Journey to the Northeast: Come Away with Me｜Ep. 5 | TaiwanPlus
Hi, I'm Yana. I'm from Russia. I've been in Taiwan for five years already. I studied at a university here.
I really love outdoors. I really love nature. And I think this is the must-do thing. that you need to do in Taiwan. Rock climbing ,SUP.
It’s like so many things and there are so many kinds of food that I haven't tried yet. I don't know why, but yeah, my list is very big and I'm really excited to join this travel program. And I can't wait to meet my companions.
I don't know it's going to be a boy or girl. So I'm really excited to meet them and make my dreams come true. Hi, are you Yana? Hi, are you Natasha? -Ya Natasha. -Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too. Hi, guys. I'm Natasha. I’m 20 years old and I'm a college student. My hobbies are traveling and tring out good food. I'm so excited and honored to be invited to this show.
I can't wait to create new beautiful memories with them. -Hi. I'm Stephanie. -Hi. -I’m Yana. -Natasha. Hi everyone, my name is Stephanie. I'm a singer, actress and model.
I'm from America and from Illinois. I'm really super excited to be able to have this opportunity to join this TV show. I took a bus, and it took longer. I'm sorry. I hope I wasn't too late. I'm happy I made it. Yeah, I'm really excited about today.
Me too. I'm very happy to be on this trip with you guys It’s so early, did you get breakfast yet? Not yet, so hungry. Actually I never had bento for breakfast. This is my first time I don't know how I feel about it.
-My first time too. -Yeah. OK. It’s our first time that we met and our first time to spend time for breakfast. -I’ll have some meat then. -It’s delicious.
Yeah, Taiwan makes really good sausage. -Yeah, it does. -And really good bentos. It looks like probably pork. I don’t know. You should try. I think it’s sour. Sour vegetable.
Yeah, it is. Taiwanese sour crop Taiwan style. Try this one. Is really good. -Hi. -Hello.
Nice to meet you. Can we get in? Welcome. -Hi. -Let’s go. -Oh my god. -Longdong small fishing village. The Longdong Bay in the northeast corner is the largest harbor in the north eastern Taiwan. Due to the special bay terrain that can withstand the turbulent currents.
There's a rich marine ecology gathered here. And a variety of water activities have emerged, such as snorkeling, diving and SUP standing. Paddle and stand up to enjoy beautiful view. There is also available at cliff climbing, which is one of the most popular destination for extreme sport enthusiasts. Four things to do today.
So busy. Busy girls. Yeah that's why I said we need a lot of food to get energy full. -Yeah bento. -Yes.
Thank God that was such a good idea. Every summer I've been watching my friends going to Longdong to jump like from the cliffs. I always really wanted to go, but I've never gone there.
-It’s really high. -So I’m really excited about it. The last time I went there I was too afraid to jump. But did you jump? No, I was too afraid.
-Maybe today. -Oh my god. Yeah I want to do it. OK.
Yeah I really want to do it, but man... once I step on it, I stand there. Not sure if I’m going to be able to take that jump. Now I am like I’m gonna jump, but I can not. Maybe you’re gonna have to just push me. We have lots of activities for today.
Like rock climbing, snorkeling, water jumping, and SUP. -Yeah so cool. -Yeah SUP. There are professional instructors for each activity.
-So it’s not dangerous. -Yeah it’s easy. Okay. OK. Let’s go. Hi. Girls Welcome to Longdong For the first activity, we are going to do SUP.
We are going to do SUP in Longdong Bay. Longdong Bay is a good place for beginners, because the wind and waves are quite mild, making the place safer. Has anyone done SUP before? No. Ok.
First, we have to kneel down, and paddle on the side of your board. The paddle has two sides. One side is concave, the other convex. Put the paddle in the water this way. Paddle through the water, and the board will move forward. Understood? Any questions? No.
You are ready to go. So really excited. And I did a big research to give the girls the best experience. And as I know, this is like the best place in Taiwan to do SUP and maybe to see some fish. Yeah so I'm really excited. I hope girls will love it.
Yeah let's do it. Let’s see how this go. I'm just really happy to be here. Like, the weather is so nice and this wind and everything and to be able to be here like with the girls I never ever tried SUP before and I'm really looking forward to it. I think it's going to be a very good experience, and I hope I won't fall too bad. Thank you Yana for arranging this for this for us.
Although it's her dream to do SUP, but it's also my little dream because I've always wanted to try SUP too. And now I finally get the chance to do it with my girls. So I'm really happy and excited about it. So many times I almost bumped into someone and like I almost lost control Until like the instructor told me again, like how to control the paddle.
