Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Why we did not see Taipei 101

We never left Keelung and did not regret it.


Map on the stateroom tv







Sailing in


Tugboat spray welcome which we could only see on the tv



Keelung Harbor





Taken from deck 9



Statue of Kwan Yin ?   No one aboard knew.


Brass sea eagle in the harbor


We walked around the harbor building in the Viking Age !?!?!?!





Walking from the harbor building toward downtown, looking for a post office.




We debated taking the train to Taipei - a short trip - but decided to see what was in Keelung.


Guarding the bridge over the Keelung River which flows through the city


We saw something which we thought, at first, were flags


But discovered that they were windsocks





Into the heart of the city


Noodle shops, soup shops, bakeries




After meandering through side streets, we discovered.............



I have enlarged these photos to try to convey the extraordinary colors and the intricate figures









Part of the roof




 Part of the floor
 





















Since we do not read Chinese and no one around spoke English, we have no idea what the specialty of the restaurant is



On the other side of the world, what to my wondering eyes did appear?



This school obviously does not train sales assistants.  In all the stops in Korea, Japan, the PRC and Taiwan, we found 2 who spoke English.


Any ideas who or what is wanted?


Just a random license plate


The boots I should have bought.


At the other side of the bridge


This building could be in any number of large cities.


This did not inspire confidence





This pedestrian light was 120 seconds long, counted back slowly.


Bicycle school trip - there were about 20 children, all with orange jackets.


As the seconds tick away, the red man gets redder.



As the seconds tick away, the green man breaks into a run.


An intricate embroidery across the entrance to a ...........luxury watch shop.


Waiting very patiently for Mum to get ice cream for them.  The only children with pacifiers were non-Asian and we both noticed how well very small Asian children spoke.  Although we did not understand the languages - Korean, Japanese, Chinese - it was obvious that they were speaking complete thoughts (sentences, probably) and articulating very well.  In contrast, there were several English speaking children of 4 or 5 who had lots of trouble making themselves understood.   There's  good reason pacifiers were called "dummies".




What a perfect name for some of the dentists I have had!


And, then we discovered the "Everything Store".  Originally we were looking for a fountain pen for my 2nd son but spent happy minutes marveling at the array of almost everything.

Note the striped hula-hoops on top of the paper.













Popeye's other Career?




The bank where we changed money








Huge container ships coming and going.  Goodbye Keelung.  It was a great day!


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