A babymoon is a vacation you take with your
partner while you’re pregnant. Many people treat this like the last vacation
you will ever have together for the next twenty years. There’s something both
depressing and inspiring about it.
I would have never thought of such a thing,
but after seeing all my friends’ babymoon photos on instagram from Greece and
the Bahamas, I felt the desire to go somewhere exotic and photograph my
pregnant body too.
Most of the babymoon photos out there are
moms in bikinis, sporting cute bumps and tiny limbs. This was not me. For one, I'm
no beach person. I also had a sick and sluggish pregnancy, and no desire to be
in the sun at all. And despite having no stretch marks, I have a gnarly surgery
scar that turns enough heads at bathhouses – I have no desire to be seen in a
bikini.
Also, I discovered I hate flying while
pregnant. Living in the cold Pacific Northwest, that really limits my options.
So I was exciting when a Taiwanese friend recommend we visit Taroko gorge while
on our trip to Taipei. It was only a 3 hour train ride from Taipei, so no
airplanes or layovers. And it was beautiful nature. Not quick fit for a bikini,
but still a chance for me and my partner to get away from my in-laws and have
alone time.
Also, we only needed to spend one night and
make it a 2-full day trip. Seemed like the perfect respite from Taipei.
My friend had arranged every detail of our
trip, from train tickets, hotel reservations, and even our meals. The train
tickets, she said, were the hardest to get. The train from Taipei to Hualien is
frequently full and tickets sell out right away. Thankfully she was able to get
us some tickets during our desired times. So we left around 8:00am and arrived
by 10:30.
Because
I had such a bad experience on the Portuguese train with motion sickness
and morning sickness, I was a bit afraid of the train in Taiwan. Thankfully I
didn’t get sick at all and was even able to enjoy some morning snacks on the
train.
Our guide began the tour by taking us to some
cultural sights along the coast. We visited an elementary school that was for
native children of the Taroko tribe. It reminded me so much of the school I had
taught at in Shimane, Japan years before.
We then visited a Christian church with a
strange monument that was first erected by the Japanese to honor the soldiers who died during the Taroko uprising again the Japanese military during
colonization. However, it was remodeled with a statue of the Virgin Mary, and
replaced to honor the Taroko people who died in that same uprising.
We then headed to the beach to get a glimpse
at a few lookout points and come up close to the water. Hualien is on Taiwan’s
east coast, and the Pacific roared with the strength of a Typhoon in the
distance. It was very windy and the waves were high.
By 12:45pm it was lunch time. We stopped at a
traditional restaurant that serves native dishes and ate what was a feast of
meats, rices, and vegetables. It was one of the most delicious meals I had on
my trip to Taiwan.
After lunch we headed into Taroko gorge.
Being popular tourist attraction and a national park, the area is well
mapped and the roads are all paved and well-maintained. In fact there was
a quiet a lot of construction going on when we were there to build to repair
roads.
Our first stop was the Eternal Spring Temple,
which is a monument to the workers who died building the train tracks through
the gorge.
The second stop was the Swallow’s Grotto.
Having to wear a hard hat through the grotto makes one think there is an element
of danger, but it was completely safe and easy walk.
Had I not been 6 months pregnant we might
have gone on a hike – Taroko is famous for some beautiful trails and our guide
knew the area very well – but my body was not in shape for that kind of
physical exercise, so we stuck to talking on flat paved surfaces which was
perfect for me.
In the evening we were dropped off at our
hotel – Taroko Village Inn, nested in a valley with a mountain range to all
sides.
We relaxed in the room until it was time for dinner, another offering of traditional native food, and the evening performance by hotel staff.
We also were lead on a short night walk around the property to check out some of the nocturnal animals (snakes, spiders, frogs, etc) that roam the premises.
At
night we slept peacefully and in the morning awoken to this view:
We ate breakfast at the hotel again, and
spent a leisurely morning reading from the veranda of our room. As the sun rose,
it became hotter and hotter, and by noon it was time to ride back to Hualien
station to catch the train to Taipei.
Though I don’t have any photos of my bare
belly on a beach or other stereotypical babymoon photos, I felt like our short
babymoon trip to Taroko Gorge was perfect for us.