And like when I paddle to the left, one hand needs to be on right. And one hand needs to be down is just like you really need to get used to it and everything. And it's not easy. Like, I need to use like so much core power. Oh my god It’s like. It’s so much fun.
But wow, like. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Okay, I'm just out of the water and I'm feeling so relaxed and so happy. And I really want to share this emotion with you. And we went to the water, and it actually turned out to be a little bit harder than I expected, because besides balancing, you also need to control the waves and like paddle. And it's really hard to paddle.
You feel like your muscles being sore. And I tried to stand up. And when I was standing up, there was a big wave. So I fell down a few times. And I think I even cut myself a little bit because there are corals and stones.
I was bleeding, but it's not a problem. So at the SUP, I find it really fun but very hard to control. I think it's totally easy to like find balance on the board, but to like control the way or going or to turn around or try not to hit other people it’s the hardest part for me. Yeah I kept hitting other people and I'm really sorry for that.
Oh my god. It was so nice and so many different kinds of fish And the water is pretty clear. And I just dived right in. and I dived so many times with with Yana as well and so much fun. I could totally tell was having so much fun as well.
Even though I did snorkeling before, just like with Goggles, I never did it with professional equipment. Oh my God. I felt like a real mermaid because I saw so many fish. They're like, blue, yellow,and gray. They're like zebra color.
And I've never seen so many fish. And even though in my country, in Russia, we have sea... I don't know.
We have like like one kind of fish. They're just like gray and basic. And I felt like I was in the movie and yeah, like I was a real mermaid.
And I've never seen so many kinds of fish. And also I took my phone with me. I took the waterproof case because I knew where we would going because I planned all of this And I recorded me and girl swimming. And Stephanie, she is my swimming partner. We were swimming together and enjoyed it. And I know that Natasha got a little bit scared, but it's okay.
Maybe later she will enjoy other activities. So yeah, I'm really happy. I'm really glad we did this. Yay. I wanted to be with Stephanie and Yana to the deeper part. But when I look down and it's so deep and full of rocks, so I'm kind of scared.
That's why I stay at the shore part. Yana is a great swimmer. She is not afraid of the water. She had much fun in the sea. She really enjoyed SUP and snorkeling.
She really knows how to enjoy herself in the water. She had so much fun that she didn’t want to leave. The youngest girl was a bit sacred of water. She needed the instructor to hold her hand to move on.
Nonetheless, she was willing to try. If you also want to do this, I really recommend you to come to Longdong. This place is also really beautiful. There are mountains, corals, all come here with your friends, with your family and enjoy it together.
Welcome to Taiwan. Welcome to Taiwan, this beautiful island. And of course, we are here. We are waiting here for you. Hello. Welcome to Longdong rock climbing site.
We are going to do some rock climbing today. Longdong rock climbing site is recognized internationally. The area we are gonna climb today is named after a school.
This place is called “the school gate.” Who will be the first one to try rock climbing? Yana The tip of rock climbing is “two feet first then a hand.” Two feet land first, then use one hand to reach higher. Feet first, then your hand. Is the belt fully fastened? Longdong rock climbing site is suitable for everyone.
The terrain consists mainly of sandstone. Sandstone is very hard and rough. Only your feet and hands make contact with the surface.
The best season for rock climbing is fall. The cliff will be dryer thus easier to climb. Climbers from all over the world come to Longdong in fall.
If you can brave the height, you can climb up the cliff Slow down. Slow down. Okay. It was my first time trying to rock climbing. And I really love extreme. I really love the feeling of adrenaline in your blood.
And I really enjoyed it. It was really fun going up, but when I was going down that I was a little bit scared because you don't see where you're going. And I definitely want to do it again and I definitely want to go even higher. And I definitely want to do this with my friends. Yeah, because this is really fun. And you feel alive after doing this.
I think this is a very special experience for me. I had never done rock climbing in my life. and actually when I saw when I saw Yana going up and she could just go up like that and I was thinking like, yeah, maybe I could do that too. But actually going up is like hard for me, you know? But when I was coming down, I really enjoyed. I really enjoyed that trip real that trip coming down. This time I only made it halfway and then I stopped.
But I think I definitely want to challenge, like to advance. So,I want to try to make it to the top. I am going to cry. As you can see, I'm still an aftershock now.
