Taiwan: Day 4

Day four of our trip took us to Yehliu, which is a cape on the north coast of Taiwan.  Yehliu is know for the Yeliu Geopark where there are a number of distinctive geological formations that were created as geological forces pushed the Datun mountain out of the sea.  By the time we arrived it was pouring rain, so our first stop was the local 7/11 where we purchased our Taiwanese rain coats and a second umbrella.  Due to the rain we have no pictures of our hike out to the furthest point of the peninsula; however, the rain let off and the sun came out long enough for us to enjoy a beer at the height of the peninsula and take some pictures looking back over what we had hiked.

This is the view from the little picnic area at the end of the peninsula. We started our hike where the little building are that you can see near the centre of the picture,

 A self portrait to prove we were there.

After our beer, we started the decent to walk back along the ocean side (we'd hike to the point through the trails in the bush).  The rocks looked like what you might expect to find on the moon.  And because of all the rain it was pretty slippery.

Josh at the mouth of a cave sporting one of our Taiwanese rain coats. 

Below are some of the hoodoo stones that dot the shore line of one side of the park.  If you look closely you will notice a few differences in the pictures.  

You will notice in the picture on the right Josh is touching the stone... this is because by this point in the trip we had started to notice some differences between how Westerners tour differently than Asians.  The picture on the right exemplifies Asian tourists, the picture on the left the Westerners.  Westerners seem to be more about the experience, and capturing the raw beauty of things, hence a hoodoo stone with the mountains it is a part of in the background as well as the ocean which gave it its shape.  Asian tourists seem to be about recording that they were there, hence you are always in your picture, and if you can, you touch what you came to see (and you always have your umbrella in case of rain or sunshine).  This being said, we found it interesting that Asians would join this really long line to have their picture taken with the "Queens Head" stone and then go home, where as the only other people we saw along the hiking trails were other westerners.  And seeing how we weren't really all that interested in the "Queens Head" stone, we didn't join the line and don't have a picture of the queens head.  If you're really curious as to what the queens head stone is, I've included a picture here I lifted off of Wikipedia.

You can really tell we didn't take this picture cause it never got that sunny while we were there!

 Along the shore line we hiked up to another picnic area where we enjoyed another beer before heading out.  You can see the point we hike up earlier that day from there, and the fun sign that is so typical of Taiwanese signs telling you not to climb over the fence, complete with the little person falling, just in case you weren't sure why you shouldn't climb over the fence.

 True to the experience, we had to try some local food...  sausage on a stick is a staple in any market and we also tried some of the things in the shells (we're still not sure what they were, but the shells look like mini conchs).

Finally, on the way back out of the park and back to the bus we wandered around the cove a little, with all the fishing boats and traps.  The town really wasn't much more than what you see here.