8 May 2023
Rainy train day
Yilan to Keelung by train
Now I am in Keelung. Which is pronounced Geelong. But apparently, Geelong is not named after Keelung, I looked that up to check.
The rain finally arrived. It has been raining all day. But I am a lot less wet than most other days, as rain means it is cool, and I sweat more on hot days than I get wet by rain on wet days. 100% fact.
Keelung is basically a satellite city to Taipei. Only Yangmingshan is between here and Taipei proper. However it is a city full of hotels and restaurants, and very very busy streets. Some say the night market here is the best in Taiwan, I think it is a smallish night market, but maybe has the best food? Best as in, best deep fried stuff on sticks, photos to come.
Getting here requires a train change, as Keelung is 2 stops over from the main line that circles the country, although roughly half the trains actually go through to Keelung rather than down the east coast, but I was coming up the east coast, so had to change at Badu. This meant 1st class from Yilan to Badu, and then a regular stand up train for 2 stops to Keelung. OK, now for some rainy pics.
It may be raining, but I still got up early and went in search of the day market in Yilan. Not a lot was going on.
People were still opening up, but it was just too wet. I was concerned I would destroy YET ANOTHER expensive camera.
Last shot of Yilan day market area.
I promised a photo of a giraffe poking out of the roof of the station, here it is. I have no idea why it is there, but a promise is a promise.
Here comes my train. The max speed on this line is only 100kmph, and the local trains go at that speed as well, but they still felt the need to make the express trains look bullet trainy.
My snack today is lotus biscuits. A lot of lotus biscuits. 8 x 2 packs. I am still eating them now.
This is where I changed trains at Badu. This is all just a boring matter of fact re telling of how to catch a train, but it was raining so it is all I can do.
And now for some rainy pics of Keelung. The problem with a 1 hour train journey is you will be many hours too early to check in to your next hotel. Which is annoying when it is raining. I dropped my bags off and set out to get wet. Here is a view across the road from my hotel while I ponder what to do.
A rainy street scene. Keelung is surrounded by hills. I have actually been here for a day trip previously, on my first ever trip to Taiwan.
This is the main pic you will find on the internet when you lookup Keelung, the Hollywood style sign. A lot of cruise ships stop here, you can see that view from the cruise ships in port. There are none here now, just big white fishing boats that are really navy ships.
Here is a canal. It is not too far.
Some more old buildings, some with little tiles missing that have no doubt fallen on the road.
Behind these guys is the new bus station, which is right next to the train station (not pictured). The new bus station is not quite open, I walked through it to stay out of the rain thinking it was open, and some guys laying tiny little tiles yelled at me.
A fluffy temple gate.
Rain check. Still raining.
Requests were made to see the outside of my hotel, here it is. This is an expensive hotel, I paid $100 a night to spend the minimum amount to activate my travel insurance that my fancy credit card gives me. It is cheaper than buying travel insurance separately, and is one of the only insurances that covers cancellation due to contracting COVID. It is a bit of a complex explanation, but to do this I paid extra to book the room through Virgin travel, who take the full payment in advance, unlike booking.com who take $0 in advance. Virgin actually use a subsidiary of booking.com so the choices are the same, but they cost slightly more as you get points. NO ONE KNOWS WHAT IM GOING ON ABOUT.
Here is my room. It is huge. Photos don't do it justice. That is a king size bed. There is a long hallway and dressing area before getting to the part of the room pictured. Now I just need it to stop raining for my evening stroll around the night markets looking for something not deep fried for dinner.