Taking a page out of our cruise critic experience last time here, we have booked YOLO Taiwan tours for a full day on our own.  We had asked for Double, the guide we had previously, but since it is just the 2 of us, his car is too big and made for larger groups.  So we have been assigned Vincent, who is adorable.   He is at the pier early, way before we even dock, and sends us a picture of our name on his sign board and the ship as we dock.  So cute.

We are first off – surprise.  Ha!  And head through the terminal so quickly we miss Vincent who is sitting and waiting not expecting us to be off so quickly – oh, he’ll figure it out soon!  He sends us a picture of himself in the terminal and we go back to connect and hop in the car for our adventure.  After settling into the car, we discuss today’s itinerary, which the tour company has not really shared with Vincent.  We have customized one of their itineraries which we send to Vincent on WhatsApp so he has a record of it, and we’re off on our adventure.

Our first stop is the Yangmingshan National Park, about an hour’s drive away.  On the way, we get to know Vincent a little better and chat about our trips and his tour guiding.  He also plays us videos on his really sweet tv mounted on the dash. Talk about technologically advanced – and hooked up!  But it is great way to introduce us to some of the places we will be visiting, like Chiufen Old street and all the food we should try when we get there. Then, as we are sitting in stop and go traffic, he shows us a video of the scooter waterfall.  OMG.  Seriously, it is a scooter waterfall, this one bridge that is only for scooter use, and every morning the scooters pack the bridge and exit off onto the streets looking like a waterfall.  Look it up on YouTube – it’s amazing!

On through the traffic we go, skirting around the main center of Taipei, then up into the mountains on a winding road that would have beautiful vistas if not for the fog.  It wasn’t raining when we started out, but now it is sort of misty, foggy, drizzle. Oh well – not like we aren’t used to this type of weather!  We’re equipped.

Reaching the park, we hit the restrooms then take off on a hike along the Lengshuikeng-Qingtiangang Trail to the Qingtiangang grasslands.  First Vincent really wants us to see the milky pond that has water that looks like milk, from the Sulphur we think, but that’s a non-starter.  The fog is the only milky thing we see!   

Striking off down the path, Vincent moves!  We thought Zo moved fast.  Oh no, he’s got nothing on Vincent!  This guy is definitely our speed. We haul ass after him, walking through the misty, eerie forest until we get to the Jingshan Suspension Bridge – which is totally wonderful shrouded in the fog.  We’re sure the views here are spectacular in the clear sunshine, but this is actually pretty cool in its own sort of eerie way.

And then we’re off again, climbing through the forest, up these long trails with graduated stair steps and along stone paths in the misty fog.  It is really fun, and literally cool because of the fog.  We make it to the old Henan Soldiers training camp with the more modern age anti-aircraft pillbox placed strategically at the top of the hill – which probably overlooks the city or some other fabulous vista – but we aren’t seeing that today!

Following along more misty paths, we finally reach the grasslands, which are barely visible, but enough that we can get the feel of how vast they are.  Oh, and we can clearly see the bull bollards placed strategically along the top of the pasture. Yeah, we don’t want to have to test these things out – not in this fog, or not at any time really!

Reversing course – Vincent says it will take too long to continue onto the waterfall – we make our way back down to the carpark, taking more wonderful, eerie pictures along the way. 

Driving down the mountain, the fog is lifting a bit, so we do finally get some nice long views across Taipei.  Vincent has suggested that we go to the Beitou hot springs to see the sulfur ponds that have been left behind after mining activities over the years.  We’re game – we have all day to do whatever we can, so sure – sulfur ponds it is.  They are really pretty, if not stinky, but a fun little stop.

Then we are off, past Taipei city, and the Grand Hotel (where of course we visited last time here) and finally onto the Chuifen, the old gold mining town turned tourist attraction!  This is our lunch spot – street food, and tons of specialties to try.   We luck into a parking space right at the foot of the old street by a cool looking temple, then make the trek up the stairs to the little teeny street.

