Day Three: The Coast

Can I just say- I love Laura. The girl is a total sweetheart. On day three of our trip, the sky was still cloudy, but we were determined to drive down the coast and see the beaches. There is only one place that will rent scooters to people without Taiwan driver's licenses and unfortunately, there were only four scooters left to rent by the time we got there. Lish and Laura volunteered to stay behind and do their own thing and I couldn't help feeling really depressed about not being able to keep "the family" together. Lish had been hesitant about riding scooters anyway, and wanted to spend the day shopping in Hualien. Laura decided to give Taroko Gorge another try. They wouldn't admit to it but I'm sure they would have preferred to come with the group but sacrificed without complaint. We later learned that Laura's efforts to spend the day in Taroko Gorge turned into a three hour long walk along the coast due to a missed train stop but luckily she made it back to us safe and sound. The girl rocks and deserves an award for being so selfless and making it so easy for us by giving up her chance to ride down the coast. Thanks Laura!

After strapping on our helmets and deciding who was driving and who was riding, we set off two by two on the scooters.

This is me asking a police officer how to get to Highway 11...he tried looking at my map but couldn't speak any English.

We found this steep winding road that led down to the beach.

You gotta' watch Steve in the lower left-hand corner of this video...

Let the frolicking begin!

I don't know the names of any of places we stopped at mainly because even though my map was in English, very few of the road signs were. We did find our way to a place called Jici Beach that I would love to visit again since it had a campground with cute little cabins right on the beach.

We hiked to the top of this hill overlooking Jici Beach.

Here's me and Mary chillin' at the hostel after our long day on the scooters.
We all headed out to find a place to eat and after dinner, Lish and I went shopping, explored a Shrine, and saw the movie Enchanted in the local movie theater. Totally fun day!