wanderlust: t a i p e i

This day was going to be ambitious! We were planning to see Yeliu, Keelung, Danshui, Beitou for hotsprings and ending off the day with the Shida Night Market. Phew!

It didn’t help that it started to rain and it rained the whole day :(

(Above: Bus ride to Yeliu)

You know when guide books tell you that October and November are the best times to travel Taiwan because the rain would have stopped and the weather would be stable? They don’t know what they are talking about.

Taking shelter in a coffee shop in hope that the rain will stop.

At the entrance of the Yeliu Geo Park, raincoat was a hot seller.

At first, I was a little worried that Yeliu was going to be a bunch of rocks but it turned out to be rather magnificent!

Somehow the scale of the place and the quality of the rocks made it felt very unique and out of this world.

As we passed the wooden trail in search of the lighthouse, we accidently wandered into inner territory not meant for tourists.

Here, there were no man-made paths and locals came to fish. Soon we found ourselves treading on strange terrains. Waves crashed and the rocks gets even stranger it almost felt like an alien planet.

Putting on our yellow raincoat, we too suddenly look alien.

We saw beautiful rocks formations, scurrying and burrowing crabs, climbed rocky steps and came to the light house overseeing the vast pacific ocean. All this while unable to take my camera out to take good pictures due to the driving rain and I told myself, nobody will ever know that we were here :(

These are some of the pictures I managed, finding opportune times and risking my newly acquired camera getting damaged in the rain.

More coffee on our way back.

Yeliu appeared to be a fishing town which gave us sudden cravings for seafood.

Which was why when we got to Keelung, we hoped to find some good seafood for lunch.

We didn’t :( and settled for conveyor belt sushi instead as I picked up a certain yellow composition of yellow plates, yellow raincoat and the yellow lanterns outside.

The sushi was unsatisfying. These milk bars and eggs puddings on the other hand were delicious!

Keelung waasn’t really happening as the rain poured on so we too made a move onto Danshui.

Danshui is famous for its sunset but of course, there was no sunset today. By the time we got there, it was already getting dark and still raining!

We walked along the famous old street which is a night market in itself and got ourselves some hotdogs and red bean pancakes :D

Along the waterfront, we found seafood restaurants to our delight, and dug into some crabs and mussels for dinner :D

Outside, Bali island loomed across the waters. Its symmetry I found interesting.

As the rain continued, we decided to give the Fisherman’s Wharf and the Lover’s Bridge a miss and moved on to Beitou for some hot springs to sooth our tired bodies from a day of walking in the rain :D

Nothing to see here in the hot and steamy hot springs.

Move along.

About an hour later cooking ourselves, this is us, all relaxed, on a train back to Taipei city to end the day off with Shida night market.

Hmmm...Bringing the sky down into underground stations. An interesting idea.

If it weren’t for the rain, I would have enjoyed Shida (apparently the queen of Taiwan’s night market) a little more.

I strangely enjoyed its arrangement more then some of the other night markets and we did managed to pick up some stuff.

Dropping by MOS burger for to pick up supper.

As far as we can see, there are more MOS burger outlets than are McDonald’s or KFC or Starbucks and some are even open 24/7.

And before you wonder why, having gone all the way there, we would rather have MOS burger over some local delights, we will have you know that their fried chicken chop could give the local favourite, Hot Star, a run for their money. And if you ask us, we preferred the MOS version.

I guess this is as good a time as any for our top 5 list on the food we had during our short week’s trip in Taiwan.

5. Ji Ma Cheng Oyster Noodle.

Have I mentioned that sometimes good things come by accident? This shop we stumbled upon was so much yummier than the popular Ah Zhong Mian Xian. Thumbs up!

4. The How Sweet Egg Pudding.

Egg puddings in egg shells. Soft, rich and creamy.

Everybody love eggs and everybody loves pudding. It’s a winning combination so why don’t we have this here?

3. Jiufen’s Taro Balls Dessert.

Whether served hot or cold, the chewy texture of the handmade taro balls are just wonderful in the mouth. A scenic view like the one in Jiufen just makes it that bit more tasty.

2. CoCo 3 Brothers Pearl Milk Tea.

Think of the above 2 combined, the softness of the pudding and the chewiness of the pearls. Now throw some refreshing chunky grass jelly and milk tea into the mix and what you get is nothing short of addictive.