Keelung

March 25th
Keelung (Taipei)

Today was my first stop in Taiwan on a cruise that we’ll only do once while I’m aboard, so I had to make the most of the day. Keelung is the port where the ship docks, and a fairly busy city as well. It’s really nice when we can dock right there in the middle of the city, walk off the ship, and have so much right in front of you. My plan for the day, however, was to travel to Taipei to check out the Taipei 101 building, the tallest building in the world as of today, along with just see what a modern Taiwanese city looks like. I got off the ship with the intentions of finding the train that would take me into the city, a plan that was developed after a couple people told me there was a cheap train I could take into the city. Well, as soon as I stepped off the ship, I ran into some friends who were preparing to go to Taipei via taxi, and after assessing my situation and the fact I neither knew where the station was nor knew any Chinese to help me get there, decided splitting a cab is probably a great idea. So that’s what I did, and after 25 minutes, we were all in downtown Taipei at the base of the 101 building. My friends were in town for the shopping at the malls in the area, so they went their way as I decided to start my exploration by getting to the top of the tower, and after $400 Taiwan dollars, or about 15 bucks, I did just that.
The building was really amazing though. First, they have the fastest elevators in the world in use there, and the car got us up to the top in 37 seconds, so that was cool. Then, at the top, aside from looking out over the city, you’re provided with an audio guide and presented with numerous displays illustrating the technological achievements of the building’s construction and design. The city was gorgeous from the observatory, and the perspective allowed me to plot out my course for when I got down to street level. But I spent a good deal of time up there, and eventually headed back down to street level to find some food and a bank to exchange some more money seeing as I’d just spent a good deal of my original 20 riding an elevator.
The city was unbelievable. It was amazing how busy the roads were and how insane all the people on motorbikes would drive. Mopeds certainly seem the vehicle of choice, and with good reason considering the density of the city, and I saw a full spectrum of moped riders, from teens to little old women. But despite the hustle of everything, I had the hardest time getting money changed over. I must have walked into 5 banks, either to get turned down for not having my passport (the ship keeps it), flat out denied, or walking back out again due to lines and the intimidation of the language barrier. It’s really odd being somewhere totally foreign with absolutely no understanding of their language. There was a good deal of English writing around, but when so many signs and ads are totally in mandarin characters, it’s hard not to feel out of place. One of the banks handed me a form to fill out for the money exchange while asking me if I spoke any Mandarin…the form didn’t have a single English word on it. I didn’t get the money at that bank. I did find a place though that accepted my passport photocopy and didn’t require me to understand any Chinese at all, so that was and exciting victory, both because I found a place and could now eat.
I started out at a great looking bakery that caught my eye as I walked by. For whatever reason, they have hard core bakeries in Taiwan, and Hong Kong for that matter, but they’d be selling pastries I’ve never even thought would exist. The variety was really unbelievable, and everything looked great. I ended up with some bun with a hug slice of ham in the middle of it filled with cheese and a loaf of some raisin-custard thing, both of which were amazing. Now I like bread and have pretty high standards, so believe me when I say these cheap little snacks were really good, and completely different from anything I’ve ever had.
From there I continued on looking for something to eat that was more of a meal, and in usual tradition, try to find something local and authentic looking. Now, I try to be careful in picking these locations in Asia due to things like bird flu, so don’t worry that I’m just ducking into any old uninviting hole in the wall. But that being said, this was maybe one step above an uninviting hole in the wall, so we’ll call it a cave. They kindof had signs though that described my options, of which I communicated by pointing to my choice. It turned out to be some really odd noodle soup with an array of seafood items mixed in. I’m not a big seafood person, there are very few fish I’ll actually eat, especially if they have a fishy taste. Well, this soup didn’t make that cut. There were strange bacon looking strips mixed in at a fairly high quantity, each of which had an awful fish taste. So I ate around my fish bacon, focused on getting the noodles down quickly, dealt with the other items in my seafood grab bag, and left. To be fair, it wasn’t maybe as bad as I make it seem, but I was really hoping for an amazing meal at this place, so I was somewhat disappointed.
Following that, I made a very out of character move…buy a 7-11 slurpee. 7-11 seems to have taken over the east, they are seriously everywhere, and as a inside joke with some of my friends from school, I had to get a slurpee, so I enjoyed being the American walking through the city getting brain freezes from my cheap strawberry flavored frozen drink – good times.
Then I simply made my way back to the tower where I was to meet my friends again to take a cab back home. That all went to plan, and we made it back to the ship with about 2 hours to spare. I’m not one to get on the ship early, so I left my group again to explore the port city to a greater extent, something that turned out to be a great idea. Aside from being really busy as well, at night, certain streets close off, fill with mobile cooking stations, and the street get packed with locals, mini food stops, and street market items. The atmosphere was so cool, this is a market like you’d see on the travel channel, something that I’m sure has been going on for years and years. Some food looked less appetizing than other options, and it didn’t take much debate to walk past the chicken feet or the large pickle jar packed with gigantic living frogs, I can only imagine what for. I ended up with some simple noodle thing, pot stickers, and spring roll type thing, all of which were decent. And then from there, I was about out of time for exploring and eating and made my way back to the ship, which just about does it for the day. Great day though filled with some really amazing places!