Hwa Shinn Hotel Keelung

... gathering over the seaside mountains. The rain held off and the weather stayed pleasant for us. We continued down to the large black sand beach at Yilan where the waves were bigger. Mark paddled out and caught a few beachbreak waves that were around chest-high along with some Taiwanese surfers.

Finally, we headed back to Taipei along the 5 freeway, running into a bit of traffic along the way.

We took the bus just outside of the Zhongxiao Fuxing for about an hour to get to Yeliou just outside of Keelung. It was only 50 NT to get into the park area where there were strict signs for no fishing. I should have brought an extra bottle of water. The parkw as very cool. The rocks sometimes reminded me of a martian landscape. They did ...

We went to Keelung (Jee-loung) a couple weeks ago and saw a few temples, it was very rainy so it was hard to see much of anything. We did visit a temple called the Martyr Temple which looked like an M.C. Easer drawing, it had stairs going every which way. They ...

... that redeemed the shabbiness of Wanli, it was that meal. Oh My God. Tiger prawns...sushi...sushimi as think as a deck of playing cards...oysters...fish intestines (disgusting to think about but really outstanding!)...etc. It was a typical mishmash of Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese cuisine. Afterwards, Elbert asked if I'd like to take advantage of the local hot springs. Who was I to say no? He escorted me over there and proceeded to speak to the man behind the counter ...

We took China Air from Anchorage to Taipei, about 10-1/2 hour flight. What to say about China Airlines ... the flight was very crowded, the seating cramped, the service tried to be mediocre at best. Sleeping on planes - at least for us - is tenuous at best, and this time was even worse. The flight was late leaving Anchorage but we had enough time in Taipei to make our connection to Bangkok without any problems.

... dried fish snacks of some sort. The smell (for me...a non-seafood person) was absolutely horrendous and I had to hold my breath whenever I moved in to take a picture. There were also dried squid snacks. BLEH! I guess the Taiwanese look at them as normal things cuz they were raised on them...but I could not see myself (nor a little 5 year old) just chewing away on a whole squid. On our way back to Taoyuan we stopped off in Taipei. We went into this giant department store called SOGO ...

... not finish any of it -- too much!!). If you don't look up you miss half the city - did not see one building less than 5 stories! Had no idea where I was travelling though, just jumped in cabs and closed my eyes - the traffic lanes here are only suggestions and pretty much anything goes - but somehow it all flows and it seems to go faster than brisbane! Brissy could learn some infrastructure planning from this place. Only ...

... Chinese only. The Yilan bus driver signals me when to get off in Yilan and then gets off his bus himself just to tell the lady at that ticket counter that the foreigner ( ups, tha's me ) wants to go to Songluo. He then goes back to his bus to continue his tour - they really make sure thet I get to where I want to go! In Songluo I go to Hunter's place and they welcome me, tell me I shall take the same room and continue working on the wood floor in one ...

... impressive even if I didn't really care for it's form. As far as my weekend explorations have gone, this definitely ranks the highest! It was so refreshing to be out doors somewhere it felt healthy to do so, and seeing so much beauty really made me happy.What I shame I had to crawl back here.... Another thing about this weekend is it's really made me look forward to getting a scooter - just the freedom to explore that it'll give me. I'm determined to find some nice places round here!

... way), and we still have 10 hours to explore the airport, use the internet, read our books, etc. With this good fortune, I can only imagine what the rest of the trip will be like...we will just take each day one at a time, one moment at a time, and we will always remember to smile and say hello because we never know who might take us under their wings... Sorry no pictures yet (although i have already snapped quite a few)...perhaps in India when internet is hopefully cheaper.