Taiwan - Day Two

 Just as I’m ready to go all bah, humbug on the Holland America excursions, one pops up that is delightful.  The sites are excellent, and fairly close to the ship.  The tour guide doesn’t talk continually, and is able to not have a hissy fit if someone (like us) does’t adhere to the ‘plan’.

Here I am in the Hot Springs Resort in Taiwan, close to Taipei.  Wow!  Seven or eight pools, milky white with sulfur, the ingredient for ‘health’.  The hottest was up to 110 - way, way too hot.  Drake and I skipped the buffet lunch and headed directly to the hot springs - not the plan, but we got a head start on the pools.  Mainly, we hung out at the 104 degree pool.

Boy, talk about an unflattering photograph.  Anyway, you can see how red my cheeks are.  I’ve just left the hot pool and plunged into the 65 degree pool.  The flattering head piece was a requirement of the hot springs spa, so everyone wore one of these.  

I did not take my camera to the pools since I didn’t have a waterproof cover for it.  These pictures are courtesy of another person on the trip who did take her camera to the pools.

Taiwan is really a beautiful island.  Taking a bus gives me an opportunity to take pix out the window.  Here are a few:

It’s surprising how very green Taiwan is

Don’t know what it says, but it makes a nice pic

Red roofs are good luck all over Asia

Rice growing 

Taiwan is actually mountainous - and today (spa day) it was overcast and cool all day long - perfect weather

This is some crop - not rice - no fences

No clue what it says - just liked the look of it

These pictures were from the bus on the way to the ‘next’ attraction.  It’s called a ‘Geo Park’.  It’s an area of Taiwan which has unusual rock formations (on a small nameable scale) close to the ocean

The Queen’s Head

This is the top attraction in the park.  People sat down and created this park.  I can just imagine them coming up with ‘names’ for everything.  The name for the entire park is “YehLiu Park”.  This place also has tidal pools.

You can see some of the tidal pools in this pic

Looking out to see - some HaLong type boulders here

Seashore line covered in mossy rocks

Different types of formations

Pictures of formations

The numbers in the above picture link up with the typed list of formations above it.  The numbers are in the lower right hand corner.

There is a lovely walkway about two-thirds of the way to the rock formations.  

Walkway to the rock formations

Jungle to the side of the walkway

This picture shows the erosion of the Queen’s Head from 1980 to 2025

I made it from the ticketed entry booth to the bleachers overlooking the ocean.  It was a very pleasant place to wait for Drake who braved the crowds to take these pictures.  The path through the rocks was steep with steps, and unfortunately, that is now not for me.

The Queen’s Head

I was really happy hanging with the feral dogs and enjoying the view.

We headed back to the ship.  It was a long day - didn’t return until 7:00pm.  We did make dinner at 7:30!  

I will load photos into the blog when I get back to. Virginia, and I’ll notify everyone.