My heart is still racing like crazy, although you may seem like it's only one meter up there, but to me is a huge step. Because I'm like just super scared of activities like this. Yeah. And it's a breakthrough for me. I didn't expect to cry because when I was down there watching Yana and Stephanie climbing so high and I'm like.Oh, it's not that bad. But I'm just like five steps up there and I just can't. Look The world famous wonder.
The Yin Yang Sea is definitely worth to visit. The sea area is special geographical landscape of the coastal area in the northeast corner. The sea is unique because of its yellow and blue gradation. Because the nearby Jinguashi mountain is rich in a large amount of pirate,copper and iron ions are formed after weathering and they dissolve into the water to form ferric hydroxide absorbing sediment and forming the yellow brown suspension.
So on the left, you can see that this part is building a special style like layers. And on the right, you can see the building looks like a castle with big ceilings and big windows. So all of this used to be a mining factory. So it was built when Taiwan was a Japanese colony.
And it was mostly occupied by miners who would leave and work there. And they would get the ore from the mountains and refine it into copper with this certain layers or levels building. So they had machines inside to melt and get the copper from the ore before shipping it out. And because it's the mining factory right there. There are no chimneys here. Because the wind is really strong here.
They had to build chimney like horizontally to on the mountain. So if you’re quite near it. I don't know. airplane or helicopter you’ll see their long chimneys on the mountain. The Golden Waterfall is a mining area in the early days of Jinguashi. Because of the chemical reactions in some pirate minerals, its river beds are covered with a layer of golden yellow and slightly or orange color So that's why it's called the golden waterfall, which has become a famous landscape in Jinguashi area.
All right. Okay, girl. So, as you already know, this is the gold waterfall. And it would be nice if it was a real gold. Like liquid gold. Yeah, would be deep riches but this is just water.
So, yeah, this is the golden waterfall. A lot of tourists come here, take pictures. As you can see, we're part of these tourists. We've already done our jobs. So we can go to our next destination.
Yeah. Okay, let's go. In addition to exploring the beauty of nature, you may also take an intellectual and spiritual journey to visit the once glorious golden years and come here for a mining treasure hunt. The site of the mining area starts from the tourist service center of the New Taipei Gold Museum in Jinguashi. Hi Yana. I'm really happy to see you finally.
I'm so excited to finally be here. Okay. Keep smiling. The first one. Good
Yeah, smiling. Okay. Now, here is the tourist information center. You can see. But you see originally was a bus.
We took the bus here.I really like it. -You like it? -Yes. So, we go? Let's go.
The Gold Museum Park, which was transformed from their revitalization of early gold mining area, recorded the hardships of gold mining and the daily life of the settlement at the time. Is the first ecology museum in Taiwan. It has quite rich local human history and precious natural assets. The museum located in the name of the place named Jinguashi.
You know why Jinguashi? Because the pumpkin in Taiwanese is “Jingua”. So that's why this place is named Jinguashi. We could go to see the big brick. Oh, okay. Okay, let's go. You know, there are all over 300 kinds different mineral in Taiwan.
But in this area, Jinguashi area, we covered over 100 kinds. So this is a very good place. It’s so beautiful.
Yeah. It’s good to get in Taiwan. Yeah it was like a store we can... you can get like a random crystal. Okay. This is a nature gold.
You can see the natural gold in different shapes. Not only a piece.Small one like chip like flower many kinds of different shapes.
It’s mine. -It's her dream. -I can't believe it. I found it. Oh, my God. let me see. Oh, my God. Is it real? Is it really real? I think so.
Okay, Let be touch it. Oh, my God. It's so cool. It is right.It’s so crazy. It's so heavy.
It's so expensive. Oh my God. If we take it, We don’t need to work any more. I want to take it. Hello Have you seen golden brick? It is so big. The price of this gold is 378 million Taiwanese dollars.
If you can lift the gold brick You can take it home with you. Even though I tried so hard to pick it up So that I could bring it home to you, but I still couldn’t. I really want to show you the gold in real life. I have said that you are a… You are the coach of an Olympic champion, and Natalia had a real gold meal. And that’s why i remembered you immediately. The moment I saw it. (the gold)
The medal was heavy too, haha like the brick. Ah you really crying? Such an actress. Mom, this is for you, if I take it. Yeah. I'm the best daughter.
One two cheese. Cheese. What is that? I think it's alcohol with golden.
That’s precious. That's so cool. It looks like some crystal.
You want to try it? Oh, my gosh. It’s so pretty. Okay, I take two. Yeah.
