Fish's Underwater World

Day tour 2 July part one

The tour guide arranged to pick us up at the lobby at 8.30 am. The guide came and gave us an excuse that the minivan was under repair yesterday. Hence, he could not pick us up. The thing was that I found him familiar looking. I thought I had seen him loitering around the airport yesterday. So i turned to Mich and asked if she had seen him before. She also thought that he looked familiar. Anyway, we decided not to confront him, lest he drove us to funny places. This guide is super blur. He did not know how many people he was supposed to pick up. After leaving our hotel, he suddenly remembered that there might be more people going on the tour from our hotel. He called his boss and his boss said no more. Next, he drove to another hotel to pick up the elderly couple. Then, he made a final stop at kirin hotel. But some of the people did not wanna go on the tour. All in all, he picked up 6 passengers.

After picking up the required passengers, he wanted to deposit us with another guide. However, this guide B refused to let him go. In the end, guide A drove the van while guide B gave the commentary.

Our first stop was to Martyr's shrine. This shrine enshrines the dead of wars fought on behalf of the ROC. The main reason people go there is to see the hourly changing of the guards. But we din get to see it cos was not the hour yet.

Note the mountains across keelung river in the backdrop. The main complex covers over 5000 sq metres and the main sanctuary was modelled after the Taiho Palace in Beijing.

The poor guard who has to stand under the hot sun. His uniform was all wet and face dripping with sweat. The tour guide said the guard was undergoin national service and he would be paid more than the others.

garden area. Nice pavillion and greenery.

The details on the ceiling of the pavillion.

The arch at the entrance.

On the way to Jiufen. Jiufen was once a settlement of nine families. Then, in 1890, gold was discovered and the population ballooned up. For decades, Jiufen supplied gold to the Japanese empire.
Jiufen was the place where "City of Sadness" was filmed. After seeing the movie, many urban Taiwanese flocked to the place.

View from the pavillion we went up to. There is a map explaining wat the different structures are.

The hustle and bustle.

绵绵的山与绵绵的情意

Jishan Street. The old town is rich in decorative old teahouses, Japanese-styled homes and traditional narrow lanes. Main activity here for me was buy food (metal eggs, jelly, mochi) and eat goodies (grilled mushrooms--so juicy, taro balls--chewy and fragrant, herbal cakes, soups with fuchou balls, meatballs, mushroom balls).

The herbal cake tasted like soon kueh. I chose one with the same stuffing.

The honey peach mochi i bought. Must be eaten within a day. Yummy. We also bought a box of other flavours as well.

posted by sunkissfish @ 10:25 PM