Keelung

 Friday 3^rd October Keelung (for Taipei)

There’s quite a few things that I’ve found to do in Keelung and we won’t get to them all, so it’s time to decide on priorities. I read that there’s a Totoro mural on a wall up in Zhongzheng Park, where there is also a spectacular Zhuputan built by the 11 Zhupu clans and statue of the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin. The Zhuputan is a significant temple in the Keelung Ghost Festival and used to be built of timber and disassembled after each festival.

All of which would have remained unaccessible due to the number of stairs required to get up there. Fortunately, Keelung have installed the Keelung Tower, a free elevator that takes you up to the level of the Zhuputan. The Zhuputan is currently under renovation and not able to be accessed, but impressive nontheless. Just as well, this removed the temptation to climb to the top. Never fear though, there’s plenty of other stairs we had to tackle to get to where we wanted to be. Took it very easy today after yesterday’s brush with heatstroke. Totoro wasn’t too difficult to find and to me it was worth the stairs.

The statue of Guanyin is difficult to miss and it’s possible to climb up inside and look out at Keelung through her eyes. Not sure if that’s a bit disrespectful, but we’d climbed enough stairs today! It was sooo hot out there again today. I just don’t seem to handle the heat as well as I used to. Definitely reconsidering tomorrow’s plans. All of a sudden, an airconditioned shopping mall sounds good!

We were going to find some street food for lunch but instead opted for a newish place right next to the terminal, mainly because it had a/c but also to use up the rest of our Taiwan currency. ‘Great Food Town Keelung’. A zip top pencil case cleans out the rest of our cash, and it’s a nice souvenir. To keep left over foreign currency in, but now I don’t have any from here. LOL.