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  • Hey guys!

  • We're in Hualien City on the east coast of Taiwan

  • and in Taiwan, you'll find that most of the large cities with big populations of people are on the west coast

  • and the east coast is more beautiful nature

  • and a national park called Taroko National Park where we are headed right now.

  • It's named after Taroko Gorge, which looks incredible.

  • There's amazing views and hikes that you can do

  • so we have rented a scooter - I've got two helmets here

  • and Marc, I'm sorry, I'm calling dibs on this one.

  • One has a sparkly star and racing stripes and one doesn't sothis is mine.

  • I want that one!

  • Let's go.

  • Oh I forgot to unlock it!

  • We forgot that the lock is still on the wheel of the scooter.

  • There we go.

  • Got it?

  • Yeah.

  • Okaywe've got snacks, we've got helmets, we've got fuel, we have sort of a map.

  • Raincoats.

  • Let's go!

  • Ahhh!

  • Other way!

  • This way!

  • An excellent start!

  • Started to rain.

  • Ahhh!

  • These are no longer sunglasses, these are rain glasses now.

  • Yeah, pretty much.

  • There's no sun to speak of.

  • The visor's kind of hard to see out of so I'm just keeping my sunnies on.

  • You can't see very well right now but I promise there are mountains right up there.

  • Really big, beautiful mountains.

  • Marc and I drove a scooter in Toronto for what like 9 years?

  • Yeah.

  • And theywe had two of them and they were both Taiwanese brand.

  • SYM.

  • So it's pretty cool - it feels kind of at home to be in Taiwan on a scooter, don't you think?

  • Yeah, yeah.

  • It's like a homecoming.

  • It's nice.

  • Yeah.

  • This would've been a good day to wear waterproof mascara.

  • I can't even see 'cause it's in my eyes.

  • I'm trying to like cry to get the mascara out.

  • Oh that burns though.

  • Oh yeah…I just saw a little teardrop roll down.

  • Looks black.

  • You can see here how soaked my feet are.

  • Seems like a good day to go hiking!

  • Mainly I just want to make sure you get it out of your eyes.

  • So you can enjoy the….lack of a view!

  • Oh yeah that helps.

  • It's like a carwash on my eyes.

  • Now that I've stopped at a gas station, I can see.

  • Let's goagain.

  • ♬ I can see clearly now, the rainhasn't gone. ♬

  • Yeah I was going to say... you can't quite finish that lyric.

  • Here we go.

  • We're inside the gorge now in Taroko Gorge and wow!

  • It is stunning in here.

  • Oh my god!

  • We're passing all these signs that say that you should wear a helmet while you're in Taroko National Park

  • and then there's all these places that say there's a helmet borrow just up the road so...

  • I guess we're already wearing helmets.

  • I think it's because of all of the um, the rock falls that happen here

  • so they're suggesting that you wear a helmet.

  • How's your extremely wet scooter ride been through the gorge here?

  • I mean it's gorgeous but it's just a shame that it's so wet and cloudy.

  • I think you mean to say it's “gorge-ous.”

  • This was a setup wasn't it?

  • To see if I'd say that?

  • It was.

  • Okay.

  • I'm fine with it.

  • Let's go.

  • We just passed the sign for the Swallow Grotto Trail

  • and that's what we've been heading towards so I think we are getting close.

  • The rain has stopped and we've made it to the beginning of the Swallow Grotto Trail.

  • That's where we've been headed this whole time.

  • It's absolutely stunning here and I cannot wait to walk more inside this gorge.

  • So Swallow Grotto Trail actually seems to be a road that goes along the gorge

  • and itit almost appears as though you could drive through the entire thing

  • so we're going to actually go back and get the scooter

  • and then we can pull over whenever we want to.

  • Might be able to see a bit more.

  • Yeah.

  • But I'm just thinking as we're walking along here about what it took to build this road,

  • like through all of these tunnels and there's these sheer drops off the side.

  • Like I can't imagine.

  • I've been getting queasy just walking along here looking down at the water.

  • I can't imagine building it.

  • It's incredible.

  • So you can see there's a…a road over there and then the river flows through.

  • This part of thethe gorge, Swallow Grotto Trail, is I think about a half a kilometre long

  • and you can see how narrow it gets in parts there.

  • It's absolutely stunning.

  • You have to be really careful in here because, obviously it's a gorge

  • so there's a lot of things you can hit

  • and even taking off there's a huge rock jutting out there so

  • So we just tried to fly the drone and I didn't know what Marc was doing.

