tuesday, 4/15/2008:
tuesday morning i ate another two pudding cups and an ice cream bar for breakfast! and then hurried on my way to yehliu. the fastest way is to take a bus from taipei directly to yehliu, but for some reason i insisted on taking a train to keelung first... from taipei train station i took a train to keelung train station, which had a helpful tourist information center, which told me to take the keelung <--> jinshan bus to yehliu. 45NT ($1.50) gets you the ~40 minute ride to yehliu. when i got on the bus, i asked the driver to let me know when to get off for yehliu. but as we were riding along, it seemed to be already more than 40 minutes and the bus driver hadn't said anything! but the view out the window was especially spectacular after 40 minutes, so i was busy looking at the great view of taiwan's north shore. i love rocky coastlines! finally it seemed to be too long and the route was getting away from the coast, so i asked the driver if we had passed yehliu. he was like, o no i forgot!! he was like, don't pay, just get off and cross the street, and take the return bus a couple stops, be careful when cross the street!! lol...he could tell i was a total tourist i guess. so i got on the next bus, which came pretty soon, there's a bus like every 10 minutes. and a couple of stops and only 22NT (~75 cents) later, i was at the yehliu stop! despite taking the bus past my stop, i thought the whole experience was a good deal: half price to yehliu and i saw some great views of the ocean! from the bus stop there were signs to yehliu geopark, but i still had to ask directions a few times. on the way there i passed yehliu harbor, which smelled GROSS. after a short walk, i arrived at yehliu geopark!
yehliu geopark is a small peninsula on taiwan's north shore. the small area is full of interesting rock formations, and is most famous for a rock formation in the shape of a queen's head (picture)! i had heard that, due to natural weathering, the neck of the queen's head is getting thinner and thinner and will one day break, so i made a point of going to check her out during this trip. basically the rocks at yehliu are harder on top than on the bottom, so erosion makes them thinner on the bottom than on top, which makes them look like enormous mushrooms (picture). there are some footpaths on the peninsula, but for the most part you are free to walk off the footpaths and into the formations and touch them. the only formation that was off limits was the queen's head. past the main rock formations, you can continue to make a loop around the peninsula. i made it almost to the tip of the peninsula, but then came back around the same way since there was no one else there and i got a little scared. there is no designated route, no footpath, only large rocks and large waves... but according to the brochure, you can make the loop. i found the whole peninsula to be a spectacular, mysterious, even magical place! the rock formations themselves are pretty strange looking, the areas with water pools and mossy rocks are quite beautiful, and the peninsula is a great balance of vegetation, rock, and waves! even though i was at the park in the early afternoon and it was VERY sunny and hot, i really enjoyed the 2-3 hours i spent walking around the peninsula. i felt like a fantastic story full of pixies and elves could definitely be set there. at the end of my taiwan vacation, this was definitely one of the highlights of my trip! on my way out of yehliu i walked through a very touristy market that sold a lot of seafood products like dried squid. there were a couple vendors that sold fried seaweed! i tried a sample, was pretty good. then i took the bus back to keelung.
next i took a bus to reifang train station (faster than train) to take a train to pingxi. the pingxi line is another small tourist rail line (like jiji). but when i got to reifang, the information center person told me not to go because it was too late in the day, and that i wouldn't be able to see anything by the time i caught the next train. disappointed, i turned around and went back to keelung. (although, one good thing is...now i feel like i really know how to take the bus in and out of keelung...)
the next destination was keelung's miaokou night market, famous for it's foooood! by the time i got to miaokou (a short walk from keelung train station) it was 6:30pm, and i hadn't eaten since breakfast! unfortunately, the whole experience wasn't as expected. night market food really requires experience. when i ate at danshui, my cousin knew what was good, what was not. at miaokou i was on my own, and i had varied luck. first i had an oyster omelet, which is supposed to be really good at miaokou (being by the ocean and all). i sat down and ordered, and as i was eating, i realized that i had sat down right in front of the vat of oysters waiting to be cooked...the smell was totally unappetizing! but the oyster omelet was decent, but not really one of my favorite foods. i tried to look for food that i hadn't eaten before. i saw these interesting fried buns. all i can say is...it turned out to be a total waste of stomach space. i think mine had tuna and green onions inside. next i saw these fried crabs, which was REALLY tasty! but difficult to eat in a night market setting. that food vendor didn't have any tables to sit at, so i looked for something to eat that had tables so i could also eat my crabs. i sat down at a dessert stand and had another shu bing, this time with peanut soup in it. the one i had at taiwan storyland was way better, too much peanut soup in this one. finally, i got in line to buy my taro flavored pao pao bing (bubble ice), ice shaved so fine it's like ice cream. miaokou is also famous for its pao pao bing, and it was decent. two things i should have eaten but didn't: ding bian cu (some kind of soup with flat stuff in it?) and an quan sanmingzi (some kind of sandwich). well, i got to save some stuff to eat for the next time i go to taiwan!
finally i walked back to the train station and took a train back to taipei and went back home to shilin. on the way back, i finally took pictures of the two checker board stores near the shilin mrt station. these stores have become popular all over taiwan. basically the stores are full of cubbies, which are rented out, so that anyone can rent one or two cubbies and sell anything they want! there is always a lot of random and interesting things in those stores!
what i thought was interesting was that, on the day i went to national palace museum i didn't eat lunch and was unbearably hungry by 4pm, while traipsing around keelung area until 6:30pm without lunch was completely bearable...i guess the national palace museum is not sufficient to take my mind off hunger...
WORTH SEEING: yehliu
WORTH EATING: fried crabs
full set of pictures at picasa!
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