Second day in Taiwan! My aunt met up with us and took us around the northern shore of Taiwan. We hit up Shimen Dong (石門洞), Guihou Fishing Harbor (龜吼漁港), Yeliu Geopark (野柳地質公園), and finished up at Keelung Night Market (廟口夜市). It was a jampacked day and hot as hell.
Today I only managed to take 546 pictures. That’s a 25% decrease. I was only able to pare them down to 119 pictures for this post for. So higher quality pictures?
We started the day at 7:30 AM when we headed out to the 燒餅油條豆漿 place I wanted to go to on Day One. On our way we passed through a street market where they sold all mananer of vegetables and meats. I remarked how I wish there was something similar in Michigan, where any day of the week you could just go down and buy fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats for your day.
We left early enough that there was still food left, so that was great. We ordered enough food for 5 people, and spent $305NT. I love breakfast here.
After we ate our fill, we started our ~2 hour trip to Shimen Dong. After a smooth MRT ride, followed by a bumpy bus ride on mountain trails, we arrived to a pretty nifty stone arch. The area was really picturesque, but aside from hanging around the arch, there wasn’t much to do so we took our pictures and continued on.
The trip to Guihou Fishing Harbor took another hour and a half, and we had to endure most of it standing on the bus. We were stopping here to eat since it was crab season! Upon arrival, the heat of the day started to take its toll. We took refuge in a bubble tea stand, while we waited for our table at the seafood restaurant next door.
When our table was ready my aunt ordered a bunch of food for us, and we were treated to quite the feast. All of the seafood was so fresh and succulent. My aunt told us that most of the shellfish that we ate is fished from the sea and lands quickly into the tanks of the restaurant. Most of the seafood there doesn’t sit for more than 24 hours before it gets cooked. Succulent, fresh, delicious it’s hard to describe just how good all the food we ate was. The sashimi was so fresh, the salmon melted like butter in my mouth. The mouthfeel was just indescribable. 5 people, $4690NT. Not cheap, but also not too out of the realm of what I would expect for the quality of seafood we had.
We ate until we were stuffed, then took a walk to aid digestion. Also we didn’t want to wait for the bus to get to Yeliu Geopark. It was a pretty pleasant stroll chock full of informational plaques and gorgeous seaside scenery.
We ended up at a formation we affectionately called cat mountain, and of course we decided to climb it. It used to be some sort of structure that the military carved out of the rock to act as a watchtower or something. It was not clear to me.
The geopark was basically a lot of rocks that had been cut by the waves, typhoons, salt weathering, and joint fracturing. It left some really cool formations, the most famous of which was the Queen’s Head. We had to wait in a 10 min line to be able to take a picture with it. We only explored about 25% of the park, as we had to make our way back to the bus stop. Also, we were getting tired from the miles of walking in extreme heat that we had been doing.
We got on the bus and headed to Keelung District to go to the Miaokou Night Market. It’s named as such for the 300+year old shrine that exists there. We met up with my other aunt and uncle there; he grew up in this district so he knew all the hot spots and stands. We went to a 60+ year old restaurant to have some oyster omelette dish that is pretty famous. We also stopped by a bakery that has been in operation for over 100 years! Aside from stuffing our faces, we checked out the shrine and even said a prayer (拜拜). My uncle kept wandering off and coming back with more food for us despite us being stuffed, so at some point we had to keep him in the group so he couldn’t sneakily go buy more food.
A busy and strenuous day. Each day just gets more exciting. We may have to take a couple low-key days near the end of the trip.
-Evilmanta
A Non-Sequitur Haze 