  • I was flying it really controlled and then just all of a sudden it went rogue

  • and it started flying literally intotowards one of the walls in the gorge here

  • and so then I tried to fly it back and it was just not responding

  • and then I was able to fly it close enough that we could grab it

  • but I honestly feel sick right now.

  • I'm shaking.

  • That was really scary.

  • I thought it was a ghost piloting the drone or something.

  • The way it was moving was really eerie and I…

  • It was really eerie.

  • I said to Marc like, 'what are you doing?'

  • He's like, 'I'm not doing that'.

  • Yeah.

  • So we just brought it back and thenit was floating like

  • or, you know, floating like right over here and

  • I just reached out and grabbed it, which is not how we normally catch the drone but

  • At one point I was trying to just raise it up so you could grab it and it was not responding

  • and it was just kind of sitting out there by itself.

  • That's why it felt like a ghost.

  • It was almost like 'na na na na na na'.

  • Yeah.

  • It was really weird.

  • Maybe there's ghosts here in the Swallow Grotto.

  • Anyway, I'm glad we have drone back.

  • Uhh!

  • Baby's back!

  • Baby is back!

  • Never do that again!

  • Bad drone!

  • Bad drone!

  • Are you still shaking?

  • I'm still so shaky.

  • Do you feel like you can drive?

  • I'm going to go very slow.

  • Okay.

  • I'm good with that.

  • I feel kind of queasy.

  • Okay.

  • Don't back up too much.

  • Okay, yeah.

  • There's a hugethis is what's behind me.

  • Sheer drop.

  • Eee!

  • Where I'm standing right now, according to a sign over there,

  • is the best view of the Taroko Gorge, period.

  • And what I love about the Taroko Gorge especially is that these rocks behind me

  • these are made of marble.

  • But they weren't always marble.

  • Over 200 million years ago they started out as coral and little marine organisms

  • and over millions of years, they piled up and up and up and they became limestone

  • and then as tectonic plates shifted and lots of other magic happened,

  • they turned into marble and so that's what you see now.

  • And this is the Liwu River behind me and it is just cutting down through the rock even as we speak

  • and the gorge just gets deeper and deeper as that happens and it's incredible to just

  • know all of the background and see how incredibly gorgeous it looks and

  • I'm just glad that we made it this far in the rain to see this incredible view.

  • I can't stop looking at this view.

  • Maybe we should just live here.

  • That sounds like a good plan except for the rain.

  • Yeah.

  • We should've brought a tent.

  • But you know what?

  • We could go stay set up shelter in there.

  • That's a good spot.

  • Marc and I just pulled off the road to have a bite to eat and uh,

  • you've already got our chips open.

  • I couldn't wait.

  • We haven't had this kind before.

  • Kyushu Seaweed Lay's.

  • Oh.

  • Are they good?

  • Have you had one yet?

  • I have.

  • They're really good.

  • We also broughtthis is uh just a bun with like corn, cheese, ham.

  • Oh! Lemon Pocky.

  • One of my absolute favourites.

  • This is scallion cheese bun.

  • And from 7-11, Marc picked up one of these rice wraps.

  • And then just a couple of water bottles.

  • I love having roadside picnics.

  • Me too.

  • Thislook at this.

  • I know.

  • It's incredible.

  • Mmm.

  • Oh just having lunch with my friends.

  • This is just weird.

  • These roads are so beautiful but they're not the roads I want to be on after dark so

  • Not so much.

  • And in the rain so we're just making our way out of the national park now back to the main road.

  • We're making our way out of the park

  • but we didn't want to leave without seeing this shrine behind me.

  • It's one of the most famous landmarks in the whole national park.

  • It's called the Eternal Spring Shrine

  • and unfortunately the reason it's here is a very sad one.

  • It's built to commemorate in 1958, 212 workers who died

  • while constructing a really important highway in Taiwan, the Central Cross-Island Highway.

  • It was the first one linking the east and west that went through the central mountain range here.

  • So it's really important and this has been destroyed by landslides a couple of times and rebuilt.

  • This latest one was built in 1989 and the reason for the name Eternal Spring

  • is because you have these natural waters that seem to flow right through the temple

  • and go into the Liwu River here.

  • And that is called the Eternal Spring Waterfall and it just feels very calm and very tranquil here.

  • We are headed back towards Hualien City now.

  • We've got about an hour's drive.

  • It has been a rainier day than we expected but still really fun

  • and I hope that you guys enjoyed coming along to see Taroko National Park

  • and just driving this incredible road through the gorge.

  • Don't forget to subscribe to the channel for lots more travel adventures if you haven't already

  • and if you like this video, give it a thumbs up and we'll see you in the next video.

  • Bye!

Hey guys!

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