Oh boy – talk about jam packed!  The street is narrow with twists and turns and lined with shops and food stalls – and people!  Vincent suggests we window shop first while we walk to the famous tea house, then eat on the way back.   Works for us, we’re just following the leader!  And a great leader he is – we stop at the little cookie/cracker place for samples of those awesome (yet pricey) coffee crackers (delicious) and at a sesame candy place where the girl gives us tons of samples of whatever the candy is that doesn’t stick to your teeth.  It doesn’t – that’s a big selling point coz it sort of reminds you of taffy with sesame, but not sticky.  We’ll stop on the way back to buy all this stuff – for now – we have the tea house as our goal. Which we very successfully attain, with some excellent pictures to boot.

Then it is back up the steep stairs and through the crowds, past the chicken feet stand (yes, chicken feet) to the sausage stand, where we share an excellent sausage on a stick.  The sausage lady gives us a clove of garlic to eat with the sausage, Vincent explaining that you take a bite of garlic then a bite of sausage.  It totally changes the taste of the sausage!  In an excellent way – very cool.

Then it is on to the Cho tofu shop – stinky tofu.  Yes, stinky tofu!  It is fermented and either steamed or boiled or fried and a favorite of Taiwanese, but not of foreigners.  So when we tell Vincent we want to try it, he’s thrilled.  He suggests we try the fried, getting us a plate to share, and a whole plate for himself.  And it is great.  Seriously.  I was totally expecting to hate it, but this stuff is really good.  First of all, it isn’t as stinky as you’d suspect, secondly it has an excellent deep sort of meaty taste, and the pickled onions that come with it make it even better.  Vincent is so excited we like it, he just can’t believe it.  He says we are the first foreigners he has ever known that really enjoyed Cho tofu.  And to his point, the couple at a table behind us are so amazed that we are here, eating and enjoying it that they take a picture of us!  Too funny.  Vincent then decides that we need to also try the steamed tofu in broth, buying a bowl for the 3 of us to share.  It’s a little spicy he says. Um.  Little?  It is actually excellent, but way too spicy for me – especially without a beer to wash it all down!  But still – what a fun time!  And Vincent treats us because he is so happy and excited we liked everything.  Leaving the restaurant, we take some photos with mama who was cooking, because she,  like everyone is really excited we liked everything. 

Next up a big bag of fried seafood – cuttlefish cubes and crab!  Yes, crab!  Little baby crab claws all battered up and fried.  So yummy – and here again, the lady selling the seafood is just so happy to see we enjoy it!

Last treat on our tour is the awesome peanut ice cream we had the last time in Taiwan.  So yummy and the perfect little treat to end our food tour.  We buy Vincent one as well, and we all happily snack our way back down the street, buying our cookie/crackers and sesame treats, as we head to the car.  We could eat ourselves silly up here – and would have – except that we have our Asian Chef’s table tonight and need to save room for that yummy experience!

Now we are heading to our last stop, the Wangyougu Trail, but first Vincent has other ideas, of course he does!  He wants to take us to the Shen’ao Elephant rock.  Sure.  Let’s do it.  We drive past the Golden Waterfall, which we’ve already seen last time, past the mining company ruins and around a little harbor with tons of fishing boats where we get a close up look at all those lights they always have burning at night.  What we thought were spotlights are actually this big glass globe with a fluorescent bulb in the middle.  Wow, had no idea!   

Arriving at the parking lot, we follow Vincent out along the coast into this amazing landscape of wind and waterswept rocks, many that look like mushrooms.  We climb over rocks and chasms and scramble up a hill to the elephant rock, which looks exactly like an elephant dipping its trunk into the ocean.  How cool! So beautiful and natural, with pretty views across the little bay to the other side of the island.  Perfect!

Because we liked this stop so much, Vincent next suggests that we go to the Heping Island Geopark to see all the geological formations there.  Sure, why not!  So off we go to this beautiful park with what they call an “island in an island” formation at the entrance to the long pathway walk.  The rock formations are incredible here, with an area called Chien Tueg Fu, a name given during the Japanese occupation because they thought the tofu rocks looked like a thousand tatami mats had been spread out over the water.   And they really do when you think about it!

