyone hoping to arrive at work with dry clothing, and the bikes here are not built for my body type. Back in October, Minghua's PTA council gifted me with a bicycle (which was so sweet of them!). It is foldable, making it great for taking on the MRT. This same feature, though, means that the wheels are about one foot in diameter and the frame is very unstable. I am always afraid I will break it when I ride it! Anyways, the bikes we rented in Meinong were more sturdy, but still built all wrong for me. Even with raising the seat and handle bars, things were still out of proportion. Maybe my torso is too long? We had meant to stay out most of the day, but after less than two hours, my body was ready to quit. Bekah was done too, as the heat was terrible. One thing I am looking forward to this summer is taking my American bike out for long cycling adventures through Illinois cornfields haha.
After buying fresh pineapple from a fruit stand along the road (while I will be upgrading my bicycle, I will sorely miss Taiwan's fruit this summer - nothing compares to it), we set out riding amidst banana and beetlenut trees, through quaint villages and along the mountain ridge. Once we had given up on the bikes, 
we took a walk around a pretty little lake and even got to listen to some traditional aboriginal music. It was painful. One could hear it from a mile away, and of course, Bekah needed to get up close so as to better savor the experience. I have included a recording of it so that you call all witness the discordance.
