I woke up this morning and went outside for the arrival of the ship into Keelung, although with my GoPro still missing I didn’t set up for a time lapse. As it was the ship arrived earlier than I expected and it was already in the middle of turning around in the harbor.
The harbor was pretty narrow, the ship took up almost the whole harbor when it was sideways.
Today’s port guide…
Today’s onboard activities:
The ship had our passports, but we were given a photocopy of our passports with an entry stamp to allow us to go ashore while the passports were stamped with entry and exit stamps. This is why it looks like the stamp is on a piecer of white paper instead of a passport (because it is).
I picked up a walking map of Keelung at the cruise terminal.
I got off the ship shortly after 7 AM and my first mission was to find an ATM to get cash. I wandered into the train station, not realizing it was not the main train station. There was also an interesting dilapidated building next to it. If we were in Italy it would be called ‘Rustic’. Apparently it is a historic building related to the train operation (possibly a signal building, but Google’s translation is not great on this one folks).
I found a 7 Eleven to get cash. The ATM in Japan doesn’t charge a fee, but this one charges 100 Taiwanese Dollars (about $3!). I took out 1,000 Taiwanese Dollars which was the smallest amount possible (about $33 USD).
When I was wandering around I noticed all the locals were wearing masks so I bought some in the 7 Eleven (mosly to break the millionaire note of 1,000 Taiwanese Dollars). As it was the cashier had to raid the other cashier’s drawer for change.
The main train station was across the street. Note the lights have a counter on them, brilliant. It makes you realize how third world the United States is.
There was a small temple next to the 7-Eleven.
I took a taxi up the hill to Zhongzheng Park which had a great view of the harbor. The taxi ride was only a few dollars and well worth not having to climb up the hill. I am sure I will be getting my share of walking in today.
The huge white statue was easily visible from the ship. When I arrived I was curious as to the purpose of the small holes in he statue. After wandering around a while I noticed that it was possible to go inside the statue and the small holes were actually windows.
I walked down a local road to Zhupu altar which passed by a residential area. I was able to take a ferw pictures of the Zhupu altar on the way.
The Zhupu altar was closed and they were working on installing a lift to reach it easier without hiking up the hill. It was quite nice from the outside, as was the overlook of the harbor.
Because I walked down to the Zhupu altar via the road I didn’t know this walking path went back to Zhouzheng Park, so I walked back up and took a few pictures along the way.
I walked down the hill to the night market area and passed by the Fo Guang Shan Ji Le Temple and what I would call a canal.
The night market which was not really open yet.
I was on my way to Khóo Tsú-song Old Mansion which was shown on the tourist walking map. I had to hike up a hill yet again and then once I arrived it was a complete ruin. As in it looked in worse shape than the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome building. It still had interesting architecture, but certainly not worthwhile of hiking up to it, or even wasting the ink on the map. I added a picture of the map from earlier just so you can laugh at how well it’s represented on the map.
I wandered around the local market. They had two floors with everything. I mean everything, fish, pork, beef, nail salons, restaurants. It was interesting, there were even a few clothing shops. The second floor even had a bridge between two blocks.
Next I found Qingan temple. It was hidden among all the buildings.
I walked over to the Maritime Plaza.
Next was Chenghuang temple which was right at the harbor.
Nearby the Maritime Park was a bunch of really nice statues.
I stopped briefly at the visitor information center for more ideas. They gave me a brochure (in English) of the Heping Island Park which has some interesting rock formations. They told me I could get a bus, but I knew a taxi would be cheap.
The taxi cost 220 Taiwanese dollars ($7) and only took about 15 minutes. However the driver didn’t know where I wanted to go from the English brochure, so luckily I pulled up the website from Google maps and it was in Chinese. Problem solved. On the way there we passed by the Zhengbin Fishing Harbor Colorful Houses.
The entrance to the park was 120 Taiwanese dollars ($4). At first I thought it would be much larger, but they had a lot of the sensitive natural areas restricted. However the view from the areas accessible were amazing. It was by far the most beautiful place I’ve been to on the trip.
I managed to get a taxi back to the port (I showed the driver the translation in Chinese and had no problem) and even briefly stopped for photos at the colorful fishing houses.
I got back to the ship a little after two and had lunch and a lot of liquids as it was warm and humid today.
After I got my energy back I went back out at 3 PM and many of the tours returned, including the Taipei on your own bus. I can’t believe it was back so early as Taipei is nearly an hour drive.
I took a few photos around the port.
I walked back to the night market and they were just starting to set up a lot of the food stands. It was amazing seeing all the little stainless steel carts arriving. It’s a shame the ship couldn’t stay any later.
Nearby the night market was the Dianji Temple.
I continued to explore the night market. If I didn’t fill myself up on the ship I would be tempted to eat something. Luckily all the places had descriptions of the food above the stall in English.
I walked back to the ship after an hour of adventuring, well before the all aboard time of 5:30 PM. Along the way I walked past the Qingan Temple and the stone statues.
A few last photos before boarding the ship…
I got my passport back with both the entry and exit stamps.
I enjoyed the sailaway from the pool area on the back with a bar. I got some video as the ship was leaving port, however the GoPro was still missing. I fear it is in the water in Ishigaki because someone tried to remove it and dropped it.
At this point the weather was actually quite reasonable. The ship sailed past the Heping Island Park.
I wasn’t much in the mood for dinner, but I did grab some prosciutto from the buffet.
There was a party for the most traveled guests. They had a bunch of fancy snacks that I didn’t really care for, but it was nice.
I spent some time in crooners bar before returning to my room as I couldn’t order pizza to the bar for some reason.
After enjoying my midnight pizza I went to the casino to fix my account. I was able to charge $2500 to my room from the $2500 of the gift cards I bought at a 10% discount, so I made $250 and promptly lost $10 to the one armed bandit.
I called it a night at this point and I was looking forward to a relaxing sea day.
Today’s timeline:
