We are docked in Keelung, Taiwan, today. This is the port for the capital of Taiwan, Taipei. Taipei is an hour drive from the port. It is a perfect day as is overcast and 70 degrees.
Historical/Background Info:
This is our first visit here. We are actually docked at
Keelung City which is the cruise port for Taipei which is just 12 miles away.
Taipei is on the northern end of the island of Taiwan, formerly known as
“Formosa”. The island is 245 miles long and 90 miles wide at its widest and
lies 112 miles across the Taiwan Strait from the southeastern coast of mainland
China. Taiwan is officially the Republic of China with a population of 23.5
million. This makes it among the most densely populated countries in the world.
Taipei is its capital city with a population of 2.6 million. Taiwan’s export
oriented industrial economy features steel, machinery, electronics, and
chemicals manufacturing. Now labor-intensive industries are continually being
moved offshore and being replaced by capital and technology industries. As I
said with a population of 7 million in the Taipei-Keelung metropolitan area,
Taipei is the capital of Taiwan. Taipei is the economic, political,
educational, and culture center of Taiwan. It is known for its many night
markets. Taiwan’s rise in the key
semiconductor industry attributed to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co
which was founded in 1987. It is the
world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturing company, surpassing Intel and
Samsung.
LAST EVENING
We enjoyed dinner in Compass Rose with friends, Lyn & Eddie Zito. Got to talking and forgot to take a photo of the table. I did get this photo of mamaliga which we all had as our appetizer. Polenta with cheeses and sour cream on the side. Chef John and Alin (Restaurant Manager) stopped by to see how we liked it. We had another dish of it not used so I'm sure Alin had it since he is Romanian and this is a Romanian dish.
Great photo of the maitre'd, head waiters, and some of the waiters when we passed through CR prior to dinner.
After dinner Rebecca retired to the suite as she was not interested in the show. I sat up in the balcony. The harmonica player was first to perform. She is Malaysian. I am still not a fan of harmonica playing. The comedian was next. He was ok but I left half way through his performance.
TODAY
I took the 8 photos early this morning from deck 12 of the what is around our pier. This is the cruise terminal and our gangway today is at the other end.
A couple Taiwan coast guard ships docked opposite from us.
We turned in our tour tickets yesterday. I was not interested in an hour bus ride each way to Taipei and even less interested in spending 2 hours in a museum. Other stops not impressive. So this morning we did out treadmill time. There was only one other person in the fitness center today.
After getting cleaned up we headed off the ship for a walk to the mall. Everyone going ashore today was required to wear a mask.
Not sure what this is supposed to be. Art??
Photos across the street from the mall. The mall was not much. There was a big Poya store which we shopped at. It was similar to a Walgreen but no drugs and much larger. We bought some dental floss.
There was a young local guy in front of the mall with a sign indicating "information" and he had a map of the city. He asked if we needed any help so I asked him where I could get wifi. He said right here where we were in front of the mall and next to the bus stop in front. He got me hooked up and it was good high speed internet. So I got today's photos uploaded in a flash.
This skyrise is 34 stories and 486 feet high completed in 2000. It is the Crown Mall. The first 6 floors is a mall (did not know it when we went off the ship this morning.) Floors 7-10 is Showtime Cinemas.
Home Sweet Home
We ran into Harvey (next to Rebecca) and Richard on our way back to the ship. They are doctors from New York.
Some kids in very colorful outfits just outside the terminal.
We were back on board the ship by 12:30 so we washed our hands and went up to La Veranda for a bite of lunch. There was only one other couple there. Guess everyone else out touring.
After lunch I was putting the photos of our trip to a small mall I decided to go back out and see what the Crown Mall was and look for a pharmacy. I was only off for little over an hour.
Down the street in from of the Crown Mall was a small bridge over a man made canal.
Narrow alley that only motor bike can operate in. There were LOTS of motor bikes here also as in other Asian countries we have just visited.
Colorful street with lots of small restaurants.
The Crown Mall wasn't much. Just two or three small stores on each floor. I got up to the 5th floor and headed back down. I then walked down another street for several blocks looking for a pharmacy. Never did see any. Of course all the store names were in Chinese. I ran into another young man with "info" sign so asked him. He pointed me to a Watson store so I went there. No drugs there. So gave up and was headed back to the ship when I saw what appeared to be a pharmacy. They said I needed a prescription so I gave up and returned home. As I walked into the terminal there were probably 20 crew members with their luggage leaving on vacation. Big crew change over today.
As I mentioned earlier, this is the end of our 3rd segment so was around 45 folks disembarking and I heard 42 embarking today. The next segment is 16 nights and ends in Singapore.
I was wearing a light weight sweat shirt like thing today and got hot so will have to take another shower now. We will have cocktail hour in Mariner Lounge as usual before our 6:30 reservation in Prime 7. We always dine in Prime 7 the first night of a new segment. No entertainment tonight. Just a popcorn movie in the theater at 9:15, "A Star is Born". We watched it on last year's WC.
We will be sailing again at 7pm for our next port which is Kaohsiung on the south end of Taiwan island. It is only 145 miles away. We should be docked there by 11am tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment