20150906 | Taiwan Day 16 - Yehliu Geopark, North Coast, Tamsui, Swing in the Air (Round 2)

So we thought we woke up early the day before - We woke up even earlier today to make it to Yehliu before the rest of the tourists showed up since it was a Sunday.  We were initially planning to go on Monday, but the weather was nice today and it was going to rain on Monday.
Yehliu Geopark is on the northern coast of Taiwan, and has these funky shaped rocks that were caused by erosion.



We made it up onto an empty observation deck, which was packed when we came back.




A panorama of the west end of the park








This end also had a very angry security guard watching over these precious formations, and it was completely understandably as to why he was so angry.  As you can see, the formations are fully accessible to the visitors of the parks.  Most of the visitors come in tour groups, and we saw MANY of them sitting and standing on these (presumably) fragile formations, and walking way past the "safety line," and seemed to have no clue in how to preserve these formations and how to stay safe, and it seemed as if they were not told by their tour guides before they entered the park (while we read about this on a brochure and saw signs posted throughout the park).

A video of him in action


Another formation




The most famous formation of this park is one known as the "queen's head."
A selfie testing the range of the lens while waiting to see the queen's head.


This other security guy's awesome hat


The queen's head!


Does he look like it?












More holy shenanegains




As we continued to explore the park, we found these innocent looking steps, so we proceeded to climb them.  They ended up leading us about half a mile out onto the end of the park, but we were rewarded with awesome views of the surrounding area and a raised observation platform!


Looking out, I believe these are called the tofu rocks




The east side


A huge telecommunications tower


Just another hiker on the trail!


Just a random shot of him as he was looking down from one of the outlooks!


And our final destination - this is underneath a small lighthouse


A final look at some of the formations


A commercial squid fishing boat - the light draws them toward the boat!


A look off the northern end of Taiwan


A different view as we head toward Tamsui




The remains of an abandoned cafe


The only British building in Taiwan that has now been turned three stories of restaurants


Looking out from the patio bar


By the Tamsui Waterfront


After we got back and rested up a bit, I went out to the Sunday Swing in the Air, hosted by Swing Airlines, and it was thankfully much less hot and humid than last tuesday!





That's about it for this trip, I'll probably be posting a trip wrap up once we get back stateside!  I hope you enjoyed the photos!

20150905 | Taiwan Day 15 - National Palace Museum, Ximen

We woke up super early and checked out the National Palace Museum, and took a few hours to walk through the exhibits. After a quick nap, we went and did a bit of browsing and shopping at the Taipei Metro Malls and in Ximen before coming back for dinner!

A couple outside views of the National Palace Museum






Lunch in the Taiwanese style restaurant at the museum


Another portion of the graffiti that they were working on today at Ximen


The weekend market in Ximen




Dinner!


and of course, dessert! (A repeat of last night!)

20150904 | Taiwan Day 14 - Maokong Gondolas, Grand Hotel Taipei

Alex and I took the morning to ride the Maokong Gondolas up the to the top of the mountains and back.  While it wasn't raining, it was still hazy / foggy / smoggy, so the views left some to be desired, even though it was still spectacular. Alex recording video of the gondola leaving the station


We waited ~30mins for a glass bottom gondola ("Eyes of Maokong").  While it was cool and a bit scary in the beginning, it wasn't worth it to wait again on the return trip.


Alex using the window to stabilize his phone




Some of towns we passed on the gondola




Coming through one of the stations.




One of our gondola-mates was fascinated by Alex's video recording.


We had some snack when we got to the top!


A temple fountain at one of the stops on the return trip!


The Google MyTracks log of the gondola route!  The red line on the chart is elevation and blue is speed - The bumps on the elevation chart are when we went over each peak of the mountain, and the highest one is the Maokong Station.  The speed drops every time we go into a station even if we don't get off.



After we got back to the base of the mountain, we still had to get back to the city.  I went back to the Guanghua Digital Plaza and picked up a fair amount of electronic components to add to my collection at home.


We went out for dinner, and this was just along the way home as we were walking home from dinner.


At 8:30pm, we spontaneously decided to go visit the Grand Hotel before the weekend crowd came since we had a car.


The front entryway


The huge orchid arrangement in the lobby


A look at the lobby from the back with a wild ascending Alex.


Hey look it's us!


The hotel is situated on the river, so we took a quick look at the river as well


The hotel from the back - This was hastily snapped so the perspective is kind of off