Friday, July 3, 2009

Danshui and departing Taiwan

Our last destination for the day, or so at least we thought, was at Danshui (others call it Tamsui), a township outside of Taipei City but still part of the surrounding Taipei County. It is an hour away from the Chang Kai-shek Memorial Hall MRT station and can be reached by riding the train going to Danshui MRT station for NTD50 one-way per passenger. Our intent was to go to the Fisherman's Wharf area so from the train station, we went to the nearby bus terminal and rode the R26 bus to Fisherman's Wharf (NTD30 each) and got dropped off near the bridge.


The plan now is to see the Fisherman's Wharf and the Lover's Bridge of Danshui, another of those places where the series Meteor Garden were once shot. Once again (defensive disclaimer), I'm not a fanatic and I'm doing this for my mom. :)


The bridge crosses a portion of the Danshui river mainly for pedestrian use and is not really a long one.


me


view from the bridge


view crossing to the other side


The fisherman's wharf, located on the other side of the bridge was since then a fishing harbor on the northern part of Taiwan. Today, one can sample fresh seafood dishes here especially during dinner time.


Sunset time, nice and easy, although it was a bit dark as the clouds were because of the rains. Nevertheless, still a romantic view to catch and splendor.


view of the bridge from the other end


food stalls restaurants lined up at the wharf


The bridge looks very beautiful and spectacular during sunset time, with boats on the foreground and the sun hiding away on its background.


As soon as we got around the place, we started to head back to Taipei City again by riding the same R26 bus route back to the train station.


As we reached the train station, we decided to grab something to eat from the convenience store. I was surprised to see lots of food items 7-Eleven has to offer but we opted to eat just a regular hotdog instead.


nothing like an ol' big bite hotdog!


We hurriedly eat our food, and got to the train 5 minutes before it departed, and arrived in Taipei City Hall station just minutes before our arranged pickup time of 7:55PM with the hotel shuttle going back to Shenkeng.

Minutes after we arrived in the hotel, we just put down our shopping bags, freshen up and off we went to something nearby this time. For our last night, we had dinner in the Old Streets of Shenkeng and we went there by hailing a cab in front of our hotel (NTD85). Shenkeng is famous for its different variety of tofu but we didn't had any for my mom got afraid of the stinky tofu.


It was almost 9:00PM and other shops were already closed. There were a few yet still serving dinner and some muah chee sweets but we went straight to look for a place to eat as we were very hungry.


We wanted to try again something local but conversation is really hard if you can't understand each other so we looked for a place that has a menu in picture and found this restaurant.


food preparation area where a cooked duck is hanging


Got seated after we thought they already understood what we were ordering. A few minutes later, they returned and they were asking to repeat the orders in the checklist however we could not understand each other. Good thing a student, probably a daughter or relative of the owner came and offered that she can understand English a bit. She interpreted things for us and then happily we were good to go.


For dinner, this is what we had, half of the duck and a whole fish, sweet and sour style and a cup of rice. We didn't realize the fish is so big because it doesn't look like it is from the picture. Everything was yummy and I loved the food. However we have to force ourself to try to finish and but we really cannot.


After dinner we went straight back to the hotel and started to pack things for our departure the next morning and slept as early as we can. The next day, after having breakfast, we were fetched again by Mr. Lee by 8:00AM and it was sad a sad feeling for me to depart and leave the home we have stayed at even for just a number of days.


Mr. Lee's car


Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport


Alas, everything has to end and here we are again on the way back to reality after a quick getaway. This is exactly what I had in my mind as the plane push for the runway and started to take-off. With me, I'll be bringing good memories of a very unexpected but pleasant experience from this country I never thought I'd ever have.

2 comments:

RennyBA said...

I am amazed by the construction of the bridge!

Loved the fisherman's wharf too. As a Norwegian, I love seafood you know :-)

RennyBA's Terella

Jasper said...

@rennyba - i could imagine you and seafood! haha