June 28

Today we took the bus to hit some of the highlights on the northeast coast of Taiwan. The first stop was the Yeliu Geological Park. After Toroko Gorge, this is one of the most popular tourist spots on the island. Basically, it is a spot of the shore where the ocean has worn away the rocks and sand in a way to make some pretty cool rock formations. Most of these rock formations look like mushrooms, with really skinny trunks and then larger round heads. One of the most famous looks like the head of an Egyptian Queen. This place was pretty fun to run explore. Even though it was hot and there were a lot of people, the children ran around and kept saying it was like being on the moon.

After a few hours here, we got back on the bus and went farther north to Shirmen. Shirmen is the most northern point of the island. It has a large arch and some cool tide pool areas. We hung out in a small cave under the arch and ate a late lunch. Then we spent a couple hours playing on the beach and in the tide pools. There were crabs and little fish everywhere. And the beach was made up entirely of little seashells. The children loved looking through them and finding their favorites. 

We had another temple that we had planned on going to in the area, but it would have involved one more bus ride. We were all pretty tired by that point, so instead we just caught the bus back to Jilong. 

That night Rebecca and I tried a beef noodle soup place that was well known in the area. This place is only open for two hours each day from 5pm to 7pm and I read online that they often sell out before 7pm. So I showed up at a little before 5pm and got two orders to go. One was the regular beef noodle soup and the other was a little bit fancier with things like ox cheek in it. The broth for both of them was so good, as were the noodles and most of the meat. But there were chunks of something in them that were translucent. I don’t think they were fat because they all had a specific round shape to them and they were really tender, but because I didn’t know what it was, all I could imagine was that it was fat each time I took a bite into it. Purposely eating big chunks of fat grossed us both out, so we ended up taking most of those things out of the soup.

Rebecca and I tried a couple new things for breakfast. The one on the left includes shredded dried pork, some crispy fried dough, and a couple other things that I can't remember all wrapped up in sticky rice. The one on the right is a flaky sesame bread with an egg and lettuce and green onions in it. Both were really good.




The bus stopped at this cool fishing village about 1/2 mile from the geological park. It was fun to see the boats and the shell decorations throughout the town.








At the geological park.






Some of our favorite rock formations



































The arch at the northern most point of the island.












Playing in the tide pools.








The bus ride home - we had to share spots, but at least most of us got to sit down.




The famed beef noodle soup place.