We pass the pigs feet rock formation (again, it does look like pigs feet!), the thousand heads formation, the natural pool (with a separate kiddies pool and pet pool!) and finish up on the other side of the visitors center which is an old Spanish fort repurposed for the park. 

Back in the car, we head toward the Wangougu trail, but it begins to rain again, and we decide to skip the trail, which looks lovely, but with tons of stairs that would be better in the sunshine.  Vincent wants to take us to a temple anyway, so he makes a quick u-turn and off we go, up into the hills of Keelung to this amazing Buddhist temple on the hill.  It is immense and lovely and bonus!  There are these columns that look like the gates of the Kyoto shrine we visited in the rain, so we take fake Inari shrine photos under the columns and will pretend that is our Kyoto visit.  LOL.

We wander around the complex, marveling at the statues and sculptures (what is that monk doing with the stick in his ear?) and looking out over the harbor in the mist and rain.  The sheer volume of huge statues is just overwhelming and we love wandering amongst them, even in the rain, examining the detail and taking pictures.  Not to mention the bell ringing!  Vincent insists we ring the bell – which is a whole lot harder than it looks, we can tell you. But we do try, and it is really a great feeling once we accomplish at least a little gong on that huge thing!

Driving back to the ship, we pass a new temple being built – for tourism Vincent says – make a quick stop at a 7-11 for supplies and then arrive back at the pier, wishing Vincent a fond farewell.  He would have kept us out doing different things until the ship sailed if we would have let him.  So sweet!  But, not to be – we have our dinner – and we’ve had an excellent time today already.  Totally excellent trip, we are so happy we jettisoned the ship’s tour for this instead!

Inside the terminal we exchange our last Taiwan dollars for USD at an excellent exchange rate.  We were shocked!  And then head back onboard for our evening of food and fun.

We don’t have much time before our dinner, so no gym this evening, just a quick shower and upstairs before our appointed 7pm start.  We are seated with 8 others, all very nice who make good dinner partners, for our Asian Chef’s table dinner.  Conversation is great, wine is fabulous, food….sadly not so much.  The appetizer of tuna tartare was very good.  The soup course, Thai curried butternut squash soup, tasted fine, but Asian? Thai? Nah.  Plus, while the description said shrimp and coconut were in the soup, there was something else in it that tasted like a fish cake but was never explained. Minor, but still weird.  But the next appetizer course?  What was described as pork belly Char Sui – total fail.  There is no other way to explain it.  First of all, the meat was not pork belly at all, and whatever it was it was so over cooked it was inedible.  The only thing edible was the sauce on top, and that couldn’t even cover the poor execution.  Only one person at the table finished it. Most of us just took one or two bites.  The lady next to me even asked to see the chef to complain, and he told her that it was the meat from the supplies and he wasn’t happy with it either.  Ok, well then why did you even serve it?  Why not figure out something else that would be a substitute? I mean these tables are a “big” thing and cost a lot of money, you couldn’t have pivoted to show off your talent a little better?

The sorbet pallet cleanser was excellent.  That was something.  The main entrées were 50/50.  The sea bass was fine, but just fine and for me it was a little like eh.  Nothing special.  The tenderloin skewer was excellent though – perfectly cooked and seasoned.  The accompanying lobster & cabbage wrap, not so much.  There was very little lobster in it, even though the chef described it as chunks of lobster.  It was mostly air and ground pork. Disappointing.  The Singaporean cheese roll was actually very good, until I hit the blue cheese part.  But that is my distaste of blue cheese only.  But here again, that dish was absolutely not Singaporean.  We even had a guy at the table who lives in Singapore – for 18 years – and as we sat there discussing the cheese roll, he texted his friend who is Singaporean and the friend said there is no such thing!  The dessert course was good, a mango cream souffle with pomelo, but unfortunately precious little pomelo.    At least the wine was excellent – including the chardonnay.  Shockingly.  Sigh.  You can’t go home again?  Don’t know, but whatever the challenges are (supply chains here in Asia?) we just hope the situation improves over the course of our 40 days onboard the Quest.