Today, another Cruise Critic tour, this time with Teena, an Aussie, and Jennifer and Ken, Chinese Canadians living in Vancouver, another woman whose husband isn’t up to joining us today (masks!!) and Allie and Alishia (I think) from Atlanta who have forgotten they have the tour with us today.  Sigh.  Teena calls them to find out where they are, and they agree to hurry up and meet us outside in the port terminal.  We meet our driver/guide – who calls himself “Double” – he says that is easier than his real name! – and he tells us he will meet us outside in 5 minutes when the entire group gets together.

Eventually we find Allie and Alishia who are wandering aimlessly around the port facility trying to find us then troop out to find Double, hop in his van and we are off to the Wanggu waterfall.  Arriving at the waterfall we climb down some stairs, cross a beautiful black and red stone bridge to get to the suspension bridge that crosses the Keelung river leading to the waterfall, which is the broadest waterfall in Taiwan. 

The scenery is stunning, deep green trees tower over the river with a mini-waterfall greeting us from the bridge.  We wander down the stone walkway, past the little horses which Double tells us are a form of protection, past the shops and restaurants (with fired squid!!!) to the koi and lotus pond, where Double begins his paparazzi duties!  OMG, he is hysterical and is shouting “group photo, group photo!”  Too funny.  As we proceed it becomes really apparent that half the group has mobility issues, the four of us without issues, Ken and Jennifer and us, head off with Double at a brisk pace – the true meaning of ‘double time’ – leaving the others to sit up on the overlook for views of the main waterfall. 

The waterfall is spectacular with tons of paths and viewing platforms – the high view, the lower view, the view down where you can feel the wind and the cold water hitting you from the energy, all of which we cover with Double who is photographer extraordinaire!  The views are the greatest – and Double is the best!  He takes a bazillion pictures, with my phone, with his phone – plus he is doing a 360 video of the whole trip.  He is amazing!!! 

Somehow we lose Ken and Jennifer as we virtually run from stunning viewpoint to stunning viewpoint with our now personal photographer taking pictures upon pictures upon pictures. This is too fun!

Meeting up with the rest of the group at the top of the falls, we slowly make our way back to the van.  On the way we pass through some little shops where Double buys us all a bag of Guava to try – which is really good – with salt – on a stick – yummy and fun!

Back in the van, we head to the Shifen Train station, and the Shifen lantern street.  This is a little touristy area alongside the train tracks with souvenir shops and lantern shops. It reminds us a lot of the train tracks in Thailand that are so close to the buildings and the little markets, that they have to pull back their tents and awnings for the trains to come by.  Here – it is pretty much the same – except we all just have to move off the tracks when the train comes rambling by.

Teena has decided she wants us all to do a group activity – the lantern release.  Ok, why not!  So fun!  We all take turns writing our wishes on the lantern – different colors for different wishes:  Red for health, Orange for marriage, Blue for wealth, White for, well, I can’t remember! But regardless, it’s a wonderful thing – we all paint our names and dates and wishes, then go out to the train tracks to take pictures and videos while the lantern is lit and then we release it into the air. 

Then we are free to wander up and down the narrow sidewalks, window shopping and then succumbing to the best sweets ever: peanut ice cream roll!!!  Two scoops of rich vanilla ice cream placed on top of grated peanuts – that are shaved off of this peanut slab on the counter – on a crepe like wrap then rolled up.  Oh my God – it was so good!

Back in the van, we all decide to change the itinerary – the original plan was to go to the old town of Chiufen  with the famous tea house and all the different restaurants and street food for lunch.  But because of the mobility issues, Double suggests the stairs may be too much, so we all agree to jettison Chiufen and go elsewhere to lunch.  Elsewhere is into Taipei!  Seriously, Double drives us all the way into the city, taking us to Hang Zhou Xiolongbao, a fabulous restaurant famous for those soup dumplings we really wanted to try in Chinatown in Yokohama! Perfect – not to mention there are a ton of other dim sum dishes to try.  After perusing the menu we decide on plain Xiolongbao, pork and shrimp shaomai (shumai to us!), steamed chicken soup and cumin flavored fried pork – which was amazing! The soup dumplings were really good – and Ken and Jennifer gave us lessons on how to eat them – tear a little piece off the top to let the steam escape then pop in your mouth.  Very fun. The soup came out with a whole steamed chicken wing!  A little messy to eat, but so yummy.  And that cumin pork?  Oh my God.  The pork is fried with grated cumin – lots of grated cumin – and it is so crispy and delicious.  Almost like a super fried pork belly.  Everybody’s meal looks so great – the shrimp Ken and Jennifer get are monstrous, and their hot and sour soup looks delish.  Alishia doesn’t finish her food (I don’t think she touched more than a bite) and asks for takeaway boxes (really?  How is she going to reheat that? She already complained the rice wasn’t hot enough – although looking back now, I bet she took them for Allie to eat later – he was fasting for Ramadan and didn’t eat a thing).  The boxes are quite literally boxes with rubber bands to wrap around them to close. 

While we are in the restaurant, Double stays outside. As I mentioned, he has been taking hundreds and hundreds of pictures of us, sometimes saying ‘Group photo.’ Sometimes saying ‘for print’ which we just think he means to send to us electronically later.  We joke in the restaurant that he probably has a printer in the back of his van – he has everything else in there – and lo and behold, he does have a printer!!! When we arrive at the van he starts handing out all these photos he has printed out.  So totally fun! What a bonus.

We still have tons of time, so Double takes us to the famous Grand Hotel.  Begun in 1952 for foreign visitors, the structure as it is today was completed 20 years later, it is one of the largest Chinese classical buildings in the world.  And grand it truly is – 8 floors each representing a different Chinese dynasty.  We don’t get to see any of the guest floors, but we do get to walk all over the lobby gazing at the stunning architecture and artwork. Double, of course, is at his finest, snapping away with photos of everyone – more printing will be on the way we’re sure!

In the grand (yes, that play on words was intentional!) 2 story entrance, we are enthralled with the huge vermillion columns, traditional Chinese styling and stunning gold colored inlaid ceiling. And the peacock-like dragon artwork on the walls!  A picture taking bonanza – truly over the top and so much fun. 

The views outside are amazing too – Japanese style gardens leading to a Chinese gate.  I’m guessing they are Japanese style – is there Chinese style?  Anyway, even with the car park in between, it is a lovely view.  And the vistas out over the city are fabulous as well – we can see Tapei 101 from here. But then again, where can’t you see that huge tower?

Back in Keelung we make our scheduled stop at the Golden waterfall, a remnant of the mining activity that took place here years ago.

Then stopped at the Nanya rock formation, a gorgeous striped rock that looks like a soft serve ice cream cone.   I quickly scamper over to rock to get some photos – only Ken follows – the others won’t be able to make it over these sandstone boulders, formed into shape from the wind and the water.

Pictures complete, I rejoin the group just in time for “group photo!” then we hit the van and head back to the port.  What a fabulous day.

Back aboard, the evening goes on as norm – gym, drinks, dinner, then the cabin – the show is another dance thingy which doesn’t interest us in the least.  TV shows are far more preferable for filling our time before we hit the sack.