June 11 and 12, 2023

We have only been to Taipei once before and due to the cancellation of Ishigaki, Japan, we have an overnight here.  Last time we were here, we went to the Yangmingshan National Park.  This time, we booked a night tour – Sky Lantern by night.

Because our tour wasn’t leaving until 6:20 PM, we had the afternoon (the ship docked at noon) to explore the city of Keelung which is where the port for Taipei is located.

We wandered around the city and saw several temples, both Buddhist and Tao. We walked through markets and had the chance to buy some mangoes and flowers. We felt very safe everywhere and the traffic is well controlled by traffic lights which allow plenty of time to cross the busy streets.

Here are a few pictures of our sail in.  Many people were gathered on the dock and were taking pictures of us as we arrived!

Our tour in the evening was led by a guide named Laurene which he said is his French name. He mentioned the Han tribe which our guide, Tom,  from yesterday talked about because he was of Han ancestry. The Han tribe is the world’s largest ethnic group, making up 18 % of the global population.  There are 12 million people in Taipei but only 4000 live  in Shifen which is where we were headed for the sky lantern ceremony.  Laurene said that this ceremony is one of the top 10 things to see and do in Taiwan. The official Sky Lantern festival is held on the last day of Chinese New Year and during the festival, lanterns cover the entire sky.

It took about 45 minutes to travel to Shifen.  I mentioned in a previous post about the number of 7 Eleven stores here.  Laurene said you can do everything in these convenience stores. They are post offices, restaurants, beauty suppliers and more.  He said there are 13,000 in Taiwan.  The country with the most is South Korea.

There is a train that runs right next to the area of the sky lantern launching.  Here’s what we did:

There were 4 people to a lantern.  These were huge balloon like lanterns with 4 sides, each a different color.  We each had a side to write our wishes on and then we were on the train tracks when one of the people in charge lit the wick inside and we launched the balloon.

My wishes were Good Health, Happy Children and World Peace.  Norm’s wishes were Health, Peace and No Trump. One woman next to us wrote that last message on hers and one of the people at the same lantern left when she saw it – to join another group. 

I have tried to load the video of the actual launching and the Wi-Fi is too slow, so if I can upload it in port sometime, I will try again.  But the pictures do tell the story as well. The lanterns are beautiful to see in the sky. We had a hard rain storm on the way to the site, so I had the disposable raincoat on which looks pretty stupid in the pictures!  But it did help keep the paint off of my clothes.

After the launch we browsed in the shops and had a delicious mango smoothie.  We saw a few burned lanterns come down on the ground while we walked to and from the train bridge.

We returned to Keelung to visit the night market where all types of food are on display and being cooked and served.  There are booths for games, shops for clothing and shoes and some for iPhone accessories and children’s toys. Quite crowded and very interesting. The markets are all around a temple.  Laurene told us about some specialties at numbered shops and we were interested in seeing some of the unusual items.

Our butler, Rince, left some snacks in our room for when we returned.  It was close to 11 PM but we enjoyed some California rolls, a cheese plate and some sandwiches before we went to bed.  I watched some of the French Open men’s final – not too compelling as Djokovic was certain to win with how he played the first 2 sets.

Today we were only  in port until noon and had to be back on the ship by 11:30 AM.  We had breakfast and headed out to see some of the city sights, especially the Zhongzheng Park which we didn’t get to yesterday. We did a lot of hiking and climbing stairs to reach temples and eventually the white Buddha at the park.  Some of the trails were in deep woods and all of a sudden the mosquitoes started to attack.  Norm had bug spray which helped keep them away.

Here are some pictures of our wanderings (and my completely soaked hair!) We have seen many temples and find some beauty and serenity  in each one.

It was the coolest weather we have had in weeks.  Not cool, for sure, but only 78 degrees.  It was very humid, though, and we got rained on during our hikes.  We ended the morning with iced coffees at Starbucks.

Tomorrow we start our series of 12 days in Japan with overnight stays in Kobe (Kyoto) and Tokyo.  It is supposed to be cooler as we sail north.