Danshui I

OMG. Ok, so this one was a doozy. We took A LOT of pictures. Danshui is a port town north of Taipei. You can get there easily by taking the MRT Red line all the way to its terminal north. It's a very easy day trip and it only takes like 45 minutes. 

There's a lot of cool stuff to see and do in Danshui. So much, in fact, that we need to head back sometime. There's the ferry, the market street, an old fort, an old temple, and some other stuff. 

Inside the Danshui MRT

Pretty easy to navigate cause you have all these signs around.

A giant Starbuck's just outside the MRT stop. You know, some smart guy said a coffee shop would never work in Taiwan cause they all drink tea. Go figure. 

View across the water. 

The market street. It's right next to that big Starbuck's, so you can't miss it. Lot's of fun things to eat.  

There are some real good sweet jerky meat things in Taiwan. The stalls look like this. 

And the meats look like this. Delicious.

A Ripley's Believe It or Not?

Back home you get a dog on a stick. Here, you get a squid on a stick. 

A guava fruit stand. They made a delicious juice, which we ate some of as well. 

Boats by the water.

This is the ticket you need to take the ferry up the river a bit. 

The ferry is more like a speedboat, once you get movin'. 

Your levity is good. It allays the fear of death. 

I was startin' to feel a little Titanicky, until I was assured there are enough life vests for everybody.  

Even the locals were a little nervous. 

The pier. We made it!

That's where the ferry docks to drop you off. You can cross the bridge and get some good photos. 

This cafe was called "Latte". The corn chowder was good. You can always count on corn chowder in Taiwan. 

Ice-cream soda. 

Home-made cookies. Ridiculously over-priced.

One of the few western-style foods we've had that was really good.  Pork chop au gratin. 

Polishing off the last of the pork chop. 

You can rend tandem bikes here. Pretty cheap... I think about $200 for like 90 minutes?

They we constructing this really nice-looking hotel/resort.

We terrorized the local kids on our tandem.  

Rode the bike a little down the coast.

Nice sunset. 

There was this cool bombed-out bunker thing. 

They've got pretty solid ice-cream here. 

Sunset. 

One guy actually took a picture of us taking a picture of ourselves with the x-shot. Thanks Nina and Brian!

Can't get enough of that sun going down. 

Ice-creams go fast in the humidity. 

Ahhhh... the sun finally went down. 

The pier area starts to get a nice glow after the sun goes down. 

Now the bridge will get its green lights on. 

A modest marina, for someone who's from Newport, but not too shabby. Maybe we'll moor one here some day. 

The pier go to glowing real nice after sunset. 

View underneath the bridge. 

The wind had picked up a little and we got only a few shots with our hair out of our faces.  

Up an ancient-looking stair way to Danshui's Red Cafe. You can see it advertised along the market street. 

Stopped at the Red Cafe for a quick dinner. Affords nice views of the town. 

The stair ways are so nice!

Sometimes I see a scooter that I think is about to transform!

Like I said, there's a bunch to see here. We didn't even get to the museums or fort or anything, so we'll have to go back some time.