Feb 27 and 28 – Goodbye Laos and Hello Hong Kong

After a morning of last-minute sightseeing for Tara and Paul we all headed out to the airport for our trips to other countries.  Mary and Paul are headed to Hong Kong to catch a Crystal cruise and Tara and Patty are headed to Singapore.  Tara and Patty ended up having a 10 hour flight delay so they were quite late in leaving Laos. 

Paul and Mary made it out to Bangkok on time and had time for a meal and the long walk to our next gate.  While in Laos Tara was obsessed with their mango and sticky rice.  We several shops with mango and sticky rice so we snapped a photo to send to Tara.  

After our short layover the flight took off on time and we were Hong Kong by late evening.  

We were met by a Crystal representative who had a car waiting for us to be transported to the hotel, The Lingham.  A grand and beautiful hotel.  And a wonderful room.

We were up relatively early and had breakfast in the extensive buffet.  We were down in the lobby with our luggage in time for our noon transfer to the ship.  The drive (on a big bus) was only about five minutes…could have walked it easily except for the luggage. 

There was a line in one of the lounges to check in and get our photos taken.  Then it was off to lunch.  We immediately met Deb and Wayne from Texas who we had become acquainted with on our Bali to Bangkok cruise. 

We got unpacked and spent much of the afternoon working on Laos photos. 

We went to the evening show and had a very good time. 

Feb 29 – Day at Sea

We are at sea today with plenty to do.  We hit some lectures on Taiwan and health and worked on Laos photos and ate too much.  We have decided that the food on the “New” Crystal is better than on the old one.  At least, the desserts now have a good flavor in addition to beautiful presentation.   

Mar 1 – Keelung, Taiwan. A Geopark, a fish market and a temple

It’s a rainy day in Keelung, Taiwan, for our first ever visit to Taiwan.  The tour today gave us a variety of sights to visit. 

A few photos from the drive during the tour.

First stop was the Yehliu Geopark.  Yehliu Geopark is on a cape at the end of Datun Mountain that stretches into the sea.  

It is filled with many hoodoo rock formations.  Hoodoos are tall thin spire of rock formed by erosion, generally with a harder, less easily eroded stone on the top (thank you Google).  Bryce National Park in the US is known for its hoodoos.  The park has these hoodoos as well as caves and fossils embedded in the stone. 

The most famous of the formations are the Queen’s Head (note the "necklace" of rocks around the formation to keep people away)…

and the “Princess Head”.  A replica intended to discourage tourists from touching the fragile Queen’s Head…they can touch the princess instead.

Some mushroom formations...

including a reproduction (sort of looks like a morel mushroom). 

A sea urchin fossil.

And this formation looks like the tail of a whale (although they all it a heart-shaped rock).

And this nearby piece of driftwood also looks like a whale. (Note that they added a metal tail to finish the whale.) 

Some other odd features. 

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More Yehliu Geopark
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There were good views of the grey, rainy coastline.

Next stop was a fish market where one could find all manner of seafood.

The harbor at the fish market.

These colorful structures are exhaust vents over the fish market. 

Then it was off to the Zhongzheng Park where we visited the big Buddha temple.

There was a lot to see here including a huge bell, lion dogs, pillars and lots of statues. 

The park has a 82 foot tall statue of the goddess Guanyin.  It is the biggest goddess statue in Southeast Asia.  Guanyin is the goddess of mercy and compassion from Chinese mythology. 

The park is high on a hill with good views of the city with the Symphony in the background.