Monday, 19 October 2009

Taipei Day 3 (18 October 2009)




We went for a half day guided tour today to Keelung and Yehliu. We visited a temple at the top of a windy hill, which nearly made Jinxgirl sick. It was full of Buddha statues and had a pretty nice scenery. We got to see a giant bell being rung and an old temple with narrow stairs, which made it as treacherous to climb as the longhouse steps in Sarawak were. The view from the porthole at the top was rather interesting.

Then, it was off to Keelung and Yehliu. We saw Keelung and its city on the way to Yehliu. Our tour guide explained that Keelung was actually "Ji Long", which is Chinese for chicken coop. This is because the surrounding mountains enclosed the city like a chicken coop. However, it would be odd to have a city named Ji Long so they changed the chinese words such that it sounds the same but looks different.

After a long drive, we finally arrived at Yehliu Park. The park was basically a boardwalk through the various beautiful and amazing rock formations. Caleb, Jinxgirl and I had a competition to see who had the most vivid imagination in thinking what the rockforms might be.

We got to go off the boardwalk and get a closeup view of the famous Queen's head. It was really life-like and realistic and Jinxgirl snapped several photos. This was no mean feat as she wanted photos without people standing next to it and everybody was crowding around it!

On the way back to the hotel, the tour bus stopped at a small bakery/sweet/pastry shop which was famed for its delicious pastries. We bought some for friends back home.

After the tour ended, we went to Guang Hua Shi Chang, which specialises in electronic goods. The three of us found it really boring.

After an eternity, we moved on to Sogo, which is like Takashimaya. We spent most of our time there sitting somewhere reading Jinxgirl's book together.

The Shi Da night market was decidedly more interesting. The colourful blend of food, products on sale and stores with different specialities added to the light and noisy atmosphere.

Finally, we retired to the hotel at 8 andd read till 11, when Jinxgirl's mum finally noticed what time it was and shooed us to bed.

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