Last night in Taiwan

We've been busy packing tonight but wanted to leave our faithful readers with a few pics from today's journey.



We started out the day by driving to Keeling on the Northern coast. First we went to some temple/giant buddha/kiddie amusement park thingie. Upon entering there is a giant buddha that is flanked by kiddie rides/games and (don't ask me why) Christmas (!) carols are playing!! Round the corner and you see the giant bell... the kind that has a giant log on a rope that takes your entire body weight to strike the bell. Everyone got a turn (at roughly 25 cents a pop). After all that sanctity and such you walk into the kiddie area with motorized cars and carnival games. When you run out of spare change, turn left to find the temple. I only have one other thing left to say about this place... watch your step. There are lots of steep inclines and a lot of wads of gum on the ground :P

We decided to lighten things (hah) up with a trip to Yeliou Beach. At Yeliou you will find miles of interesting rock formations formed by the rough tide that hits the Northern coast of Keeling. Among the formations are hundreds of little wells that form tidal pools when the surf is up. We didn't have enough time to explore the sealife that washed into them... we'll leave that for the next visit.

In order to exit the beach area you have to go through the local market (go figure.) Unlike the other markets we've been to, this one was 100% fish. Ladies with baskets of dried squid and eels greet you so you can get a sample (Christmas in July!). Mid-way through the market Mr. Yeh met us and recommended we have lunch at one of the stalls. Here were our choices: Prawns (eyes, heads, tails, legs, whisker thingies), noodles with unidentifiable meat, battered and fried kelp, mussels and clams in a brown sauce and seaweed stir fried with enoki mushrooms and ginger. We decided to have a bit of everything!!! Believe it or not, it was all yummy!! The battered and fried kelp is seriously something the U.S. needs to copy. Next best was the seaweed. The first bite was a bit scary but once you got over the texture, it was delicious!



Next we went to a Sea World-like place called Ocean World. Living only an hour and a half from one of the best aquariums/amusement parks in the world makes it tough for someone like Emma to appreciate their version. HOWEVER, once again the Taiwanese are sneaky and have something different to offer. How about divers diving from a hundred foot ladder and a crack team of synchronized swimmers? Suffice it to say Emma was impressed... even if the guy that finally dove from the top rung sort of belly flopped (we were seriously worried.)



From there we took a loooooong drive to Fisherman's Wharf. This area is really trendy. Lots of teens and twenty-somethings on dates or going out with friends. There is a great footbridge you walk across to get to the wharf. Of all the places we've been with Tessa, we got the most stares here. There was even a group of teen girls who followed us and took pictures... ????



Tomorrow we hit the former gold rush town of Juifen before making our flight at 11:30 p.m. Likely this is our last post from Taiwan :( We've had an amazing trip but are ready to sleep in our own beds (at odd hours for a while) and introduce Tessa to family, friends and pets (gasp).



Here are a few pics from today... see you soon!