There is a gold panning place. You want to take a one to try? Yeah, sure. It’s really tasty. I definitely want to come here again and I really want to take my family here. Me too. and I really want them to try this.
Take a selfie. -Remember this moment. -Memory built I heard that there is one gold panning expert, and they say that he's 88 years old. Do you know him? I know him.
She knows him. Could you please ask him for me? -Okay. I will try. -Thank you. I was looking for information about gold panning and I found this man. He's 88 years old.
Can you believe that? I couldn't believe it. So I ask the tour guy, and he told me that the man is real. So I'm really excited about seeing him. So let's go and see him. Actually, like if you ask me what gold panning is, I really don't know what it is.
But if you ask me what gold mining is, I totally have an image like I see it on the movies and everything, but I don't know, let's see. I'm also really excited about the legendary guy. Yeah that’s just all it about And I want to start a race. Let's see who gets the most gold and be rich.
He looks so good at his age. Yeah. so crazy how does he maintain? I don't know if you like 88. Oh, my God, don't touch. I don't want to move.
I want to stay in bed all day. But come on, it's all about the culture and the skills. Let's start a race and see who is the gold panning champion today. Okay. We will do it.
All right, let's go. -Oh, that's the bridge. -We made it. Where is the man? Is he there? Come down slowly. Hello Yes, we did it. Hello sir.
Hello. I am Yana. Hi I am Natasha. I am Stephanie. Are you the man in the picture? Yes.
I heard there are three foreign ladies coming today to learn gold panning. I will show them a good time. So now. There is gold everywhere nearby the river in Jinguashi.
So cool. Wow! Gold everywhere. Yes, all the way to Hsiaojingua and to the sea. So would we get to the sea along the river? So would we get to the sea along the river? It’s so cool. I’m so excited.
Come here. Sit down and watch. Rake the sand with this. And you two. Oh, you need to be strong with this.
Ok. Now shake it. Okay. These tools are for the gold panning.
That is the red carpet right there. - I put gold onto the red carpet. - Red carpet. It’s like walking the red carpet. The blanket has long fibers.
So gold would get stuck in the blanket. Sand would flow away because it’s lighter. And gold sinks. Flush the sand away. This is so much fun.
That stucking it. Take your time. Like this? Just pour it all.
Pour it right here. Like this. Red carpet.
Shake this on your own. Me? Yes. I see something shining there. Look at my gold. -I think I got the biggest. -Mine is the biggest. -Oh it's mine. -It’s fine.
Oh I got it. Sorry No.Take it. I don't want it. I just want to go home. Okay, I don't mind I have two gold.
You sure you don't want to go? There is too much bees and butterflies. -And I'm so scared of them. -It's okay. They're just butterflies. So what do you think about the man? I think he's like amazingly, he's 88 and he's still like so active in everything.
He was so into the process. Like it was really hard to stop he was from what he was doing? Yeah. He wouldn't stop. Yeah. All right.
It was your first time gold panning? Yeah It's definitely my first. How do you going to do with this gold? I'll keep it as a souvenir. Yeah. And I think the teacher liked me because he gave me the all equipment like you do it. -You are stronger. -Master. I really like the place where he was living like the garden and all this stuff.
Yeah, like the way here. Yes, it was so beautiful. So chill.
I think I could really live in a lifestyle like this. It's like grow some plants, dig some gold in the morning. Sell it in the evening. And I finally got my favorite Taiwanese dessert. Do you know what is this? No, I don't know.
Okay. Let's say together if you know. Taro ball.
It's like taro and sweet potato and they make it chewy. Oh, they make it like into balls. And put into sugar water and some ice. And the purpose of the ice is because the taro on the top are very hot. So you need to like dig into it and put the ice up to cool. Yeah, cool taro.
Ok. Let's eat.Guys. It's good, right? It's good. It’s like sweet but not too sweet.
The only sugar is the sugar water. Yes, it's good. Right? That add many beans. I think there are like three kinds of beans, green beans, small red beans and big red.
Big red beans. So it gives more layers of taste. Not boring. Not boring at all.
It was a really fun day and thank you so much for arranging all the activities. Thank you for coming. Bring your friends next time. We will. Of course. Anyone is hungry? -Me. -Me again.
Okay. Can we go to eat? I will introduce you the most fresh and delicious food here. -Okay. -Okay, let's go together. Yeah, let's go. These are prepared especially for you. They are still alive.
They are bred locally. And these are Neritic Squids. They are fished from the sea. -They are fished from the sea. -Are these all Neritic Squids?
