As soon as we split, I decided to head up north to Danshui, which is a popular tourist destination at the northern-most point of the Taipei MRT line. It's located right along the entrance of an inlet to the South China Sea. The MRT ride took me through several stops that had beautiful scenery of rich and lush jungle covered hills with a few small buildings and temples poking out from the trees. Unfortunately no pictures because I was on the other side of the train and I figured I'll take pictures the second time around. Though here's a pic I snapped later on in the MRT trip.
Some of the views in Danshui are quite beautiful and a "seawall" has been built along the water to walk along. Along the walkway are many food vendors and little arcades to lose your money in the hopes of wining a small stuffed animal.
Along the wall if you look down into the wet sand, there's tons of little crabs running around with their neighboring mud skippers and birds
I stopped at one of the popular vendors and ordered some Deep fried breaded squid tentacles. The lady quickly proceeded to pick one off the top of her pile and quickly cut it into small pieces with a large pair of scissors.
Sprinkled on top was the traditional Taiwanese spice that they seem to put on a lot of deep friend night market food. It was a bit pricey ($3) compared to what I've been paying for food lately but I'm in a tourist spot so it's to be expected.
I walked for probably an hour along the water until I could no longer walk any further due to more construction. So I headed up a big hill to Hongmao Castle (aka. San Domingo Castle). Unfortunately different maps and street signs would either refer to this as Hongmao or San Domingo, and it took me a while to realize they were the same thing :P Here's a picture of the castle, and then a picture of me from the terrace overlooking the inlet. You can go inside of the buildings but I didn't end up taking many pics cause it wasn't really that interesting and I wasn't in the "museum reading" mood.
After the castle I climbed back down the hill and headed back through the historic street district. It was maybe 5:30pm and it was starting to get a bit busier. There's many many shops along this street offering the standard variety of food/desserts and souvenirs. There was this one souvenir shop that had some really neat looking sculptured stuff. I chatted with the store owner for a bit and unfortunately she would not let me take any pictures so I guess you'll have to see it if you ever go to Danshui :P
I had ended up making a big loop along the water and coming back through the historic street area. I had a bit of time before it started getting dark so I started wandering into some of the back street areas and checking out the local life. I also found another mini night market and a really reasonable shaved ice place (mental note to take mom there if she's feeling like shaved ice).
It started getting dark and I wanted to see the sunset on the water so I made my way back through this night market to go watch the sun set and take some photos. On my way to the water I bought some "Frog Egg" juice. Though it's not as scary as it sounds because I think "Frog Egg" is just a brand name. I didn't see anything that resembled frog eggs in the actual drink. The drink (pictured below) tastes sort of like a light tea, with lime flavour, sugar, and then this jelly stuff in it. The jelly was pretty flavourless but the drink was really refreshing!
And here's some sun setting pics
After the long day of walking my dogs were barking and it was time to get onto the MRT and head home :) And now for some gratuitous doggie pics for dog fans :)
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