Taroko National Park

A visit to the Taroko National Park (太魯閣國家公園) during the autumn is beautiful. It’s the closest experience with nature and its beauty. Water from deep mountains is so clean, so pure, you can really see that it’s blue…

In order to encourage more visitors, some paths are created for visitors to walk through. Due to this reason, you may experience some water dripping on top of your head, and in some areas, you may observe increased risk of getting hit by a rock.

There has been several cases of deaths due to falling rocks. So during typhoon or heavy rain, visitors are strongly discouraged from visiting this place. If it’s sunny after heavy rain the day before, please don’t even consider visiting this hazardous place. Nonetheless, nature is just fascinating and you can experience it all in Taroko Gorge and National Park.

Some aborigines here making business out of arts and harvests of the forest.

Somewhere at the swallow grotto (燕子口), we had to wear safety helmets for ‘some’ protection, cause even with safety helmets, it doesn’t deter larger rocks to crack your head like an egg. So some visitors chose not to wear them.

I think the most interesting part of Taroko gorge are the rock formations and the layered stones, some close approximate to the Grand Canyon in the US. View the photograph below with red-cyan anaglyph 3D glasses for best result.

This trip there may only be a one day trip, but the view up in the mountains was breath taking. I would want to spend more time there, and I’m definitely looking forward for a second visit.

Cold Autumn is Officially Here

With the chilling air brushing by every moment now, with some of the trees withering as day passes, I can firmly say that the cold autumn days are here

Weekend in Taipei

I spent my weekend in Taipei when my course mates were out on a camp. Don’t worry about them, I’m sure they’re doing just fine with the typhoon passing by Taiwan bringing torrents of rain and some occasional strong wind.

My train trip there was basically sponsored for, to attend the 2011 Taiwan Scholarship Orientation, and since it was the weekends, I asked for an extended stay in Taipei. So on Saturday, I met up with some friends, dropped by one of the most beautiful places in Taiwan. It was YehLiu Geopark (野柳地質公園), located on the North-East side of Taipei, about 45 minutes bus ride away from Taipei Main Station.

Before entering the geopark, we passed by a little town. It’s basically a harbour for deep sea fishermen to dock their boats and sell their harvests to the middle person.

An easy going town indeed!

This dish below was a surprise! It’s known as the ‘sea vegetable’ (海菜) and it’s crunchy…

It’s a geopark because of the stone formations. It’s interesting… but still far away from the Grand Canyon though.

As aforementioned, typhoon was passing by Taiwan, bringing lots of rain and wind. Still, that did not deter anyone of us from going forward. Many put on their rain coats and brave through the strong wind.

Then in the evening, I met up with my UTAR friend who’s doing her masters in Taiwan.

On Sunday morning, I had a short walk to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂).

At 10am, I witness some interesting ceremony where the guardians of the door change shifts. They had to perform some gun-throwing-flipping-stabbing, salutations etc. before the official change of shift actually took place.

By the time the ceremony has ended, some ladies, such as the one pictured below, had fallen in love with the men in uniform… haha

Basically, it was a nice stay, cooling weather but a bit too much of rain due to the typhoon. Still the night stay at Taipei Hostel was quite comfy and it’s very much affordable too! Comes highly recommended the next time you intend to stay in Taipei.

Autumn in Hualien

Autumn is beautiful here, with some days cloudy and gloomy, while some other days sunny and bright.

Till then, more to come.

Back to 七星潭

It was about 3 months back when I first came to 七星潭... A beautiful rocky beach.

The funny thing is, the place may be quite crowded with people, but you can still find a quiet spot for yourself.

A group of eight of us went there. Six of us including I cycled there. It was about 8km away from my hostel, approximately 25~30 minutes away.

Well, I cycled quite a bit today, clocked approximately 34 kilometres today. The truth is, traffic here is somehow safer than KL but with more inconsiderate and crazy drivers on the road.

Till then, more updates soon.

GIANT bicycles

Went out to buy a new bicycle today… Very friendly shop owner.

Now, I can cycle around Hualien already! =D

By the way, the shopkeeper told us several fun rides we can join… in which we can cycle our way around Hualien County with a group of over hundreds of cyclists! It must be fun!

Mooncake Festival

My first experience of a different mooncake festival celebration outside Malaysia. Very special, I must say.

I hope you enjoyed yours very much as well. Happy Mooncake Festival!

Fire Escape Rehearsal

The best fire rehearsal ever! Never once had this experience. The firefighters actually let us try all the important steps on putting out fire.

When I was in high school, our school merely let one person demonstrate, while the others just stood by to watch. Same goes to our universities in Malaysia.

Here’s the first one, putting out fire with a fire extinguisher.

This one was quite fun but slightly scary: to use the descending device to lower yourself down safely. Extremely helpful for high rise buildings.

And this last one, which I didn’t try, was on how to use the fire hydrant.

Definitely love the experience. At least I learnt how to save myself and others during a fire.

 

Anyways, here are some photos of my other classmates… Hopefully I could remember their names by the end of the month. They’ve headed home for Mooncake Festivals and I’ll be celebrating mine here in Hualien.

Till then, best wishes to everyone! Take care. More tk.

That long waited mail…

The honking of a motorcycle out there in front of my house took me a little by surprise, as I expected that to happen next week, or perhaps not at all. It turned out to be the postman from the local post office. There it was, came registered, a big white envelop printed with that familiar sender’s address.

Mom did the opening, though the mail was for me, I knew that somehow my mom was more anxious than I am. There it was, that magazine, and a little gift of blessings from everyone from the Tzu Chi Humanities Development Centre.

Thank you for the mail. I really appreciate it. And the blessings are wonderful too! By the way, I wonder if the English Edition for the month of September would still have some of my work there…

Thank you for the opportunities

There I was, staring at the magazine. Somewhat, a mix of emotions clouded my senses – relieved, joy, touched. I did not expect that they would published that work of mine in the magazine.

It was a proud moment for me. At the same time, I am thankful for the opportunity to be featured, to be able to see both my writing and photographs published in the magazine. It was amazing.

 

 

 

Often, my work get published in the magazine and I must admit, none of this is possible if I weren’t given the opportunity to try and explore. The opportunities given to me are so much more than what I have given back to the society.

At the end of the day, I am glad that I was given the opportunity to serve, to ask nothing in return. All I could say is, thank you for letting me learn. I really appreciate those who helped me along the way. Thank you.

 

P/S: Get your copy of this magazine for free at http://chn.tzuchi.my/ or direct download link here.

Stage lights

It has been awhile since I last play with those stage lights. I loved them very much.

I understand that I should not publish these photographs on my blog, but I hope that everyone could learn a few tricks to photographing with stage lights. The end product never fails to amaze me!