Yes. This is the whole thing, and this is sliced. This will be grilled. You can only taste this here. These are marinated and braised, and these are seasoned already. Remove the meat from the shell and it’s ready.
You can have it now. Look. Oh, I want to try.
Use a spoon. This is ribbonfish. A whole chunk of it.
You can have it now. Ribbonfish is an endemic species of Taiwan. This is fresh. There are ocean currents and Kuroshio Current around Taiwan.
The currents are very fast, so the water is always fresh. These are wild fish. hey taste great after being grilled. -I will grill them right away. -I took forward to it.
It’s here It smells great. You can enjoy your meal now. -Thank you -You’re welcome.
And at night. -And we have a chief. -Who is cooking for us. Yes. And we're eating abalone near right behind us. Yes. Not bad, huh? Yummy.
Thank you. -You are welcome to visit here anytime. -Thank you. What you just had is the authentic taste of Taiwan. So this day finally came and I was preparing for a very long time.
And I’m actually really happy that everything went the way it was planned. And some of my dreams came true today. So we met with the girls very early, like at 5 a.m. at the train station. And we started our day kind of weird because we ate bento for breakfast like who eats bento for breakfast, but because I planned a lot of activities, we really needed some food, like a lot of food. And yeah, I really love water, ocean and I really love nature. So I planned a lot of outdoor activities and we went to do rock climbing.
Oh my God, it was so fun and I really enjoyed it. And there's so much adrenaline when you do it And you know, Natasha, she's always like, Oh yeah, let's compete. I want compete. I want to win, but I don't want to show off. But I was the one who climbed like the highest than other girls.
When we were in the Golden Museum and I saw this big, huge, not even big. It's huge. A heavy brick of gold. I send the pictures to my mom, some pictures and the videos, and I told her about our day. And that I really want to see them and I really want them to come here and experience everything with them together with my mom and dad.
And she started crying because she really misses me and I really miss them too. And yeah, I hope that one day they will come and I will be their tour guide because now I have experience. I did the tour for the girls and I think they enjoyed it. And they told me that I'm a nice tour guide.
When we were at the thirteenth levels and mining factory and Yin Yang Sea They told me that I know a lot of facts about like location but that's because I prepared. It was a great day and I'm really happy to be in Taiwan. The nature in my country is different. It's also beautiful, but it's just different. Yeah, I'm really thankful to be here. I really wish that I could have more days like this in my life.
And I'm really thanking Taiwan Plus for giving me this opportunity and for organizing it. Thank you so much. And thank you for making my dream come true and also making my childhood dream come true. I'm a mermaid now and I even have seashells here. Today I found so much kindness from people around me.
At first we went to the SUP and snorkeling and climbing at Londong. I was thankful for the two coaches at the event. Because you know, I was a little bit chickened out doing those activities. I thought I could do it, but yeah, I just couldn't.
It's too much for me. It’s challenging for me. But they help me through the whole process. So I still had a really good experience.
And for Yana and Stephanie my two new friends. Today is the first day we met each other but they never like think I'm annoying or something. They always help me and encourage me to do everything. And help me through the whole day and always smiling to me. When we went to go panning, the legendary old guy he kept teaching me how to do things and was so nice to me. I am very thankful and happy for being part of the show.
And then new friends and I did challenges that I've never done before and see the beautiful corner of Taiwan. I just want to say that what a day. It's so incredible and magical. How right from the beginning at the train station and I saw the girls and they were all like so passionate and everything. And it just gave it gave it such a great start, you know? And then when we sat down and ate. And we started sharing so much about each other getting to know each other and then traveling together and willing to understand each other.
And even though, like, sometimes maybe Yana would understand some stuff. And me and Natasha would hurry and translated to her. When we went to experience all the water activities to got on the SUP. And it was really get me a very very special experience. In my entire lifetime.
I have never ever done traveled and experienced with people that I don't know, you know. And to be able to have that chemistry, I think it's so rare and I really have to say it's probably because I'm in Taiwan, like how the people are so warm and naturally and it brings out that side of you here when you think about like you can actually go to so many places in one day. I don't think you can find that anywhere in this world.
I think I can promise that for sure. You know, I think that's very rare. Like if your city, you know, and want the nightlife and you want the ocean and the mountains can pretty much challenge everything in one day. You know, plan a very good trip and you know like I really have to say, you know thanks to Taiwan Plus for making me realize all of this.
You know, thank you so much. You know, thank you so much.
2022-12-19 05:20
