nothing in particular

We were due to travel on a 1 day's trip with our Taiwan cabbie guide, Meeky Yang today (23th June '08)
Our group woke up promptly at 7.30am and went down for hotel breakfast cos Meeky arranged to meet us at our hotel door step @ 8.30am ~_~ *so early*

Trip details:
Date : 23/06/08
Duration : 0830 ~ 1900
Cabbie/Guide : Meeky Yang *we got his contacts from Trip Advisor Forum*
Cost for hiring guide: NT3000 for the entire trip (regardless of hrs and no. of pple)
Places of interests visited:
野柳 -> 九份 -> 金瓜石 -> 黄金瀑布 -> 鸳鸯海-> 基隆中正公园 -> 庙口夜市(基隆)
(Yehliu -> Jiufen -> JinGuaShi -> Huang Jin Waterfall -> Yuanyang Sea -> Temple @ Keelung Park -> Miao Kou night market)

*Note:
- Meeky's car takes about 4-5 pple excl. himself
- Advanced booking via email/phonecall about 1-1.5months would be gd :D
- Mode of tour is driving us to a location, give us a rough estimate like 1-2hrs to explore. When we are done with that location, give him a miss call and he will pick us up at where he dropped us.





4 of us(3 in the pic only of cos) @ breakfast since 7.30am @_@ sleepy eyes..





The cabbie license displayed in Meeky's cab..i took the pic in case anything happened to us >_>''





Meeky's contacts, please note his taxi no. has changed. And yes, Meeky speaks simple english.





After about one hour drive from East Dragon Hotel(at Ximenting), we reach Yehliu Geopark. Tickets are required at about S$5 per person -_-





It's a very hot and sunny day..This pic above shows the coastal view of Yehliu Geopark and the special (beehive like holes) rocks that are formed naturally. *For more info on the formation of rocks, you needa do a google search*





Clear waters in the geopark




The main reason for entering Yehliu Geopark, to take pictures with the Queen's Head rock. Everyone posed with it, but sorry no you cannot touch it cos its shrinking from all the human touch. And besides, I don't think you want to be listed in Taiwan history for destroying one of the famous attraction =X
There is this white painted footprint on the wooden bridge to tell you which angle to best take the Queen's head from (so that it looks like a Queen's head basically).





After visiting the Yehliu Geopark under the big hot sun, Meeky came by to fetch us and drove us to buy 槟榔 (betel nuts). The 槟榔妹 (betel nut seller) was not scantily dressed though..they cleared up their act alot as compared to the past. Pic above shows the box cover and the betel nuts contained in a plastic cup(for us to store the remnants（槟榔渣） after chewing it.





Warning! Eating betel nuts may cause cancer.





Close up of the betel nut(in green) together with haw flakes (山楂). The haw flakes which tastes sourish, is supposed to make the overall taste less bitter.





From my expressions, the haw flakes certainly didn't work. And chewing betel nuts stains your teeth..so i spat it out after awhile XD





After about 30-40min drive, we arrived in Jiufen. This is a tourist spot where you can get some local specialities like 莒弱， 凤梨酥..etc to bring home. There were hoardes of tourists hanging around the local specialities shop so we went out of the Jiufen tourist spot, to get our 凤梨酥 at 李仪饼店 (现做现卖） instead.





There was this shop that offers hand-made clogs @ about S$20. So I went ahead to make a pair of Japanese sandals cos we planned to go to JAS's natsu matsuri 2008 event. I chose this blue base with reddish prints color straps then they started making my sandals on the spot. They were done in less than 5mins :O





Another Jiufen speciality is the yam balls (芋圆). Along the Jiufen streets, there was a shop selling hand made yam balls and desserts. The pic above from leftmost top, clockwise: Workers making the yam/sweet potato balls; working area for sweet potato balls; this dessert is mainly ice with pearls, yam balls, sweet potato balls and barley; another dessert we had was ice with red bean with 莒弱，sweet potato balls. Personally, i prefer the sweet potato balls to yam ones.




After having dessert, we saw another yummy stuff..grilled squid! They all love squid except me..cos you can give me chewy items like this and it remains in my mouth for the next 30mins @_@ My teeth can't chew well T.T




Grilled riversnail which K loves.





Grilled whole squid and the 3 of them went gaga over it..buying 2 different flavours.



Comes with spicy powder and lemon juice which tastes fantastic with the grilled flavour.





Time for some real food to fill our hungry stomachs and to rest our tired feet..
Ordered 卤豆干，卤肉饭， 卤肉干面， 贡丸汤 all in small portions to split within 4 persons isn't alot so we were 70% filled >_>'

After this meal, time's up so we missed call Meeky and our next destination is continued in my next post...