Jojo and Xiaomei A-yi took me to Keelung/Chi-lung/Ji Long today (Saturday). Those three names are the same place, but Taiwan has 2-3 different ways of spelling words. Keelung, I believe, is Hakka or perhaps traditional Taiwanese. Chi-lung is Taiwanese, and Ji Long is Mandarin and how to pronounce the word.
Keelung is located at the north tip of Taiwan. It has a beautiful coastline surrounded by green hills and moutains. It's gorgeoussss, and I'd really love to go back again. The water is pretty clean...it's where the Taipeians go swimming.
We first rode the train from Taipei Main Station, and it conveniently goes straight to Keelung--the last station. The Keelung train station is next to the harbor. Right when we stepped outside, I could smell the ocean...that fishy, salty stink. Jojo had arranged for us to participate in a tour group. provided complimentary by the Keelung government. We still had about 2 hours to kill, so we headed to Burger King. As mentioned in the most recent post, I had to remind my uncle and aunt that I do not eat meat. So, we went to Starbucks next door. The cakes looked good, but who wants to eat that for lunch. All the sandwiches had meat, so we headed towards a cafe on the corner. This cafe looked really fancy (but very reasonable prices), and I felt underdressed until I saw a waitress wearing a super short miniskirt then I didn't feel so bad. We had a choice to sit on sofas or normal chairs. Of course, I chose the sofas, but it actually turned out to not be the best choice when eating, especially when trying not to spill my food everywhere.
We met with our tour group and guide and boarded a small bus that's so well air-conditioned...at least I thought so. Everyone else on the bus thought it was freezing. Within the six hours of the tour, there were six stop in total. The first top was a paotai 炮台, which is where the French fought the Taiwanese during the Qing Dynasty. There are built-in cannons, planes, and a view of the harbor (see first image).
The second stop was at the sea. We got a view of the Pacific Ocean and Jiu Fen mountains for a short ten minutes. So breathtaking...the view. The water seems very clean and not dirty like in Cali. You've got the mountains and the sea.
Our third stop was at a seafood market/Fisherman Wharf. There are salespeople waving samples of calamari and fried squid in your face and fish guts everywhere. A-yi bought me a bag of calamari--they were the freshest, tastiest calarmari I've ever eaten. The least greasiest too, which is a huge plus.
Keelung has their own Hollywood sign up in the hills. It lights up at night to purple, pink, and blue.
During the fourth stop I ended up not going out because of the humidity and the climb to the destination. It was another paotai, and we would have to hike a steep hill to get to it. So, instead I took a short nap in the nicely air-conditioned bus!The people in my tour group are travel poopers. We had the choice to get off the bus to get fresh air at the coast or to continue to our next stop, no one but me wanted to ugh. So I busily snapped away taking pics of the coast from the bus window. How fun.
I wish I could go swimming in the ocean there. So clean!
The fifth stop was at a honeybee/elk/koi agricultural farm. I drank tea, from what I didn't realize what it was til after I drank it, made from elk antlers. Ewewewewew. It had a very strong Chinese herbal taste. Apparently good for my eyes, but I don't believe what they say about certain foods that would make my eyes better. My dad has been telling me to eat carrots all my life to improve my eyesight haha...these things Chinese people say....There is a pond there with sooo many koi and a random brown swan with a red beak. They jump out of the water when someone throws in fish pellets. They are HUGE...these fish. And they look disgusting when out of the water. I took a few pictures of them, but ended up deleting the ones with their mouths open. And then I played with the shutter speed on my camera--the fish look much prettier that way. Honeybees in Taiwan seem like they don't sting...I was standing near a box filled with bees, but didn't get stung at all.
Our last stop/dropoff was at the Keelung cultural center with a couple food stores giving generous samples. Youyu, whole grain rice crackers, and seaweed store--with green tea candy+seaweed. Then we went straight to night market. Ate sashimi + shaved ice with unique additions. It had sweet potatoes, taro, mango, and some kind of bean.
-
No comments:
Post a Comment