April 25 Taiwan
The ship arrived at the port city of Keelung, approx 15 miles from the capital city Taipei, this morning.
(we were advised how to evacuate the bus, and if necessary, should use the hammer to break the window glass). I should mention that a lot of the pics were taken through dirty tinted bus windows.
It was a dreary weather day and that may have colored my perception of Taipei.
We took an excursion there, first thing, that lasted almost 5 hrs.
(military broadcasting headquarters)
Although not far, there was still traffic, so took a while. We were told that we should be grateful. If the sun had been out, it would have been much hotter. As it was, I still had a jacket on. Pollution is also a factor because of basin effect (city surrounded by mountains)
(haven't seen any graffiti, yet)
So, although I've sworn off temples, it was part of the excursion. We visited Lungshan Temple .
There are the Gucci, Pucci shops on the way to the elevator to go up.
This tea shop had some of the most exquisite tea pots, including crystal. Thank God, I have no room.
While we were outside on top, from time to time, you could hear a loud whistling sound,
and that came from the damper (big round 650lb ball) that sways with the wind, so that the building is minimally affected by the winds and/or earthquakes. There are over 20,000 earthquakes a year on Taiwan.
We rode an elevator to the 89th floor ,
from the 5th, in only 37 sec and then walked up another 2 floors to get outside. On occasion, they sponsor you races up the stairs. From the basement to the 89th floor, 2046 stairs. The latest winners, female and male, each did it under 15 minutes each. I can't imagine. We were heaving after half a flight.
The other stop on the excursion, was to visit the memorial of Chiang Kai-shek.
And the tourists, love to play with the pigeons here, just as they do in Venice.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Edb33KdNaxoVMJv36
He died at the age of 89 and there are 89 white marble steps up to his tomb. The marble came from Vermont.
The memorial and the temple were both in the old part of the city. There are still gates
that were entrances to the original walled city. Of course, the tower is situated in the newer part of the city. When in Tokyo, I kept thinking that the entire city, whether old OR new, resembles a shiny penny. Did not get that feeling in Taipei.
The math is confusing. Re scooters, again I quote,"The Taiwanese love their motorcycles. If you walk around Taipei, you will notice them everywhere. In 2020 there were about 14 million scooters for a total population of 23.5 million, living on 36,000 square kilometers. This amounts to a density of 389 motorcycles per square km, making it the world’s highest. In line with its love for scooters, Taiwan is also one of the world’s major manufacturers of motorbikes, with big companies such as Kymco, SYM or Aeon. The annual Taiwanese motorcycle production in 2020 was 943,303 units."
Strangely, we really didn't see any little cars. In Tokyo, the little boxy cars are prevalent but here, they were non existent. However, there are fleets of scooters competing with regular size sedans and SUVs.
Back at Keelung, known as a rainy city, there was time to explore.
There is a night market, which naturally, I explored during the day.
I had exchanged some of my yen for Taiwanese currency. Didn't really need anything but figured it was easier to buy something than to change it back again.
Wanted to explore again in the evening, with all the lights on, but we got busy with the customer relations manager to try and sort out our visa issues. Also missed the evening performance as well, working on the dam visa for India. You'd never know that we were dealing with the tech country of the world. Have yet to get the dam visa, but think that we finally got the forms submitted properly the next morning. Hopefully, we won't get rejected and have to start over.
The customer relations manager also shared, that on every trip, a passenger breaks an arm or a leg or something. Today, someone went home after breaking a hip, in a fall. The voyage had been sold out but now they have an extra suite. They were putting it up as a prize in bingo.
